Road Fund Licence

[whiskeryron]

Because of the enormouse amount of drivers not having road tax licences & the difficulty of catching them, do A/Bers think it would be an idea to scrap the R.F.L. altogether & add the tax to fuel, so that everybody who uses the road would be paying ? You could have a scheme whereby transport operators & others who rely on transport for business could claim fees back from the govenment. Ron.

[Hopkirk]

Are there really enormous numbers of drivers not having tax discs?

I thought you got fined by post now if you don't tax or SORN.

[whiskeryron]

Hopkirk I live close to The West Midlands & I can assure you that there are.Taxing & Sorning like everything else is not 100% foolproof.

[woofgang]

I think adding it to the fuel would be a good idea in some respects ie use more pay more but it would stop the annual check on MOT and insurance.

[milly143]

I would have thought the amount of people driving round uninsured is a bigger issue.

[Buenchico]

Your suggestion makes a certain amount of sense, Ron, but the present way of doing things does at least try to reduce the damage that motorists do to the environment, by encouraging (through lower RFL charges) the use of vehicles with lower emissions.

Chris

[gsr600]

Whiskeryron! NO NEVER, i just purchased a car that has free road tax,
theres enough tax/duty on fuel as it is - a few years ago i would have agreed - before the introduction on ANPR & other stuff. so leave it alone & fine uninsured drivers & the like much much more.

[factor-fiction]

For once, I'm not sure I agree with Chris. Switching the tax to fuel would mean those who drive more would generally pay more, and should encourage drivers to reduce mileage and consumption. A road fund licence is the same whether you drive no miles (and cause no pollution) or drive 20,000 miles a year (and cause lots of emissions).
However I can't see this idea taking off- the transitional arrangements could be messy.

[R1Geezer]

yes yes, but who gives a rats ar5e? Insurance is the one to worry about. MOT+Insurance can be check by the plate now, no need for tax discs at all and stick 10p on fuel, I'd not object.

[ABerrant]

Dft figures estimate the rate of VED evasion at below 1% of the 30-odd million British road vehicles.

Of these sub-300,000 untaxed vehicles, over half are clamped/impounded every year. To release from clamp within 24 hours costs £100 plus valid tax disc (or £160 surety). Thereafter the vehicle is impounded and costs £200 plus £21 per day to release. After 7 days unclaimed vehicles are either crushed or auctioned. Last year 130,000 cars were auctioned.

[Graham-W]

As a lack of insurance is a bigger deal, why not put the road tax onto fuel and display a valid insurance disc, provided by your insurer, in the windscreen. The insurance disc would not be issued to a vehicle without a valid MOT.

[factor-fiction]

I don't think an insurance disc would help - police use number plate recognition linked to an insurance database to check on insurance cover

[wallis1007]

Taking whiskeyrons idea one step further you could have a credit card system with all your driver details on it. So your insurance, mot and licence details could be on a card that you need to swipe at the fuel pump. If any of the details aren't up to date or incorrect then you can't get any fuel. No insurance or mot = no fuel. No fuel means your off the road. Job done!!!

[welshlibranr]

I think we should all buy our registration plates, and then top up when we reinsure the vehicle, surely this is better, the police can check in seconds if we have insurance, if it was all linked then it would be so much clearer!..............

[sir.prize]

This has just been announced. Could be a great help in catching uninsured offenders

http://road.cc/conten...ehicles?quicktabs_1=1

[welshlibranr]

Like it wallis!.........sounds even better than my suggestion!............

[Playbill]

Adding to welshlibrnar's suggestion, is it not about time all registration plates were produced and issued by one agency and fixed with tamper proof bolts. I see hundreds of vehicles each week with plates that cannot be read by ANPR or speed cameras. This is the only country I know of that allows illegal plates to be made (for 'show' purposes) and does little or nothing about clamping down on it. On regular trips through stretches of the M25 littered with 50mph cameras I get passed by cars with 'personalised' i.e. unreadable, plates.
Don't suppose it will happen while the DVLC and private companies take several pages in The Sunday Times to sell them.

[R1Geezer]

No need for paper at all really, plod can tell by your number if you are taxed/moted/insured. Their cars are mostly now fitted with ANPR, which reads every number it sees as they drive and alerts them accordingly. No need to bu66er about displaying things makes no odds. I haven't actually needed the paper insurance/mot/tax for years.

[bednobs]

ok, i'll get out my old hobby horse about car tax again - if it is all on computer, why the need to buy a disc at all? Even if you did HAVE to, why cant they make it a sticker, or at least not so blooming hard to get out of the perforations!

[sigma]

Graham-W are you suggesting driving to and from an MOT center without insurance?