2024 will be an election year in the UK and trade associations are seeking to influence the content of the political parties’ manifestoes. Logistics UK, the trade body that represents the third party logistics providers and large-scale shippers and receivers of goods, published its own pitch called Unleashing the power of logistics to drive growth across the whole economy in January.   At the end of the chapter on the theme of a Fair transition to a green economy , in which it argued for a “co-created logistics roadmap to net zero and the phase-out of fossil fuels”, it slipped in a request for, “The government to work with our sector on plans for road pricing”.

At one level it seems rather odd for a trade association to be so open to the introduction of a new form of taxation on its members’ activities, but the logistics industry in the UK seems to have realised that being taxed for use of the highways network is unavoidable and it’s best to engage with the process. When asked whether his members regarded road pricing as inevitable by the Chair of the House of Commons Transport Committee in October 2021, a representative of the Road Haulage Association (RHA) - which represents the small and medium-sized road hauliers – replied, “Yes, I think so”.