OK this has proberley been done to death but its my understanding that if you go into london in the operational times you must use the excluded road network and if you need to deviate off the excluded network you must be registered and have the route confirmed as suitable , and use the excluded network as much as possible , is my understanding correct ?
bjd:
OK this has proberley been done to death but its my understanding that if you go into london in the operational times you must use the excluded road network and if you need to deviate off the excluded network you must be registered and have the route confirmed as suitable , and use the excluded network as much as possible , is my understanding correct ?
Google is your friend☺
Yes, you must be registered, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through, TFL will ask for details of the places you need to visit in the exclusion zone, want to know why you cannot deliver there during “normal hours” etc. If you just need to go into it once, then make an online application for exemption the day before, you get a 14 day (IIRC) temporary exemption while they investigate it.
Cheers i thought that was the case
You can still be fined even with a permit, heading straight to your destination if there is a route to it that isn’t part of the lorry ban.
An example my ex employer fell foul of more than once (mostly by the same driver) is going past Earls Court, along the embankment and over Vauxhall Bridge to get to say Arments pie and mash shop off Camberwell Rd. We could do it without issue if we delivered to Maroosh first near Earls Court but if this customer wasn’t on you had to go via Kew Bridge and up the A3 towards Kennington. I think the driver in question where I worked racked up fines of £500 per time. I gave up explaining the route and reason after the second time. 
TfL are that ■■■■ that they will send you on a 20 mile round-robin because their route is 100 yards shorter in the banned zone than yours is.
I have a permit, but still got a pcn for being clocked on the A2 at old kent road at 5.30 am delivering a container to the south bank outside Boris office, when asked, why, I explained that Boris office themselves said it had to be delivered between 06.00 and 08.00 duh!
It was rescinded by the way
Sapper
Perhaps the entire system would work better if anyone with a yard to go to or delivery to make IN THAT DISTRICT of London - is automatically authorized to go there… Outside of that district, the main roads must be stuck to as before.
I often get told that I can’t deliver to Old Kent Road by going along the A2 Shooters hill road. I have to come in via the A23 which takes over an hour each way longer FFS.
Now that I’m salaried, I’d refuse to do such a daft thing any more.
Paid by the hour though - if the boss says “waste an hour each way on your trips to London” - then that’s what this guy will do of course! 