Glasgow cabbies handed low emissions deadline

Glasgow taxi drivers have been given three years to make their vehicles more environmentally friendly and meet low emission zone targets.

Proposals to introduce a policy that requires taxi and private hire car drivers to meet these standards by 2022 were approved at Wednesday’s licensing meeting.

Within that time private hire cars will already be compatible with the low emission policy as vehicles can be no older than seven years old.

Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone came into effect last December and aims to reduce pollution levels and improve air quality in areas where standards are not being met. Drivers must not operate a vehicle which doesn’t meet a specified emission standard.

Plans to prevent taxis older than five-years-old driving around the city were also removed. Taxi drivers will be able to buy a car made between 2011 and 2015 and add new technology to improve efficiency.

But following public consultation the licensing committee agreed to make some adjustments to the proposals.

Steven Grant, secretary of Glasgow CAB Section, said: “We were looking at the prospect of buying Euro VI vehicles worth between £40,00 to £60,000 but still had a lot of technological problems.

“This allows us to retrofit younger vehicles and bring them up to standard while improving the age profile of the fleet.

“These steps will lead to significant reductions in emissions at a lower cost. We will be able to replace vehicles with newer model and get it retrofitted for less than £30,000.

“We will be able to buy cars made between 2011 and 2015.

A good percentage of the fleet is almost 20 years old. They were bought in 2000 and are only Euro III. Those are the ones we are looking to replace first.”

Chairman of the licensing committee councillor Alex Wilson said he was happy with the outcome of the meeting.

He said: “I am delighted to pass a policy which goes a long way to meeting Glasgow’s emission strategy. Not only will this policy help the city but it will also go a long way to helping our taxi trade meet the council standards on emissions.

“I have listened to concerns from the taxi branch of Unite as well as Glasgow Taxis’ and the Scottish Taxi Federation and I am delighted we could incorporate their concerns into this policy.