• B30 Bio-diesel warning
• GETTING TO THE POINTS
• Pre-Budget Report Comment
• BUMPER CARS
• I LIKE DRIVING IN MY CAR… (ON MY OWN)
• HARD DAYS LIGHT
• ANIMAL TRAGIC
• FUEL’S GOLD
• SEEING ‘RED’ OVER HIGH FUEL COSTS
• DRIVING “CONDITIONS”
• MANY HAPPY RETURNS?
• KICKING THE CO2 HABIT
• ‘GREEN’ FINGERS
• FROM AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TO GROUND TRAFFIC CONTROL
• CULTURE SHOCK
• DON’T DRIVE DROWSY
• ‘FOLLOW THAT STAR!’
• PULLING POWER
• The Darling Budget of March - 08
• Courtesy Cars - March 08
• Green Survey - Feb 08

• New congestion charge angers industry - Feb 08

• Midlands Excellence Award win - Jan 2008

New congestion charge angers industry - Feb 08

Experts at Masterlease are joining vehicle manufacturers in questioning the effectiveness of hiking the congestion charge in London from £8 to £25 for gas-guzzling vehicles.  The leading fleet management firm believes the changes to the scheme will have an extremely limited effect on reducing CO2 emissions and could have a negative impact on London-based businesses.

The proposals by London Mayor Ken Livingstone would see the bill for driving a car that emits over 226g/km rising from £40 to £125 per week. This will directly affect owners of prestige and performance models and some large family cars will also suffer under the new charges.

Robert Kingdom from Masterlease, comments: “Questions need to be asked as to whether this will actually target congestion which was the purpose of introducing the charge in the first place.  It seems that this is emerging as another revenue generator for Transport for London.

"We are already working closely with many of our customers to help them develop more environmentally-friendly car policies and we will be advising all of them to plan now for these changes which could come into force in nine months time.  Similarly manufacturers are taking steps to address emissions; this is only achieved with significant research and investment.  It seems that the government is not allowing these companies to address the issues within a reasonable timeframe.” 

Already regarded as a complicated system, tiering of the charges would add to the administration of the congestion charge and to the workload of the fleet managers who have to translate this system to their drivers, as well as the leasing companies who have to pay the fines before charging them back to their customers.

Robert Kingdom concludes: “With manufacturers such as Land Rover and Porsche adding weight to condemn this scheme, it is clear that this goes beyond addressing a green issue.  This will only come into play if Ken Livingstone gets the vote in May.  This tax affects 17% of those paying the already existing congestion charge so it will be interesting to see if Londoners vote with their wallets on this one.”