BY 2010 fleets will be contributing heavily to an estimated annual congestion charging bill of £1.2 billion according to Government predictions.

It anticipates that eight cities will have road-user charging schemes in place and 12 cities will adopt work-place charging schemes within this timeframe.

London is likely to be first, while Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Durham, Leeds, Leicester and Nottingham are likely to follow with either congestion charging or workplace parking charges or both.

Delegates at the Fleet News UK Congress heard that many of the cities considering the schemes may be able to get them up and running by 2005.

Michael Goodwin, head of the implementation team for charging and local transport at the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions said: 'If the London scheme brings in the revenue that is expected and Mayor of London Ken Livingstone is re-elected in 2004, then it will stimulate a lot of local authorities in to action.'

Currently 36 out of 150 local authorities are looking at schemes, which Goodwin backed with a warning that unless action is taken to reduce the amount of traffic on Britain's roads, total road traffic will increase by 22 per cent with urban congestion up by 15 per cent by 2010.