Road Tax

23 Apr 2012

Quote by MidsCouple24
I think the amount that would brew thier own fuel would be very few more than do it now simply because of the high price of fuel as it is, but how do you make this road tax/fuel increase work ?, the national accepted average for a car these days is 15,000 miles, but tax is charged in accordance with how low your emmisions are.
If I have the lowest emmission car I have to pay road tax of £100
If I have the highest emmision car I have to pay road tax of £475
So if my wife and I have one of each and we both drive 10,000 miles this year how will the difference in tax be collected between the 2 vehicles ?
What if I do 15,000 miles in my low emmission car but my wife only does 6000 miles in the high emmission car, the high emmission car would be paying less road tax than my low emmission car if the price was in the fuel. Would garages have to have different pumps at different prices for different emmission rated cars ? if they do what is to stop me filling up the low emmission car then transferring the fuel to my high emmission car ?

When the "emmissions" based tax calculations one day become an embarrassing legacy to a previous Government - maybe then the VED will change.
Until then we are all aboard the saving the planet gravy train.

23 Apr 2012

Quote by MidsCouple24

If I have the lowest emmission car I have to pay road tax of £100

If you have the lowest emmission car you pay £0 ...

23 Apr 2012

Quote by Steve

If I have the lowest emmission car I have to pay road tax of £100

If you have the lowest emmission car you pay £0 ...
wave

and i get almost 60 mpg too lol

24 Apr 2012

Quote by Ian

If I have the lowest emmission car I have to pay road tax of £100

If you have the lowest emmission car you pay £0 ...
wave

and i get almost 60 mpg too lol

OK lowest emmission car pays zero road tax, unless the idea of putting the tax on the petrol suggested by many here is put into operation. haven't looked into it but the emmission rated tax sounds a far better deal to me, unless of course I can become an MP and then I can claim the road tax back on my high emmission car that I use for getting round the constituency smile

24 Apr 2012

Bloody double post

24 Apr 2012

Surely the amount of VED you pay should be based on how much you damage the environment and infrastructure? So the more miles + higher emissions = high VED???
BTW cars and motorcycles do not damage carriageways as they are too light. Commercial vehicles are the killer especially the overweight continentals....now we should find a way to get them to contribute to the upkeep and emissions?

24 Apr 2012

i think motor cycles should pay the same emissions related road tax as cars as most are far worse than the average family car

24 Apr 2012

Quote by Rogue_trader
Surely the amount of VED you pay should be based on how much you damage the environment and infrastructure? So the more miles + higher emissions = high VED???
BTW cars and motorcycles do not damage carriageways as they are too light. Commercial vehicles are the killer especially the overweight continentals....now we should find a way to get them to contribute to the upkeep and emissions?

24 Apr 2012

Quote by Steve
Surely the amount of VED you pay should be based on how much you damage the environment and infrastructure? So the more miles + higher emissions = high VED???
BTW cars and motorcycles do not damage carriageways as they are too light. Commercial vehicles are the killer especially the overweight continentals....now we should find a way to get them to contribute to the upkeep and emissions?

The amount of foreign trucks running over weight is far less than it used to be and the vast majority of trucks these days are running on air suspension which again reduces the impact on the roads dramatically...
but vehicle movements has increased....cars do not cause the tramlining on the inside lane of the motorway causing the motorway to be ripped up! The VED is disproportionate and commercial vehicles should be hit harder. Whilst this will be passed on to the consumer eventually at least the charge for the damage will be in the right place instead of a stealth tax further down the line or getting the car driver to pickup the tab.

24 Apr 2012

Quote by Lizaleanrob
i think motor cycles should pay the same emissions related road tax as cars as most are far worse than the average family car

especially my neighbours smokey old triumph that coughs and splutts into life every sunday morning.

24 Apr 2012

Quote by Rogue_trader
but vehicle movements has increased....cars do not cause the tramlining on the inside lane of the motorway causing the motorway to be ripped up! The VED is disproportionate and commercial vehicles should be hit harder. Whilst this will be passed on to the consumer eventually at least the charge for the damage will be in the right place instead of a stealth tax further down the line or getting the car driver to pickup the tab.

