I always thought Road Tax was meant to be the way to pay for our road systems. It seems that now we will have to pay for their building and upkeep AND to drive on them as well. Combine this with high fuel tax and I believe it adds up to a very unfair system
I have this suggestion for our transport minister.
Abolish road tax and lower fuel taxes. If we have the technology they say we have then track all car journeys and have us pay for what we actually drive adjusting those fees up or down according to busy areas and peak periods.
The final bill could be reduced by percentages according to vehicle size and fuel type.
Wouldn't that be much fairer all round?
And far mor proportionate.
At the moment someone who drives a small car 20 miles a day in a rural area is subsidising the owner of a limo or 4WD gas guzzler driving round a city
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Road Tax is not actually called that, now is it? It's actually Vehicle Excise Duty. In other words it's what you pay for a licence that allows you to use your car on the public roads, which are paid for from general taxation incidentally. VED is part of general taxation and in that respect it no more "pays for the roads" than does VAT, income tax, or anything else. Everyone, but everyone pays for the roads, whether they own a car or not. Car owners pay VED for the privilege of using their cars on them. Clear now?
I agree with you that it is a regressive tax, though steps have already been taken to weight it in favour of less polluting vehicles.
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At the moment someone who drives a small car 20 miles a day in a rural area is subsidising the owner of a limo or 4WD gas guzzler driving round a city
I see what you're saying LT but the above statement isn't entirely correct. And at the end of the day, of all the car "taxes" you pay, most is paid on petrol so we do, in effect, pay more for driving further and/or larger cars.
Government gets about 30 billion out of motorists from one form or another of taxation. Very, very little of that currently gets redirected back into the road system. In fact, the entire economy currently depends upon as all filling the government's coffers from our cars. Take that away I dread to think how much income tax would go up...
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Huge congestion on the A50 a little while ago caused by one lane being closed to allow the lads to cut the grass on the edge of the road, which necessitates coning off one lane for safety.
No disagreement with that although why a strip of grass should have been left when the road was built is a mystery.
However as I was travelling in the opposite direction to this congestion I was counting the number of HGVs crawling along and did a few calculations of just how much it was costing to cut the grass.
Taking the cost of an HGV and driver at £100.00 per hour (pure guesswork) and then the huge number of reps and other business people I came up with a figure of around £250.000.
Multiply that up by countless other hold ups around the nation and the cost must run into countless millions which we must pay for in one form or another.
Thinking this through, on one hand it must cost manufacturers and business in general a fortune in extra costs, making us less competitive to other countries with delayed deliveries and less business time by the reps.
But does anyone benefit by our gridlocked roads and if so who??
Perhaps the main beneficiary is the Chancellor. Every vehicle will be using more fuel and paying more tax on it. Goods carried by vehicles will cost more and give him a little more VAT and so on.
Not such a clear picture after all and there must be many more factors to bring into the equation such as more or less accidents, and frustration driven health problems.
What does the backroom think.
alvin
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Its not just the UK
Try driving from Northern to Southern Germany
Mostly the roads are better but I've had many times when the holdups from roadworks have been horrendous and go on for miles and miles
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IMHO there isn't the faintest chance that any Government will successfully introduce a road charging system based on satellite tracking technology. Look at the problems with simpl(ish) static computer based systems like the Passport Agency, Criminal Records Bureau, NHS compters etc.
If they do try to introduce something
a. Who will pay for the equipment to fitted to all vehicles?
b. Who will pay to repair it if it goes wrong?
c. How will tampering be prevented? (At the moment it is possible to make a car GPS not work simply by putting aluminium foil round the aerial!)
d. How will 'They' know if you are driving around with an inoperative system?
e. Can the cost of running the system ever be less than the revenue it collects?
See London congestion charge statistics; Capita have just been given a lump of money to compensate them for lower than expected income and unpaid charges have reached 100,000 and are increasing at 5000 a day. Nationwide it will never happen!
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"See London congestion charge statistics"
Indeed. It appears to be a wonderful success.
Estimated 20% less traffic. That was the stated objective, yes?
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What I'm hearing is many drivers get away without paying it. I don't know how but bully for them. Motorists 1 Seat-warmers 0.
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TrevP. I agree that the objective has been achieved but there is no little or no money left over to improve public transport, another stated aim. As the people who are running it need to make money and lots of it they have been given a 'bung' to keep them happy which may cost every household in the Capital £200 each in Council tax - not a 'stated aim' so far as I recall!
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Living the other end of the country I have no idea of how to pay this charge. I recently drove thru London (on a sunday) and saw lots of big letter Cs saying I was entering a Congestion charging area but no explanation of what to do. I know one day soon I'll be there on a weekday. Anyone help me?
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www.cclondon.com
Living in London, I actually have no idea how to pay the charge other than by going online. I imagine that you can pay it in various newsagents, etc., but I've never actually tried.
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