History

Background History

The Greater London (Restriction of Goods Vehicles) Traffic Order applies in all 32 London boroughs and the City of London and includes many TfL roads. It allows for the control of heavy goods vehicle movement at night and at week-ends: 9pm to 7am every night, Monday evening to Saturday morning. Then from 1pm Saturday, through the whole of Sunday, to 7am again on Monday. These are the prescribed hours. Currently, 30 of the boroughs allow London Councils to enforce it on their roads.

The Traffic Order is designed to ensure that goods vehicles above 18 tonnes cannot use the restricted roads controlled by the Order, during the prescribed hours, without a permit. However, it specifies a network of, usually, main roads and access roads to industrial estates that are excluded from the Order. This is commonly referred to as the Excluded Route Network (ERN). During the prescribed hours, to be compliant, goods vehicles with a permit must make maximum use of the ERN for their journey and only the shortest possible use of non-ERN roads. Those hauliers without a permit cannot use non-ERN roads at all.

Decriminalised enforcement started in April 2004. From that point on the haulier and the driver no longer faced criminal prosecution, as under a decriminalised regime they now receive Penalty Charge Notices (PCN).

The penalty charge for a haulier is £500 with a discount of £250 for prompt payment. The penalty for a driver is £100 with a discount of £50 for prompt payment.

As with a parking penalty charge the recipient can make a representation and thereby challenge it. Should the initial representation be rejected they can then appeal their case to the adjudicators at the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS).

The permit system did not change with the introduction of decriminalised enforcement. Hauliers whose vehicles are over 18 tonnes and want to travel off the ERN must have a permit. They can apply to London Councils for a permit but will only receive one if it is actually needed: vehicles that can make the complete London element of the journey on the ERN, or are less than 18 tonnes, are advised that a permit is not required.

The Lorry Control Scheme is often, mistakenly, referred to as the lorry ban. It is no such thing as any vehicle can make a journey that is compliant with the Traffic Order and the scheme serves to manage the environmental impact of those journeys. Hauliers may feel they encounter a ban because of the loading and unloading restrictions imposed by a local council at the journey destination as a condition of planning permission. These can be quite stringent at night and in the early morning. London Councils has no influence over how and where these, often location specific, regulations are implemented.