Car tax disc abolished after 93 years!

[Negative Creep]

 

 

 

Awww it looks so sad

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Barcodes, Junkman? You know we'd end up with something more like this:

 

[dollywobbler]

Another detail I'd missed is that from 16th Dec this year, you'll no longer have to have proof of insurance when purchasing road tax. Naturally the idiot government are presenting this as a great hassle-saver for millions of motorists when the truth is apparently that the computer systems are struggling with the need to talk to each other so much...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That's interesting, is that because they will check it automatically (i.e. there will still be a check) or are they just not arsed any more?

[dollywobbler]

Not arsed. Too much trouble to check apparently, so they've ditched it as a 'favour' to motorists.

[skattrd]

Another detail I'd missed is that from 16th Dec this year, you'll no longer have to have proof of insurance when purchasing road tax. Naturally the idiot government are presenting this as a great hassle-saver for millions of motorists when the truth is apparently that the computer systems are struggling with the need to talk to each other so much...

 

That should make things easier for buying tax on newly  acquired chod. Instead of having to wait for policy documents to come through (or borrow a mate/his trade policy) you can get tax straight-away.

 

On the other hand I can see it leading to more taxed cars and less insured though..

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yeah that should defo simplify shite-buying. If you've got a smartphone you can tax there and then if you decide to buy.

[garbaldy]

That's a strange one though as you can now get slapped with a fine for having tax without insurance 

surely the computers will just melt with all this confusion    

[Mr_Bo11ox]

^^ quite likely!

[Junkman]

Not arsed. Too much trouble to check apparently, so they've ditched it as a 'favour' to motorists.

 

They stopped it because it's completely pointless.

Insurance certificates are emailed nowadays as a .pdf file. Even I, with my limited computah sklz, can alter these for any car I have, actually, I can make my own. It is impossible for the clerk at the post office to tell whether they are valid or not.

 

However, at a car show this summer, the fuzz did an exhibit as well and they brought along their newest German plod car, stuffed to the brim with shit out of James Bond films that is called all kinds of TLAs. There is a TLA for EFT nowadays.

Anyway, just for the heck of it, we had them run our numberplates through their starwars big brother apparatus and they could instantly tell who I am, who my car is insured with, which advisories were given at the last MoT, which "convictions" I had the past five years, which other cars I have registered in my name and that my wife is a named driver on all of them.

 

I'm NOT making this up!

 

Now, the future is a black box in the car (this has been lobbied by the insurance industry) that records every move and also works telemetrically. This is not a conspiracy theory, most new cars are already equipped with it and the activation of the system is just a matter of getting it by the stupid electorate, and the sheeple will naturally approve of their oppression. Of course, old cars will forever be exempt from being fitted with these devices and I'm already sick and tired of the outcry that will cause.

What people fail to realise is what a small proportion old cars constitute and that the majority of old car owners are a law abiding conservative bunch and even if not, their 'wrongdoings' seldom cause kittens and nuns to die.

[brickwall]

So new cars have the wiring installed already for the box to go in? People have been complaining about the box fecking up the leccy on older cars, especially when a guy turns up to fit it wearing tracky bottoms and a Celtic top!

[Station]

Looks like it's definitely getting scrapped now

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25223631

[Junkman]

So new cars have the wiring installed already for the box to go in?

Wrong. The boxes have been already installed for years and can be activated telemetrically at any time.

 

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/127747-black-box-tattletales-its-in-your-car-already

 

In a fascist system like ours, when insurance corporations want cars to be fitted with a black box, the state will happily provide the necessary legislation, so this is now scheduled for 2015. Meanwhile it turns out that the NSA has collected data from these black boxes for quite some time. No legislation necessary for covert state operations.

[Mr Lobster]

So new cars have the wiring installed already for the box to go in? 

 

Yes but only for accident data - ie it only provides information relating to the seconds before an after impact.  Newer cars that can alert the emergency services in the event of an accident can be tracked and can obviously give out the location etc which is different to how the insurance telematics box works.

 

As much as I don't particularly like the idea of all your journeys being recorded, neither do I feel the need to break out the tinfoil hats and start worrying. If every car in the country was 'tracked' then its data that nobody would have much interest in. So what if the government knows I went to Tesco, then to the post office then back home and that I slowed down outside that hairdressers where the really fit blonde one who is always near the window works.

 

Its if they started to use the fact that they knew you exceeded a speed limit by 5mph or parked where you shouldn't to start throwing fines about that it'd start to be a problem.

[nigel bickle]

I had one of my cars DVLA clamped last Tuesday (-Wuvs old Nissan Pintara).

