Almost a quarter of delivery vans will no longer be allowed to enter all city centers next year

NOS News•today, 01:33

From next year, almost a quarter of all delivery vans will no longer be allowed to enter a large number of Dutch cities because they are too polluting. CBS has calculated this.

Vans that emit CO2 will be phased out of (inner) cities from January 1, 2025, unless they receive an exemption or exemption. These are vehicles that fall into emission class 4 or lower (the lower the number, the more a car emits).

On January 1 of this year, 228,000 vans were registered that fell into the polluting category. The share of vans with a low emission class is decreasing, according to Statistics Netherlands. In 2020, 39 percent of all vans still had an emission label of 4 or lower.

Especially in public administration, such as municipalities or the police, and in agriculture, forestry and fishing, companies or governments often had a ‘polluting’ van. Compared to companies in other sectors, they also have a relatively large number of delivery vans, according to Statistics Netherlands. Construction companies had the fewest delivery vans that could be affected by the zero-emission zones.

Municipalities are taking this measure to improve air quality in city centers and accelerate the energy transition in freight transport. Deventer has proportionately the most ‘dirty’ vans, The Hague has the least.

Nieuwsuur previously noted that the new emission rules do not lead to more sales of electric cars. In fact, sales of diesel vans have appeared to be on the rise in recent months, while sales of electric alternatives remain low.