For many employers Health & Safety is an irritating list of ticks in the political correctness box. However having spent the last five years providing consultation to our clients on this subject in relation to driving at work I have come to realise that this really is a life and death matter of huge importance. Marshall Leasing has gone on to provide a comprehensive package of solutions which cover every aspect of the H&S agenda.

Now it is the turn of the environment and I have to say that the prospect of attacks on my freedom of movement and choices by way of taxation leaves me in somewhat of a quandary.

I can appreciate that it is hard to change habits on a voluntary basis and so legislation might be the blunt tool that forces us to re-think our ways. But I am also highly sceptical of a government that has few green credentials and is always looking for another tax take. The motorist is an easy target. If the tax raised from VED was spent entirely on the infrastructure, or if we saw a sensibly thought through consistent policy which took into account advice from organisations such as the BVRLA then I might be less questioning of the motivation behind motoring related tax.

How for example has the ‘congestion charge’ now become the ‘emission charge’, surely the lifting of a levy for vehicles with less than 120g/km is a shift in favour of people driving in London?

A mix of cars that fall outside the congestion zone charge:

BMW 118 d - £323.58
Toyota Prius - £305.55
Fiesta 1.4 tdci - £216.47
Panda 1.3 multi jet - £159.18

Our rentals based on three years 36,000 miles with maintenance.

Emission/Congestion charge on its way to your town soon!

Traditionally the UK governments answer to most things is legislation (ban it). Duty of care was perfect for this sort of approach, but the green problem is too emotive and complicated to tackle in this way.
This government seems to have something for everyone, and this perhaps underlines the lack of consistency in their approach. Caught between a desire to use vehicles as a tax generator, the desire to appeal to our environmental sensibilities, an infrastructure that offers little if any flexibility, a confusion over whether alternative fuels actually will secure a cleaner world, and add in the tug of war between the fight against congestion and the need for people to be mobile and you begin to see why the green issue is far harder than duty of care to manage.

At a recent Green Fleet event a government minister wanted to encourage the development of cutting edge technology.

“Tackling carbon emissions from transport remains a challenging issue.”

“For the sake of generations to come we need to research, develop and rapidly adopt low carbon transport technologies”. The minister highlighted the fact that a number of local authorities across the county were already looking at how they can use biomethane in their fleets. Sheffield City Council is trialling electric vehicles within their local authority fleet.

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