The road freight transport sector is experiencing a historic profitability crisis, marked by margins at their lowest since the early 2000s. It is against this already stifling macroeconomic backdrop that the parliamentary report by Gérard Leseul and Jean-Marie Fiévet was published. This document assesses the levers for decarbonizing the sector and raises a particularly controversial point: increasing taxes on renewable fuels, notably B100 and hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO). For transport professionals, this budgetary approach is tantamount to a brutal brake on a transition dynamic that was just beginning to bear fruit.
The arguments put forward to justify a tax increase often rely on the need to finance the infrastructure of tomorrow, particularly high-power electric charging networks and hydrogen stations for long distances. However, this perspective overlooks the operational realities faced by transport companies. Currently, investing in electric replacement fleets remains prohibitively expensive for most small and medium-sized enterprises, not to mention that the network of charging points for heavy goods vehicles is still in its infancy. In this transitional phase, alternative energy sources represent the most pragmatic and immediate lever for reducing the overall carbon footprint without waiting for the structural changes of the coming decade.
The French Transport and Logistics Union (TLF) immediately spoke out against a major strategic inconsistency. The employers' organization points out that increasing the tax burden on solutions already adopted by carriers will paralyze fleet renewal, which is already experiencing a significant slowdown due to a lack of economic visibility. Increasing the cost of B100 or HVO would penalize the most environmentally conscious companies, those that have made the financial effort to move away from standard fossil diesel. Instead of stimulating the adoption of cleaner technologies, such a measure risks extending the lifespan of the most polluting traditional diesel trucks.
At the European level, the debate on energy taxation and the ETD directive demonstrates that taxation should theoretically incentivize the use of low-carbon fuels rather than penalize them. Seeking to further tax immediate alternatives simply because they are not the ultimate goal of absolute neutrality is a short-sighted calculation. For the logistics sector, decarbonization will not be achieved through systematic taxation, but through stable support that safeguards the investments already made by carriers in immediate and viable alternatives.