Logistics UK highlights urgent need for support amid oil price volatility

Logistics UK wrote to Chancellor Rachel Reeves on 15 April to urge her to deliver a package of support to help the sector. In addition to our call for the Chancellor not to begin increasing fuel duty in September, to support members we are calling for the government to:

• Review the decision to begin increasing fuel duty by 5ppl in September, to prevent further inflationary pressure at a time when the global economy is so disrupted.
• Formally recognise logistics as a priority fuel user within its resilience planning.

• Include logistics in the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) to cut electricity costs.

• Extend full expensing to leased zero-emission commercial vehicles.

• Introduce an incentive for logistics businesses to use liquid low carbon fuels, to support the shift away from traditional fuels.

• Pause business rates increases and reforming the system.

• Take a longer-term approach to mode shift grants, to enable businesses to plan alternative transport approaches with greater confidence.

We are also:

• Expressing support for the government’s action to tackle late payments.

• Urging the government to monitor narratives related to profiteering and to manage media and socialmedia communications to help prevent fuel and other commodity shortages driven by panic buying.

Government is continuing to reassure industry that the UK benefits from strong and diverse security of fuel supplies, that it is monitoring stocks and sales closely and that production and imports are continuing across the UK as normal.

It has also reassured that contingency planning in this area is well established, and that it has a range of measures it can use in the unlikely event that normal supply chains become disrupted from any cause.

Logistics UK has underlined the importance of timely and clear communication with the industry when required, and is collecting member feedback via our quarterly Logistics Performance Tracker survey, where anonymised and aggregated responses on the impact of the Middle East conflict on logistics will be fed directly back to government officials.

Complete the short survey on SurveyMonkey here, or via Microsoft Forms here.

Members can also view Logistics UK’s new stakeholder summary on the conflict, including the latest member survey findings, which is updated each week and available to read here.