2008 Budget, and the impact on Van owners and hire companies?

Well today was budget day, and Chancellor, Alistar Darling set out the tax changes for the tax year of 2008/9. As usual the chancellor went after the normal targets, such as alchol, tobacco and cars with poor fuel consumption.

So what impact will this budget have on van drivers, and other commercial vehicle operators, well there's a few good points and a few bad points as always so here they are summarized below.

Well lets start with the bad news:

• The 2 pence per litre increase in fuel duty has only been delayed for until October, when it will probably still come into play.
• Starting from 1st of April 2010 duty on fuel will increase anually by 0.5p above inflation, so no doubt adding a good few pence to the price of a litre.
• Road Tax (VED) will be going up on the 1st April 2009 for most van owners. Vans with engines over 1549cc registered before 2001 will pay an extra £15, and all vans registered after 2001 will see this £15 rise as well. Expect the prices of small older vans to go up.

Now for the good news:

• Well at least the fuel duty rise has been postponed to October, no doubt as a result of rising fuel prices.
• From January there will be discounted rates for Euro V complaint vehicles, though there are no specifics yet. Most new vans will fall into this category. So maybe some van hire fleets will take the chance to update their fleet.

Well as you can see the bad news outweighs the good news, but that was to be expected. And most of the changes have been brought in under the banner of eco-friendly and green which is all good, but there is no support for transport/van businesses unfortunaetly to implement these measures.