Tuesday 27th May 2003

DfT Clampdown

Will automatic fines for not renewing road tax and changes to the registration system really make a dent in the lawlessness on our roads?

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[pdV6]

About time cars displayed an insurance disc in the windscreen?

[MadGav]

I thought you had to have insurance (and valid MOT) to get a road tax disc.
Isn't that why clamping down on tax discs also clamps down on real problems like uninsured cars.

[steff]

But if you have 1 months valid mot and 1 months valid insurance you can still buy 12 months tax.

mad or what?

[simon5480]

funny how every time they(the Gov) have a problem they have to solve it with threats and fines

[whoozit]

steff said: But if you have 1 months valid mot and 1 months valid insurance you can still buy 12 months tax.

mad or what?

I've applied for - and got - a tax disc on the last day of an MOT.

[annodomini2]

I have nothing against paying road tax, if the government used the money for what it was added for, fixing and improving the roads!

(£31 billion taken each year, 1.5 billion spent!)

[MadGav]

OK - well it can be out by a year - but it does stop the habitual offender.

[bigtone]

Went to the post office at lunchtime and spotted an advert running on a PC screen type set up, which basically stated that all you need to get a tax disc is the V5 (or reminder letter) and a valid certificate of insurance, with no mention at all of MOT. Is this a cock up on the part of the Post Office in question, or a change in legislation that has passed me by?

[gruffy]

Why not just work out how much revenue should be generated from road tax and then look at how much petrol is bought. Then abolish tax and put it on the price of petrol. Those who drive more pay more, those who own 5 cars pay for the miles driven rather than in the garage, those who barely use the roads barely pay tax??? Try avoiding that!

Let's not get started on the whole issue of where the money gets spent after it's collected!!!

[Avocet]

Yeah but for those of us who live in the ^&*se end of nowhere, we'd get nailed good and proper for living in a rural area where the nearest chippy is 7 miles away! Of course, I suppose I could alsways use public transport...(?!)

Still, I suppose it serves me right for living in a remote part of the country with no congestion no speed cameras (yet) and brilliant roads!

[corozin]

gruffy said: Why not just work out how much revenue should be generated from road tax and then look at how much petrol is bought. Then abolish tax and put it on the price of petrol. Those who drive more pay more, those who own 5 cars pay for the miles driven rather than in the garage, those who barely use the roads barely pay tax??? Try avoiding that!

I expect DfT has managed to work out that the extra income it will receive from screwing an £80 late payment fine out of the motoring public is a more lucrative business than doing something obvious or intelligent like that.

This is nothing to do with law enforcement, and everything to do with maximising "revenue streams".

John

[John_S4x4]

It's really depressing isn't it They just want to screw you over, and grab all the cash they can Don't the road tax cameras operate around London now ? Are the congestion charging cameras linked up to the road tax database, or something like that ? I can see the day, that at the junction where the road tax cameras are, they will have an automated stinger system, intergrated into roadway, so that any untaxed car or stolen car will be detected by the camera, which then activates the stinger in the road, to disable the car Of course, they will need a shield or hinge assembley for the stinger system, so legal cars can drive over the junction safely.
Regards John S

[MadGav]

The reason it's not put on petrol is coz that would go no way towards stopping people driving without MOT and insurance.
If there were as many road-tax camera as there are speed cameras, how would you get away with driving without insurance for more than a year.
Road-tax is tiny compared to what most of us pay in petrol-tax, and it helps to keep uninsured and unMOTd drivers off the road.

[littlegearl]

cue everyone with a pre-1972 car getting a letter through the post saying "YOUR CAR WILL BE CRUSEHED IF YOU DO NOT PAY YOUR ROAD TAX" etc...

and some very angry classic car drivers shouting back saying we don't have to pay tax fcukwits!!!