Van users are less aware of LEZ changes
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By Kevin Swallow TRUCK OPERATORS who visited the CV Show seemed more switched on than van users to the forthcoming changes to the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ).
The LEZ rules will change on 3 January 2012, with Euro-4 trucks becoming the minimum requirement. Eminox marketing manager Kathye Henderson (right) said truck operators are more aware because they have been through it before. “They ask more detailed questions regarding specification, price, what equipment is included, and a lot more questions about maintenance and maintaining the filters,” she said.
“Awareness among van operators is far lower. They are very price-driven as vans are cheaper than trucks. It can be £2,000 for a particulate trap to make them legal,” she said.
Henderson believes a small number of van operators will convert their vehicles, as more are likely to use the new van scrappage scheme launched by Transport for London.
She also warned that there is a five-week lead time for systems to be fitted, which will only get longer as the deadline gets closer. Dinex general manager Rogier van der Ouderaa said delaying a decision will compound the leadtime issue, with a shortage of product and a lack of availability of workshop time.
“There is a lot of uncertainty as to whether operators should keep [and convert] or sell their Euro-3 truck and buy Euro-5,” he said.
Neville Loome, LEZ consultant for MAN Truck & Bus, said operators have been asking about what they need to do to comply: “Even if you convert you are only deferring the problem for two years [to the next LEZ change in emission levels in 2015].
“If you buy a Euro-5 truck and keep it for seven years you no longer have an LEZ problem.”