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Momentary confusion greeted my colleague when they called the Transport for London information line on Tuesday for details of the new CO2 charge.
Momentary confusion greeted my colleague when they called the Transport for London information line on Tuesday for details of the new CO2 charge.
"I'm sorry, the new rules aren't confirmed yet. Oh, they are? Just now? No-one's told us. Do you know where I can find them?"
Well it was hardly the first time in history that the folk in the front line were the last to find out what was happening. And to be fair to TfL, they did get the nitty gritty on the new CO2 discounts on their website a couple of hours later.
TfL's decision to give cars emitting up to 120g/km of CO2 a 100% discount on the daily charge is entirely right for fleets in my view, since it aligns with other existing or proposed tax breaks for business users.
That will give car manufacturers good reason to add even more attractive models to their ranges in the 'B' band for CO2 emissions. Not that they have been slow off the mark so far, with around 80 charge-free models already on sale including BMW 1-series, Mini, Peugeot 308, Citroen C4 and a small flock of city cars.
It is a shame, though, that users of low-CO2 vehicles will have to register them with TfL, at a cost of £10 a year, in order to qualify for the discount.
Technology that removes the need to pre-register is already in place. TfL's system automatically checks the registered CO2 rating of trucks in the new, London-wide Low Emission Zone, and the same technology will be used to recognise Band 'G' cars, from their number plates, so that they can be charged £25 per day from October.
Deep down in the bureaucratic heart of the congestion charging scheme, which makes an overall loss and relies on fines to make a profit, I suspect the idea that clean cars really deserve a full discount is merely being tolerated rather than wholeheartedly embraced.
That will have to change if Ken Livingstone really wants his CO2 scheme, as he claimed on Tuesday, to "start a cultural revolution whereby drivers in every city in Britain start to think about the impact on the environment of their choice of car and how they plan their journeys."
TfL's official C-charge details website
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