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The way I see it . I felt pretty emotional and gutted after buying a brand new van in 2014 .
Grafted and worked hard to pay back the bank loan by end of 2019 only to learn local authority was introducing a ulez zone through my work route in 2020 which would incur a daily charge of £9.00 or £180 a month and my van was not exempt .
Whatever our feelings about ulez charges we have to make a business decision and do a reset , look at our viable options ,It's a problem which has to be addressed .
The solution for myself was to trade my van in for a ulez compliant vehicle albeit Ten years older with 165,000 miles on the clock compared to my van which only had 36,000 miles on the clock but obviously a moving target being a commercial vehicle ?
I am a bit cynical about ulez zones although try and take a balanced view ,always prepared to listen to both sides of the argument and in an environmentally conscious business feel the responsibility to do the right thing but have very little respect for those in charge these days .
Its annoying but the way I look at it is if you just explain the problem to your customers and split the £12.50 between all the customers for the day.................. I'm sure they won't be that bothered about paying an extra couple of quid each if they feel they're going to lose your services.
We're fortunate that our vehicles are euro 6 and at the moment there's only talk of bringing in these what can only be described as draconian revenue raising restrictions in our area.
Spare a thought for the HGV operators and the expense of either paying the charge or swapping vehicles, these increased costs will inevitably feed down to all consumers, another inflationary pressure.
As usual there has been no thought into the consequences for business owners by the powers that be with their gold plated salaries and defined benefit pensions but ha what do I know!
Its heart breaking and newer vans are not a cheap investment, my truck is 2017 and owned it 4 years now, been so busy this summer it missed its service, but don't do huge mileage compared to some. No emission zones where I am but definitely notice the smoke and smell from the back of other drivers older vans when you have a cleaner one to compare it with
Upgrading to a newer van is flawed if ulez is about air pollution if you trade an older but possibly well maintained vehicle in as someone will end up driving it in a non ulez zone , it's counterproductive .
Just trying to visualize old Tesla's pulling trailers full of gardening kit in the future .
I was in Chingford yesterday and we literally drove along the boundary of the zone, which now encompasses an area I have worked in.
One way or the other the cost has to go onto the customers bills, either they pay the charges for you or they cover the cost of you replacing your van.
Those operating in Oxfordshire could soon have something else to contend with as well.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/10/police-called-abusive-r...
So when the wind blows where does all the so called clean air go ? It’s another tax on the working man it’s already put some business in debt & will finish some off I’m all for cleaner air but at what cost….
A year ago in January, i replaced my MK7 Transit with a 2014 Transit Custom, and didnt give much thought to the ULEZ expanding as i already new many councils were opposed to it.
But it seems Sadiq 'snowflake woke' Khan is somehow been able to push ahead with it anyway.
My van is euro 5 so not compliant, i couldnt afford a slightly younger euro 6 example, and didnt want one anyway because the newer wet belt engines are crap.
If all this was truly just about pollution and kids lungs not tax revenue, the worst vehicles would simply be banned end of, no paying to get in the zone, but just banned altogether. But no, instead so called polluting vehicles are still allowed in at a price and Ashma magically disappears.
I cant believe the bloke is still in office, not a single person Ive spoken to over the last couple of years likes him or voted for him!
👍💪well said it's just another tax on the working man/motorist easy target