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Low emission zones
Page 8
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pointless', says FTA
Making trucks comply with low emission zones (112s) will cost millions of pounds yet the air quality benefits will only last a few years, warns the Freight Transport Association.
FFA engineering policy manager Geoff Day says replacement of existing trucks by ones with more advanced engines means that by 2012 emission levels will meet government targets anyway.
He told an ETA conference for fleet engineers that even by 2008, 70% of the UK's 450,000-strong truck pare will meet Euro-3 standards or above.
His warning comes days before the publication of a longawaited report on creating the UK's first LE2 in London (CM 1723 April).
The £200,000 study will have far-reaching implications for haulage because more than a quarter of UK trucks enter London at least once a year.
A spokesman for the Association of London Government says Day's argument is valid, particularly as introducing an LE2 before 2005 is almost impossible now because of the time needed to complete the necessary legislation.
"The ETA has picked up on something that will present a real difficulty to politicians. Rut that's not to say that achieving significantly lower air quality concentrations for four years or so is not valuable when you quantify that in terms of reduced Illness and fewer deaths brought forward as a result of cleaner air. The fundamental rationale of low emission zones is to speed up that process."
Although cars and vans, which account for more than 97% of road traffic, will be excluded from any 1E2, the spokesman says owners of older, more polluting vehicles could be encouraged to scrap them through financial Incentives.
Day describes the exclusion of cars and vans as ludicrous. And he warns that truck manufacturers face a crippling increase in costs if the government refuses to pay for the retrofitting of particulate traps.
"There are thousands of vehicles out there on guaranteed buy-back schemes. Particulate traps cost between £2,200 and £3,000 and manufacturers would have to fit them to give vehicles a resale value. It would cost them millions."
• See Comment Dage.