Recommendations from MPs for a tax on industry to fix lorry driver shortages and make road freight more resilient have been slammed as ill-conceived.
A Transport Committee report published today urges the government to give industry two years to deliver enough drivers, workers and facilities to avoid the labour shortages that crippled supply chains last year.
“Industry must fix systemic shortcomings or risk government action,” the committee said.
Under the recommendations, failure to do so within the timeframe would see government introduce a supply chain levy to pay for driver training and facilities.
The tax would be payable by “parts of the supply chain where margins are greatest – such as large retailers, oil companies and online service giants”.
Committee chair Huw Merriman said: “If the industry won’t deliver change, government should do so and send them the bill via increased taxes to those who produce and sell and make the most profits.”
Cold Chain Federation CEO Shane Brennan said: “It is a shame that despite the many good insights and testimony gathered for the report, the headline recommendation is so poorly conceived and unnecessarily divisive. We reject the idea that a tax on haulage services is a good idea, especially at a time of general inflation across supply chains, especially in food.
“Nor is it clear what the report authors believe can be achieved in the two-year deadline they set, given they rightly identify the structural issues around national and local planning rules, highway infrastructure and market power dynamics that gave rise to the problems.”
According to the committee, the tax should be accompanied by planning reforms that recognise driver facilities as national infrastructure assets, to be delivered via central rather than local government.
To retain and value drivers, government should also set minimum standards for rest facilities, it said.
Merriman said the long-term solution lied in moving more freight to rail and water, in order to make driving more attractive by shortening distances.
Brennan said: “Last year’s driver shortage crisis was a rude awakening for our nation, demonstrating just how reliant we are on a small number of dedicated frontline professionals to drive the vehicles carrying the goods that feed, clothe and generally sustain us.”
He welcomed parts of the report as “important insights into what happened, why and what we must learn for the future”.
A Road Haulage Association spokesman said: “We broadly welcome the report and the committee’s focus on the significant issues affecting the industry. Its recommendations are in line with many of the requests we’ve made.”
But he added: “We’re concerned that the industry cannot make the necessary changes to avoid the levy in just two years when so many of those changes are outside of the industry’s control.”
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