Proposed changes to HGV and PCV speed limits and outside lane use

[Frankkia]

Balanced against the size and weight is the annual mileage.

 

Take a look at the adverts in MMM and you will see many motorhomes struggle to have reached 5000 miles in their 1st 3 years! That doesn't apply to me as we try to use ours as much as possible. We shun the once fortnightly 25 mile trip to a CC or MCC meet in favour of using ours on long foreign trips. Many, though, must be little more than garden ornaments to achieve the low mileage they are advertised at.

 

The average car a/c to Glasses guide does about 12k PA therefore even taking into account the lighter weight and smaller engine will do far more damage to the roads and environment than a large motorhome doing a couple of thousand.

 

After all the "tax" is called "road fund licence". So why not have a free licence for motorhomers - now that gets my vote.

[Patricia]

I am afraid I do not like your formula Derek!! Working on 25x3.4x2.8 would make mine £33 more but I do more mileage in the m/home a year (c.5k) than I do in my car (8.3k in three years) for which I pay the princely annual sum of £30.

[Brock]

I would drop the fuel duty and significantly raise the road fund tax.

 

In saying this, I make two assumptions.

 

1. The original intention of road tax was to make the link between the cost of maintaining and building roads. I can accept there remains logic in that someone doing a few miles a year expects roads to be provided and maintained and thus should contribute towards the substantial cost of building and maintaining roads.

 

2. A significant rise would reduce the number of second and third vehicles etc in households.

 

Perhaps we should pay an infrastructure tax, irrespective of what we use, that covers transport and utilities. Users could then pay additional taxes based on the use of the infrastructure - VAT already exists for this.

 

I appreciate that the use of fossil fuels pollute the environment but do not accept that this is a reason for an environmental levy. If we based our tax on the environmental damage, what would happen to the milk and meat industry as it is well known cattle are one of the biggest causes of climate change.

 

For us to change our way of life, there will need to be a seismic shift, not just tinkering with the laws.

 

Apologies for moving away from Graeme's original post.

[Derek Uzzell]

The Road Fund ceased to exist in the mid-1950s and it's interesting that the terms "road fund licence" and "road tax" are still used colloquially today. I'm pretty sure that the DVLA don't use either term officially to describe VED. Nowadays, there is no direct link between VED and funding road building/maintenance: VED is just another tax.