Diesel vehicle owners working in or passing through Greater Manachester need to read this…

The Government has instructed Greater Manchester to introduce a ‘clean air zone‘ in the city-region to help tackle air pollution.

Light goods vehicles, minibuses, heavy goods vehicles, taxis, private hire vehicles, buses and coaches are all included.

All having to pay daily charges to use any of Greater Manchester’s roads which are not motorways or trunk routes.

This is every council area in Greater Manchester:

✔ Bury
✔ Bolton
✔ Rochdale
✔ Wigan
✔ Salford
✔ Manchester
✔ Oldham
✔ Tameside
✔ Trafford
✔ Stockport

Automatic number plate recognition will be used and the daily charges will vary from £7.50 for taxis to £60 for buses and HGVs.

There is also a sliding scale for when the charges will be introduced for each type of vehicle, ranging from next May to June 2023.

Private cars are not yet included in the scheme, but older petrol van’s and taxis are included.

It’s believed that this will hit tradesman and taxis’ hard, and they are least likely to understand or know anything about the scheme.

It’s said vans (pre 2017) will have to pay £10 a day from 2023, potentially costing trademan and delivery vehicles up to £70 a week.

Maybe it’s time for diesel van drivers and taxis’ to consider switching to electric in light of these changes, as you can now access up to £4.5k in grants towards the cost of a greener vehicle.

You’ll save up to £300 a month in clean air charges, whilst saving a packet in fuel costs, especially if you install a home charge point.

Home charge points are by far the cheapest way to charge an electric vehicle, whether it’s a car, taxi or van.

…costing circa £10 in electric charges for up to 300 miles of range.