GET IT GREEN GET IT RIGHT
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They're at it again. The ink is hardly dry on "Lorry Weights—a Consultation Document" and the Department of Transport is already issuing another consultation paper, this time on tax incentives for greener trucks. Last November Chancellor Kenneth Clarke announced his intention to reduce vehicle excise duty by up to £500 "...for lorries meeting very stringent emission standards..." Before anyone gets too excited about tax bonanzas for Euro-2 trucks, take note that the so-called incentive (and it's debatable whether it is an incentive) isn't designed to encourage operators to buy new trucks. Instead, the Chancellor wants them to fit particulate traps to existing vehicles. Given that it's the older trucks which create the most particulates Commercial Motor is prepared to give the idea a qualified thumbs-up. But (and it's a big but) there are some major obstacles to overcome before it can work. For a start £500 isn't nearly enough to compensate for the cost of buying and fitting a particulate trap to an old truck. By the DOT's own reckoning this costs up to £4,000 a time. Secondly, presumably someone will have to measure the effectiveness of a trap before deciding that an operator qualifies for his VED rebate: in its consultation document the DOT talks about reducing particulates using Euro-1 and 2 emissions standards as a yardstick—but Euro-1 and 2 engine emission certification is a world away from the visual smoke check currently carried out by the Vehicle Inspectorate as part of the annual test. The two things are like chalk and cheese. Then there's the time scale. According to the DOT the target is to have these concessions up and running "from early 1998". Considering what has to be thrashed out, and the fact that the closing date for replies is uncomfortably close to the General Election, that's whistling in the wind. There's nothing wrong with offering tax rebates for running green trucks, but let's do it right.