UPDATE: Towards the end of the Labour Party conference, DfT quoted in the press that there were 'no plans for pay per mile' in the Autumn budget statement. But the temptation will persist?

‘And we are giving public servants pay rises to help them afford the massive increase in taxes for using the road’???

Press article on the possibilities. Could this really happen?

SAY NO 2 PAY PER MILE

INSTEAD WE NEED A FAIR DEAL FOR THE MOTORIST

· Cars and vans are the UK’s favourite form of transport. It may be stating the obvious, but people need cars to enjoy personal freedom and protection from the elements, carry those who can’t drive and heavy shopping, They let us get to work at all hours and can make locations not adequately served by public transport. Vans ensure our deliveries and visits from the tradesmen we need..

· Yet decision makers treat drivers as cash cows to be milked. Think of the fuel duty escalator, where prices rose and rose until there were big protests. Also gratuitous restrictions like lowering speed limits and buying in speed cameras to generate a million tickets a year! Twenty’s plenty of fine income.

· Drivers pay roughly five times over for the use of the road. As a ballpark, motoring taxes raise about £50Bn a year, with around £10Bn spent back on the roads. Often on measures that hinder us or make us pay more money.

For illustration: NAAT Road Users Alliance RAC Foundation

· Intrusive ‘track & tax’ systems would see our every move in a car monitored. The experience of London shows potential interest in prying into our reasons for travel and household income. This would be a massive invasion of our privacy!

Press articles on the possibilities. Could this really happen?

Don’t let them fill THEIR black hole with your freedom to drive.

Don’t let them tax you off the road.

PART OF A SOCIAL ENGINEERING AGENDA?

· The war on the motorist is continuing with stealth. Facilities like road space and parking spaces are being removed to make driving more unpleasant and push us towards less suitable forms of transport. Or not travel at all. In London, Mayor Khan has the target of driving 27% of cars and vans off the road.

· Gratuitous and draconian restrictions are being pushed for social engineering reasons. They are disingenuously spun as road safety, congestion, environment or health measures, even though some of the claimed problems result from measures pushed by the authorities. Justifying data has been cherry-picked or even made up!

· The hyped ‘loss of fuel duty’ is totally self-inflicted by flat earth government, pushing a move to over-priced Electric Vehicles. In the main, the public is not sold on them. But our choice is being eroded by artificial targets laid down - backed by threat of manufacturer fines and quotas. Even so, some car companies are retreating from EVs and a US government agency has predicted 79% of car sales in 2050 will be conventional petrol-engined (‘ICE’) vehicles...

· Experience shows that motoring taxes do go up and up – think of Vehicle Excise Duty (‘car tax’) rates and the London Congestion Charge. Also, parking charges, including ‘emission-based charges’ levied against parked vehicles with their engines turned off (zero emissions!). London’s ‘environmental’ ULEZ expansion was exposed as being recommended as a revenue-raising measure in 2021.

· If new vehicles could be fitted with mandatory speed adapters, what is the possibility that they could also in time be controlled by remote surveillance – like geo-fencing, a technology used for restricting supermarket trolleys? And if the authorities can consider ‘dynamic pricing’ for public transport fares, what is to stop them from using similar ‘demand management’, so that cars do not compete with approved modes of transport?