Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ)

TfL will introduce a new charge in April 2019 – ULEZ is the ultra low emission zone. If you drive within the zone in a non-exempt car you will be charged. It is the same area as the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ).

Historic vehicles are non-exempt – yippee! There is a checker on the TfL website to confirm that your car is exempt – very good. https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone

Except, as Andrew York highlighted to me – the TfL checker will probably tell you that your Traction is not exempt! In a sample of 43 cars,  from either the TOC membership list or other old cars I know of, that were all supposed to be exempt I found most were listed as not exempt. A few were listed as not found and two were listed as exempt.

I contacted the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FHBVC) to see if anyone else has raised the issue. It seems we are the first. They are raising the issue with TfL – why does their checker tell you the wrong thing and why is it not consistent?

The TfL checker should be using DVLA data – who also have an on-line checker.

https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla

If your car is classified as historic it should show “tax not due” under the vehicle status heading. Two of the cars I looked at show tax due – I don’t know those particular cars but I would have expected them to be exempt from road tax.

More worryingly there were several cars that were not found. It may be that we have an incorrect registration on file but the other explanation is that the registration has been voided by the DVLA.

So – it is probably worth a check on the DVLA checker that it shows your cars’ status correctly.

It is not worth bothering to look at the TfL checker though – not until it is fixed.

Chris