Another pet hate of mine.

What about scrapping it and sticking the cost on fuel or toll roads or something?
That way the people who use the roads and vehicles the most get to pay their way.

Putting it on fuel has its problems of equity too. Bikes do very little damage to the roads and would, per mile, be paying a disproportinate amount compared to cars and lorries because whilst some bikes are more fuel efficient than cars that is not always the case but they would still be paying the same price per litre. Now if they introduced different prices based on the type of vehicle proportinoate to the damage they do to roads you'd get a double hit of vehicles that cause more damage pay more and vehicles that cause more pollution because their engines are less fuel efficient or they drive more pay more.

I think Ian makes a fair point. There definitely has to be a better way of paying for the supposed upkeep of the roads. How much of the road tax money actually goes towards the upkeep of roads is another matter. To much money much money is raised by road tax, which is probably why the government will not be willing to change it.

Perhaps they should spend some of that money round here then im on my 2nd set of fork seals since may.


we have 5 vehicles

2 bikes
2 vans
& my trike

that is £540 in road tax a year just out of this house & the residental roads round here are like potholes & sticking up manholes interupted by small patches of tarmac.

no one drives fast round the back roads as you are liable to wreck your car or crash the bike.

Womble is right, the roads round his way are as sh!te as they are up here in sunny colchester.

As for disproportianate taxation weve already got that when a 180 kil bike pays £65 tax when a two thousand kilo shogun only pays a hundred and sixty and one thousand kilo saxo pays a hundred.

I agree the road taxation system seems very unfair.
but what alternatives do we have?
fuel seemed like a good one but then again I don't do that much mileage about 60 miles a week, so that would work for me.
toll roads? seem like a good idea but then you'll get owners charging silly money eventually, with the, well go somewhere else attitude.

Tis a quandry for sure

Mmmm, I think a realy good way would be to buy your reg plate as the yanks do or did then that covers most things for the year and you keep the same plate for as long as you ride or drive..
It would tell where you come from and have a disc mount for renewal like a tax disc to prove you are legal and should be on the road.

It could be a better option than some the gov throw at us ??

Why don't we propose a tax per Kilo of the vehicle including its maximum fully laden weight including passengers.
Let's say 10p per Kilo, so my RS would be around £34. there would ahve to be a sliding scale though, over 2tons and it increases to 15p per Kilo, over 5 tons and ii increases to 25p per Kilo. A 20 ton truck would then be £5000. Would that work do you think?
Incidentally, what do trucks pay per year?

Probably somewhere near what you propose.