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Driving plans for pay-per-mile tax and the implications

Iain

Trigger warning - there is some discussion of authoritatian government below so if this is triggering for you, please look away.

I've been following some of the governments discussions on changing the road tax model to become a pay-per-mile scheme and a few things have given me pause for thought.

Legislation for this seems to be currently under development from recent news reports due to the governments inability to balance the budget.

To comply with this legislation, all cars will have to be fitted with a telemetry device to track the vehicle. It seems a logical requirement but as it is now going to be effectively tracking you in real time, most likely recording every trafic law violation and will be a great tool for the government to issue a massive number of traffic offence tickets to generate income.

Of course this will improve safety too so not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm pretty sure the control box will need to be government approved, fitted by government licensed installers and have the software that cannot be tampered with. A few more opportunities for subcontractors with politicians on their board of directors.

My suspicion is that this same box will be able to proximity sense other mobile devices and be used to track individuals through this as well, so when it comes time to arrest you for posting on social media about something the goverment isn't happy about then the police know where to get you.

Is the timing of the government digital ID introduction a co-incidence? Think about what the government will be able to do at this point. They can track you though your mobile phone, if you are driving they know everywhere you go and if you break any laws, they know how much you earn, from who and can track all transactions in your bank / Paypal / Venmo accounts etc.

Of course the arguement is that is you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide.

The plan of a surveillance state then takes a huge leap foward and gives so much more power to the government to squeeze money out of you while controlling you.

Am I way off the mark here? Is the government really as nice as they claimed to be when getting you to vote for them? Do you still trust them?

Parents

  • Firstly, I don't love the suggestion because I do a high milage to work which already costs me more in petrol. Let alone ending up being in a higher band of road tax than cars that probably have higher co2 emissions than my own. I don't know how they'll do the pricing yet, it's just a bit of a grumble of mine. I'm aware that a simple answer would be to find a job closer to home. But the reason that I work where I do is because that job fitted my needs and others didn't. It feels like autism needs are constantly being taxed themselves.

    Anyway, that wasn't your point. I really don't believe the government are doing it to try and control us. I do believe they are doing it for money. 

    I don't really understand your point about being tracked. If the police want to arrest you, they can already find out where to find you and will come and arrest you. Unless you're going on the run in said car, in which case you probably have done something to deserve being arrested for. I feel like the easy answer to this is - don't break laws. I will never understand people talking about controlling governments when it comes to breaking the law. Who would want to live in a lawless society where people can just do whatever they want?

    Posting on social media gets a little more complicated and probably needs clear laws but there are huge issues with it and it does need policing. The people that posted on social media to rile people up and get the to commit attacks on innocent people absolutely deserved to be arrested and punished after the Southport attacks. "Well they didn't have to do it" is not an excuse for encouraging that level of hate. People that use social media to racially abuse people deserve to be arrested and punished. Yes there is a place for anonymity on the internet (such as here) but far too many people hide behind an anonymous user name and think they can say what ever they like.

    I really don't think there are going to be people sitting there scrolling through all 69+ million of our social medias and other internet usage. But yes algorithms and such may be used to find people that are actually committing crimes using their social media.

    I really don't believe there is a big plan for a surveillance state. I think people have jumped overboard with this digital ID thing. They've already said it's not mandatory (yes there might be implications if you don't). But they can already look up all my details using my passport or driving license. So what is actually the difference? I'd personally prefer to be able to carry my ID digitally, I don't have to worry about remembering it/losing it. It also will hopefully help keep kids safer as it will reduce the potential for fake IDs. 

    Having said all that. Do I think the government is nice? Trustworthy? I don't think I believe that any politician is nice and trustworthy. I've seen the way that they "deal with issues" in parliament and children in schools are far better behaved than they are. But whilst I don't think they are particularly trust worthy, I do not think we are currently heading in the direction of a country like China.

    I do also think the current government is in an impossible situation. Between the conservatives, Brexit and COVID the country has been left with a mess and not a lot of finance to fix it. Money has to be saved somewhere. How can they do that without upsetting someone? Whichever direction they decide to go in, there will be a group of people ranting and raving and saying they are a terrible government. If they try to put things in place they are an authoritarian government. If they don't put anything in place they are not doing enough. I really don't know what they could do which would make people not hate them.

    I am massively concerned that we are heading towards a reform government though and that is a country that I would not want to live in. So no I don't particularly like or trust this current government but I'll take them over the current alternatives.

Reply

  • Firstly, I don't love the suggestion because I do a high milage to work which already costs me more in petrol. Let alone ending up being in a higher band of road tax than cars that probably have higher co2 emissions than my own. I don't know how they'll do the pricing yet, it's just a bit of a grumble of mine. I'm aware that a simple answer would be to find a job closer to home. But the reason that I work where I do is because that job fitted my needs and others didn't. It feels like autism needs are constantly being taxed themselves.

    Anyway, that wasn't your point. I really don't believe the government are doing it to try and control us. I do believe they are doing it for money. 

    I don't really understand your point about being tracked. If the police want to arrest you, they can already find out where to find you and will come and arrest you. Unless you're going on the run in said car, in which case you probably have done something to deserve being arrested for. I feel like the easy answer to this is - don't break laws. I will never understand people talking about controlling governments when it comes to breaking the law. Who would want to live in a lawless society where people can just do whatever they want?

    Posting on social media gets a little more complicated and probably needs clear laws but there are huge issues with it and it does need policing. The people that posted on social media to rile people up and get the to commit attacks on innocent people absolutely deserved to be arrested and punished after the Southport attacks. "Well they didn't have to do it" is not an excuse for encouraging that level of hate. People that use social media to racially abuse people deserve to be arrested and punished. Yes there is a place for anonymity on the internet (such as here) but far too many people hide behind an anonymous user name and think they can say what ever they like.

    I really don't think there are going to be people sitting there scrolling through all 69+ million of our social medias and other internet usage. But yes algorithms and such may be used to find people that are actually committing crimes using their social media.

    I really don't believe there is a big plan for a surveillance state. I think people have jumped overboard with this digital ID thing. They've already said it's not mandatory (yes there might be implications if you don't). But they can already look up all my details using my passport or driving license. So what is actually the difference? I'd personally prefer to be able to carry my ID digitally, I don't have to worry about remembering it/losing it. It also will hopefully help keep kids safer as it will reduce the potential for fake IDs. 

    Having said all that. Do I think the government is nice? Trustworthy? I don't think I believe that any politician is nice and trustworthy. I've seen the way that they "deal with issues" in parliament and children in schools are far better behaved than they are. But whilst I don't think they are particularly trust worthy, I do not think we are currently heading in the direction of a country like China.

    I do also think the current government is in an impossible situation. Between the conservatives, Brexit and COVID the country has been left with a mess and not a lot of finance to fix it. Money has to be saved somewhere. How can they do that without upsetting someone? Whichever direction they decide to go in, there will be a group of people ranting and raving and saying they are a terrible government. If they try to put things in place they are an authoritarian government. If they don't put anything in place they are not doing enough. I really don't know what they could do which would make people not hate them.

    I am massively concerned that we are heading towards a reform government though and that is a country that I would not want to live in. So no I don't particularly like or trust this current government but I'll take them over the current alternatives.

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