How often do you see the inside lane of foreign motorways being "ripped up" due to "tramlining" ?
Nowhere near as much as here....
Biggest problem .....Shoddy materials.....
Same trucks (size and frequency) using both motorways but the problem only exists here....
And have you seen how much it is to tax a 44 ton tractor unit these days?
Keep banging that up and it has the effect of increasing the price it costs to deliver goods which in turn increases the price of the goods themselves and guess who picks up that tab....

24 Apr 2012

When I were a lad we used to watch the trains go by, for every passenger train we saw around 15-20 freight trains would pass us by, carrying everything from cars to coal.
These days a freight train is rare, I cannot remember the last time I saw one, why is that, container ships come into Port and unload each container onto a truck, why can't they be unloaded on to a container freight train, shipped by rail to the main distribution depots such as Brum, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds etc then carried a much shorter distance by the trucks and freeing much of the motorways and A roads ?
Carrying up to 100 Containers on one train must be cheaper and better on the environment than 100 trucks trundling 200 miles up the motorway and probably quicker.
Why doesn't the government take some of the cash reserved for road repair and development and put it into subsidising rolling stock and distribution centres for the railways or subsidising the likes of Virgin to do it, or even set it all up for themselves to make a profit like the old British Rail.
For example you could probably ship 1000 cars from Derby to Glasgow on one train, 50 containers from the docks to the nearest station to the main Asda distribution centres for the short hop to the asda stores by vehicle. Less fuel consumed, lower emmissions and clearer roads sounds like a win win to me and even a more profitable rail service which will help with railway upgrading and development.

24 Apr 2012

Quote by Steve
snip...
How often do you see the inside lane of foreign motorways being "ripped up" due to "tramlining" ?
Nowhere near as much as here....

And add to that elsewhere in Europe 'road trains' are allowed which carry far more weight over many more wheels but, as you say, the inside lanes are not 'ripped up' as they are in the UK.
In further support of what you say, any road damage that does occur is often fixed quite quickly - and fuel costs are less and there is no VED to boot (in France).

24 Apr 2012

Quote by GnV
In further support of what you say, any road damage that does occur is often fixed quite quickly - and fuel costs are less and there is no VED to boot (in France).

Le vignette has just been reintroduced for some vehicles and French commentators believe this is the beginning of the slippery slope. Also the French have a car purchase tax which replaces our VED as that is based on emissions.
With regards motorway repairs. The comment regarding amount of repairs less abroad than in the UK is rubbish. The top transportation countries by tonne of goods per mile showed the UK had the best road network and the fastest repaired. Source for that statement came from eurotest - motorway roadworks.
Also the UK has the highest number of miles travelled by goods than all other countries and it also has a disproportionate amount of roads subject to freeze/thaw with the majority of European countries. Only Scandinavian countries are higher but they do not have anywhere near the tonneage being travelled on them.

24 Apr 2012

Quote by Rogue_trader
In further support of what you say, any road damage that does occur is often fixed quite quickly - and fuel costs are less and there is no VED to boot (in France).

Le vignette has just been reintroduced for some vehicles and French commentators believe this is the beginning of the slippery slope.
Are you referring to scheme which has not yet seen the light of day (but might if M. Sarkozy is returned as President)? It is not the old vignette scheme but one based on distance travelled; when Chirac tried to re-introduce the vignette (tax disc) for cars, there were threats of widespread lawlessness because of its unfavourable and unconstitutional treatment of individuals and the Government of the day replaced the idea with the one-off green tax which is fairer to all.

Quote by Rogue_trader
Also the French have a car purchase tax which replaces our VED as that is based on emissions.

It's not exactly a purchase tax; it is, as you say, a single green tax based on emissions which is levied at first registration and thereafter on each change of owner and reduced by 50% when the car is 10 years old. However, the cost of this tax nothing like represents the enormous amount of money levied as VED annually to an individual owner. One reason the French don't change their cars very often.