Do you still have a paper tax disc in your windscreen? If you do then you’re one of a dying breed. As of 1st October 2014 that familiar paper disc that looks a bit like an official paper doily is no more. Perhaps that’s just as well, as every motorist since 1921 has discovered that it’s almost impossible to tear the disc out of its paper surround without ripping the edge at least once.
After 1st October you no longer need to display a tax disc in your vehicle – but don’t for one moment think that means you don’t have to tax your car! Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) still has to be paid. In fact the government claims it’ll be easier than ever to catch tax dodgers on the road this autumn, as mobile cameras with number plate recognition software and a direct link to the DVLA pop up like daisies.
The reason that paper tax discs have been consigned to the shredder is, according to the government, their benefits have become ‘redundant’. They go on to claim that: “Abolition will provide savings to the taxpayer and businesses and removal of an administrative inconvenience to motorists.”
Saving Taxi Firms Money?
The DVLA predicts that the new mechanised system will save the government around £3million a year and businesses a whopping £7million in administration fees. For taxi companies running larger fleets that could certainly be the case but for smaller operations or one-man bands it’s doubtful if the benefits will be particularly noticeable.
Ironically, on the first day the VED computerised system crashed in spectacular style as 300,000 people tried to log on and tax their vehicles. This meant that during day one of the new system there may have been vehicles driving around untaxed (and therefore uninsured) not because the drivers were intentionally breaking the law but because the system let them down. It does ponder the point – how will the system cope in the weeks and months to come, especially as for the sale of second-hand vehicles both buyers and sellers will be logging on?
Motoring organisations are concerned that VED evasion will explode, as people try and ‘get away’ with not paying their road tax. Councils around the UK have some serious concerns too and believe that the government and the DVLA have not thought the scheme through properly.
A Problem That’s Slipped Under The Radar
Another big concern is car cloning, potentially leaving motorists to pick up the tab for tickets issued to cloned vehicles. Currently, if you get a parking ticket and insist that your number plate has been cloned, the serial number on the paper tax disc can be cross-referenced to determine whether the number plate is genuine or not. Now that paper discs are no more that point of reference has been removed.
Number plate cloning is a particular problem for the taxi industry with most major firms claiming to have had a cabs’ number plate cloned at least once. If they are now unable to confirm a vehicle’s identity by cross-referencing the serial number on a tax disc, the industry could be facing a big problem that, as yet, seems to have slipped below the radar…