Considering you have to take your car for MOT every year it seems like an easy solution would be to require milage to be reported at your MOT to verify how much road tax you need to pay
Right now, the country has a variety of toll roads, toll tunnels, toll bridges, congestion charge zones, low emission zones and suchlike. They can have complex pricing schemes - higher for more polluting vehicles, free at evenings and weekends, free for wheelchair users, higher during rush hour, free for taxis and busses. Dozens of schemes across the country have different ways of paying - and often the money goes to local, rather than national, government.
So I think a mileage tax was not in the scope of the report. This was a report specifically asking "what if all roads were toll roads?"
[1] https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmtran...
Might that be more open to fraud than a telematic solution? Doubtful. Those people who would attempt to commit fraud that way will be just as likely to do so otherwise.
But based on the privacy implications of the other approach, I'd much prefer yours, maybe with a way to submit documentation of off-road/out-of-country miles.
They still release pollutants into the atmosphere, though.
It's not just about pollutants.
It is predicated on the motorist estimating their annual mileage; but if there was a simple mechanism to make adjustments based on deviation from the estimate then I can't imagine it would be too bad.
Also, and more of an edge case, there are some vehicles that don't require an MOT, such as vintage vehicles (which also don't pay VED) and don't public sector fleets (such as police cars)
The main issue, though, is simply that when people buy an EV they stop paying massive amount of tax on petrol/diesel.
The alternative of building more and more road is untenable.
Number of cars on the road depends on population at this point an on the housing model. We don't build "more and more roads" just to accommodate an infinitely growing number of cars. This is a mature market, no the 1950s or 1960s. If areas are deemed too congested there are already ways to limit congestion.
No, this is a tax income problem caused by EV but they are taking the 'opportunity' to bamboozle us into thinking that trackers and dynamic pricing is required and that there is no alternative.
Such as? I have not seen an alternative to variable rate tools in the US.
To install a tracker on every car along with all the infrastructure for handling and billing is calling a nuclear strike on a molehill. Again this is just some interests trying "to load the boat".
Is it just the creep factor they want to avoid, by making you do the performative act of installing the tracker yourself, and thus "consenting"?
Therefore, we must install it right into your car, preferably at the factory, so you cannot remove it easily to make sure the spying data we get is of the highest quality.
They just want to spy on you, and with time control your car remotely, and they'll come up with all sorts of pretzel logic to justify it.
Spying. There are no other reasons.
I love Canada’s system. I simply got a bill in the mail in the United States based on my license plate they read, and no need to slow down traffic or deal with toll booths, or get a specific transponder for Canada.
New cars don't have to be taken for MOT for several years. After buying a car you don't need to even take it to a mechanic for the first two or so.
Well yeah - the simplest solution is doing it remotely, which is what they're doing.