Mike Bailey, CAVA Finance 0161 222 9599
Coach

Cleaner air can only be a good thing, but there a lot to consider if your business in terms of environmental impact, if you’re a minibus, coach or taxi operator.

The Euro 6 Clean Air Legislation is being introduced in major cities around the UK, starting with London in April last year, with the Ultra Low Emission Zone being introduced to reduce pollution.  

The timing coincides with the best time to start thinking about expanding your business as an operator. With the weather picking up, the demand from customers is usually higher for trips and holidays where private hire transport plays a big part. Whether it’s airport drop offs, sight seeing tours or coach trips, there’s plenty of demand, but do you have the right vehicle?

If you’re looking to purchase a new coach, minibus or taxi in the near future then you’ll need to be aware that new criteria and specifications that must be met in order for you to comply with EU legislation.

Plans are all set for 2021 to expand the cities in which the Euro 6 compliance will be introduced, starting with Leeds and Manchester. Other major cities, primarily busy, tourist focused cities, will likely be required to adhere by new standards first. Naturally, there is more pollution in more congested cities, hence the introduction of the standards in larger cities.

What can you do? Well, it’s time to think about upgrading and up-speccing! You’ll need to meet the standards by law if you want to keep operating and continue to trade. Your passengers would likely opt for a different coach company if they knew that your company couldn’t complete the journey due to not being able to enter a Clean Air Zone!

There are both economic and engineering elements to these changes which will impact your business. Large bus and coach operators such as Arriva are already implementing ‘conversion kits’ into their buses to ensure they are compliant and reduce the disruption to their services.

It might seem like old news to you if you’ve already planned ahead an ensured that any new vehicles you’ve purchased are already compliant with the new standards, but if you’ve not needed a new vehicle until now, then it’s time to consider going green!

If you’re unsure on the specifications required, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll arrange for you to speak with our trusted suppliers of coaches and minibuses. Stay ahead of your competition and don’t get left behind. If you’re looking to expand and introduce a new vehicle to your fleet, you can contact Mike on 0161 222 9599.

 

 

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Minibus/Coach Finance, News, Taxis

Are we following in the footsteps of our Parisian neighbours?

 

The 16th of September marked the 3rd ‘Car-Free’ day in the French capital. The scheme was introduced in a bid to tackle both air and noise pollution caused by vehicle emissions. Each year since it began Car Free Day, the city has seen a restricted zone imposed, however this year the ban on motorised traffic applied to the whole of Paris.

 

In the UK we’re not going quite the whole hog, yet a new, stricter law will be introduced in London by April 2019. The push for this Ultra Low Emissions Zone, will replace the London T-Charge (Toxicity Charge) which is currently in place and has been since October 2017.

 

The ULEZ will cover a much wider area and will be much more expensive. Of course, anything which sees increasing costs is going to cause controversy. This scheme does focus on reducing pollution from vans, cars, buses and lorries and is being enforced to discourage them from driving into the centre of London.

 

The current charges apply to older vehicles, over the age of 12 and is applicable during peak travel times from 7AM-6PM, Monday to Friday and covers the Congestion Zone.

 

How will this affect travel?

 

The changes in the emissions zone will see higher payments for ‘non-compliant’ vehicles. These would include petrol vehicles older than 15 years or diesel vehicles over 6 years old. However, there are some exemptions. According to TFL, “London-licensed taxis are exempt from ULEZ – they are subject to a 15-year age limit and new emissions standards have already been introduced for them. From 1 January 2018 all newly licensed taxis must be capable of producing zero emissions.”

 

Vehicles which are exempt or allowed a ‘sunset’ period, include designated wheelchair accessible Private Hire Vehicles. However, these are only exempt when carrying out a booking by a licenced TFL PHV operator. Meaning that owners of PHV will be eligible to pay the charges at other times if their vehicle doesn’t meet the new emissions regulations.

 

TFL note that “All other private hire vehicles will need to meet the emissions standards or pay the daily charge from 8 April 2019.”

 

Minibus and Taxi companies are now facing a costly decision. Operators would need to pay the daily charges, running the risk of needing to increase their own prices to cover this cost and ultimately losing customers due to increasing expense. Or the other option is for these companies to bring their vehicles in line with the regulations, meaning purchasing new vehicles.

 

With further restrictions planned for the capital by 2025, the latter option, whilst more costly may be a more sensible decision. In the future, newer vehicles with lower emissions are less likely to be affected by plans to potentially ban older vehicles or increase pollution charges further.

 

It looks like low or zero emission zones will be a reality sooner than we think, with plans for London to restrict certain zones to hybrid or electric vehicles only by 2025. Other cities will soon follow suit, with our city centres seeing reduced traffic and as a result, cleaner air.

 

Who knows, Manchester might be next…



Sources:

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/discounts-and-exemptions

https://www.buyacar.co.uk/cars/487/london-t-charge-and-ulez-emissions-charges

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New Year is a distant memory and with 2017 well underway, we’ve got some important dates for your diary. Now that we’re finally starting to settle into 2017, it’s time to start thinking forward to what the rest of the year entails. There are some important dates for your diary and a few changes to the car industry we at CAVA Finance think you should be aware of. The new car seat regulations will come into effect on the 1st of March. Under the current law car seats must be provided for children until 12 or under 135cm. The new law states that backless booster will be introduced for children over the height of 125cm, therefore offering the seat to older children. The support of the seat provides less protection and Road Safety have recommended not buying second hand, as you cannot be sure of its history (it may have been involved in a collision), ‘the instructions are often missing with a second-hand seat and it may not be designed to current standards, offering less protection for your child.’ Look out for our full blog post on the new car seat regulations over the coming weeks. As we approach March, there is another change to make note of! There are two changes a year when it comes to new registration plates, the first takes place on the 1st of March and will show that your vehicle was produced in the first part of 2017. The second change comes into action in September, with vehicles donning a ’67 plate to represent that they have been produced in the latter part of the year, up to February 2018. With the end of February creeping up on us, we at CAVA believe it’s time you start to consider the options with the new registration release looming. Get in touch to find out more. Last but not least, come April there will be changes to vehicle tax rates, based on CO2 emissions. The DVLA note “The way vehicle tax is calculated will change for cars and some motor homes that are first registered with DVLA from 1 April 2017” So the more eco friendly your vehicle is, the less tax you’ll be paying, if anything!        
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