Deliver UK
If you have comment on these or any other issues please email campaigning@rha.uk.net or contact your area manager
Please click on the link below for full PDF Version 
Deliver UK May 2011.pdf
Deliver UK is the RHA’s campaign to ensure that road haulage is sustained as a thriving, efficient industry that is best able to deliver its essential services to the UK economy.
It will help to build understanding among opinion formers of the industry and the key issues hauliers face, as businesses and as road users – and to strengthen the understanding of the positive contribution that haulage makes to our national life.
From early 2011, it is mobilising members in a structured, coherent campaign around the country, which builds on the direct lobbying of government by the RHA and ad hoc meetings that have taken place between members and their MPs.
The RHA, through its policy department and regional; offices, will help members who wish to contact their MP with background information, facts and figures and will offer to attend meetings; and help will be available to publicise those meetings.
MPs will benefit from gaining a greater understanding of the issues affecting the industry, which in addition to being essential to the economy is a major employer - many voters work in road transport.
Here are some of the key issues affecting the industry, which the RHA would like the government to address.
The Haulage Industry’s image
The Government should...
• Publicly recognise the essential and high quality contribution that the road freight transport industry makes to the UK economy.
Fuel Prices, Fuel Duty and Fuel Consumption
The Government should...
• Tackle the unfair duty burden faced by the UK haulage industry in comparison with its EU competitors by charging a lower rate of duty on the fuel used by commercial vehicles and by ensuring that foreign vehicles pay for their use of roads in the UK.
• Recognise the high burden of taxation on the haulage industry from fuel duty, which amounts to a 25% tax on the operation of articulated lorries and to a carbon tax of more than £220 a tonne; work to close the fuel duty gap between the UK and other EU countries; and take measures to reduce the cash flow impact of fuel duty on professional transport companies.
Standards and Enforcement
The Government should...
• Maintain the government’s financial contribution to enforcement and increase the efforts to remove from the industry those who flout the rules and undermine safety and the reputation of the industry as a result.
• Establish a compliance forum, chaired by the DfT and involving enforcement bodies, the RHA and other trade associations to review compliance policy and how value for money can be optimised in future.
• Establish a programme to identify the main causes of crashes involving trucks and work with the Highways Agency and others to address the issues revealed.
• Consider whether it is sufficient to allow a firm to operate a fleet of heavy vehicles on own account without being required to demonstrate that it has appropriate knowledge of the rules of truck operation.
Roads and Congestion
The Government should...
• Maintain planned spending levels on roads, urgently improve road maintenance quality and work to ensure that high standards are set and achieved for local authority roads.
• Encourage local authorities to increase trucks’ access to priority lanes, such as Bus and HOV lanes.
• Develop a national debate on how to reduce congestion caused by cars through greater use of car share schemes, staggering of work start times and development of bus systems.
• Work with the police to reduce delays caused by accidents and the need for police to carry out investigations.
• Review speed limits for HGVs with a view to increasing the limit on some single carriageway roads from 40 MPH to 50 MPH.
Parking and Security
The Government should...
• Recognise that there is a severe shortage of secure and driver-friendly truckstops and ensure that suitable and sufficient facilities are made available for drivers who are required to take breaks and rest periods away from their normal place of work.
• Provide adequate resources for Police activities in relation to truck crime and encourage the highest possible level of cooperation across Police Forces.
Vehicle Utilisation/Efficiency
The Government should...
• Encourage users of haulage services to be more flexible in their required delivery times and particularly to accept more out-of-hours deliveries.
• Require planning authorities to review all access restrictions on the movement of goods vehicles by size, weight or time, reflecting changes in vehicle standards since restrictions were imposed.
• Implement a new process of active engagement with the RHA and others in identifying how public money can best be spent cost-effectively to improve further the effectiveness of the industry in serving the UK economy.
Modal Choice
The Government should...
• Stimulate a meaningful and balanced debate about the contributions road, rail, air and water can make to economic prosperity whilst minimising the impact of freight movements on the environment
Carbon measurement and reporting
The Government should…
• Consider carefully the complexity of supply chains and the road freight sector in terms of carbon reporting, the key behaviours it is seeking to change and how such outcomes can best be achieved when considering imposing costly and intrusive regulatory burdens on road transport companies.
Regulatory Burden
The Government should...
• Reverse the decision greatly to reduce the allowances available to road haulage firms from April 2012, which will have a profoundly damaging impact on the willingness of small and medium-sized transport companies to invest.
• Work to reduce the regulatory burden caused by two sets of overlapping but separate sets of EU rules on working time – the Drivers’ Hours Regulation the Road Transport Directive on Working Time – which add cost and confusion to both the industry and enforcers.
• Amend regulation 33 of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1998 so that training agreements used to encourage small employers to invest in expensive training for their employees will not fall foul of NMW provisions if a deduction from salary is made upon the employment relationship ending within the validity of the agreement.
• Amend Health and Safety rules so that employers do not have same health and safety liabilities for remote and lone workers as they do for office based staff.
• Relieve employers of responsibilities for checking the right to work of their prospective employees.
• Amend Employment Legislation in order to increase the qualifying service from one year to two and make dismissal for gross misconduct simpler;
• Simplify disciplinary procedures for smaller businesses
• Require claimants in employment tribunals to pay the same level of fee as they would in any other civil court, perhaps with exception for those in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance;
• Simplify redundancy consultation by ensuring that the ACAS guide makes it clear that after the initial announcement that jobs are at risk, only one consultation meeting is necessary.
• Promote use of and simplify compromise agreements
• Reach agreement with HMRC in respect of a simple subsistence payment system.
• Allow public funding for statutory training that has to be provided by small and medium sized enterprises.
For further information, members should contact their regional office or email campaigning@rha.uk.net