From the Times
The government is considering a range of measures to reduce the damaging impact of the e-commerce boom, which has led to a rise in delivery vans on British roads.
It said that the introduction of free and next-day delivery deals had led to “unnecessary over-ordering”, with some people immediately sending back clothes they no longer wanted free of charge. Mandatory charges may be needed to “encourage more sustainable behaviour”, ministers were told.
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The way to deal with congestion and emissions is fuel duty should be higher.
Which would, of course, increase home shopping.
They didn't think that one through, did they. Idiots.
Without a doubt, this gov't initiative is designed to protect people doing business the old way from people doing business a new way. Pollution? you're right, more delivery trucks means fewer shoppers' cars; either way, the stuff has to go from warehouse to home. (What kind of tax will they propose when an electric drone drops it in your garden?) Sustainable behavior? that could mean anything. "Sustaining" bricks-and-mortar shops means putting the human race in stasis.
As per usual so called Green motives are being used to increase taxes by implementing policies that aren't in the least bit Green.
‘Internet shoppers could be hit by a compulsory delivery charge as part of a campaign to cut congestion and toxic emissions... ‘
Hold on there. What ‘toxic’ emissions? Exhaust catalytic converters and lead-free fuel got rid of toxic emissions. Of course they mean CO2 which is not toxic - we know this because we produce it in our body cells and have it in our lungs all the time.
More delivery vans does not mean congestion if there is enough road space, and has been pointed out, fewer other vehicles as a result.
But interesting isn’t it. Urging a return to doorstep deliveries of milk in glass bottle which will mean more delivery vans on the roads is a big ‘thumbs up’. The fact that the glass bottles will make a number of journeys on the roads more than cartons or plastic in supermarkets, from bottle maker to filling facility, to consumer then back to filling plant and cause more ‘toxic’ emissions in cleaning and sterilising, is not of consequence.
Climatism is a religion. We need a pogrom.
Progressives are actively waging war on the working class which they do by targeting their employers for extinction through regulation or minimum wage increases and by driving home prices out of reach while enriching themselves. Perhaps they envision allowing a small army of lawn mowers and house cleaners living in subsidized, dense affordable housing located in crummy areas within driving distance. The results of these policies are particularly observable in the US as evidenced by the migration of so many people away from progressive blue states to "less progressive" red states.
Every now and then someone comes along such as Amazon or Uber and bada bing, lots of these people whose jobs may have been destroyed are suddenly working. Now you have another industry to target for destruction because it enables the wrong sort of people to remain in your town and hang on a little longer. Pollution has little to do with it.
But internet shops are discriminated against because they have to deliver, whereas high-street shops dodge the issue by making the customer carry it home.
So there should be a levy on high-street shops to subsidise the delivery costs of online retailers. :)
Oh but we have to "set the market up" and create the right incentives, to quote Tim elsewhere.