There’s A Lack Of Communication On Tax Disc Change
Unless you are on the cusp of renewing a tax disc for a car before the end of the month, you will never receive another.
From October, the requirements to display tax discs in the windscreens is consigned to history.
The DVLA will stop issuing them. Instead, cameras across the nation will be on the lookout for untaxed vehicles using number plate recognition and a hotline back to computers in Swansea.
Furthermore, unsed tax can no longer transfer with vehicles when sold, buyers have to tax them afresh.
Of course, I am all in favour of using IT to improve things and that dog-eared, sun-washed circle of perforated paper that would never stick easily to the glass, no matter what holder you purchased, was well past its sell by date.
But, I also like to see change implemented properly and, especially, well communicated.
Yet few of the people I have asked in the last couple of weeks knew about this imminent change and neither the DVLA or GOV.UK websites had a FAQs section in their announcements to answer the queries which came to mind.
I wondered where someone stands if they snapped up a car in a private cash sale or at an auction.
Could they drive it home? What do they do if they cannot get online and the Post Offices are shut when they get the car keys? Would there be a grace period to get it taxed?
I was also pondering why we vehicle tax payers are not getting a cut of the significant cost saving from ceasing the issue of 35 million discs every year.
