News

Gordon Brown has finally done what many in the industry have asked for and incentivised the early uptake of Euro 5-engined trucks.

This will happen through the reinstatement of the Reduced Pollution Certificate (RPC) scheme from October 2007 and will be available to anyone taking a Euro 5 truck before their mandatory introduction in 2009, Brown announced in his Budget .

Although details are scarce at present it should mean that firms operating at the maximum weight will see their VED rate cut by £500 per year, based on the previous RPC scheme which ended last year.

However there is a cost penalty for early adopters of Euro 5, with Mercedes-Benz for example quoting an extra £1,000 for a Euro 5 truck over its Euro 4 equivalent.

But Ian Jones, head of commercial vehicles at DaimlerChrysler UK, remains upbeat. He adds: “We congratulate them in realising the importance of RPCs for Euro-5, it’s the best value-for-money decision they can make.”

A spokesman for Mercedes-Benz adds: “You have got to see this as the beginning of incentives.”

At present all the manufacturers using SCR to meet the emissions regulations have Euro 5 trucks available. Of those in the EGR camp, Scania has  12-litre 380 and 420hp and 16-litre 500hp engines available at Euro 5 (which use SCR), with the rest of the range available at Euro 5 with EGR from November 2007. MAN has Euro 5 trucks available on the Continent (also using SCR) – but not in the UK – and is not planning to introduce Euro 5 EGR vehicles to this country until 2009.

Elsewhere in the Budget there was mixed news for the industry:

• Fuel duty will increase by 2p/lit in line with inflation, although this rise is postponed until October 2007, and then by 2p/lit from April 2008 and 1.8p/lit from April 2009.
• Funding for the targeting of law-breaking foreign operators will be tripled, with the intention to target 50,000 trucks per year through the combined use of intelligence and ANPR/WIMS technology.
• There will be further investigation into a vignette scheme to charge foreign hauliers for using UK roads, due to report by October 2007.
• The duty differential of 20p/lit on biofuels is extended until 2009-10.
• VED rates for trucks have been frozen.