Transport for London Low Emission Zone
I don’t often drive into London and won’t in the future as today I received a letter from Transport for London telling me I wasn’t allowed to drive anywhere inside the M25.
Back in 2006 I purchased a Ford Ranger on eBay, it looked like a useful vehicle for collecting and delivering stock and has given sterling service of the past six years. Last Sunday I needed to move some stock and had to run to Hounslow, so naturally I used the vehicle I’d bought for the purpose.
Today’s letter informed me that as of the 3rd January 2012 the London Low Emissions Zone has been extended to include smaller vehicles – it used to pretty much only apply to HGV lorries but now applies to larger vans, 4×4 light utility vehicles and pick-ups. Thankfully I received a warning, not a fine and the letter informed me I now have a 28day grace period to get my car out of London or have modifications made so that it meets the Low Emissions Zone standards.
I now have two choices, either retro fit a particle filter (at a cost of around £1500, plus pay to get it certified and pay to have it retested annually. Or I can pay £100 per day to drive into London (on top of the congestion charge). Failure to do either will result in a fine of £500 per day!
The London Emissions Zone requirements only apply to diesel vehicles (remember how we were once all encourage to buy diesel vehicles instead of petrol), and generally only older vehicles. Cars and motorbikes are exempt but anything over 1.205 tonnes is affected.
It’s worth noting that whilst the London Congestion charge only affects the center of the City, the London Emissions Zone covers almost everything inside the M25. I’m sure that everyone living within the Zone is aware of the new emissions requirements and have probably sold their old motors, but I’m equally certain I can’t be the only driver that wasn’t aware I could be fined for driving inside the M25.
If your like me and hardly ever drive near our capital then next time you do it’s worth checking if your diesel van will be affected by the London Emission Zone. If you hire a van you should also check that it’s compliant. The charge is extortionate and the fine is outrageous.
As a small business I won’t be paying to modify my truck and I won’t be paying the daily charge unless I can bill it to a client – I simply won’t work within the M25 unless I can take the car. Whilst I can totally appreciate that London’s air pollution is a concern, especially for those that live there. However it’s yet another cost for a small business with the choice of either pay up for expensive modifications or pay up for a newer vehicle.
SDG Car Recovery London says
1:58 pm on 05/09/2012
Sad but true! From ’08 or ’09 they started an information campaign about Low Emission Zone M25. What are you going to do with you Ford Ranger?
Chris Dawson says
3:14 pm on September 5th, 2012
I’m simply going to not drive it within the M25
I sure as anything am not going to pay £1500+ for a conversion. Have to say it must have cost companies that can’t help operating inside the M25 a fortune replacing perfectly good older vehicles
Chris says
8:44 pm on September 5th, 2012
As to the point about companies replacing perfectly good older vehicles. Most companies operate both within and outside of the M25. So all that happened in most cases was that the older vehicles were “cascaded” to locations outside of London and served out their days well clear of the M25. When the companies bought new vehicles they were allocated to London and used within the M25. Remember most multi vehicle owning companies have a policy of replacing vehicles regularly so each year will be replacing some vehicles.
So effectively for most larger companies it probably did not really cost them anything as they still got the full utilisation out of their vehicles. The main losers were small companies with one or two vehicles that only operated within the M25. They would have had to change their vehicles. But as the vehicles were only affected within the M25 they could still be sold to companies or individuals in such as Bristol or Manchester. But of course because they had to be sold by the implimentation date a lot of vehicles all came onto the market at about the same time and obviously the buyers knew why they were all being sold at the same time and would offer lower prices for them.
I was always fascinated by the claim that Diesel was “Clean”. I am asthmatic. My lungs react quite violently to pollution. I know that my lungs do not like diesel fumes. So when I was being told by the “experts” that diesel was supposed to be “clean” I didn’t believe a word they said and told them so in no uncertain terms.
When you have had an asthma attack brought on by being in diesel fumes as I have on several occassions. And you have not had your lungs react anywhere as seriously in petrol fumes I think that you know the truth.
Chris Dawson says
10:33 pm on September 5th, 2012
I don’t care about large businesses as they’ll doubtless do as you describe. The people that it hurts most are, yet again, the vibrant small businesses (pretty much the only part of the economy that’s working).