News

More than 6,000 penalty charge notices have been issued to trucks entering the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ), but the majority have been overturned on appeal.

According to statistics released last week, Transport for London (TfL) issued 6,271 PCNs to UK-registered vehicles between its launch in February and 7 July. However, 4,311 PCNs were appealed  by hauliers and of these, 4,040 were overturned.

According to a TfL spokeswoman, the high number of successful appeals was due to a result of delays in the supply of abatement equipment when the scheme was launched. "We tried to give all operators every opportunity to comply, and so we initially sent out warning letters that gave hauliers 28 days grace to get their vehicles compliant," the spokeswoman says.

"After that, PCNs were issued, but we always said that if an operator could prove that they had abatement equipment on order and were waiting for it to be fitted then they could appeal and we would overturn the PCN."

The Freight Transport Association's regional policy manager for London, Natalie Chapman, is not surprised by the figures.

She says: "A lot of operators struggled to get the particulate filters fitted in time, and TfL was very considerate with its 28 days' leeway for those who were not  compliant. However, for those who still failed to meet the requirements, it did tell them to appeal the PCNs."

Chapman adds it is a shame that operators would have had to go through the administration related to an appeal, but at least TfL was understanding about the situation. She concludes: "From now on, there should not be many PCNs issued at all."