Low Emission Zone is located in Greater London, and is set in place to lower traffic pollution by reducing tailpipe emissions of diesel powered commercial vehicles in London. If your vehicle fits the standards, then you are able to enter London without paying, otherwise if your vehicle does not fit, a fine of £100 for larger vans, minibuses and other specialist vehicles, and £200 for lorries, buses, coaches and other specialist heavy vehicles.
So you may be wondering how can this be avoided? There are multiple options:
Fit a filter
It is important to get an approved filter to be able to lower your vehicles emissions enough to be able to enter the low emission zone with the standards set in place. Getting one fitted onto your vehicle would be a huge benefit to you, with you not having to pay to enter London.
Replace your vehicle
Newer vehicles have lower emissions, meaning that with an updated vehicle, it would not need an upgrade. Upgrading to a newer vehicle or an electric one would enable you to pass the LEZ. (Low Emission Zone)
Reorganise your fleet
When assigning your vehicles to do certain jobs, you can make sure that the only vehicles to operate in London are ones from your fleet that have passed the test, and keeping the ones that haven’t on other jobs.
Pay the daily charge
Making sure that your vehicle meets the standards will save a lot of money, but if this is something that you can’t accommodate to then you have to pay the daily charge to drive within the zone.
Keeping your vehicles up to date allows you to be able to drive wherever you want, but an “ultra low emission zone” could be introduced by 2020.
To learn more about the Low Emission Zone standards, take a look at the transport for London website!