The creation of Low Emission Zones is clearly a necessary to step to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality in major cities. The question is how this affects fleet choice in the future and how your drivers are alerted to the growing number of Low Emission Zones.

Virtually all of the cities that have so far taken action are targeting the most polluting diesels. However, newer diesels and also petrol driven vehicles will be affected over the next few years.

Below is summary of the key countries and their approach in reducing traffic, congestion and city CO2, NOX and SOX levels.

Benelux

In Belgium, Brussels is gradually introducing a Low Emissions Zone system. At the moment, only Euro-1 or non-Euro diesel engines are banned. This measure will be extended to other diesel and petrol cars over the coming years. The zone covered is the whole of the Brussels Capital Region’s 19 communes. Antwerp has a similar system in place, and is also set to extend it. Fleet drivers to Belgium have been advised to keep themselves informed via the website: www.lez-belgium.be. The website provides information on all existing and planned Belgian low emission zones.

In the Netherlands, there is a national and uniform system of Low Emissions Zones, which is starting with high pollution vehicles such as trucks. This will gradually be extended to other vehicles. Number plate recognition cameras are in place to recored vehicles. To date, the network covers Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Eindoven, Utrecht, Maastricht and many more.

Luxembourg has no system in operation but is considering the banning of HGVs from Luxembourg city.

France

In Paris, the system works via the Crit’Air windscreen sticker. Drivers send their vehicle registration document and a small fee (around 4 Euros) and receive a sticker with their car’s environmental rating, from 0 (electric) to 5 (Euro-2 compliant).

On high pollution days, only the cleaner categories are allowed to drive in the low emission zones of Paris. The overall zone is Paris intra-muros, but the périphérique and one or two major thoroughfares, are not included.

This system was recently used,  in July / August 2018 during the hot weather when only categories 0 to 3 were allowed to drive in Paris and several other urban areas. Category 5 vehicles are banned all year long from 8.00 am to 8.00pm during weekdays.

Other Crit’Air cities

Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Toulouse (normally with their greater metropolitan areas) have also adopted the Crit’Air system. Other cities are planning to follow Paris.  In particular: Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Marseille-Aix-en-Provence, Metz, Montpellier, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Orléans, Rennes, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Toulon, Tours and Valenciennes.

Germany

Like Paris, drivers in Germany are required to have a special environmental sticker on their vehicle in order to enter the ‘green zone’ of most German cities. This law applies to anyone driving in Germany, whether a resident or a foreigner. It is important to note that even if the car meets German/EU pollution standards, a driver can still be fined if there is no sticker on the windshield. Almost every German city or town of any size now requires a green-zone sticker. The stickers are green, yellow or red depending on the level of emissions of the car. Stickers are available from the TÜV either online or at an office. They are valid for the lifetime of the vehicle.

The following German cities and towns had restricted environmental zones as of early 2016: Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Bottrop, Bremen, Cologne Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Erfurt, Essen, Frankfurt am Main (and its region: Offenbach, Siegen), Freiburg (Breisgau), Gelsenkirchen, Halle (Saale), Hanover, Heidelberg, Herrenberg, Ilsfeld, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Leonberg, Ludwigsburg, Mannheim, Mühlacker, Mülheim an der Ruhr, München (Munich), Münster, Neu-Ulm, Neuss, Nuremberg, Oberhausen, Osnabrück, Pfinztal, Pforzheim, Pleidelsheim, Recklinghausen, Reutlingen, Ruhr region, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Ulm, Wuppertal.

Italy

Many Italian cities have ZTL areas, or restricted traffic areas, along with Low Emissions Zones. These cities include Rome, Milan, Florence and Pisa, but the list runs into dozens and the ZTL zones are designed to avoid further structural damage to the historical centres of the cities.

Driving into a ZTL without the appropriate authorisation will lead to a fine. In nearly all cases tourists and non-residents are forbidden from being issued passes. Only local drivers are allowed to drive in these zones. The fines for crossing into a ZTL boundary are issued by ticket-cameras placed at the entrance of each zone.

In Rome, traffic is banned on Sundays to try and ease the smog, and the police hand out fines. All vehicles except motorbikes and electric cars are involved, but drivers of electric cars have to get official permission. This is a complex setup with six schemes in operation just around Rome.

Spain

Looking at Spain’s two principal cities, Barcelona has a camera-enforced Low Emissions Zone in place and Madrid is considering following suit. Certain other Spanish cities have emergency schemes in place, but the likelihood is that these will become more structured over time.

In most cases, vehicles registered outside of the country concerned are also required to comply with the regulations. They register with the city authority or pay he fee in the same way as nationally registered cars.

UK

In London, the whole of the inner city – roughly from Vauxhall in the south to Clerkenwell in the north, and Marylebone in the west to the City in the east – is defined as the Congestion Charge area. Vehicles pay a charge of £ 11.50 (€ 14.00) per day to drive inside the zone, between 7.00 am and 6.00 pm on weekdays. The charge enables a vehicle to enter and leave the zone as many times as it wishes within one day. Drivers can pay in advance, on the day of travel or the next day. In this last case, the charge goes up to £ 14.00 (€ 16.50). The system uses cameras to recognise number plates.

Other UK cities including Manchester and Glasgow, for example, are currently considering implementing Low Emissions Zones.

Check before driving

This list is by no means exhaustive.  The whole domain of anti-pollution is evolving and it is worth checking the local authority regulations for any major European city before sending fleet drivers there.

To summarise, there are different objectives in mind for low emission zones.

1. To improve the quality of air
2. To decrease congestion
3. To protect historical architecture from exhaust-induced degradation.

This trend is only going in one direction. With more and more cities choosing to introduce low emission zones, the choice of powertrain will drastically impact on the mobility options of your job need drivers. Your fleet strategy has to be robust and ready for these changes ahead.

Are you ready?

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The Brussels low emission zone is just another example of legislation change that will impact your fleet. Your drivers could now face large fines for non compliance.

The Belgian capital’s new LEZ covers the entire metropolitan area with its 19 municipalities. All European vehicle owners must first be registered in the municipal database before entering the zone.

Antwerp’s LEZ has been in place since February 2017 and requires drivers to register before entering the area. However, different zones in Belgium have different regulations, with each city/municipality carrying out vehicle registration separately.

The Belgian LEZ website states that, “For foreign vehicles it is very difficult to comply with all these regulations, as the registration is carried out separately for each city and LEZ and it cannot be transferred. However, in case of non-compliance, they would most likely face high fines.”

The LEZs are intended to reduce the number of older, more polluting vehicles, which will be excluded from traffic around cities. However, initially the new Brussels LEZ will only affect Belgian citizens, with foreigners needing to register after “summer 2018”.

Travellers to Belgium have been advised to keep themselves informed via the website: www.lez-belgium.be. The website provides information on all existing and planned Belgian low emission zones.

The website adds that, “If, after the registration in a specific LEZ a vehicle fails to comply with the corresponding EURO emission standards and for this reason is not permitted to enter the zone, it is possible to purchase an additional environmental ticket under certain conditions.

“Due to the diverse regulations and specifications for the EURO emission standards in the respective city/municipality and their LEZ, different entry restrictions for different vehicle types can be applied to the multiple LEZ zones in Belgium.”

In 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2025 the entry restrictions to the LEZ for diesel vehicles will be further tightened, divided into four stages. In 2019 and 2025, this will also be applied to petrol vehicles in two stages.

The registration procedure for the low emission zone and all access regulations can be consulted at www.lez-belgium.be

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