The London Low Emission Zone was introduced in 2008. The scheme covers most of Greater London and aims to improve air quality by encouraging owners to clean up exhaust emissions on the most polluting large diesel vehicles including buses, lorries and coaches.
Vehicles affected by the scheme must pay a daily charge to enter the low emissions zone unless they meet minimum exhaust emissions standards – Euro 3 as a minimum
Days run from midnight to midnight so if you go into the zone at 10pm and comes out at 2am you will be liable for two ‘day charges’ if your vehicle doesn’t meet the required emissions standard.
The Low Emission Zone operates 24hrs a day, 365 days a year and is enforced by cameras – vehicle number-plates are matched to vehicle specification data (from DVLA and other sources) together with details of vehicles registered directly with the scheme.
From 3 January 2012
If your refrigerated, fridge or freezer van has an unladen weight of more than 1.205 tonnes (and that is the vast majority of fridge vans) and was registered before January 2002 then it is highly unlikely to meet the required emissions standard. The Daily charge is at least £100 so you need to know now!
