A road user charging scheme to replace fuel duty as more and more cars become electric should be as simple as possible in design, the RAC Foundation has told a UK parliamentary hearing.
Appearing as a witness before the UK Transport Select Committee, Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “Fuel duty is going to go away, and the real question starts with whether the government regards the ebbing away of fuel duty income as the price we pay for saving the planet and increases other duties, or whether, given the fact that we have had this levy on motoring for many years now and have all got used to it, it should be sustained.
“I suspect the conclusion will be that, in some way, it should be sustained.”
Given his view that motorists will be taxed to a similar level as today, Gooding said there were two approaches to introducing an alternative form of charging: “At one extreme, there is a complicated scheme of time, distance and location-based charges.
“At its simplest, there is the lorry road-user style of charges that run around the world where you pay by distance alone.
“This approach is akin to the fact that when we pay fuel duty we are really paying in relation to the number of miles we drive, and if we are to go down that path, from the RAC Foundation’s perspective, we would say go with the simplest scheme you possibly can, don’t over complicate it.”
What’s more, according to Gooding, any time and/or place-based road-user charge should be decided locally: “If there is to be a congestion charge I think it would make more sense for that to be a locally designed thing.
“I don’t think the citizens of London or Greater Manchester or wherever would be happy if somebody in the Department for Transport decided what it should cost for them to drive, but Uber effectively runs a road-pricing system by pricing for when demand is highest.”
You can learn more about the key trends and challenges affecting senior decision-makers who have responsibility for tolling, intelligent transportation systems and road pricing across the world at the 20th annual Road User Charging Conference in Brussels, Belgium on 07-08 March 2023. Click here for more information.
