Vehicle Road Tax to be replaced by a pay by mile tax.

[Drazyl]

It’s really not hard.

I’ve got an app on my phone which means that in the just about any country in the world I can call for a car. It turns up and I’m charged per mile for the journey I make. The driver doesn’t have a meter; he too has a phone. Alternatively, I can sign into the app, accept paying rides and get paid for them using by people who have a phone.

Uber solved the problem of paying per mile a decade ago. The entrepreneurial private sector is a wonderful thing.

You have confused a taxi service tracking it's mileage to charge you, with expecting the punter to track their mileage to pay the government.

 

[Andy Farman]

I guess I'll be walking/cycling everywhere from now on then....maybe it will also help with the UK's obesity problems as more fatties would probably start walking places.

No , the green loons will accuse pedestrians of excessive oxygen appropriation and adding to global warming by working up a sweat..

 

[bobthebuilder]

You have confused a taxi service tracking it's mileage to charge you, with expecting the punter to track their mileage to pay the government.

I don’t think so. I was simply noting that the cheap and simple technology exists to track a vehicle’s movements in real time and charge for it automatically.

Insurance companies offer pay-as-you-drive policies which use tracking technology; the module plugs in to the vehicle diagnostics. Here in Aus, many of us with work vehicles use a plug in module to account for Fringe Benefit Tax for personal use.

There is no technology barrier to moving to road pricing today.

 

[Moke]

Singapore introduced Electronic Road Pricing in 1975. Each road vehicle is fitted with a transceiver that records its movements and charges according to both route taken and traffic congestion. The system can also be used to issue speeding tickets.

 

[bobthebuilder]

Singapore introduced Electronic Road Pricing in 1975. Each road vehicle is fitted with a transceiver that records its movements and charges according to both route taken and traffic congestion. The system can also be used to issue speeding tickets.

The system introduced in 1978 was a fixed toll system, more akin to the London congestion charge than a road pricing system. Since the 90s, they’ve had variable road charging but it still measures road usage using fixed transmitters. Their GPS system goes live next year.

It’s not quite that simple though; Singapore also has high fuel duty and it charges massive vehicle registration taxes. And road pricing doesn’t cover every road. It hasn’t done what is supposedly proposed on the UK.

https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/singapore-experience-road-user-charges.pdf