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Charge of the hype brigade •

8th August 2002, Page 13
8th August 2002
Page 13
Page 13, 8th August 2002 — Charge of the hype brigade •
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Commercial vehicles should De exempt from London's congestion charging scheme, says the Freight Transport Association. it is continuing to campaign against the charge after the High Court gave the goahead for tolls to begin in February.

The move follows the rejection of a human rights appeal from Westminster County Council and the Kennington Association. If it had been successful, this could have forced London Mayor Ken Livingstone to hold a public inquiry, carry out an environmental impact assessment and possibly review the scheme in terms of commercial vehicles.

But, despite the case being rejected, industry bodies are fighting on. Richard Turner, ETA chief executive, says: "Now that there will not be a public inquiry we have no legal foothold. Instead we shall fight on with love, kindness and persuasion. We shall also prepare for the worst, and seek to ensure that the fleet scheme is run as effi

ciently as possible.

"Under lone payment option in] the scheme, operators will be charged £5.50 per vehicle, because Transport for London claims that they may not spot all lorries.

"TfL has openly admitted that charging trucks will make no difference at all, but they have not got the courage to face up to the public and say we will only charge cars and not lorries, because the public would find this difficult to understand," he adds.

Geoff Dossetter, FTA head of external affairs, adds: "The scheme will cost UK industry at least £200m per year in charges plus all of the bureaucracy and administration required. All for nothing. The charge is an unnecessary stealth tax and the ETA will continue to seek the exclusion of commercial vehicles from the scheme."

Shopping capital A spokeswoman for the Road Haulage Association agrees: "Road hauliers simply cannot afford to make unnecessary journeys. If London is to remain one of the shopping capitals of Europe, deliveries will have to be made by Commercial vehicles. And until we see railway lines running the length of the capital's streets this will continue to be the case."

There are also concerns over how the charging will affect

leasing companies—particularly when dealing with people who are driving one of their vehicles but have not paid the charge.

John Lewis, director general at the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, says: 'For leasing businesses the result will be increased administration and cost as they will have to handle fines for non-payment by their customers' drivers. These costs will inevitably have to be passed back to the customer."

Companies delivering within the charging area every day are likely to see margins further squeezed, and many will have to resort to changing systems to help minimise costs.

Bob Ball, distribution manager with Young's Brewery, Wandsworth, says that the company realises that something had to be done to improve congestion. "The £5 charge is an improvement on the original £15 but we are backing the ETA to see commercial vehicles exempt. "The charge will cost u £10,000-£15,000 a year. We pla to tackle the situation by sent ing the same vehicle back an forth across London rathE than using two or three truck: We may even see some benefit in February, such as the fre movement of traffic, whit could save on delivery time ar fuel efficiency."

Livingstone says that he happy his approach to conga tion charging, which hi involved an unprecedented lev of consultation, has been vim cated. He says he now looks fo ward to addressing the pro lems with congestion in Lon& without the distraction of leg proceedings.


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