Road Tax or not...the future, coming to a black box near you

[Hell Driver]

First a potential ban on modified cars (which may or not be true), now this:

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/347 ... e-scrapped

Personally at first glance looks good for those on low annual mileage/multiple cars.

But on second thought, when did they ever last do anything to help us?

Looks like a con to me, distraction highway robbery morelike, with a hint of big brother thrown in for good measure.
How else could they get away with justifying such tracking technology as well?

Once we're on that treadmill there's no going back, just like being on a taxi meter or electric meter. How long before they ratchet up the cost per mile so that someone now doing 5000 miles (below average) is paying the same as someone who does 12,000 mile (average). I bet it outpaces inflation and oil price rises. They've confused the road tax system with so many levels (free, £30 low, post and pre 2001 emmision rates/bigger gas guzzler rates etc. etc. that its going to be hard to know if your being ripped off later when they change the system.

Guess who will pay for the black box.

They know the financial system is in deep trouble and are making preparations to further cut our standards of living to pay for it.

[Nimminz]

If all cars are taxed per mile rather than emmissions, and fuels cheaper - I'll buy some twin 45's

[Hell Driver]

If all cars are taxed per mile rather than emmissions, and fuels cheaper - I'll buy some twin 45's

I was just thinking that, cheap petrol, £225 quid more a year to spend of fuel so why go slow?

In fact, shield the box with lead, block the signal and the world's your oyster Or even better, leave the box at home.
We'll be well off they can't make us retro fit boxes to old cars, values will sky rocket too.

Watch out for legislation to make all new cars have trackers fitted on manufacture for later activation after 5 years or so as the tax is lifted and road pricing comes in.

Edit:

Just realised, don't forget a tracker will be able to tell where you've been AND how FAST you got there. That long strip of tarmac (formally know as the open road) waiting for the 45's just became one long AVERAGE SPEED CAMERA. This is serious Sh*t.

[jtbo]

Before average Joe realizes, we have all tighter control than what was in east germany and that is not really far from now.

Here police is already using fb as intelligence network, average Joes happily share everything with them so they get that safety feeling by giving up their freedoms without even seeing that.

Also same thing here with some happily switching to insurance that uses black box, also our traffic minister has proposed that all cars should have box, also she did kill efficiently job sector I happened to work, probably again just a coincidence that she is female, like every other time we get more chains it is always female getting bright idea.

My car consumes very little, I drive even less, but still I pay more than most new cars consuming double amounts that are driven more than four times what I'm driving, because our yearly car owning tax (bit like your road tax, but money is not used to fix roads) is changed so that with older cars gross weight defines what you pay, with new cars it is car makers word from CO2 emissions that matters, yeah they deny still scientific facts and tax CO2 here.

We had something great in europe, but these kind of things really are spoiling it all, also I'm not too sure people will take forever that crazy tight control those in power are trying to put on us, there might be some strong complications that will do no good for anyone.

[macplaxton]

But on second thought, when did they ever last do anything to help us?

The aqueduct, the sanitation, the roads, irrigation, medicine, education, wine, public baths......

[Speedy88]

Sorry, you're taking the Express as a reliable source? I'll believe it when I see evidence.

[Hell Driver]

Sorry, you're taking the Express as a reliable source? I'll believe it when I see evidence.

I first read it here:

http://road.cc/content/news/68294-road- ... cle-excise

I don't expect the Express made the whole thing up, just the over dramatic headlines, things won't change that fast, but change they will.

Who would have believed 15-20 years ago that sat navs would be so common now. I still didn't even have a mobile phone then. (I still don't have a sat-nav now). Unlike the mobile phone, which allowed you to speak to virtually anyone anywhere (pretty neat gadget), a sat nav just does what I can do with a map and common sense. Yes, sometimes you do get misplaced for 5 minutes or go a mile or two out of your way, but at least I've never turned onto a railway line or over a cliff like some dillons following sat navs. Makes me wonder if those would EVER actually get where they were going if they used a map. (I would take some sort of GPS if going through wilderness or dangerous ares areas like Africa etc, not against using advances in techonolgy, just its use for the sake of it). Tracking style road pricing just does what duty on petrol does now anyway, charge for every mile you drive (but doesn't cost gas guzzlers more so if your on the man-made climate chage side, a bad thing?!). So the motive is clear...squeeze more money out of us as revenues fall for various reasons and bugger the environment*.

*without straying too far onto other topics, I do think there is a very high chance that we've messed up the climate, but can't stand the way the gubberments have jumped on the band waggon and used the climate issue to fleece us all and gain further controls and new taxes. It's discredited the whole subject now, so if it is true, like the tale of the little boy who cried wolf, the wolf is likely to come down from the hill and bite all our heads off.