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Fleet owners told of new charges for foreign vehicles in the UK

26 Jan 2012

European fleet owners may want to put even more effort into finding the cheapest commercial insurance quotes with the news that the UK government plans to start charging foreign fleets for road use.

Roads minister Mike Penning has announced plans for a lorry road user charging scheme to get underway in the UK, in the hope that it can create a fairer deal for UK hauliers.

Currently, the majority of EU states charge lorries for using their roads which means that British vehicles have to pay fees when driving in Europe while foreign lorries have been able to drive for free in the UK.

Mr Penning said: "We want to ensure that UK hauliers get a fairer deal.

"Each year there are around 1.5 million trips to the UK by foreign registered lorries – but none of them pays to use our roads, leaving UK businesses and taxpayers to foot the bill."

For 94 per cent of UK-registered HGVs over 12 tonnes, hauliers would not pay any more than they do now.

Posted by Michael Brown