Whilst we all know we can’t rely on politicians to always do what they say they will, its getting pretty certain we can rely on them changing the goal posts when ever it suits them.
Currently, electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid are exempt from the daily London congestion charge, but from 27th October 2008, they are joined by normally powered cars producing less than 120g/km which will also become exempt.
However the Mayor of London, Mr. Livingstone (I presume) has recently stated that this new system is “flexible” and warned that both the charges and exemptions may be changed in the future, leaving a real uncertainty as to how long the exemption for these sub-120g/km cars will stay in force.
Mr. Livingstone, who is looking to be re-elected in May’s mayoral elections, has emphasised that the aim of the charge was still to tackle congestion (laudable stuff eh), although combining it with CO2 levels clearly shows it’s much more than just a congestion charge, after all, if 100,000 ordinary vehicles congesting the roads, were replaced with 100,000 “exempt charge” hybrid vehicles, the roads are still going to be just as congested, it wont make a jot of difference to the level of congestion, so what’s the point?
Fact is that it seems to me that they will just keep lowering and lowering the point where the congestion charge is free, to encourage companies to buy lower polluting vehicles and once they’ve done that, they will whack the charge back on.
Clearly, or should I say unclearly these messages are going to confuse drivers and companies alike who are not going to trust initiatives of this sort in the future and because they don’t trust them, they wont support them and this whole situation fails to present a consistent signal to consumers.
Car manufacturers are going to be disappointed as well, as the vast majority have struggled and made real efforts to produce cars that sit below that magic 120g/km level and if these amendments take place, customers and companies (particularly those which operate in London) and who bought into the sub 120g/km message, frankly might just as well not bother to buy sub 120g/km cars. That’s having the right effect then! Someone seems to be missing the bigger picture here.
Despite this, one of the few groups willing to congratulate the mayor was Friends of the Earth (who now apparently speak for the majority of Londoners?) saying “the move is extremely welcome and supported by most Londoners”.
We are not based in London, so we cant fully understand how it must be living with the congestion charge system on a day to day basis, but many of our customers do and its also pretty certain that a congestion charge scheme is going to come to a town or city near us all at some point in the future, so its important the concept of schemes like this are clear and that they can be seen to be consistent, offering fleet operators some opportunity to forward plan their fleet strategy.
Whether it changes from a congestion charge to a pollution charge, it’s still going to cost us and in some way and effectively, it’s like asking which of the Schumacher boys is the best looking.
What we all fear however is that it stops being about congestion or pollution and becomes all about fund raising, or generating income for the town or city employing it. Funny then that there is a major event taking place in Ken’s manor in 2012 and you have to ask yourself just how much us motorists may end up paying towards plugging a looming hole in the 2012 Olympic budget.
