Join the queue for truck trap grants
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Ilk by Dominic Perry
The £30m earmarked by the government for retrofitting particulate traps to vehicles is expected to be administered by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) as an extension of its 'Clean Up scheme.
'Clean Up' will effectively cease to fund retrofits on trucks other than refuse vehicles, instead concentrating on adding particulate traps to taxis and buses.
The £30m will be delivered over two years and will be applied on a first-comefirst-served basis from April. Only vehicles spending time in any of the nine current Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) will qualify for the funding.
As with 'Clean Up' only English hauliers will he eligible for the cash; Welsh. Scottish and Northern Irish operators will have to wait and see what their devolved authorities decide to do with their share of the £19m promised by the Chancellor.
Under the provisions of the scheme operators will be able to claim up to 75% of the cost of particulate traps. Taken alongside the annual VED rebate, this could mean a trap costs as little as £250 to fit.
David Lemon of the EST hopes to see both small and large companies taking advantage of the scheme. Most hauliers will struggle not to qualify," he adds.
John Bridge, national chair man of the Road Haulage Association, has welcomed the scheme. It gives the majority of operators the opportunity to take advantage of cleaner technology and think positively about cleaner and better trucks, he says.
Lemon adds that the final details of the scheme are still being thrashed out and await ministerial approval. Two types of particulate trap are currently on the market—the Eminax/Johnson Matthey CRT and the Dinex/Engelhard DPX.