Enormous fine for untaxed vehicle

buglawton

DUTR wrote: »

Did you do any maths on that figure?
If a car is averaging 30mpg over a year at 10000 miles, that puts £227 on the fuel bill that's more than many pay on VED.

Actually I cribbed that number from a Guardian article about abolishing VED. But taking into account multi vehicle ownership, lost fine revenue and generally more frugal driving/car sharing/avoiding silly journeys, it may be about right. But it looks as if VED, like Stamp Duty (which encourages long commutes instead of moving house) is here to stay in our economy-and-environment damaging tax catalogue.

bigadaj

I think it would be simpler, better and fairer to put it all onto fuel.

I thought HGVs excise duty was anything up to £2000 anyway?

AdrianC

bigadaj wrote: »

I think it would be simpler, better and fairer to put it all onto fuel.

I thought HGVs excise duty was anything up to £2000 anyway?

A low-pollution 38t three-axle trailer, three-axle tractor articulated wagon is £280/year.
http://carfueldata.dft.gov.uk/new-vehicle-tax.aspx

Bear in mind that a fairly average mileage for an HGV is about 70,000 miles/year at an average of about 6mpg, so they're getting through somewhere around 50,000 litres of fuel a year. At 11p/litre, that's just under six grand, or a twenty-fold increase.

Marvel1

z1a wrote: »

Wonder why they don't have a little disc of paper type of thing that you could stick on your windscreen to remind you of expiry date.

We never had an MOT reminder, I just use a calender for all important dates.

z1a

cjdavies wrote: »

We never had an MOT reminder, I just use a calender for all important dates.

Where did I mention MOTs?

AdrianC

z1a wrote: »

Where did I mention MOTs?

Do you not think it a reasonable comparison?

If anything, the MOT is more deserving of a reminder - after all, it's a more serious situation to be driving a car that hasn't been checked for basic safety and condition, than one that just hasn't had tax paid. Yes, MOT is checked in the taxing - but if an MOT was passed on the first day of December 2016, a car could be taxed until the end of December 2018 without ever seeing an MOT bay again.

neilmcl

z1a wrote: »

Where did I mention MOTs?

The point still stands.

arcon5

Fines for no tax have always been absolutely astonishing. Sadly nothing you can do about it.
Ime you also get a final chance Notice to tax and sort aswell as reminders

bigadaj

AdrianC wrote: »

A low-pollution 38t three-axle trailer, three-axle tractor articulated wagon is £280/year.
http://carfueldata.dft.gov.uk/new-vehicle-tax.aspx

Bear in mind that a fairly average mileage for an HGV is about 70,000 miles/year at an average of about 6mpg, so they're getting through somewhere around 50,000 litres of fuel a year. At 11p/litre, that's just under six grand, or a twenty-fold increase.

Fair enough, so without your selective manipulation the actual cost is £1200.

Putting it on fuel would be far more transparent and controllable. The way the system is currently it's supposedly driven by emissions, and the current system doesn't translate the cost of carbon as fuel tax would do.

If we look at it from a road wear perspective then a HGV impact will equate to many thousands of cars, and congestion is exacerbated by lorries.

Costs will be passed onto consumers but given how protected they have been for the best part of two decades then that's no bad thing in my opinion, goods and services are very cheap for many people currently.

Nebulous2

bigadaj wrote: »

Fair enough, so without your selective manipulation the actual cost is £1200.

Putting it on fuel would be far more transparent and controllable. The way the system is currently it's supposedly driven by emissions, and the current system doesn't translate the cost of carbon as fuel tax would do.

If we look at it from a road wear perspective then a HGV impact will equate to many thousands of cars, and congestion is exacerbated by lorries.

Costs will be passed onto consumers but given how protected they have been for the best part of two decades then that's no bad thing in my opinion, goods and services are very cheap for many people currently.

One of the positive advantages would be that foreign registered lorries (and cars) would need to pay their share if they refuelled here. At the moment we cannot charge them VED. Other countries get round that by charging everyone tolls.