The haulage industry has been handed a much-needed reprieve as chancellor George Osborne announced in today's (March 20th) Budget that a planned fuel duty hike later this year will be scrapped.

More and more logistics firms are going out of business because of excessive overheads and it was feared that another 3p increase on the price of a litre of fuel would have pushed many companies over the edge.

Speaking to the Independent, AA president Edmund King welcomed Mr Osborne's decision, stating that it was a "pragmatic move".

"A September fuel duty hike would have been the last straw likely to break UK drivers' budgets and would have led to a summer of discontent," he was quoted as saying.

Earlier this month, the RAC Foundation published a report that showed 800,000 British households spend at least 27 per cent of their disposable income on filling their vehicles.

Mr Osborne's announcement will also please the FairFuel UK lobby group, which has been very vocal in its opposition to a duty rise in recent weeks.