……………We abolished the Road Tax

This idea is neither new nor original and I make no excuses on either score for resurrecting it here and now. Governments have been at pains over the years to change the name of this particular tax from ‘Road’ to Vehicle’ in order to try and divert attention from the fact that they have never really used it for the purpose for which it was originally supposed to be intended. Indeed, this particularly iniquitous system for collecting tax has had a long and rather chequered history.

It started life, full of good intentions, as the ‘Road Fund Licence’ in 1910, with a variable rate dependent on the Horse Power (Is there still anybody out there who knows what that is ??) of the vehicle.  It was £2 – 10s (if you know what that was) for a car of less than 6½ HP. In 1921  the then petrol tax was scrapped (that IS a novelty) and a £1 per HP road tax was introduced as a replacement. This was payable either annually or quarterly. There was a premium charge for the benefit of distributing the cost and paying quarterly. In 1948 we went back to the flat rate - £10 per car per annum. The quarterly payment option remained, for now, but was at some point withdrawn, in favour of a 4 monthly option, as a cost cutting exercise. In 1981 this cost cutting process was repeated to yield what we have today – an annual or a 6 monthly disc with a premium payable on the 6 monthly option. The wheel turned full circle in 1999 with the abandoning of  the flat rate in favour of rates, once again, based on engine size with the introduction of the low emission vehicles levy, ostensibly to encourage fuel economy and thereby lower pollution levels. All this, of course, is only yet another glowing example of the antics of the Ouzlam Bird which, as you will no doubt remember quite well, went round and around in ever decreasing circles until it disappeared up its own…………………… which is, without any doubt, exactly what this particular piece of taxation ought to do.

The obvious place for a charge to be made to replace the Vehicle Duty is in the price paid at the pump for petrol. There is a slight snag here because due to to a totally incompetent department of state called The Treasury, ably assisted by an endless series of useless Chancellors, both completely bereft of the necessary wit to come up with anything more original, when they needed more cash, than to increase the tax on petrol, we already have a situation where the tax paid at the petrol pump is wildly disproportionate and grossly excessive. However, my calculations, done on the back of the proverbial envelope, and allowing for the saving in administration costs – which would disappear totally, would seem to indicate that around 5p - 6p on the price of a litre of fuel and on lubricating oils would cover it nicely. It might start a revolution – but it would cover it nicely !!

But what about the other function of the disc I hear you cry. It shows that the vehicle concerned is properly registered and recorded at the DVLA. If there is an accident, for instance, you can trace the owner and driver. Wrong………….. And, based on my own experience, the police are in no way interested in pursuing matters unless there is an injury involved. No government has yet come up with a system that works and human nature being what it is then it is long odds that they probably never will. The problem is, and has indeed long been, that if we elect intellectual garbage into office , as we do, then we will be governed by intellectual garbage, as we are. It really is all our own fault and one of the inevitable results is systems like this one which do not work, cannot work but which they haven’t the wit to change.

We should, perhaps be asking ourselves whether we really need a system of vehicle registration at all if the taxation aspect is removed from the equation. Most, if not all, major crimes committed using vehicles as an accessory involve the use of stolen vehicles. The fact that the vehicle is registered is, of itself, of very little use in tracing the perpetrators of the crime. Similar arguments apply to the tracing of drivers of stolen cars involved in accidents. In fact, when you start digging, you soon begin to realise that, other than acting as a receipt for tax paid, the registration system and its associated disc are of very little practical use and most of the time the restrictions brought about by the system which might make it useful are, for the most part, very easily circumvented.

There are, of course, ways in which the registration and tracking system of vehicles could be made to work more effectively and still at the same time get rid of the duty element of the current disc. This would be transferred to vehicle consumer purchases taxation – probably petrol and oil but there are alternatives. I will outline one such possibility which involves using the organisation already set up for the purposes of vehicle testing and the paperwork system already in existence for the provision of a Test Certificate. The actual disc for display would come as part of the Test Certificate. All vehicles would require a certificate from new, not, as of now, from three years old, and would be subject to annual test and renewal.

