Government to ban Diesel engines?

Can the Government be driven to ban Diesel engines vehicles in London?

So on first thoughts I did think that this was some form of joke, alas April Fools was 8 months ago, so it was not that. But it transpires that Doctors are calling for a ban on Diesel engines in London as, it is claimed, 9,400 people die in the UK capital as a result of the pollution.

Other cities around the world are aiming for a ban on the are Paris, Athens and Mexico city by 2025.
This would be a huge shift and in the bigger scheme of things would create chaos.

The main issue is really overcrowding of the road infrastructure that is causing vehicles to remain stationary for long periods of time. The arteries of the capital have essentially become clogged up!
So the action is to ban the diesel engine!

Well how do we expect the commuters to London, who don't like the train, get to work. Oh they can use petrol cars. Well that sounds great initially but nigh on impossible to do due to our reliance on the diesel engine with it being fitted in almost 50% of cars now on the roads being diesels.

But let me get one point, out of the way first.....

So the government is going to tax a person for buying a car, tax them on the fuel, tax them for driving it, tax them for insuring it but then say 'oh but you can't drive it to work as its banned', sounds almost like fraud/theft to me.

Also how do you then figure out the commercial vehicles such as large vans, lorries and tractor units? There are practical reasons for these being diesel engines due to their performance characteristics so there would need to be some exemptions. This would in my mind create a mine field of issues due to types of vehicles, engine sizes, usage.

Here is an example.

Sales Director of Best Haulage company. His vehicle is an Audi A6 3.0TDI Estate

Is he exempt? His company would easily meet a criteria of exemption if it were done at company level and his car is a 'company' car.

Ok so he can't be exempt as he is using his car? But if he is using his car for transporting items, albeit it is unlikely, for a client where it would be impractical to use a larger vehicle what happens then? The car is more than able to transport a larger boxed item. You see where I am going with this?

Diesel vehicles will become more expensive and their used prices will nose dive, what is the point of having a vehicle that will be banned in most cities.

There is an easier solution to this if they wish to quickly cut the emissions and that is to work from home. I am sure there are thousands of individuals that can easily conduct their day to day business from the comfort of their living room, essentially that is what I am doing right now! I've conducted meeting via conference calls across the world in my careers all of which has reduced the need for travel.

Now if you have got to this stage and your blood is boiling as you agree that there should be a reduction or ban on vehicles such as diesel I am about to throw a spanner at you. I think all fosil fuel driven vehicles should be phased out.

You see by implementing a ban carries bad feelings. It is restricting the right to free movement in the mode of transport you wish. However if you were to have a gradual transition over to greener technologies, incentives for doing so, drive volumes which in turn reduce pricing this would be good thing. If we recall there was a scrapage incentive for older cars for a new one. Why can't this be implemented for all electric vehicles?

Advancing technology assisting Couriers in every day life.

In a world that almost everything is connected Couriers and haulage companies have adapted the way they operate in such a way that the end customer has benefited hugley.

I see this as being broken down into a few key items.

SatNav units

Now I will admit that I have actually no clue to where I am going most of the time when out driving. I have even been known to get in a muddle with Sat Nav units which has caused numerous arguments. However I will admit they are brilliant and as long as the developers who create the software that runs them they can improve the way packages are transported around the country. The beauty with the Sat Nav systems now is that they can also optimise the route as you drive, thus avoiding traffic jams, accidents and general slow down in traffic.

My personal favourite is Google Navigation. Getting the in flight option to take a faster route and updates about issues ahead is in my eyes brilliant. The two other providers out there are Garmin and TomTom, both of which I have had previously and have served me well.

Live Proof of Delivery.

In the days of old it was very much required that you had a number of different pieces of paper to be signed to say that an item has been delievered. With the advent of technology this has allowed signatures to be captured upon delivery and virtually as soon as the button is pressed to complete delivery a notification is sent to the the customer and/or client in some cases. This is a brilliant piece of technology in that it allows quicker payment as lost paperwork in the past has meant delays in being paid.

Online booking. As technology has evolved it has been become quicker and easier to book a courier online. We now only have to enter, here in the UK, a postcode and house number and most online booking forms will complete the rest of the address in accordance to the Royal Mail postcode database.

For me Amazon has made booking a item to be delivered via their fleet of couriers very easy and this is how it should be. What's more the customer can now see the full operational transaction taking place with their package. The tracking of a package from initial collection, transportation to the transfer hub and then out for delivery is now becoming the norm. Courier companies are seeing the benefits of allowing customers to view this as it, unless told differently, reduces the number of calls. It also gives great piece of mind when seeing this. In the fast paced world of Same Day couriers this defiantly expected.

What does the future hold in this. Well as we are essentially tracked now where ever we go I would see 'dynamic' deliveries, small parcels initially, where the courier is dynamically updated upon your whereabouts so as to time their delivery so you are never out when they call. Image all that paper and fuel being saved!

