Sheepsplitter

The government are thinking about tracking your driving by satellite, initially for 'pricing' your vehicle use, so they say.
We all know this is the first step before they use the same technology for speed control measures.
Isn't it an invasion of our privacy to know where we are at any one time ?
Is it just me or is this a further step by Herr Blair to enforce his control freakery on us?

Extracted from Sky News website:-
Plan To Tax Car Travel

Motorists could face monthly travel bills calculated by in-car satellite navigation systems as part of a plan to reduce congestion.
Under the scheme, Global Positioning System satellites would track vehicles via electronic black boxes fixed to the dashboard.

Information on their whereabouts could be beamed back to computers at highway authorities or to a private company contracted to the Government.

Charges would be levied according to the time of day the car is travelling and the type of road used.

A premium price would be levied for travel during peak times and there would be cheaper rates for travel during quieter periods.

The average weekday charge would be 3.5p per mile on motorways and 4.3p a mile on other roads.

Travel would be free off-peak and on quiet roads.

scooby_si

sounds nasty which is y they wood have no chance of doing such a thing anytime soon without loosing the next election hence i doubt they'll do it!
Si

heckler

If this were ever implemented the new name for the Prime Minister would be the Leader of the Opposition.

rnr

I thought that was for the ins coys(pay as you go insurance)Rich

SD

Erm, don't we already have that system? I believe it's called FUEL TAX.

Why don't they just leave us alone, eh? There's far more important things to be worrying about but still the caniving (sp?) little gits sit around all day try to work out how to screw more money from the people that put them where they are in the first place. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Simon.

whip

Quick calculation:

10000 miles x 4.3p
+
4000 miles x 3.5p

= £570 bin lids. I presume they're then gonna kill any tax on petrol and abolish car tax? Thought not.

Major vote-loser IMHO.

Whip

astraboy

<electronic black boxes fixed to the dashboard. >
anybody drills holes in my dashboard will find themselves sucking tomorrows lunch through a straw.
[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
astraboy.

Sheepsplitter

I'd have mine removed and fit it to the neighbours cat, let them track it :-)

divecon

I was told by a serving police officer that these discussions have been on-going for a while but the current line of thought is to put tolls on most busy sections of road (M25 Reigate Hill, M25 Heathrow, A1, M1, M42 etc etc) and toll the users for these only.

Now, to me (not being a rocket scientist or Quantum Theorist) would this just mean pushing all that lovely traffic off of the motorways onto the already busy surrounding towns and villages and just moving the problem elsewhere? Surely this is just 'if we can't see it, it's not a problem' mindset? Perhaps I'm missing something here but it doesn't take the brain of Einstein to work this one out surely?

Next we'll have the government going with the Singapore driving system where there are licenses for only a few hundred thousand people and you have to either buy (at amazing high prices) or inherit a car license before you can even own a car.

Face it people, it's only going to get worse....oh and when will we see the first electric powered Scoob? Yeeeesh....what a thought!

Neil
Brighton, Sussex

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Well according to todays Telegraph this scheme would only be implemented once the neccessary public transport infrastructure was in place - so we should be ok then 'cos that'll never happen

What a load of @rse

Roll on the next general election before these ***** kill the car off for good [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Sal

care3

i saw the article on the news .a black box was fitted under the hood (anywhere it fits)it was for Norwich Union Insurance.pay as you go insurance . Most people asked said it was a good idea but they were only asking mums dropping there kids off to school ,they were all in landcruisers ,cherokees YADA YADA YADA

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Am I the only one that thinks that, with the possible aid of a dodgy connection somewhere, toll roads could have notoriously poor GPS reception?

Look at PlayStation mod chips, DVD region coding, EBook encryption, Japanese 112mph speed limiters - all these go to prove that intentionally restrictive pieces of technology are always defeated almost as soon as they appear, and sometimes even before that. However well the technology might work in theory, it could never be implemented in practise.

Andy.

Sith

For those of you who drive into London, Ken Livingstone is due to give the go-ahead for charging to drive into London every day.
Announcement expected early this week.

P.

madou

Link to this story on BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/...00/1838185.stm

Trout...

Although the technology is the same there is no link between the Pay as you Drive tolling systems and the Pay as you Drive Insurance schemes that Norwich Union announced as a pilot this week.

Progressive Insurance in the US have been trialling PAYD Insurance for some time.

Separately there have been discussions with companies such as Ford to fit GPS devices in all new cars from later this decade as control/tracking devices. This was in Autocar a little while ago.

Trout

boomer

Two points...

Firstly, rather than spend GBP300, GBP400, GBP500 or whatever on a tracking gadget for every car (not just the GPS receiver, but a logger, anti-tamper features, fitting etc.) - WHY NOT SPEND IT ON ACTUALLY BRINGING THE ROADS UP TO SCRATCH?!?!?!?

Secondly, is any government seriously going to base it's entire road traffic tax extraction facility (many billions of pounds a year) on a GPS system run by another country?? America could cause chaos by turning their system off!!!

..and it is our bloody taxes that are funding this crazy research [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

mb

FreeT

Personally I think they are already doind a pretty good job of putting us off driving

Road tax - £155/year at least
Fuel tax - £83/£100 of fuel (£1650/year if 10k miles)
VAT - 17.5 car & parts

Insurance - £ necessary evil
Depreciation - £ dont go there

Now on the bright side!!!!! they want to tax us on how much milage we do each year - SHOULD YOU BE HAPPY ABOUT IT?

