News

The DfT's reputation for late and rushed delivery of regulations was further enhanced last week, when it gave eleventh-hour confirmation of transition arrangements for moving from Euro 3 to Euro 4.

Thousands of Euro 3 trucks can now be sold and registered at any time over the next 12 months.

Volvo is derogating 700 and Scania 909 chassis. These trucks are all allocated to specific operators. However, some other manufacturers are understood to have significant number of trucks built  for stock.

Industry sources suggest that delays at the DfT are due in part to staff changes but the whole episode has been less than satisfactory. The industry wanted to repeat the derogation from Euro 2/3 use but a lawyer at the DfT said that it might be out with EU guidelines.

DfT officials stated a year ago that a new formula would have to be found, for this legal reason. Ironically, the subsequent prevarication means that the necessary parliamentary order cannot come into force until October 20, three weeks after the Euro 4 deadline. It could be blocked by MPs, although that is highly unlikely to happen.

Under the derogation rules, truck makers can derogate individual models by up to 30% of last year's sales, or 100 units, whichever is the larger. This is understood to be acceptable to most, and perhaps all, the truck makers, although there was growing nervousness about delays at the DfT.

Meanwhile, industry sources say that representations to the DfT  from MAN and one of the two main operator trade associations have between them seen off any chance of a Euro 5 RPC in the near term.

The RPC would disadvantage operators who preferred to buy an EGR truck, the DfT was told.