foreign EU drivers - what are the rules for them?

Nilrem

IIRC it's not 6 months continuous, just a total over the (ongoing) 12 month period, specifically to avoid cases of people popping the car on a ferry for a quick trip to France to reset it, at least in the UK.

I suspect it came up in a court case as a loophole and got closed.
At least, as I say, for the UK.

Iceweasel

I think you're right. I seem to remember it's 6 months in a rolling 12 month period.

But most ex-pats (and I include the Polish in the UK, the Brits in France, and the Greeks in Germany etc etc. in that category) are making frequent trips out of country and it's pretty difficult for even the driver to keep track of how many days or months they are in any one country.

It needs a local policeman to start asking questions for ANPR data to start being checked.

But in reality there is so much cross-border traffic that we're talking about an immense task here.

If the UK cannot keep track of foreign student overstayers who need visas to enter there is little chance that there is some section counting days for visitors cars.

But as I said those who take up permanent residence are a different story and need to 'import' their vehicles, and obtain UK insurance, MOT etc.

oscarward

The worrying thing is the insurance of foreign drivers.

A relative who used to live in the IOM had a member of staff from Poland with his car still registered/insured in Poland.

So the inevitable happened and the last I heard the polish insurers were still not playing ball with the UK one after a year. Luckily it was just vehicle damage and no injuries but if someone had been injured it raises frightening possibilities.

AdrianC

fridgeracer wrote: »

i don't intend to stereotype what so ever

Yes, you do. Your entire post is one big stereotyping.

Iceweasel

oscarward wrote: »

The worrying thing is the insurance of foreign drivers.

A relative who used to live in the IOM had a member of staff from Poland with his car still registered/insured in Poland.

So the inevitable happened and the last I heard the polish insurers were still not playing ball with the UK one after a year. Luckily it was just vehicle damage and no injuries but if someone had been injured it raises frightening possibilities.

It's the same for everyone - do you think that our UK insurers would play ball any differently than the Polish ones if say for example you had an accident in Germany?

As long as I'm insured I see no reason to be concerning myself about a foreign driver's insurance any more than a neighbour from down the road.

Joy-riding yoofs in hoodies on stolen motor-bikes on council estates and city parks worry me more.

We have a plague of such nonsense in certain parts of Aberdeen.

Iceweasel

AdrianC wrote: »

Yes, you do. Your entire post is one big stereotyping.

I agree.

Fridgeracer: have you ever taken your UK registered car on holiday outside the UK?

Or suppose your employers said that you had to go and work in their Amsterdam office for a month or two - would it occur to you to export your car to the Netherlands?

As for tax-discs - very few countries have such a thing.

We aren't going to have them in UK either, come October.

molerat

Another reason for doing away with VED (whether or not you put a little bit of paper in the window) and putting it on fuel, if you use it you pay for it wherever you come from.

oldtoolie

Last time I took my car to France, no one checked my license, tax, or insurance. So quid pro quo, I guess.

AdrianC

oldtoolie wrote: »

Last time I took my car to France, no one checked my license, tax, or insurance. So quid pro quo, I guess.

*ding* ALL these things are reciprocal - within the EU, everybody is treated equally. Freedom of movement. Outside the EU, there are various agreements and treaties which give reciprocity. The one basic is that your vehicle must be registered (with a few limited exceptions) in your country of RESIDENCE, and it must be legal in that home country to be legal in any countries you visit.

Visitors to the UK break those same laws just as much as Brits do abroad.

Iceweasel

Any time that I've been checked by proper traffic police elsewhere in Europe they have looked for insurance first and then an annual test certificate.

Until such time that we have an EU wide test standard that is the one thing that should ensure that a vehicle returns to it's home country regularly.

In Germany for example the registration and test validy is displayed by means of small discs on the number plate.

The last time I had a check in Austria the StrassenPolizei just shook his head when I produced my self printed insurance certificate and the pathetic sheet of A4 paper which passes for an MOT these days.

I cannot imagine how a UK cop could keep up to date recognizing and handling the paperwork from the 27 other member states of the EU - never mind the rest of the vehicles which arrive here from elsewhere in the world.

In the old days a traffic police officer could be fairly certain that a British registered car would have British passport holders in it - a car with French plates would have French people in it.

Those days are long gone due to the freedom of movement we all enjoy.

Also we should all be innocent until proven guilty - so I can't see any way to check 'foreign' vehicles at any border without infringing our right to travel.