Due to an adjustment in the rules for emission-free zones, some diesel commercial vehicles will soon be welcome in inner cities for a year longer. The cabinet allows it until January 1, 2029 instead of 2028.
Entrepreneurs who have a fairly clean diesel company car can make use of this relaxed rule, State Secretary Chris Jansen of the Environment announced. He wants to sit down with municipalities in the near future to discuss not fining those diesel buses for a year. These will probably not always be cheerful conversations: many municipalities are not happy about the relaxation. They say they want to introduce the plans unchanged.
Zero-emission zones are far from being emission-free
Many municipalities plan to ban the most polluting diesel buses and diesel trucks from the city center as of January 1, 2025, but due to the transitional arrangement, the zero-emission zones will only become truly emission-free by 2030. Then no van that emits CO2 is welcome anymore.
The reason for the House of Representatives to relax the rule from 2028 to 2029 is because it is concerned about entrepreneurs who have to work in these zero-emission zones. As a result, there is now an exception for about half of these vehicles, which is around 500,000, says CBS (via NOS).
Entrepreneurs disadvantaged
The municipalities don’t like it, because it penalizes entrepreneurs who have bought a new car specifically because of this legislation or who have taken the trouble to apply for an exemption. It will be a difficult issue: the State Secretary has the power to arrange a postponement, but he needs municipalities to stop the fines. So that’s a good reason to have a good conversation with each other.
There are fourteen municipalities where emission-free zones for trucks and vans will apply from January 1. These are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Nijmegen, Amersfoort, Zwolle, Leiden, Maastricht, Delft, Gouda and Assen.
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Source: www.bright.nl
