Government and pay as you drive
 

Does the government not look at the implications of trying to get this working?

If all of the expensive/most common roads are getting a hefty toll then all that is going to happen is that all that traffic will be forced onto less costly roads

The cost to implement this will undoubtedly be passed onto us not only on a per mile basis, but for the hardware and investment in the first place, then implementing getting the money from us, what happens if we don't pay? more cost to recover this I am guessing?

But the other affects could be to businesses, imagine going to a meeting, or having to work in an office several hundred miles away for the day, so 400 mile round trip @ £1.30 per motorway mile, so that could be a maximum of £520 for a day, that would I assume be paid for by the company... what happens if you're self employed?

What's going to happen to all of the haulage/courier companies? Can you imagine the cost increases? what happens if you hire a van/car? How does the company you hired it from charge per mile? What happens if you've got a bike in the back of a van? would you get charged twice?

Plus there would be the whole big brother side to this, speeding would be a thing of the past as ever vehicle would be tracked, and the government could go as far as to assume in most cases that car A, reg xxxxxxx is registered to Mr X so they could know pretty much where you are 24/7

Obviously if and when this would be introduced there would be a number of companies who can disable this tracking for a considerable fee I'm sure.

Wouldn't it just be better to scrap road tax and add more duty to fuel? the more you use the more you pay, simple solution you pay as and when you need it, although this doesn't directly reduce congestion on certain roads, just makes it more expensive across the board

Sounds like a much more sensible idea, and easier to enforce. It also encourages people to be more fuel-efficient, whereas simply charging by the mile fails to discourage people from driving big gas-guzzling cars/trucks.

For my own part, it would pretty much mean me looking for a new job - I do a 90 mile drive Monday morning/Friday afternoon - M1/M25/M3, which if they ended up being £1.30 per mile adds up to £230 per week.... The removal of fuel duty and car tax would save me something like £20-£25 per week.... £200 per week out of pocket, £10k per year, and I'm sure I'm not the only one... the flexible workforce won't be so flexible under this system :mad:

It's going to take a good 10 years I guess to implement anyway, but not a great prospect.

I'd of expected more comments though

they sure do come up with some 'kin stupid ideas! :mad:

Why doesn't the government have the courage to simplify the tax system, apply an appropriate level of income tax to cover national expenditure, and abandon the multitude of indirect taxes (taxes which tend to penalise the poorer sections of society more than the middle/upper income bands)?

I work for the feckers, and I do 400+ miles...... My expense claim will be hefty!! It's bad enough now, let alone adding another quid thirty!

Muppets!

Why don't they just encourage freight on to rail like the rest of europe, tax HGV's heavily to keep them off the road, keep HGV's in the inside lane and use education campaigns to improve driving on motorways. That would decrease M way congestion.

Follow that up with a transport policy which made safe cycle routes into cities and towns, decreased the number of car parking places, use congestion charging like London does to improve city centres.

don't forget that everthing you buy has to be transported, even stuff that goes on trains will normally have some time on a HGV. If transport costs rise then so does the cost of the end product. Also this tax would not apply to foriegn trucks, making it even harder for British companies.

Some top points there JPM, agree with all of them.

I would like to know if there would be differing tariff's for different vehicles, i.e. bikes at half price for example? You can tell they just haven't thought the whole thing through, but when has that stopped a government doing what the hell it likes?

I wonder how much of our money was invested into coming up with such a stupid idea?

Shifting tax from a vehicle licence (road tax) onto petrol only penalises those who use petrol lawnmowers, chainsaws, race bikes, generators and lots of other petrol driven machine which don't actually take up space on the road.

Personally I'd be a lot better off if we switched to pay-per-mile, but I know that a lot of other people - self employed particularly - would really suffer and either be forced out of work or put up their prices. So in the long run you'd end up paying for it all anyway.

One can only assume that, as with the congestion charge, MPs would be exempt...