Capita bags £355m deal to deliver Transport for London's expanded pollution and congestion zones

Capita has scooped £355m in contacts from Transport for London (TfL) to manage London's Congestion Charge, Low Emissions Zone (LEZ), and Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) for the next five years.

The British outsourcing firm revealed today it had secured a five-year extension to its existing contract with TfL that will see it manage the expansion of the ULEZ pollution charging scheme from an area in central London to a zone 18 times the size.

TfL intends to push the boundaries of London's ULEZ zone to the North and South Circular roads in October 2021, in a bid to deter the most polluting vehicles from entering much of London.

Capita said it expects to recruit and train 900 staff to work on the new contracts, the majority of whom will be encouraged to work from home.

"Working with Transport for London, we will roll out new, expanded programmes that reduce the effects of air pollution on Londoners and make the streets safer for all road users and pedestrians," John Lewis, Capita's chief executive officer said.

The work, he added, would draw on the firm's "track record of transformation and digitally enabled services, as well as adding value for our shareholders."

Under the deal, Capita said it will also be running the registration and monitoring service for a new Direct Vision Standard (DVS) scheme for heavy goods vehicles (HGV) geared at reducing the number of pedestrian, cyclist, and motorcyclist accidents in London.

And it will migrate all the technology used to operate the Congestion Charge, LEZ, and ULEZ to the Cloud, in a bid to make operations more flexible and scalable.

Helen Chapman, TfL's director for licensing, regulation, and charging, said the Congestion Charge and ULEZ were "vital" to cleaning up London's air, encouraging sustainable travel choices, and making London's roads safer.

"The expansion of the ULEZ to the North and South Circular will be transformational, reducing road transport nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by around 30 per cent and improving air quality for millions of Londoners," she said.

While the existing ULEZ zone piggybacked on cameras already installed to manage the Congestion Charge, 750 additional cameras will need to be installed to monitor the expanded ULEZ zone, TfL said last week.

London's ULEZ, introduced in April 2019, is the centrepiece of a range of measures Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has implemented over his tenure to tackle London's air pollution.

The scheme, which currently covers the same area as the Congestion Charge Zone, has reduced NOX emissions from vehicle exhaust by up to 45 per cent while reducing roadside nitrous dioxide (NO2) within the central London ULEZ zone by up to 44 per cent, according to TfL.

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• Topics
• Automotive
• Transport
• Management
• ULEZ
• Transport for London
• Capita
• TfL
• London
• air quality