Cost of road transport
For much of the period between 1973 and 1995, truck operating costs per kilometre
declined in real terms (Cooper et al., 1998). The decline in empty running cannot, therefore,
be explained simply as a market response to increasing resource costs. This may have
Figure 2.
Empty running and
outsourcing trends
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% empty
kms
% total kms % empty
kms
% total kms
Own account Third-party
1983 1993 2003
Source: Department for Transport (2004)
IJPDLM
36,5
394
become a more significant factor over the past decade, however. The Government’s
Corporate Services Price Index indicates that road freight rates in theUKrose by a third in
real terms between 1995 and 2002 (Department for Transport, 2003a). This was partly a
consequence of the country’s fuel duty escalator policy,which sawdiesel fuel taxes rise by
5-6 per cent per annum in real terms between 1994 and 1999. This gave both hauliers and
shippers an added incentive to minimise empty mileage.