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C ouncillor Andrew Burns, executive member for transport at Edinburgh City
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Council, pulls no punches over the subject of congestion charging—and the fact that hauliers will not be excluded from it when it comes into effect in wo6.
"Every single vehicle causes congestion," he says. We put it to him that, unlike motorists, operators have no choice but to dispatch their HGVs into inner cities. No trucks, no goods to the high street. But Burns stands firm; there will be no concessions for hauliers.
"Congestion in Edinburgh is a very serious problem, particularly in the city centre. Edinburgh has a booming economy but this puts a lot of pressure on the city's infrastructure." he adds.
Money generation
Money generation, then, equates to a lot of traffic. With an economy larger than many countries, London is an economic powerhouse; it has the chronic traffic problems to match, too. Congestion charges were introduced to central London on 17 February, and the powers-that-be in Edinburgh will be looking on with interest, says Burns.
With major capital projects on the way in Edinburgh, including airport expansion, a new hospital and dockside development, it is vital that congestion charges be brought to the city, he believes.
The population of Edinburgh, and the surrounding areas of East, Mid and West Lothians, is projected to increase by 50,000 over the next 15 years. If the congestion charge is introduced in its present form (see panel below), car and CV drivers will have to pay a 12 daily charge to enter one of two zones. This charge, argues Burns, "will deter a significant number of vehicles from entering the city centre."
The outer cordon straddles the entire city, and its demarcation line roughly follows the A72o, Edinburgh's bypass. The inner cordon, meanwhile, effectively cocoons the city centre (see panel below). It is envisaged that the scheme will generate kom for Edinburgh City Council annually. This money, says Oh Burns, will be "ringfenced", meaning that it can only be spent on the city's transport infrastructure.
This cuts no ice with Phil Flanders, RHA regional director for Scotland and Northern Ireland. "The purpose of this charge is to relieve congestion— but will it? A lot of hauliers would not mind paying something, as long as there will be a time saving. But we are still angry because haulage is essential."
For Penicuik-based Freight Express, the forthcoming charge is a double blow. Two of the company's five HGVs enter Edinburgh each day. Come zoo6, this will mean a charge of around fi,000 a year. One of the firm's trucks delivers to central London three times a week, too, and this equates to around 175o annually (the daily fee to enter central London is L5).
Keith Grant, partner, readily admits that congestion is stifling UK road transport—but, like Flanders, he argues that trucks are a necessity. Extra overheads 01 11.750 per year
must be absorbed by the customer, he insist
"The council has no justification for thi charge. It is serious because this comes of our bottom line; it does not seem much, but comes directly off our profit, and it's quite big percentage. We will have to build it int, our price structure; I hope that customers wi: understand, and accept this."
He adds: "We are not abusing the city' roads—our customers demand that w, deliver the goods."
Martin Chalmers, also a partner at Freigh Express, argues that VED rates, which dwar car road tax, are sufficiently large to cove hauliers' HGV operations in city centres.
Edinburgh's congestion charge programmi is being implemented by Transport Initiative: Edinburgh (TIE), a private limited company Its shares—all r00% of them—are owned 13;
the City Council, and its board consists of independent non-executive directors.
In effect, the City Council sets the agenda, and TIE puts its ideas into practice. The City Council and Scottish Executive Ministers will either ratify or amend the plans next year. But the final decision is essentially a technicality: it is likely that the scheme as we know it will go ahead in its present form.
A TIE spokesman says: 'We deal with project procurement delivery. Nothing is set in stone at the present time, but if the scheme is approved as presently configured, then the only variation in the charge is linked to inflation."
Charging zones
As with London charging, cameras are allpowerful. "The charge is triggered by crossing the cameras in an inbound direction. When a camera has been triggered, you can cross the boundaries as many times as you like in one day," says the spokesman.
That's providing, of course, that you pay the toll. Hauliers will be able to pay the operator (the privately-run firm that will manage the cameras and deal with enforcement) in advance—however, no rebate is offered to those who pay up front and then don't make the journey.
The cameras are clever devices, recording all vehicles entering the charging zone. Those who have not paid have a brief grace period. "The owner will have until midnight to pay via retail outlets or telephone," says the spokesman. Because of human rights issues. all data on legitimate vehicles will be discarded. If no cash is received by the end of play, though, the enforcement process swings into operation. It may have occurred to some bright sparks that changing a vehicle's number plate will throw the system into disarray. But such tricks will be hard to pull off, warns the spokesman. The camera not only snaps the number plate, it also records the colour, and other visual details, of the vehicle.
So if a haulier swapped an HG V's number plate for—God forbid—a plate whisked off another operator's truck, the camera would acknowledge that the details didn't add up. "It takes a contextual picture," the spokesman bluntly adds.
The impending charge will cost Arrow Goldstar, a van courier firm, £2,000 a year. Its fleet roams Edinburgh's streets, specialising in transporting office paperwork. Twenty vans operate under the company's umbrella, although 16 of them are owned and run by
self-employed drivers, who will pay the charge themselves. "From a personal point of view, I will also have to pay Lica in charges a week just to drive to work. The straight answer is that nobody wants to pay money unnecessarily; I am reluctant to pay two pounds a day for each of our vehicles."
More efficient
S nape is prepared to look at the bright side: if the charging reduces traffic, his vehicles will be able to operate more efficiently.
The inner cordon charge runs from 7am to 6.3c)pm, Monday to Friday. So at 6.59am you could run too HGVs through the city's cobbled streets, without paying a penny. "Well, our customers are office-based, so our work is done in the daytime—we can't become a nocturnal operation," explains Snape.
Cllr Burns put it to us that hauliers "have a choice", that they can avoid the charges simply by entering the zones outside the operational times.
Easier said than done, though, especially with high street drops.
Freight Express's Keith Grant puts a humorous slant on the issue. Get the trucks and vans safely within the cordons before the £2 charge kicks in, he jokes. " Let's have a traffic jam in Edinburgh between 5 and 7am. All the (CV) drivers could have breakfast, then get back into their vehicles and start driving at 8am!"