Driverless vehicles are on their way

Driverless vehicles? Years ago this would have seemed very futuristic to have vehicles that can indeed drive themselves. However it is now becoming reality. Google and Tesla are dominating at present but it appears that Samsung are now in the race with an $8bn purchase! Pocket change eh? Being a fan of technology you may think that I would be totally up for this type of advancement. However I have reservations that I think that most of us agree with. 1. Security We have heard how successful hackers can be recently and that they can strike even the most secure of establishments, FBI, NASA, CIA and ermmm Hilary Clinton? With a driverless vehicle there will be millions of lines of code written in to enable it to function all of which has to work all of the time, every time in real-time. Now without going into too much detail how code is written all code that is written can have bugs. In some cases bugs can be harmless, much like the real world, however other bugs can be deadly whilst others can just leave you weak. It is the latter point of weakness that is the concern with security. Should a bug be within code that gives weakness to a key piece of security protecting external access there is always the risk that hackers can try to exploit this. I see hackers as two sets of people 1) mischievous type who may hack the vehicle who may set the horn to honk whilst indicating left or 2) evil hacker who may disable your braking system when you reach 60mph. Hacker 1 is generally ok to deal with but hacker 2 is going to make you suffer badly. 2. Your life is not in your hands So several million lines of code does not write itself. There are large teams of software developers of whom are which are very smart individuals however as humans we make mistakes. There are however multiple checks that are put in place to help avoid mistakes creeping in, again a bug. It was not all that long ago where Telsa unfortunately had one of their customers die in an accident where the auto pilot software did not recognise a white truck against a bright white back ground. Was this a bug? It is difficult to categorise this as a bug but it highlights the difficulty that the software engineers face when trying to cover all eventualities. I am sure as time moves on the concerns about security shall reduce to a point that it will be practically impossible to hack a vehicle. Also it will come about that ALL possible sequences will be coded so no matter what happens the software will take the best and course of action. The problem with the last part I feel is extremely difficult to solve, for example, how do you code a car to take the choice of colliding with say a group of pedestrians to avoid injury to the driver? As a human this itself will be a difficult choice to make however if you had to make this choice at least you know you made it. Also it goes without saying that we all see every day people making crazy choices when driving to which there appears to be no thought process at all. To me for now, I am happy with having to make my decision on which way my car will turn.

Using mobile phones or devices when driving

The use of mobile phones in vehicles has come to the forefront of our minds again with the unnecessary deaths of four people. On the 10th August 2016. HGV driver Tomasz Kroker drove his vehicle into the poor family's car at 50mph whilst search music on his mobile phone. Video footage that has has been released shows the terrfiying moment when Tomasz Kroker came to relalise that he was about to plough into stationary traffic. Initially Mr Kroker claimed that his brakes on his vehicle failed. In reality he had driven his lorry for almost 1km without paying any attention to the road in front of him. The use of using a mobile device has been illegal for sometime now which currently carries a penalty of 3 points on your licence and a £100 fine. This for most of us is more than enough to make us steer clear of using a phone whilst being the driver of a vehicle but still the a large majority of people are still flauting the law. The case above demonstrates just how deadly using a mobile device can be. It is not without any surprise that the penalties for using a mobile phone behind the wheel are currently being reviewed which could mean harsher penalties for those caught. Alas the regardless of what laws are past they will not bring the loved ones that have been tragically taken before their time. Many years ago I got into a pretty heated argument with a sales director with regards to the use of a mobile phone. It all started because of a 3 hour journey to and from our main client. So 6 hours spent driving, which is normal for some drivers, was enough to contend with however the clash came when I was back in the office and was asked how many calls I had made whilst driving. I said none as I was driving. To my astonishment he released a torrent of rage as he believed I had wasted 6 hours without calling and speaking to other clients! Now I am sure that many of employees have felt pressured, like I was, into making and taking calls whilst driving however the response should be the same in that you should not do it. How did I counter it? 1. Remind the individual that that using a mobile phone is an offence whilst driving, note a hands-free kit whilst may be potentially acceptable can be used against you if you are involved in an accident and if proven you were distracted your liable to be dealt with in the same manner as if you had been holding the phone. 2. The directors of a company are responsible for their employees health and safety. By being demanded that you take or make calls whilst driving you are not only automatically committing offence and also putting yourself at risk of an accident. The above worked for me and needless to say the tone of the conversation changed in my favour. In the world we are today there are pressures to be in contact all the time, Facebook, Snapchat, Whatssapp, Skype.....the list goes on. However all of these are really meant for when you are not in control of a vehicle that is ultimatley a piloted killing machine in the wrong hands. In summary it is best to leave the mobile off as it is the safest way.