Some fleet folks will have noticed that there has been a general election in the UK – yes, really. Anyway, the campaign dust has settled and it is all change at Westminster. Oh, hang on. Cancel that, it seems that nothing has changed. The top jobs are all filled by the same people, from the same party, who won on a promise of carrying on with more of the same medicine until the country’s problems are solved.

To be fair, the other lot were hardly promising economic good times just around the corner, largely matching austerity measure for austerity measure. So, to nobody’s great surprise, predicting the future for road users is fairly straightforward. It simply is not very enjoyable, with nobody whose business depends upon using the roads having anything to celebrate in the short term.

The top government priority remains deficit reduction, despite the ring-fencing of various budgets and a range of highly public promises on spending and revenues. That adds up to a Chancellor with limited options and needing to find a few billions, allowing him very little room for movement on duties and taxes. However we look at things, it is hard to imagine any lowering of either fuel duty or road tax in the near future.

We already know what is going to happen with fuel duty: nothing. The increase, due in September, has been cancelled. Nothing has been muttered from parliament to suggest that any more positive action is planned. As for road tax, there was no reference to Vehicle Excise Duty in the last budget and nobody mentioned it during the election campaign. It is safe to assume that any movement in road tax is unlikely to be downwards.

Here is a suggestion. Interrupt your local MP, of whatever party, if you ever encounter him or her. Challenge them to have a good look around and point out anything that has never had to travel by road – and such natural features as trees do not count. Even the dimmest of politicians, if pressed, ought to get the point about the criticality of road transport to the UK economy.

Once they understand about trucks on motorways or local delivery vans, explain about the broader scope of commercial road use. It encompasses every vehicle run by every business, every bus and minibus, every standard saloon taking a rep to a customer, every commuting scooter.

We are promised more investment in new roads and other transport. Welcome though it may be, there is a point being missed. Whether new, improved or the same old highway, any road is of little use if nobody can afford to buy fuel. Europe’s lowest pre-tax petrol and diesel prices can be found in the UK, but we always head the league tables for fuel taxes. 

Cutting fuel duty would have a relatively small impact on the Treasury in the immediate short term. Reducing the operating cost burden for business road users, though, might just give the economy a boost it badly needs.