£0 tax but full Ulez charge?!

IWantMyOwnGenie

Hi everyone
i have googled but can’t find a clear explanation why my car is road tax free yet is not ulez compliant! It’s a diesel. Now pure evil but at the time, the opposite and low emissions… which is why we pay no road tax. Does anyone understand this ulez thing because what I do understand is that the value of my car has plummeted since ulez came into force. And it makes no sense! 😭😭. Thank you 

daveyjp

VED and ULEZ are two separate things.

VED was once based on CO2 emissions.
ULEZ is based on NOX and particulates

If your car isn't a Euro 6 diesel (older than about 2015) it won't be ULEZ compliant, but its CO2 emissions will be low enough for zero VED.

forgotmyname

£30 tax (Diesel)  pay to enter the City where an older car was £180 tax (Petrol) and that is still free to enter the City.

The system is a mess, especially when some City's have lower limits.  Think I can drive into Portsmouth with my car
but nowhere local.

natlol

This has been irritating me as well. I pay 30 a year RFL yet my car is subject to the LEZ in Birmingham. If my car was a month newer it would still be the same car and engine but would not be subject to it. I suppose there has to be a cut off but it is annoying.

forgotmyname

I have a dirty diesel which gives far fewer miles per gallon than the previous model yet the RFL is £30 instead of £200+

Bath  -  No Charge
Bradford  -  No Charge
Portsmouth  -  No Charge

Manchester  -  No Charge  (under review)
Tyneside-Newcastle-gateshead  No Charge  (Winter 2022)
Sheffield  No Charge  (Early 2023)

Birmingham  £8
Bristol  £9  (November 2022)

Results from the clean air gov.uk website using my registration number.  Why is it not a fixed value for all Cities?

daveyjp

forgotmyname said:

I have a dirty diesel which gives far fewer miles per gallon than the previous model yet the RFL is £30 instead of £200+

Bath  -  No Charge
Bradford  -  No Charge
Portsmouth  -  No Charge

Manchester  -  No Charge  (under review)
Tyneside-Newcastle-gateshead  No Charge  (Winter 2022)
Sheffield  No Charge  (Early 2023)

Birmingham  £8
Bristol  £9  (November 2022)

Results from the clean air gov.uk website using my registration number.  Why is it not a fixed value for all Cities?

Its not fixed because each city has to have their clean air zones signed off by Government.  

Each city will take a different approach to the measures required to reduce NOX levels and charge accordingly based on the four CAZ categories:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/driving-in-a-clean-air-zone

[Deleted User]

natlol said:

This has been irritating me as well. I pay 30 a year RFL yet my car is subject to the LEZ in Birmingham. If my car was a month newer it would still be the same car and engine but would not be subject to it. I suppose there has to be a cut off but it is annoying.

It's worth checking with the DVLA, I had this with a Mazda 3 diesel with a 14 plate, the same engine, model etc sold in 2015 would be compliant. The issue here was that the Mazda was not recorded at all with the DVLA in terms of the data for the emissions, even though it was made to be compliant with Euro 6 before the standard came out. I spoke to DVLA to get it sorted and applied for a LEZ exemption as a worker in the city (though mainly to drive through for sport as I cycle to work) and about a week before it was active the council rejected my permit as the car was compliant.

Iceweasel

What is this RFL of which you speak?. Would that perchance be the tax that a certain W Churchill abolished in 1937?

Can we stop this delusion that the tax we pay for owning a car or other vehicle is spent exclusively on the roads.

"Ah - but you know what I mean" is a very poor response.

biscan25

I pay £330 a year VED on a 2003 petrol.
I pay zero ULEZ.
Does it make sense - No.

Some councils e.g. Lewisham and Southwark base parking charges on VED bands, so that's something.

Car_54

Iceweasel said:

What is this RFL of which you speak?. Would that perchance be the tax that a certain W Churchill abolished in 1937?

Can we stop this delusion that the tax we pay for owning a car or other vehicle is spent exclusively on the roads.

"Ah - but you know what I mean" is a very poor response.

Since we're going down the pedantry road, the Road Fund was actually abolished by Neville Chamberlain in 1936. Churchill started the process in 1926.

DrEskimo

biscan25 said:

I pay £330 a year VED on a 2003 petrol.
I pay zero ULEZ.
Does it make sense - No.

Some councils e.g. Lewisham and Southwark base parking charges on VED bands, so that's something.

It's been explained multiple times above.

Emissions is made up of many things.
VED is based on CO2, since it was a drive by the then current government to lower the amount of greenhouse gases contributed by transportation.
ULEZ is about improving air quality, therefore relates to NOx, and fine particulate matter.

A petrol typically has higher CO2, but lower particulates and NOx. Diesels vice versa.