How Will the Diesel Scrappage Scheme Affect HGVs?
The haulage industry takes great pride in keeping our stakeholders informed about where the HGV technology is headed. With possibilities of driverless HGVs being tested across the United Kingdom and the exploration of electric HGVs thanks to Tesla, we like to keep you up to date on the latest. Naturally, this means we would be thrilled to mention the latest evolution in the motoring industry; the complete and total eradication of diesel HGVs. As some news sources have reported, the government of the United Kingdom has recently announced plans to completely remove diesel fuelled devices from the land. This plan definitely will involve removing all diesel vehicles, including diesel powered HGVs.
Diesel and Pollution
Michael Gove, Environmental Secretary of the nation, announced the effort to deal with the nation’s air pollution. Though at the moment this measure only refers to cars, the HGV training industry is already gearing up for the future. It has become clear that HGVs will be affected as well in the near future. It stands to reason that the sale of diesel vehicles will end completely in 2040, which means that haulage firms all over the United Kingdom will need to replace diesel vehicles in their fleets with newer, more environmentally healthy models. Some haulage firms are already in the process of shifting over, while many more others are expected to join these firms in order to get ready for the ban before it actually happens. What most firm owners aren’t sure of is whether or not their companies will be compensated for the need to totally replace their HGV fleets.
Cost of Fielding HGVs
At the moment, the plan suggests that those driving cars would be compensated for between 1,000 GBP and 2,000 GBP for a diesel car that gets traded in for a lower emission or even an electric vehicle in order to cover the costs of the shift. However, electrical powered HGVs aren’t on the wider market, and not nearly enough on the roads for the average haulage firm to really know for sure what the costs in fielding these vehicles on a large scale will be. That said, the government is trying to encourage a voluntary shift, even to the point of promising van drivers that will be allowed to drive a heavier vehicle if they switch to a lower emission vehicle, such as say a hybrid or an electric vehicle. Unfortunately, this is only a stop gap solution for vans and certainly doesn’t cover the larger HGVs that are roaming the roads.
As of this writing, diesel vehicles haven’t been totally banned. That said, they will be charged extra for road use, parking and diesel fuel very soon in a clear attempt to get them off United Kingdom roads or to balance out their much higher emissions. Known as the Toxicity Charge or T-Charge, these extra fees will be put into place on 1 October 2017. This is far from Blair’s encouragement to move the industry towards diesel vehicles with the reasoning that they were more emission friendly. Newer research, however, has shown that diesel emissions are far, far more destructive to the environment than even petrol and the authorities are doing their best to mend the damage caused by the Blair government’s campaign.
It is not as of yet known whether or even if the diesel removal scheme will go ahead as planned, but it is clear that it is being moved forward into the consultation phase even now. We will do what we can to keep watch on the situation and bring our stakeholders the latest information on the diesel removal front.