Early adopter technology makes old vans LEZ compliant
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By Laura Hailstone VAN OPERATORS should double-check if their older vans will comply with the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) rules from 3 January as it has become apparent that some makes of vans feature ‘early adopter’ technology that now renders them compliant.
Specialist machinery and plant removal company RigLift (UK) tells CM it has been caught out by this new disclosure.
“As we’re located within the LEZ, we started looking at our vans in November 2010. We put three vehicle registrations into the Transport for London [TfL] online compliance checker and they came up non-compliant. We’ve also received two letters this year from TfL warning us that our vehicles won’t meet the new requirement for larger vans to be Euro-3 or above by 3 January 2012,” says transport manager Andrew McNeil.
The Erith, Kent-based irm has spent £60,000 on three new vans in order to comply, but has since discovered that its older Y-reg Ford transits would have been compliant.
“Last month I went online to TfL’s checker to check a friend’s van, which is older than the ones we run, and it went through OK. “So I went back to re-check mine and they all came up as compliant,” says McNeil. “Apparently it’s come to light that the engines in Ford vans feature early adopter technology, which makes them compliant with the new LEZ rules come January,” explains McNeil.
“We wouldn’t have bought the three new ones if we’d have known they were compliant. We would have hung onto them for another year at least.” Nick Fairholme, director for congestion charging and trafic enforcement, says: “TfL is aware of the issues around early adopters. It has been working closely with the vehicle manufacturers over the last year to source make and model speciic information to enable the LEZ compliance database to be as accurate as possible.
“We may not have fully accurate information for a very small minority of vehicles. If operators believe that TfL has incorrect information about their vehicle, they are actively encouraged to contact us and register their vehicle so that we can update our database.” ● Search for LEZ compliance checker on the web for more information.