FTA: Exclude ?essential? goods vehicles from London congestion charge

FTA: Exclude ôessentialö goods vehicles from London congestion charge The United Kingdom's Freight Transport Association said the western extension to London's congestion charge launched today won't improve journey times and will result in a substantial cost increase to the capital city's industry.
   The FTA said the original congestion scheme launched in early 2003 has only been of marginal benefit and doesn't compensate for costs that the association estimates run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
   The British shippers and logistics providers' association also reiterated its call for all goods vehicles to be excluded from the scheme.
   'Goods vehicles come into the charge zone because they have no choice,' said Gordon Telling, the FTA's head of policy for London. 'Shops, offices, restaurants, pubs and every other commercial establishment all have to be served. Without the goods vehicle they could not function and nor could London. There are no alternatives — you cannot deliver goods on the bus or on the tube.
   'Over the last four years London industry has had to suffer the increased costs of paying the congestion charge, all in the course of going about its essential work. Now the price goes up even further as the catchment zone widens,' Telling said.
   'Commercial vehicles are the lifeblood of London and should have been excluded from the scheme from the very beginning in the same way as buses and taxis.
   'Why is it that the movement of those essential vehicles to transport people is recognized whilst the movement of vans and lorries, obviously equally essential to transport goods, is not?' Telling said.