LEZ 'honeymoon' period comes to an end for freight companies
Date: 03 March 2008
Today (Monday, March 3rd) marks the end of the 'honeymoon' period for the London low emission zone (LEZ), during which haulage operators who hadn't complied with emissions regulations could escape charges.
The LEZ zone officially came into effect in London on February 4th, meaning that freight vehicles weighing more than 12 tonnes that didn't meet emissions standards would have to pay £200 every day to enter the capital.
A grace period was given because many haulage operators were struggling to bring their vehicles up to the correct standard.
But this has come to an end, and now there are many hauliers who have ordered the necessary particulate traps for older freight trucks, but who are having to wait for longer to have them fitted.
Transport for London (TfL) has said that it will review cases where operators ordered the traps before February 4th on a "case-by-case" basis, but has refused to guarantee that it will refund companies penalised through no fault of their own.
Steve Biddle of the Road Haulage Association said that some freight companies could face crazy costs.
"This means that the cost to operators entering London on a daily basis will escalate by up to £1,400 per truck per week," he said.
"An operator with ten trucks could well be faced with an instant increase of up to £14,000! This is totally unacceptable."
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