 

I was a little perplexed, since I had retaxed it at the beginning of the month (but hadn't been well enough to get the disc to the screen), same as several others, which weren't touched. 

 

If it hadn't been for a kindly neighbour delivering the paperwork (left under the screen),I wouldn't have known till they lifted it -perhaps not even then.

 

However, when I phoned the DVLA  line (privately administered)  a really helpful young lady looked again at the issue -and quickly realised they'd goofed. 

She wasn't allowed to go 'into detail' but it seems likely that someone  had phoned the 'out of tax' phone line,  because the disc in the screen was a week out.  Seems no one checked the computa?

 

Anyway, no fine or payment was required, the clamp was gone within the hour, so no damage done.

 

But what would have happened had I been back in hospital? She confirmed that they'd have left it 2 days (fine rising £100 per day) then hauled it off to the nearest pound (Hove -40 miles away), where they'd have stored it a week -then crushed it.

 

Innocence or guilt wouldn't have come into it then.

[lisbon_road]

I was bored at work today and thought I'd have a look at when the various cars I own/maintain need MOTs and so on.

 

Happened to put my own car in and wow ...... hasn't been taxed since the beginning of June.  120 miles away from home.  Managed to find a picture of the V5 on my mobile and sort it all out.

 

A real lesson for me.  I should be able to get my act together and not rely on the disc - or make my own to remind me.  I probably did have a reminder letter but as soon as a letter passes through the box in our home, who can say where it is?

[forddeliveryboy]

Even though doovla has been clamping and removing 58% more cars than before it seems the extra money (was it £20 million a year?) they expected to coin has turned into £80 million lost. http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/26/ministers-lose-80-million-revenue-after-scrapping-car-tax-discs

 

Some achievement, given they're charging twice for a month's tax when a car is sold.

[Junkman]

I know a very easy, simple, and cost effective solution for the whole thing.

It works a treat in France.

[beko1987]

Also, how many long expired tax discs do you still see in windscreens!

 

I cant wait for the meriva to have a new windscreen next year, I cant remove the stuck on part of the tax disc holder, it can finally be gone!

[Negative Creep]

Link doesn't work, but I have gotten used to not seeing discs in the windscreen any more. Although since my parking permit fits in one I still have need for my Super Mario holder.

[Lacquer Peel]

I know a very easy, simple, and cost effective solution for the whole thing.

It works a treat in France.

 

Toll roads?

[forddeliveryboy]

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/26/ministers-lose-80-million-revenue-after-scrapping-car-tax-discs

[Dick Cheeseburger]

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/26/ministers-lose-80-million-revenue-after-scrapping-car-tax-discs

I was getting excited* for a moment, hoping that the Welsh were planning to reinvent the tax disk, and go back to the olden days. Clearly not going to happen, though. Shame really - I like a small circle of paper being given to me, in return for the megabucks I've paid to not maintain the shit roads.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I'm overjoyed that its bitten them on the arse.

What could be simpler than a small, round piece of paper in your windscreen that tells any passer by that the vehicle is taxed?  Not only that, but it served as a very useful reminder to the law-abiding motorist when it was time to renew his or her road* tax in good time, with a cursory glance at the windscreen.

 

But no- "we'll save a penny per application by abolishing this 93-year old tradition and turn the whole system into a giant, flaky, unreliable monster that is so much more complicated to maintain and easier for those with no intention of taxing their cars".

Greed is a terrible thing.

[DSdriver]

I am all in favour of bureaucrats trying to save us money but I think they would have more success if they just sacked themselves and came to work in the real world.

[Richard]

I don't think it was ever about saving the cost of the disc, it was more about scamming an extra month's worth of tax every time a car changes hands.

[MarvinsMom]

well done,

 

who ever dreamt up the current crazy arsed system, all in the name of scamming a bit more money out of the public by double taxing cars when they sell or buy a car.

 

wankers.....

[Junkman]

The DVLA blames "owners of older cars" for the £80M loss.

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/news/classic-car-news/1512/%C2%A380m-loss-your-fault/?utm_campaign=181215
 

 

we are taking action...

 

Blah, drivel, rhubarb...

[Craig the Princess]

Who would have thought not having a massive visible reminder in the windscreen would mean people forget when their tax is due, or now take a chance on not being taxed?

[beko1987]

I got an email last night saying that the direct debit for my tax has been renewed. Doesn't say what the cost is though, so I don't know if the price has gone up or down.

 

The DVLA checker or totalcarcheck doesnt show the cost of the tax anymore either. If it's anymore than the £21 a month it currently is they will have a shock as the dd will bounce...will keep an eye out in Jan...