The barriers to entry for fleets to embrace electric LCVs in order to help the government achieve their sustainability objectives continues to be overcome. Last month we’ve have had some significant movement regarding Driver licence requirements and the plug-in van grant scheme.
In February, the Department for Transport (DfT) put forward secondary legislation before Parliament concerning electric vans. This legislation includes increasing the weight limit for Category-B driver licence holders from 3.5-tonne to 4.25-tonne if it’s an electric van.
The DFT proposal also included the extension of the Plug-in Van Grant scheme.
Secondary legislation allows government ministers to make changes to the law under powers granted by an Act of Parliament. This type of legislation is typically used to provide detailed provisions needed to effectively implement primary legislation.
The newly laid secondary legislation proposes to remove the need for drivers to have Class1 for operating 4.25-tonne electric vans which sensibly negates the requirement to have the additional training, medical examinations and vehicle tachographs associated for vehicles weighing over 3.5 tonnes.
In addition, the DfT’s secondary legislation has extended the Plug-in Van Grant scheme which provides financial incentives for businesses to purchase new, low-emission vans. The grants are £2,500 when buying small electric van up to 2.5 tonnes and up to £5,000 for larger electric vans up to 4.25 tonnes.
Andrew Holgate, Jaama CEO commented that “It’s great to see that the government is listening to the industry, being pragmatic with their approach to regulations and providing financial incentives to support the on-boarding of EVs, especially when OEMs have a 2025 target to meet of 16% of new LCVs sold being electric. This is great news for our Fleet management software and licence checking customers”