12 September 2023 – London, UK
Following the chaos that ensued with the expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) roll out on 29 August, the car management app, Caura, urges local councils and authorities to look at education and technology of current and future city charges or risk further driver adversity.
The plea follows an independent poll, conducted by Caura in conjunction with YouGov the week before the ULEZ expansion roll out, which found that only 56 per cent of drivers knew what the ULEZ (original, launched in 2019 and enlarged area) was, with a shocking 81 per cent of those polled also unaware of what Euro Emissions Standard their vehicle was.
Thus highlighting the need for a robust plan for education and tested technology to keep up with the demand, Caura’s independent study shows that local councils and officials must do more to combat issues drivers are facing. Taking place on 29 August, drivers entering the expanded ULEZ area – which includes Greater London and the UK’s largest airport, London Heathrow – sought out information from the Transport for London (TfL) website, only to be met by server errors and queues to get to the homepage. However, as the crucial YouGov poll shows, it is because drivers do not have the knowledge or enough tools available to them to be clued up.
The YouGov survey, conducted the week preceding the London ULEZ expansion (22 – 24 August 2023), highlighted that just 56 per cent of respondents knew what the requirements to enter the ULEZ were i.e., Euro 4 and above petrol and Euro 6 and above diesel vehicles, and 81 per cent didn’t even know what Euro Emissions Standard their car was at all.
Looking further afield, outside of the UK’s Capital city, just 19 per cent of drivers polled felt they knew what the new, super stringent Oxford-based Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ) requirements were, to enter the city by car. Furthermore, just 29 per cent of those polled knew what the emissions requirements are for driving in a Clean Air Zone (CAZ), of which there are currently seven in separate areas – Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth, Newcastle and Gateshead, and Sheffield, with more councils looking to adopt this model.
Thanks to its easy-to-navigate interface, the Caura smartphone app enables drivers to manage their vehicle with a few taps, from paying city charges (like ULEZ and CAZ) to booking a service or maintenance through a garage of their choice. The poll also found that more than two in three drivers (66 per cent) would rather use an app to remind them to pay any charges in order to save fines. This particular result was surprising as 58 per cent of drivers aged 55 and older – an age group arguably more accustomed to traditional, non-digital methods – said they’d prefer to use an app like Caura to keep on top of driving charges.
Dr Sai Lakshmi, CEO & Founder of Caura, said: “On 29 August, the day the [ULEZ] expansion came into effect, TfL experienced a wave of hurdles after its website struggled to manage overwhelming traffic, leaving motorists stranded and unable to verify their vehicle’s eligibility for the latest set of regulations. Incidents like these highlights exactly why drivers in the UK require a streamlined and capable platform, that takes the stress out of maintaining and owning a car, which has already proved difficult with increasing environmental pressures.
“More worrying, the results from our study conducted by YouGov are shocking. This should be a wake-up call to drivers in the UK who aren’t embracing the benefit of technology to help make their lives easier. This is possible through using an app like ours [Caura] where it can not only tell you whether your car is subject to be charged for a range of city and emissions-based daily charges, but also pay for them in the same app, with just a couple of taps.”
With the ULEZ expansion now in full effect, there’s never been a better time to stay on top of your car’s well-being – Caura can help drivers in the UK achieve that.
Caura is a free-to-download app, available on iOS and Android.
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 4,247 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 22nd – 24th August 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).
