Dazza01

at the end of this month (assuming it needs to be) i don't want any excuses from you lot like i thought we still had 14 days grace

Shark Man

In this day and age of online renewal. There is a whole month to renew it before it expires. So why do people leave it to the last day of the month, or let it expire?

It's not hard. I have to personally keep track of tax/insurance and MOT dates of 14 vehicles, all with different expiry dates. Nothing that is beyond the limits of a Excel spreadsheet print out.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

I always leave it to the last minute and this month was no exception. In fact the car was in the garage until the 22nd so I didnt bother taxing it..naughty me Then I just taxed it when it came out.

But as it was online, it takes 5 days for the disc to arrive, so if plod pulls me, they will have to check their records to see it is all kosher .

Shark Man

...and fine you for failure to display (especially if its a jobsworth traffic warden). Despite it being recorded as taxed on the database, they can still do that.

HankScorpio

How can you have 14 vehicles with different expiry dates...?

Shark Man

Point taken.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

they can try

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

LMAO, nice catch

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Not true. My Primera's tax runs out at the end of December, and I've just come back from a fortnight's holiday today. I tried to tax the car online just before going away and it said 'license not yet due' (or words to that effect), and would only let me buy a disc starting at the beginning of December (ie. wasting a whole month).

Today it shows 'licence due to expire' and lets me buy a new one which starts on 1st Jan, which is what I want. Trouble is, it also takes 5 working days to arrive, which means I won't have use of the car for a couple of days in Jan until it turns up - so it's a bloody good job I can park it on my own property and have another car to use in the meantime.

It used to function as a check that, at least on one day a year, a vehicle had a valid MOT and insurance. Now both of those can be checked electronically, it's time for the disc to be scrapped IMHO. Maybe make MOT and insurance certificates small and round instead, and display those - they are, after all, vastly more important than showing whether or not a fee has been paid which is all the tax disc does.

Shark Man

use a cyber cafe whilst on holiday

PPPRob

Has something changed as of this month then

Mine ran out at the end of october and because I forgot I didn't renew until 7th November online.

I've not heard anything

Dazza01

On the new style MOT cert there is a small square sticker at the btm which can be peeled off and stuck above your tax disc which gives reg number and expiry date of your MOT.

PPPRob

IIRC they use a very similar if not identical system in Malta. Seems to have solved quite a few problems but my god are there some sheds out there

Kuohu

Now that it's all computerised and you can renew online, why is it still an offence to fail to display a tax disk? I thought the computer knew when your disk expired anyway and would send out a fine if you didn't renew. Plus the tax disk snooper vans that you sometimes see are reading numberplates aren't they, and checking against the database?

I realise I'm sort-of making the same point as AndyC.

Also why do they spend so much money on the 'scary' adverts with the black monoliths standing on bridges etc? If people don't renew then they'll get a fine, won't they? So what is the advert actually acheiving?

Shark Man

I suppose its because traffic wardens don't have access to the PNC check facilities. And the system would be overswamped if every officer on the beat radioed in asking to check the tax on every car they walk past rather than just looking at the disc.


Anyhoo, Got a great story today. I know sombody who bought a brand new van. He never got the v5, and forgot to quesry it. Come renewal time (end of this month) He realised, and found he couldn't get it taxed without the v5, nor the reminder (which he didn't get either).

Long and short of it was he had to go to the DVLA to get it taxed. Turns out the van had no registered keeper. That's impossible - every vehicle has to have a keeper assigned to it when it is first registered, be it dealer or new owner. But nope not this one, somewhere, somehow it didn't happen, yet it was registered and taxed

That van would have been a scallies wet dream. No worries about speed cams, tax fines, congestion charges.....