Swiss Vignette - would it work here?

[johnnywb]

If you drive on the Swiss Motorways you have to buy a sticker for your windscreen. Not hugely expensive, about £25 or so from memory.

Now here's a thought, why don't we have a similar thing in the UK, only do it for all roads. We all pay road tax already, so why not collect £25 off every jonny foreigner who gets off the ferry? Valid for 12 months, could be a nice little earner?

[Pickled Piper]

You can't charge members of the European Community - Free movement of people goods and services etc. You'd have to make the non Eu drivers buy one at the port of entry so not impossible to implement.

Good idea, go for it.

pp

[Zod]

PP, Austria has the same vignette requirement as the Swiss and is a member of the EU.

[Silver993tt]

Zod said:

PP, Austria has the same vignette requirement as the Swiss and is a member of the EU.

correct and Germany has the "Umwelt Plakett" which is a one time charge for entering German city areas based on car emissions. It's cheap though, cost me €5 euros for mine. You'll see German cars with a round green/yellow/red sticker in the corner ofthe windscreen with a large number in the middle. Mine is green with the number "4", which I believe means emission level 4.

Edited by Silver993tt on Wednesday 17th March 13:07

[MX7]

Pickled Piper said:

You can't charge members of the European Community - Free movement of people goods and services etc. You'd have to make the non Eu drivers buy one at the port of entry so not impossible to implement.

How many non-EU cars do you see on the road? By the time you've created the government department to administer it all, multiplied the estimated setup costs by three, which seems standard practice now, do you think it would really make any money?

[Puggit]

MX7 said:

Pickled Piper said:

You can't charge members of the European Community - Free movement of people goods and services etc. You'd have to make the non Eu drivers buy one at the port of entry so not impossible to implement.

How many non-EU cars do you see on the road? By the time you've created the government department to administer it all, multiplied the estimated setup costs by three, which seems standard practice now, do you think it would really make any money?

Who cares, it will keep people employed by the government and voting Labour!

[Silver993tt]

MX7 said:

Pickled Piper said:

You can't charge members of the European Community - Free movement of people goods and services etc. You'd have to make the non Eu drivers buy one at the port of entry so not impossible to implement.

How many non-EU cars do you see on the road? By the time you've created the government department to administer it all, multiplied the estimated setup costs by three, which seems standard practice now, do you think it would really make any money?

What about trucks, there are loads. Germany charges all trucks for using it's motorway system, both German and foreign.

[JMGS4]

Pickled Piper said:

You can't charge members of the European Community - Free movement of people goods and services etc. You'd have to make the non Eu drivers buy one at the port of entry so not impossible to implement.pp

PP not quite right me old son.
ANY country can do it when ALL drivers have to pay it, Austria is a prime example. They're thinking of it in Germany, whereby the germans will get the sticker when paying their roadtax, all the others will have to pay it at the border..... Whether it will actually come in is another matter.

[Pickled Piper]

JMGS4 said:

Pickled Piper said:

You can't charge members of the European Community - Free movement of people goods and services etc. You'd have to make the non Eu drivers buy one at the port of entry so not impossible to implement.pp

PP not quite right me old son.
ANY country can do it when ALL drivers have to pay it, Austria is a prime example. They're thinking of it in Germany, whereby the germans will get the sticker when paying their roadtax, all the others will have to pay it at the border..... Whether it will actually come in is another matter.

Yes my point was poorly made. You can't charge other European drivers unless you are charging the locals also. Otherwise a barrier to trade.

pp

[theaxe]

Pickled Piper said:

Yes my point was poorly made. You can't charge other European drivers unless you are charging the locals also. Otherwise a barrier to trade.

pp

You could knock £25 of the road tax and then ask everyone to buy one to use motorways.

[Somewhatfoolish]

WHY!?!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[tinman0]

johnnywb said:

Now here's a thought, why don't we have a similar thing in the UK, only do it for all roads. We all pay road tax already, so why not collect £25 off every jonny foreigner who gets off the ferry? Valid for 12 months, could be a nice little earner?

Here's another thought; rather than penalize tourists for entering a hugely expensive country, why not let them spend that £25 in UK business as they buy services during their stay?

Seriously, what is it with us Brits who dream up of new taxes all day long? Haven't we suffered enough under a Govt that has spent the last 13 years dreaming up of new taxes?

[theaxe]

I think the intention is for European hauliers to contribute to the maintenance of our highways since (as I understand it) many of them do a lot of business in the UK but with vehicles registered in Europe.

[Halb]

[quote=tinman0]Here's another thought; rather than penalize tourists for entering a hugely expensive country, why not let them spend that £25 in UK business as they buy services during their stay?
[quote]

I thought it was a good idea till I read that. Best way is to see if tourism drops in the countries that do introduce it.

[Silver993tt]

Halb said:

tinman0 said:

Here's another thought; rather than penalize tourists for entering a hugely expensive country, why not let them spend that £25 in UK business as they buy services during their stay?

I thought it was a good idea till I read that. Best way is to see if tourism drops in the countries that do introduce it.

Well, if you operate it using the Austrian way where you can buy 10 day, 2 month or 1 year vignettes it works well. Typically, the Swiss charge for 1 year as the minimum time period which is unfair if you are simply driving for a few hours through the country to get to France/Germany/Austria/Italy.

Edited by Silver993tt on Wednesday 17th March 18:35

[grumbledoak]

Why? Every EU state would just do it 'back' to us. Everyone would just end up paying more tax.

[tinman0]

Halb said:

tinman0 said:

Here's another thought; rather than penalize tourists for entering a hugely expensive country, why not let them spend that £25 in UK business as they buy services during their stay?

I thought it was a good idea till I read that. Best way is to see if tourism drops in the countries that do introduce it.

Why not just leave them alone? Why do we have to rummage down peoples pocket in the name of being nasty to them? It's not like we won't take the excess out of them when they hit their first fill up in Kent anyway.

The Swiss system is mean for tourists. 30E for what? For maybe a week tooling up and down their roads, where the locals get a full year.

The Austrian system is brilliant - the instructions are written in German. They make a fortune in catching people who haven't bought one - and do you know where they station the cops to catch you? On the slip roads to the motorway so there is no backing out.

So please, can we stop making up ways of extracting cash of anyone. Enough please.

[Silver993tt]

tinman0 said:

The Austrian system is brilliant - the instructions are written in German.

Well, German is their language. What language are things written in in the UK? Speed signs in MPH, what's that if I'm used to KMH?

There are plenty of Vignette warning signs and reminders well before the Austrian border, where there is always a place to buy them.

Edited by Silver993tt on Wednesday 17th March 18:50

[tubbystu]

theaxe said:

I think the intention is for European hauliers to contribute to the maintenance of our highways since (as I understand it) many of them do a lot of business in the UK but with vehicles registered in Europe.

The European nations get away with charging goods vehicles for a permit as the great majority of those countries are transit countries where the goods are destined for delivery and ultimately sale in a different country and thus them being on their roads is of no real net value to their domestic economy. Here vehicles are only likely to be delivering here or in Ireland.

UK commercial vehicle excise duty was slashed by up to 90% some years ago to try and even this out a little.

[thinfourth2]

Because in the UK it would cost ten times as much need a 28 page form to be filled in using unicorn blood take 8 weeks to arrive at the wrong place and cost five times as much to administer as it brings in.

Apart from that its a great idea