HAULIERS will protest against increasing fuel prices today, with a 30-strong lorry convoy set to travel across major roads in central Scotland.
Members of the Road Haulage Association protest at Grangemouth in 2005 Picture: Donald MacLeod
The vehicles, travelling in single file at 40mph, will head from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and return via Stirling.
However, there were signs last night that a threatened demonstration outside the Grangemouth oil refinery may not go ahead.
Motoring groups warned the truckers they risked alienating drivers by organising the convoy on a busy pre-Christmas Saturday.
The protest is being organised by the Road Haulage Association (RHA), following pressure for action from some of its 9,000 members in Scotland.
Phil Flanders, the RHA's Scotland director, said the action would "highlight the problems faced by the haulage industry due to the current high price of diesel, made worse by the continuing imposition of higher fuel taxes and their effect on the UK economy".
He went on: "Many hauliers are facing a bleak future and the public face higher prices for their shopping. This affects everyone, and we continue to urge the government to introduce a fuel-price regulator and to freeze fuel duty while the price of oil is so volatile."
It is estimated that the protest will cost £3,000 in diesel alone – or £100 per lorry.
The RHA said the protest had been timed to avoid disrupting other traffic, such as Christmas shoppers and fans travelling to football matches.
The convoy will travel north on the M74 from the Hamilton services at 10am, then east on the M8 as far as Newbridge, west of Edinburgh. The lorries will then follow the M9 to Stirling, before returning to Glasgow via the M876 and A80, with the journey due to be completed by 1pm.
Neil Greig, the director of the Institute of Advanced Motorists' Motoring Trust in Scotland, criticised the RHA's tactics.
He said: "There is sympathy for their cause because everyone is suffering from high fuel prices, even if they don't own a car. However, the road haulage industry risks losing public support by staging a protest on such a busy shopping day. Causing chaos at this time of year will not be popular."
Police said they did not anticipate delays as the lorries would remain in one lane of the roads.
Officers also said they did not expect any protest at the Grangemouth complex.
Transaction 2007, an alliance of hauliers and farmers, had planned to include it in demonstrations at refineries across Britain. However, Grangemouth was not included yesterday in a list on the group's website of six sites to be targeted – Stanlow, Cheshire; Fawley, Hampshire; Jarrow, South Tyneside; Purfleet, Essex; Cardiff and the North Lincolnshire port of Immingham.
The group has threatened to step up its action if fuel taxes are not cut.
WINDFALL AT THE PUMPSRISING fuel prices have generated an extra £300 million a month windfall for the government which could be used to cut fuel duty by 7p a litre, financial advisers Grant Thornton said yesterday. But the Campaign for Better Transport said fuel duty had not increased in line with inflation since 2000 and the cost of motoring had fallen 10 per cent in real terms over the last decade.
The full article contains 539 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
