Final Mile express keynotes from DPD and CitySprint showcased the express sector to have green clean vision for the UK.

Olly Craughan DPD, ‘For typical lifespan of final mile vehicles on our fleets we find they are already compliant for CAZ.’ CitySprint went on to talk zero emission and electric .

Caroline Low (Department for Transport) opened, Bath CAZ is active, having launched on 15 March 2021. Birmingham CAZ launches in two weeks, (1st June).

First questions focused on national structure and national standards and charges for clean air zones.

How do operators deal with variations of compliance between clean air zones?

Can we focus on air quality compliance rather than vehicle age?

Will CAZs become ULEZs?

Can we get central knowledge of funding opportunity across different zones?

Fiona Moosavi-Jalal (Joint Air Quality Unit) , presented a look at Bath, ‘NO2 remains a big problem. So far 270 vehicles have been approved for finance assistance, BaNES are hoping to replace 1,700 vehicles if not more. Clean Air fund fleet support for Bath provides vans up to 4,500 pounds, up to 35% of the net upgrade costs. A soft start of no enforcement charge has been received positively, this has now ended. Measuring taxi and cab impact has been implicated by the lockdown. No cabs have returned their plates due to CAZs.

A look at Birmingham starting June 1st . Already approved 1,057 temporary exemptions. Portsmouth launches end of this year as a class B CAZ. Those to follow include, Bradford, Tyneside, Sheffield, Greater Manchester, Bristol and Liverpool.

Operator keynote by Olly Craughan DPD explained First Step Monitor and how DPD monitored vehicles, category ratings and compliance for use in the individual Clean Air Zones. ‘A large part of our vans are operated by owner drivers, their vehicle reg plates are looked at for compliance. For typical lifespan of final mile vehicles on our fleets we find they are already compliant for CAZ. Typically tractor units are younger than seven years, vans younger than 5 years. DPD has gone further with Project BREATHE to monitor air and report data to govt depts.

Operator keynote by Mark Footman CitySprint, ‘Going local for a greener future, we are the largest same day courier company in the UK, on an average day more than two thousand couriers will deliver for us from a group of three and a half thousand. We are committed to growing our green fleet, the majority of our fleet are self-employed owner drivers. They have control of their vehicles and choice of jobs. Drivers in the new Bath CAZ have moved over to their own compliant vehicles. We are working towards electric vans across all the CAZ cities and a change to our model with employed drivers in the EVs. We are also looking at electric cargo bikes as a key solution to clean air city locations. We look to support drivers with knowledge of the help on compliant conversion of vehicles from the individual CAZ areas. Density and workload in Birmingham is expected to be more substantial than Bath.