Earlier this month Stephen Sanderson, managing director of Stephen Sanderson Transport in Harborough, joined hundreds of road hauliers from across the UK who gathered outside Parliament to protest against soaring fuel prices and call on the Government to cut fuel duty.

Mr Sanderson says his firm has been spending around £30,000 a month more on diesel in the last six months than in the same period last year.

He added : “I don’t think people realise how much it’s costing us.

“If this situation is allowed to continue, the consumer will feel the adverse effect of the rise in fuel as the industry will be forced to continue to raise prices to meet its costs. In the end it will cause companies to cut back on employment.”

He added: “Since December we’ve seen a 25 per cent increase in the price of diesel. You can’t pass it all on to the customer so we’re having to absorb a lot of it and it’s very painful.

“The fact that about 60 per cent of that is tax is the major source of our gripe. We buy the latest vehicles to get the maximum mileage per gallon – both to help the environment as well as our back pockets – yet we’re still fighting the fuel tax.”

Mr Sanderson said rising fuel prices – around 25 per cent higher than in Europe – were making British firms even less competitive against their European counterparts, which already benefit from not having to pay UK road tax.

He added: “We feel that we are on an unfair playing field against companies from Europe.

“When we get off the boat in Rotterdam or Calais we know we have to pay taxes to use their roads, yet foreign hauliers use the UK roads and motorways without paying any tax or contribution to the upkeep and repair costs.”

Mr Sanderson said the firm, which runs 50 vehicles in the UK and Europe and employs more than 80 people, has lost a number of contracts on the continent over the years after being undercut by European firms. Mr Sanderson said Rutland MP Alan Duncan had pledged his support for the protesters at Westminster.