Charlotte Haye 9th August 2017

How Will The Diesel Scrappage Scheme Affect HGVs?

At Easy as HGV, we pride ourselves on bringing you news on the future of HGVs. Whether that’s the driverless HGVs still being trialled across the UK or Tesla’s completely electric HGVs (more to come on those later!). So we wouldn’t be able to forgive ourselves if we didn’t mention the latest announcement for the motoring industry – the complete eradication of diesel. You see, the government has just announced its plans to completely scrap diesel by 2040. And these plans include removing all diesel vehicles from the road.

Environmental secretary Michael Gove announced the measure as an attempt to tackle air pollution. The ban only refers to cars at the moment, but the haulage industry isn’t breathing a sigh of relief just yet. We know that HGVs will be dealt with more specifically in the near future. After all, if the sale of diesel vehicles is banned completely from 2040, this would mean that haulage firms across the UK will need to replace their current vehicle flees with new, environmentally friendly models. Some firms are already doing this, while others are expected to follow suit in order to get ahead of the ban. But what isn’t clear is whether or not firms will be compensated for the need to replace fleets of HGVs.

As it stands, the plan suggests that car drivers would be paid between £1000 and £2000 for making the switch from a diesel car to a low-emission or even an electric vehicle, to cover the cost of swapping. But electric HGVs aren’t on the wider market, with not enough on the roads for haulage firms to be able to clearly understand what the costs involved in buying and running them might be on a large scale. But in an attempt to encourage a voluntary switch, van drivers are promised that they can drive a heavier vehicle if they switch to a low emission model, such as an electric or hybrid. But again, this is a stop gap solution for vans and doesn’t cover the larger HGVs.

But right now, diesel vehicles haven’t been banned. However, they will be charged extra for road use, parking and fuel very soon in an open attempt to push them off the road or compensate financially for their higher emissions. This will be known as the T-Charge, or Toxicity Charge, and comes into place in just a few months, on the 1^st of October. This is a far cry from Blair’s encouragement to switch to diesel vehicles on the grounds that they were more emission friendly. But now that we understand that diesel emissions are far worse for the environment than petrol, the authorities are doing their best to rectify the damage done by this campaign.

It’s not, yet, been fully confirmed when (and indeed if) the diesel scrappage scheme will go ahead, but we do know that it is being pushed into the consultation phase as we speak. We will make sure we keep an ear to the ground and bring you the latest news on the diesel scrappage front. In the mean time, if you would like to chat to us about low-emission HGVs, or how you can make your vehicles more environmentally friendly, just get in touch with us today.