HIGH fuel prices will have a "profound effect" on the Essex haulage industry, according to a Colchester company.

Andrew Triolo, managing director of Systematic Logistics, which runs a fleet of 20 trucks from its site in Old Ipswich Road, said its fuel costs have rocketed by £1,000 a week in the past six months.

If the Government does not consider the UK haulage industry's request for a rebate on fuel duty - and a freeze or u-turn on the two pence rise in petrol prices - businesses in north Essex will start to close.

Mr Triolo warned: "Road haulage is very important to this part of the region, particularly with the ports of Felixtowe and Harwich. It supports many jobs.

"But we are reaching a tipping point where unless something is done, we will lose the UK haulage industry, and the work will be taken over by foreign ones who fill up their tanks with cheap fuel from the continent.

"If there are no UK haulage companies to fill up with petrol in the UK, the Government won't derive the tax it needs from fuel, and that will impact on everyone because the Government will then have to increase tax elsewhere."

Last week, hundreds of hauliers held a protest in London and along the M4 towards Cardiff asking the Government to give it an essential users duty rebate, which would allow hauliers to claim back 80 per cent of the fuel duty - similar to that claimed back by bus companies.

Mr Triolo said protests were a "last resort", but necessary.