In order for a Test Certificate to be issued it would be necessary, after completion of a satisfactory test, for the owner to produce proof of identity. In the case of an individual this would have to be a modern photo driving licence; there are a variety of possibilities for businesses and we needn’t discuss them all here. The point is that at the point of test and issue of a Registration Disc the owner would be properly identified, recorded on the certificate and on the disc, although in the latter case this would not be readable by normal daylight but only with an appropriate scanner. This would be in addition to the usual date, vehicle details, place of issue etc. Whoever is so recorded is, until any change of details is submitted, reponsible for that vehicle in all respects at law. This means that if the vehicle is sold or transferred you keep the Registration Disc and immediately return it to DVLA in order to terminate your responsibilty for the vehicle. It is up to the new owner to have the vehicle immediately tested and a new disc issued in the new name to remain legal!

In effect the Registration Disc for any vehicle would, under this aegis, register the owner to the vehicle rather than the vehicle to the owner, as now. The DVLA will know at all times whether there is a current test certificate for the vehicle; they will have the the owners details – including currency of the driving licence – and will know immediately it changes hands. The incentive to keep this information up to date is built in and requires no threat of retribution other than the obvious one that no owner wants to be held responsible for the actions of any customer to whom they may sell their vehicle.

This system would get rid of several loopholes but whatever you do you will not get rid of those consequent upon the uncaring deliberate flouting of the law for which at the moment the punishments are so trivial that it is only surprising that there is not a great deal more of it. It does however introduce a loophole into a different aspect of motoring law. There is no easy way in the system that I have outlined above for the production of proof of the existence of any motor insurance. It is not impossible – just difficult. However, since, as we discuss in another chapter, the whole edifice of motor insurance is now an expensive, archaic anachronism which should undoubtedly have been abolished years ago, I do not see this little problem as a disadvantage. In the event that you are stopped by the police, then provided that you carry your driving licence with you, everything can be checked instantly without all of the performance of producing other documents within the statutory time – more cost savings !

However, in all of this chat about the style and methodology of a new Registration Disc we once again digress – it is very easy to digress, I find, and usually much more fun than sticking to the point!  Anyhow, back to the tax. There are a number of reasons why this is all unlikely to happen. Firstly, I am not an accredited politician and there is only one thing that politicians dislike more than an idea from a politician of another party and that is an idea from an independent. Secondly, the tax as it stands, for tax is what it is, can be increased at the whim of a chancellor and requires no new legislation for it to take effect. Chancellors like taxes like these – it gives them freedom of manoevre. Thirdly, as the tax stands at the moment it does not appear in the retail price index –  another circumstance that chancellors love – if the collection went on to the price of fuel it would, of course, appear in the retail price index and cause this to rise every time there was an increase. Chancellors certainly don’t like that !!

A system whereby this tax was collected via a consumable, such as fuel, related to the useage of a vehicle, would be much fairer than the present system. Low users pay less and high rate users pay more – seems very reasonable to me. But, bearing in mind the snag, previously mentioned, that fuel tax has already gone out through the roof then there are alternatives which, whilst not as effective in promoting fairness could bring about a useful social change. Revive the old purchase tax on imported cars. There is very little of a British owned domestic car industry left, but a sales tax on imported cars would encourage the multi-nationals to manufacture here – and provide jobs accordingly. Once again, of course, we would have to tell the E.U. to go and get knotted but, as you will have realisd by now, I do not regard that as any great impediment.

As usual, we are stuck in a rut without the will or the wit to get out of it. The registration disc and its associated tax are a relic of history that date from a time when few people had cars and the then existing roads were really totally unsuitable. It was not too unreasonable to keep track of these modern, new fangled, rather dangerous gadgets and to levy a charge to defray the cost of the damage that they were doing to the public highway. It isn’t like that any more, but we haven’t moved on – we rarely do unless forced. Everyone has a car – they are as ubiquitous as a shopping bag, and frequently used as one, but we neither tax nor register shopping bags although they are used in more crime than cars !

The system has outlived its usefulness, it is more trouble than it is worth, it is cost ineffective, it is of very limited practical benefit and it is a pain in the butt. As Willam might have said - It should finally go and stand not upon the order of its going!