Dont forget the others :
Income Tax - Tons
National Insurance - To go up this coming budget
Council Tax - Aat least 5% rise
Foods hidden tax - £
Savings Tax - tax on savings you've already been taxed on
Inheritance tax - up to 40% of inheritance / probably all taxed
Unclaimed pensions funds - where does that all go then???

Ii'm sure i've forgotten about others.

WOW prety scary isn't it

Add it all up and you probably only get about 1/3 to 1/2 of your earnings after taxes (hidden or not).

Sorry - i'm finished now :-)

MrData

Does that mean you'll get a rebate every time you drive down a 3 lane motorway, with 2 lanes coned off and no workmen in sight?

They claim they will do away with Car Tax if they implement the scheme and it will be at least 10 years before they go for it.

I can see possibly two changes of government between now and then. I'd say it would be fair to dismiss the idea as crackpot.

One thing for sure though. They're dead against cars!

Regards
Kurt

Trout...

If you check treasury data the average man in the street will hand over more than 50% of earnings to HM Gov in taxes in one form or another!

Trout

mattski2

am I surprised? no, will anything happen to stop it? no...

I think we (as a country) bring it upon ourselves simply because no-one says anything. I bet the government **** themselves when all of the poll-tax stuff happened.

Unfortunately I think that when something like this happens that it is quietly brought in anyway and then people do the 'oh, never mind dear, put the kettle on' routine.

If we (as motorists) don't open our mouths it's just gonna get worse

M

boomer

Oh, and the big spokesman for this big brother idea is no other than David Begg, who is described at http://www.abd.org.uk/pr/205.htm as ...so lets put a man that hates cars in charge of determining government policy on, er, cars.

At least the ABD http://www.abd.org.uk/ are trying to put the alternative (pro-motorist) case!

mb

Scooby_Maxus

We already live in a "Big Brother" state, adding a black box to the car has already happend- those of us with trackers fitted! (It surely won't be long before the police request the RAC to hand over the tracker data for a speeding offence!) It is also worth noting that all the developed contries can track individuals using their mobile phones (whether used or not).

Me, I would welcome the policy of pay-as-you-go-travel, we operate this throughout the UK already (cf Taxis, buses etc). Just so long as this is part of a well researched, coherent and pratical strategy for future funding of all travel and not some half baked trial (like bus routes in London etc!!!)

SteveM

RAC or any other tracker company will not issue speed and motion data unless ordered by the courts, (which will also make it public), because lets face it trackers are normally fitted to expense high performance cars and we all use that performance so if our license is in jepardy the tracker will just be removed, end of tracker business.

And as for mileage figures being monitored, well you have it recorded at every MOT anyway so big deal.

Dave P

On the radio it was stated that it should form part of a total integrated transport policy. These people ought to try commuting. Last Thursday I was waiting at the country side of London Bridge for the 19.17 Hastings train.... an 8 car electric train... when in came a 6 car 1930's DIESEL!!!! No seats GREAT... little wonder people drive...

Dave

Danbo

Scooby_maxus it will not be the Police who ask for the information from trackers to prove speeding offences...as most people know the police view is that speeding is not dangerous in itself.......otherwise why are we taught that in our driving courses??? (similar to how most Police disagree with speed cameras)

It will be government who decide on and implement such schemes whether or not the Police agree....but whats new......we just end up having to enforce it....

GazP

That is just typical of this government! Any excuse to monitor the people of this country and tax the motorist even more.

As for that guy from Edinburgh, well he must have friends in St. Helens as they have started wrecking the roads with lots of spped humps, tables, blocks etc.

Personally I think we need a change of government NOW to get these dick heads out of power.

We pay more than enough tax, more than enough. If they want more perhaps they should start spending less on other things.

And if anyone put a black box on my car it would be removed and put under the ground where it belongs.

Am I the only here who is totally pi$$ed off with all this car bashing and taxation? Soon we will be banned from using cars, unless you are rich or are in the government [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Sheepsplitter

You would have thought the government would have realised how dependant the country was on cars/lorrys etc etc after the petrol protests.
They have done almost nothing to improve public transport.
I regularly have to travel into London, and standard fare is £13.10, for that I get the pleasure of standing all the way in a corridor, because they don't have enough seats. The other day someone puked on me. What sort of encouragement is that to leave the car at home ?

It's very easy for government ministers to decided what's 'right' for the public, because they NEVER have to use public transport unless out of choice. They are driven around at tax payers expense, or they charter Concorde (Blair, Prescot, Brown, you know who you are!).
This country is headed for a big showdown with this arrogant, un-caring government, we have been bulied around and taxed to death for too long with no results. Time for a revolution !!

scooby_si

Uh oh i smell a tory lol anyway i think u'll find that it aint quite as bad as 1st fort as it aint guna b till 2010 if ever & it might actually mean less £ as it was in report as instead of the tax disc & mayb evenm cheaper fuel wow.
Anyway truth is, reality calling, it aint guna happen so chill people, it's all just an idea at da minute nice 2 hear sumin more inspiring than BUS LANES. OH R & all politicians r muppets but non so bad as da tories lol
Si