Ticket from Holland - what are the chances?
Ticket from Holland - what are the chances?
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vitesse2000

Original Poster:

369 posts

192 months

Friday 26th July 2019
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A pal and I decided to do a spontaneous 3 day road trip into Holland with the wives, for a bit of Blokarting (land yachting), Segwaying and stuff. Our chosen cars were my Stag and his TR3A.

My concern is this - we visited Rotterdam, and Amsterdam and have now found out that they have a ULEZ that is camera monitored. The thing is, and maybe someone on here may be able to tell me, is because both cars are over 40 years old, they are from what I can work out exempt under their Old Timers exemption.

However, although both cars are registered as Historic over here, would that count and be seen by their enforcement systems, or will I be expecting €95 per city per day fines (we stayed overnight) coming through the letterbox at some point?

The information that I can get from the web is so unclear I just have no clue...

Any ideas?

drdino

1,320 posts

171 months

Friday 26th July 2019
quotequote all
https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/traffic-transport/low-...

I don't see passenger cars affected but maybe it's not accurate. Where did you get your info from?

vitesse2000

Original Poster:

369 posts

192 months

Friday 26th July 2019
quotequote all
Amsterdam did seem clearer, but Rotterdam not.

All information I can find online is just ambiguous as regards to “old timers” and whether an exemption is in place only for Dutch registered vehicles.

Maybe I should just wait and see what drops through the letterbox in the fullness of time, but I would like to have an idea...

Nerdherder

1,773 posts

126 months

Friday 26th July 2019
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There will be no ticket, only diesels have been banned (unless special permit) so far.


"Access Requirements
The Rotterdam Environmental Zone applies to:

-Passenger and delivery vans with diesel fuel from before 01-01-2001
-Diesel-powered trucks that do not meet the Euro IV emissions standard"

Source: https://www.rotterdam.nl/wonen-leven/milieuzone/

P.s. I'm Dutch so I knew the search terms for this is 'milieuzone'.
Hope you've had an enjoyable experience in our boringly flat little country.

AlexiusG55

656 posts

185 months

Friday 26th July 2019
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From what I can find isn't Rotterdam's LEZ only for diesels?

Nerdherder

1,773 posts

126 months

Friday 26th July 2019
quotequote all
AlexiusG55 said:
From what I can find isn't Rotterdam's LEZ only for diesels?
Via the link I've posted. There's a 'translate' button present on the top right corner of the page if needed.

vitesse2000

Original Poster:

369 posts

192 months

Friday 26th July 2019
quotequote all
Nerdherder - you are a star!

That has put my mind at rest. I have to say that I loved your “boringly flat” country immensely, was made to feel most welcome by the natives, and look forward to driving through again.

Perhaps you may be able to tell me why petrol is so expensive in Holland, yet the diesel significantly cheaper when it is generally held now as Satan’s fuel? France was 30 to 40 cents per litre less for petrol and wondered if it was a taxation ploy to get drivers to go electric?

Nerdherder

1,773 posts

126 months

Friday 26th July 2019
quotequote all
vitesse2000 said:
Nerdherder - you are a star!

That has put my mind at rest. I have to say that I loved your “boringly flat” country immensely, was made to feel most welcome by the natives, and look forward to driving through again.

Perhaps you may be able to tell me why petrol is so expensive in Holland, yet the diesel significantly cheaper when it is generally held now as Satan’s fuel? France was 30 to 40 cents per litre less for petrol and wondered if it was a taxation ploy to get drivers to go electric?
beer Good to hear you've had a pleasant experience.
Fuel prices and in particular petrol are indeed a lot higher than in surrounding countries. Only reason is because of govt taxation, which they do because they can. Nobody seems to care enough, so no protests. Last time any form of protest happened was truckers in 2009 iirc.

Some observations surrounding this behaviour:
1. I live quite near the Belgian border where fuel is always quite a bit cheaper, however only a small percentage of the population here bothers to drive just a few miles to save themselves some money. I also don't to be honest and sometimes fill up with 102 octane, so yeah, cost..
2. A lot of people drive company lease including tank cards, so fuel price is a distant cost.
3. Public Transport is quite good, with affordable subscriptions (single fare not so much). Also roads in the 'Randstad' area (see below picture) are quite congested and our country especially aroung thaty area denselly populated. So Public Transport becomes a good mode of transportation to a lot of people. I'm traveling from down south into Amsterdam three days a week for instance, saves me about an hour in pure commute time a day and I can get some work done on the train or spam interesting forums like these.

On EV: The reason you see a lot of EV on the road here is that the govt heavily subsidized EV by cutting tax back substantially for company lease drivers. After the lease ends most of the Tesla's get exported to Belgium. This tax cut ended a while ago, and EV sales dropped accordingly. Still an attractive proposition for business owners though.

The Randstad:


Edited by Nerdherder on Friday 26th July 14:19

Medic-one

3,143 posts

232 months

Friday 26th July 2019
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If you do get any post from Holland and need help translating Dutch to English feel free to PM me wink

vitesse2000

Original Poster:

369 posts

192 months

Friday 26th July 2019
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Thanks for that Medic One, and to you Nerdherder for that interesting bit of Dutch history

Vaud

59,497 posts

184 months

Friday 26th July 2019
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Nerdherder said:
Hope you've had an enjoyable experience in our boringly flat little country.
I like your boringly flat little country.

Sometimes I have to work in Utrecht which as cities go is very pleasant (I prefer it to Amsterdam), and the public transport is excellent!