ULEV / congestion charge free to use but chargeable due to registration requirements?

[Mr Gus]

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/conges ... exemptions

Let me get this straight, "NEW" green car registration plates, pre-existing cameras that read your right to exemption from the congestion charge (till 2025)
BUT you have to register that exemption for what is currently £10 a year to be valid?

Isn't that the point of all those damned camera's logging everything?

The cameras check a database v5 presumably stating emissions, ownership & all those details. but now its not enough apparently?

So why exactly the no doubt expensive to roll out but simple in reality green tab that was heralded as benefits for green vehicles?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/road ... n-uk-roads

Wife may as well just let work pay for her trains to the London office.

Rinse us for more easy cash why don't you government.

Still no update on the implementation of new house builds with a driveway having to fit an ev charger (within the same bit of government paperwork in 2019)

[nowty]

SWMBO got a fine a few weeks ago whilst visiting her daughter in Pimlico and driving our EV. Its outside of the congestion zone but very close to it and she inadvertently crossed into it for literally about 100m before moving out of it again.

Problem was she did not know she had done this, nor even knew what a congestion zone is, therefore I was never told about it until I received the £160 fine. Otherwise I would have paid the £15 charge within the 3 days of her breaching the zone. Its £80 if you pay within a couple of weeks, but when I received the fine, I literally only had 2 days left to pay the lower £80 fine.

[Stinsy]

It is almost as if the small section within the zone was designed so that people could stray in without noticing. And it is almost as if the system is designed to fine people even if their cars are exempt, because they haven’t filled in a form and paid a fee to “validate” the exemption.

[Mr Gus]

I'll ask, how many folk here from OUTSIDE of London who drive an EV have considered driving down & parking because train tickets for multiples add up quickly but don't know about the tenner cost to certify exemption?

[Mr Gus]

SWMBO got a fine a few weeks ago whilst visiting her daughter in Pimlico and driving our EV. Its outside of the congestion zone but very close to it and she inadvertently crossed into it for literally about 100m before moving out of it again.

Problem was she did not know she had done this, nor even knew what a congestion zone is, therefore I was never told about it until I received the £160 fine. Otherwise I would have paid the £15 charge within the 3 days of her breaching the zone. Its £80 if you pay within a couple of weeks, but when I received the fine, I literally only had 2 days left to pay the lower £80 fine.

Nowty, that timeframe is surely reason to write a reply after posting the fine for purported breach?
I'm just looking at the process of initial registration

Here is the privacy policy for the exemption via £10 registration.
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/privacy-an ... r-charging

HERE are the expansion plans that kick in 21 Oct 2021
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra- ... -expansion (scroll down)

Going TO but not including the Norf & Sarf circular, a massive expansion, ie you have 4 months the jump the shark as it were & cogitate as to whom you visit & the use of the not free exemption utilising the same software as before*

This is the equivalent of the old dog license the govt abandoned on the claim of being too expensive to process, digital age will change a few more like that, follows the mantra of e-scooters being illegal "unless you are paying the firm that pays us"

(scroll down) https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra- ... e-and-when

[Mr Gus]

After reading up yesterday I registered for the £10 "free" exemption (looks due to change like so many incentives) & it might be handy for wifes london office.
It involved scanning & uploading the v5 verifying brand, model, fuel type (should that not read propulsion soon)?
The presumably nigh on fully automated process via TFL was crashtastic, & therefore took hours to complete.
I now await the up to 10 day process of advanced scrutiny (peering at a v5 image & tick box exercise)

Better safe than sorry, for management meetings on a whim, her firm was taken over by an investment group & they just don't know which way they are heading (so much for clever money)

[Stinsy]

After reading up yesterday I registered for the £10 "free" exemption (looks due to change like so many incentives) & it might be handy for wifes london office.
It involved scanning & uploading the v5 verifying brand, model, fuel type (should that not read propulsion soon)?
The presumably nigh on fully automated process via TFL was crashtastic, & therefore took hours to complete.
I now await the up to 10 day process of advanced scrutiny (peering at a v5 image & tick box exercise)

Better safe than sorry, for management meetings on a whim, her firm was taken over by an investment group & they just don't know which way they are heading (so much for clever money)

The interesting part is that they already know your car is an EV and therefore exempt. The entire farce is just process for the sake of process...

[Mr Gus]

Yup, I'm counting the days till it is completed & then ask the phoneline exactly how / why it is done, ..note the responses & write to some feckless MP's & a few worth their salt.

[Mr Gus]

Got the "exemption" verification this morning via email.

Clearly it is glanced at by staff in a backroom & rubber stamped as matching your tfl account.
Because, a computer wouldn't change your name on the account (yup, they did).

Rather than go through their emailing proof to change the name back to the correct one I rang up, turns out there is an automatic £10 fee in place for processing ANY exemptions (apparently)

SO yeah, stealth tax.

Nowty, I explained briefly how your wife had been caught for a 30 second mistake & how she got out ASAP, + the lateness of your fine discount period turning up in the post, the lady I spoke to suggested you call & politely challenge it at this late date.