Trevor Ellis, managing director of CS Ellis Group in South Luffenham, joined a fuel protest in London on Wednesday last week, the same day he became chairman of the Transport Association UK.

He was joined outside the Houses of Parliament by 62 other members of the association to lobby MPs and support protests by groups including the Road Haulage Association.

Two trucks from CS Ellis also joined a convoy of about 1,000 other trucks, driving over Westminster bridge and the Embankment to send a strong message to the Government.

Mr Ellis said: "Everybody listened very sympathetically from all parties but if I said I am confident we were going to get any major breakthrough I would be lying.

"But I do feel that issues are coming further and further to the top of the agenda, we are starting to get the message across."

The Transport Association UK is was formed in the 1950s as a self help organisation for family transport businesses and represents about 60 hauliers with 3,500 trucks.

Mr Ellis, of Station Road, Morcott, said: "The association is non-political and doesn't get dragged into things, but things are so desperate for a lot of people that we have got to act. Anybody in transport is deeply affected at the moment.

"We know the Government can't control the cost of oil but they can control the cost of duty and at the moment we are 25p per litre more than any of our European counterparts.

"The transport industry is a massive collector of tax. We hand over in the region of £1m a year just in fuel duty and that's just one company."
Mr Ellis is also a Rutland county councillor representing the Norman-ton ward. His firm's fleet of 50 lorries average about 8.5 miles to the gallon and its fuel costs have gone up by 40 per cent since January.

The firm has been able to pass on most of the cost to the customer but will not be able to continue passing on costs indefinitely.

Mr Ellis said: "We are the lucky ones, we are working for blue chip companies but the ones that aren't, are spending the family silver to keep going. We will lose transport companies in the next few months."
Rutland MP Alan Duncan (Con) met hauliers from his constituency, including Mr Ellis, during their protest last week.

Mr Duncan said: "The number of UK haulage companies going out of business is a growing concern. One of the key pressures on the haulage industry at the moment is the unfair competition they face from foreign hauliers.

"We are exploring ways of tackling this problem – consistently with EU law, so that we can create a level playing field for UK hauliers."

Bernard Howard, chairman of haulage firm PC Howard of Kings Cliffe, joined the protest with the Conservative Transport Group, the Road Haulage Association and the United Kingdom Warehouse Association.

He said: "It has all been brought about by bad Government management.
The price of diesel is increasing the price of food at the supermarket."

Mr Howard complained that foreign hauliers can be more competitive because they pay lower fuel duty.