Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ)

[ChrisParticipant]

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

[Roger GrixParticipant]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the heads-up n this one.
First, I think you meant to say that historic vehicles are exempt, not non-exempt in line 3.

My car (newly registered) shows up correctly on the DVLA site.
The TfL site does not find my car in the ULEZ checker. One possible reason given is that it was registered after June 2017 (which is the case).

The T-charge checker does find my vehicle but says that it complies with the emission requirements because it was registered after June 2017.

As you say, their site also confirms that historic vehicles are exempt.
Roger

[ChrisParticipant]

Thanks Roger – I did mean to write historic vehicles are exempt. I don’t think I can edit the original post.

Chris

[BernieParticipant]

Chris – can you, as author, delete the post completely and then re-post the article with corrected text?

 

Bernie.

 

[Bertel BjorvikParticipant]

Hi all,

Just read this from Chris: If your car is classified as historic it should show “tax not due” under the vehicle status heading.

I checked the DVLA site and found that my Light 15 had tax due 1/6/2018. So I contacted DVLA.

Here is the reply:

Dear Mr Bjorvik,
Thank you for your enquiry received on 23/4/2018.
Your case reference number is 00576134.
We appreciate you contacting us to seek clarification on the matter.

It may help if I explain that I have checked the record and I can see that the vehicle is in the Historic Tax Class, this means that there is no cost for the vehicle tax due to the age of the vehicle. 

However, the tax is due for renewal on 01-06-2018, this is because even if a vehicle is exempt from paying the tax, it will still need to be taxed so we know that the vehicle is being used on the road.

A reminder will be sent in May to assist you with taxing the vehicle.

I trust that you find this information helpful.

So Historic Vehicle must be taxed but the price is £0 ZERO. Hope this can explain and sort out the confusion re tax on Historic Vehicle

Cheer Bertel

[Author]

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