Small businesses are wilting under the rising cost of fuel and the amount of congestion on the roads, according to an annual transport survey.

In the week when London‘s congestion charge was extended to the west of the original zone, the poll by Bibby Financial Services found that 38% of small business owners see rising fuel costs as their number one transport gripe, followed by 21% who highlighted congestion.

The poll added that 14% said Britain‘s poor transport infrastructure had made them turn up late for, or even miss, a meeting and 12% who said it meant they regularly suffered from staff turning up late. Nearly one in five (19%) businesses has also lost key members of staff or a major order due to transport issues.

“Many small and medium-sized firms will suffer the impact of any further increases in transport costs, with suppliers and couriers raising their prices to cover the extra cost,” said David Robertson, chief executive of Bibby Financial Services.

“Owners and managers will be faced with the decision as to whether or not they accept the rising transport costs, or offset them to their customers and risk losing business to competitors who are able to maintain more competitive rates,” he added.

Over a third (35%) of owner/managers think fuel costs will continue to rise although there was less opposition for the government‘s proposed pay-as-you-drive road-pricing tax scheme. Fewer than one in five (18%) firms said such a scheme would have a negative impact on their business.

Meanwhile the Forum of Private Business has criticised the decision to extend the London congestion charge out to the west of the city, likening the boundary to a “Berlin wall, dividing communities, and severing well-established social and business links to the detriment of local people”.

“With significant decline in footfall in the central zone as well as increased running costs for business owners and travelling costs for employees, the congestion charge has been a millstone round the neck of small business owners,” said Nick Goulding, chief executive of the FPB. “This extension will be nothing short of a disaster for those in the extended zone.”