Blog

There’s been much controversy over George Osborne’s budget last week. And while the debate rumbles on over the fairness of cuts to disability benefits, with talk now of a U-turn in this policy, we’ve taken a look at some of the measures to see how they impact the courier business.

First of all we welcome the fuel duty freeze for 2016-17. We were worried that low oil prices and cuts to prices at the petrol pumps would give George Osborne a window of opportunity to increase fuel duty. Any such rise has a direct impact on the costs of our operations, so this freeze enables us to keep offering competitive prices to our customers, so they can keep control of their costs too. Good news all round.

News that the Severn Crossing tolls are to be halved in in 2018 comes with mixed reviews. Some argue that the tolls were set to cease altogether once the crossings pass into public ownership, yet now it seems there will still be a charge. The justification? To pay back the remaining outstanding debt for bridge construction and maintenance, and to invest in new technology for free-flowing toll booths to ease congestion.

We’re pleased that our customers both sides of the English/Welsh border will benefit from a reduction and welcome news of a better, free-flowing tolls system. It will help keep our journey times down, reduce delays at busy periods and perhaps most importantly, help us all get to the Rugby in good time! All the better for customer service.

Though announcements of a 4 lane M62 and tunnelled road between Manchester and Sheffield help those in the North, and will help us make faster journeys in and across the area, we see little by way of help for the South West. Nevertheless, we soldier on, and with increased demand from our customers to move more for less, we’ve some exciting news coming soon of a new service for larger loads – watch this space!