Red Ken is nuts

I have never heard such a half baked idea as his proposal for L.E.V. in my life
£200 per day to take a truck into London from the M25.The proposal will put many small firms based within the M25 out of business and the outer firms will refuse to deliver within the M25 if not because of the £200 but the massive investment needed in replacing vehicles resulting in a glut of secondhand 3-4 year old trucks that nobody wants

comments

Whats the reasoning behind it ?

[northwind]

Originally Posted by stewie

Whats the reasoning behind it ?

It's because everyone should deliver goods by bicycle. Especially fridges and the like.

Was there not some move afoot to have charging in peak time, and reduced or free off peak?

[mister c]

The London Low Emission Zone commences 4 February 2008.
The aim of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) is to improve air quality in London by deterring the most polluting vehicles from being driven in the area. The vehicles affected are older diesel-engined lorries, buses, coaches, large vans, minibuses and other heavy vehicles that are derived from lorries and vans such as motor caravans and motorised horse boxes.
There will be a phased introduction of the scheme from 4 February 2008 through to January 2012. Different vehicles will be affected over time and increasingly tougher emissions standards will apply. Cars, motorcycles and small vans are not included in the Low Emission Zone (LEZ).

He is deffinitly losing his marbles.... has anyine else heard about his new idea for 2012 olympics... he wants to build a massive mosque (don't know how you spell it the place where muslims go to pray), he wants to create a landmark for people to see when they get to London.....

What about St Pauls?? The houses of Parliament??? and why a mosque? it will of course be coming from tax payers money.

Yes,that last post is correct but as most commercial diesel engines have a life of 800,000kms/500,000 miles it makes a mockery of the tax write down against the resale value if you can't use a vehicle after 4 years. The average
3.5t van i.e Sprinter or Transit is £25,000 and when you consider the number of vehicles used buy small business within the M25 the cost is astronomical,
go up to 7.5t and the figure steps up to £40,000. I run 5 vehicles and I would have to increase my rates by 100% which the customers will not pay so he will be putting 5 people out of work and for them that do pay the increase for the delivery of goods will only be passed on to the customer,YOU. This increases the retail price,raises inflation,which has a knock on effect on the bank rate etc.
Considering the population of London within the M25 and the 10,000,s of people involved who will just be packing up it will be putting a terrific burden on the economy.
I don,t say this light heartedly as I have sounded out over 20 firms that I deal with and we are all of the same opinion
Perhaps Northy is right, all our goods will be delivered by cycle and black cabs replaced by rickshaws

N.B. I replace vehicles on a 5 year cycle usually buying a good secondhand
1.1/2-2year old truck but there will not be the vehicles available for either new or secondhand supply

I do kind of see what he's trying to do, but its no good charging them that amount.

The problem is that there are a lot of poluting older trucks etc in the center of london, and theres no easy way of getting these excluded, or forcing the employer to update.

Phasing in may help, at least he should go after the 10 year old plus trucks/buses/coaches I see bellowing out black smoke every day.

of course if he included taxis that would be even better

As soon as this scheme thing comes into force, be prepared for higher prices, cos transport firms will pass the cost on which will mean living in London is gonna get more expensive, plus some firms will throw there hand in and give it up, so there could be initially fewer firms to cover the runs which could mean shortages, although tbh that probably wont happen. Lets face it if you were a transport firm running daily deliveries into london e.g. tesco,s , Robert wisemans dairies,food deliveries etc.. would you be happy with a £1400 a week added charge per vehicle ?

[ethariel]

Forget the trucks, let him dip into his already overflowing coffers (well, were overflowing before we were cursed by the Olympic bid) and replace all the disel fume belching buses out there to start with, afterall they are HIS buses anyway!!

Red Ken has indeed gone power mad, i just hope to god someone runs against him this time round, 99% chance they get my vote, almost anything is better than him.

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by ethariel

Red Ken has indeed gone power mad, i just hope to god someone runs against him this time round, 99% chance they get my vote, almost anything is better than him.

I heard Boris Johnson was thinking about it