New Car - tax changes

50Twuncle

My wife has just bought a new car and evidently the way that car tax Is arranged has changed a few months ago
In the past - when I have bought a new car - the dealership arranges for tax to be purchased on their insurance - so, come collection day - it is all ready to drive away...

Now - they are not allowed to do this - instead you get a cover note from the dealers and they post off the forms to get the tax disk sent directly to you...

This concerns me - if an overzealous traffic warden sees the car with no tax disk - they are going to ticket you - and you are going to have to fight to get the ticket withdrawn/cancelled ??

Why have they changed the way that tax disks are dealt with ?

interstellaflyer

50Twuncle wrote: »

My wife has just bought a new car and evidently the way that car tax Is arranged has changed a few months ago
In the past - when I have bought a new car - the dealership arranges for tax to be purchased on their insurance - so, come collection day - it is all ready to drive away...

Now - they are not allowed to do this - instead you get a cover note from the dealers and they post off the forms to get the tax disk sent directly to you...

This concerns me - if an overzealous traffic warden sees the car with no tax disk - they are going to ticket you - and you are going to have to fight to get the ticket withdrawn/cancelled ??

Why have they changed the way that tax disks are dealt with ?

No, it's perfectly fine, the system was changed by the DVLA in July, traffic wardens do not ticket you for having no tax, neither do the police, they report you to the DVLA and of coarse the DVLA know your car is taxed, no different to taxing your car online and your tax disk not arriving in time, you get a certain period of grace. There would be nothing to fight anyway, the cover note you get from the dealer is evidence, and IIRC you can display that when you park just for peace of mind.

50Twuncle

Thanks - but why did they have to mess with what was a perfectly good system ?

interstellaflyer

50Twuncle wrote: »

Thanks - but why did they have to mess with what was a perfectly good system ?

I think the DVLA wanted to do it all in house.

facade

50Twuncle wrote: »

Thanks - but why did they have to mess with what was a perfectly good system ?

Because as part of their performance management, everyone is now told to perform better (work harder) year after year, so the decision makers are forced to continually "improve" systems to

a) justify their job
b) effect an improvement.

The usual result is they fudge the figures in the short term, and take the promotion before the chaos they cause percolates to the rarifed air up in the heights of senior management.

(and then it is the drones at the bottom who get the blame, have to work even harder, and face paycuts & redundancy to recoup some of the losses)

Hintza

50Twuncle wrote: »

Thanks - but why did they have to mess with what was a perfectly good system ?

The sysyem was flawed, in this day and age it should hardly be necessary to display a tax disc at all as all the information is just a click of the button away.

If you relied on the old system you wouldn't have been able to drive the car until the disc arrived.

colino

Tax discs are going the same way as MOTs. Nowadays the MOT is not like the old fashioned certificate (good old brake fluid!) but is a simple A4 piece of paper that is a receipt to you for having an MOT carried out. Once DVLA is completely hived off, it's unlikely the new private company will go to the expense of those expensively foil-printed discs.

Rover_Driver

For a new car licence, there are 14 days grace for the offence of failing to display it.

neilmcl

50Twuncle wrote: »

Thanks - but why did they have to mess with what was a perfectly good system ?

Haven't you heard, they're closing down all the local DVLA offices and centralising the whole system to save money.