Web based tax disc renewal!

PostPost by: JJDraper » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:22 pm

I have just tried the new web based tax disc renewal service for my +2. Brilliant.. less than 5 minutes, no queues of ebayers, digging out your docs or 'number 3' in Valium induced tones etc. Being tax exempt, it didn't cost a penny, even for post!

On the down side, smacks a bit of Big Brother, as they know you're insured & have a valid MOT.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that.

Jeremy

PS there is a fee service to check up on car reg numbers. I don't know if this means the vehicle is still in existence or not, but it is worth a try. My old AJS bike showed up & it hasn't been near a road since 1990.
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PostPost by: chrishewett » Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:44 pm

Interesting. I have a +2 which has not been taxed since 1990. The website will not allow me to sorn it although DVLA have sent me a new V5. This vehicle is now on the government statistics as a vehicle on the road which is not taxed or insured. This is why their figures of 1.2 million untaxed and uninsured vehicles on the road is a nonsense. They are inflating the figure to justify their numberplate recognition scheme which will go live between april and june this year. Thousands of cameras will take digital photos of your numberplate along with date, place and time of sighting. They will be held on the database for two years.
George Orwell would be gobsmacked.
Chris

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PostPost by: Elanintheforest » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:11 pm

Chris, both the DfT and Police have been using number plate recognition for years to be able to recognise vehicles 'of interest' at near real time. If a car passes that isn't taxed, it's a high probability that it isn't MOT'd, and that gives a high probability that it isn't roadworthy or insured. I for one am happy that those gits get what's coming, and their vehicles impounded until rectified or crushed. Have you ever tried to sort out the mess you're left in when hit by an uninsured driver?

There are many classes of taxation for vehicles...it's not either SORN or Taxed. There is a category for long term 'restoration' projects...vehicles that haven't been on the road since a cut-off date...I think that was 1995. So the many tens of thousands of those aren't contributing to the 'on-the-road-but-not-taxed' statistic. But they will be on the 'off the road and if captured by the camera book him Dano' category. But it's not that simple either. You will have to be seen several times at different places to build up the evidence that you are illegally using a car...once or twice is insufficient evidence.

It's been a long time coming in the UK, and because of our very liberal laws on residence information and vehicle ownership / disposal. In most countries in Europe, you have to inform the authorities within 7 days of a change of address, and prove it. Same with car ownership.

It's a very sad fact that over 80% of crime is associated in some way with a vehicle...trace the vehicle and you have a better chance of solving the crime.

You should all be much more worried about face recognition systems, DNA libraries, mobile phone location analysis and WWW click stream analysis if you're concerned about an Orwellian future...and those activities are happening in most every country in the world.

And what about the alliens, huh? Just think what they may be doing to us :shock:
Mark
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PostPost by: chrishewett » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:52 pm

Mark,
What I said was correct. As far as DVLA are concerned my +2 is registered but not taxed. There is no category classing it as a "long term restoration ".
All they do is take the number of vehicles with a current V5 and deduct from it the number of vehicles with road tax and use that figure as their figure for untaxed vehicles.
Unless more people realise what this government are attempting to do then they will achieve their objectives very soon. They could easily use their energy trying to stop uninsured foreign lorries or diddycoys flytipping in illegal tippers but that does not generate revenue.
I think the term is "wake up and smell the coffee".
And the crack about aliens was not appreciated.
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PostPost by: elansprint71 » Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:13 am

I had a problem recently after getting my first "computerised" MoT cert. Seems that Lotus only gave the last five digits of the (1972) VIN when the car was first registered. Result was a faintly snotty letter saying that I should confirm with DVLA what the VIN was on the vehicle plate and if they could not straighten it out, I would not be allowed to use the car because they would refuse to "tax" it.
Fired off the number from the VIN plate and received a new registration document just in time to pay my (free) car tax.Tthanks, yet again, Lotus for being absolutely useless at keeping paperwork on the right side of the law. :twisted:

Pete.
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PostPost by: reb53 » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:11 am

Geez, what's happening in your country?

Last time I picked up a copy of "Autocar" in the local library and read a bit of the cover about vehicle tracking and road tolls etc I genuinely thought I'd picked up the April the first edition.

Also, reading from the other side of the World I think the comment about "aliens" was more of a joke than a crack, and being of good English stock I appreciate the difference! :D

Ralph.
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PostPost by: Elanintheforest » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:24 am

All the DVLA are trying to do is get their records straight. They were in a hell of a mess, and now with continuous liablity and the computerised MOT system, they are slowly improving the information they have.

Much of the data held on record about legitamate cars that is wrong is due to them being given the wrong information in the first place by the car dealerships registering new cars. I & 1, 5 and S and 8 are easy to get wrong, and if you have 5 cars that need registering, it's easy to mix up which chassis number goes with which registration number. One of my school holiday jobs in the '70s was to drive cars around between dealerships (what a great job for a kid!) and fill out all the registration documents & take then to the vehicle tax office. Nobody checked what I did!

There aren't 1.2 million untaxed cars in the system, it's many millions more than that. Most of those vehicles have been scrapped, but before the continuous liability rules were brought in so DVLA have no way of knowing. There is an objective to try and get this lot sorted out over the next few years, so that eventually all vehicles will be either taxed and on the road or SORNd...nothing else will exist. They will still allow a 'barn find' to be re-united with its original number (if it's still available and you can prove it belongs), and make it non-transferable in the process to stop profiteering.

So there will be cock-ups in the process, but that's all it is. You're dealing with low paid poorly motivated clerical civil servants who are following a procedure...it's bound to go wrong occasionally. But Big Brother it certainly isn't. Don't sweat the little stuff, there are far more sinister things happening in the world than road tax and car registration.

And I don't think that old Blighty is the only place concered with rules and taxes. There is zero tolerance for speeding in Melboune, where chums have had fines and points for doing 62kph in a 60kph limit. I've had a gun shoved in my face for speeding in California, combined with a chunky fine. But here I was caught doing 133mph on a dual carriageway a couple of months ago, and after a 20 minute discussion and review of the video I got 3 points and ?60 fine...and I'm not a copper or a mason and I don't work for the government!!

I do firmly believe in cock-up rather than conspiricy, and I know that 99% of us are of no interest whatsoever to the authorities. The better the information they have, the more focused they can be on the 1%, which should in turn improve the lot of the 99% What a positive outlook :D
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