Rationalise the thinking

By Colin Windell

A potential crisis is looming large in the United Kingdom with proposed legislation to introduce clean air zones (CAZ) across the country – a move the trucking industry fears will put many people out of business.

In an interview with Commercial Motor (CM) magazine, Ian Studd, director general of the British Association of Removers (BAR) said: “The imminent introduction of a series of CAZs across the UK will be extremely damaging to the professional moving industry.

“Professional removals and packing services require high levels of investment in purpose-built vehicles and equipment and consequently the life-cycle of those vehicles is factored across many years.”

He added the implementation of CAZs, which will demand Euro-6 as a minimum for HGVs, “will inevitably be a huge financial burden to movers that already have a daily battle with massively tight margins”.

“Such zones will impose taxes on the majority of our members that operate vehicle fleets that are a few years old and that simply will not be able to afford a replacement programme.

“Traditionally, movers depreciate their vehicle asset over at least 10 years and even then, those same vehicles are recycled through the used truck market, meaning that the life-cycle of a removals truck is 15 years, with many in service for 20 years plus.

“Those vehicles, by the very nature of the job they do, are operating within urban centres on a daily basis, even though they are stationary, with engines turned off, for most of that time.”

At the same time road transport firms in Leeds fear the imposition of a clean air zone (CAZ) in less than two years could put them out of business. 

They are calling for a slowdown in regards CAZ proposals that could see non Euro-6 HGVs facing daily fines of £100 from January 1, 2020.

In line with government air quality rules, Leeds, along with 28 other local authorities, is required to introduce measures to reduce NOx emissions, which currently breach EU limits.

The city set out its proposals for a category B CAZ in December, which would see coaches/buses, taxis/private hire vehicles and HGVs needing to be Euro-6 from the outer Leeds ring road and in.

However, local HGV operators and service centres have told CM the short lead-time for rolling out the Leeds CAZ could have a crippling impact on their businesses.

Andrew Manson, MD at HGV parts and maintenance firm Sewell Auto Electric & Battery Centre said 90% of vehicles visiting his premises for servicing and tacho work are Euro-4 or Euro-5 standard.

“Hauliers will not bring their vehicles to me and pay an extra £100 to enter Leeds,” he says, of the business that was established in 1943 in the city and has been at its current location since 1972. “We are part of the peripheral fallout of the CAZ, we have absolutely no control over this.”

Matthew Tate, director at MTMS, which subcontracts specialist tippers to national firms and also runs a workshop and MoT facility for trucks, forestry and plant equipment, added:  “We cannot go to the people we are hauling for and say ‘we need £100 a day’ to run vehicles on their jobs. They will just say update your fleet. But the money isn't in the job to update the fleet.”

A similar issue is broiling in the USA where emission regulations vary from state to state, meaning some hauliers are unable to cross state lines with the vehicles they have in their fleet.