Invasion of privacy, more $ for gov't, won't make those who pollute change their ways..bad idea!

By Ames | January 13, 2010 10:39 AM

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid, the km tax proposal is far to complicated from a technical point of view.

Some questions and remarks for anyone who think it is a good idea:

1. People drive in the morning to go to work and will still need to go to work, most people that do drive do this because it mean that they have 30 minutes travel every morning instead of an hour and a half.

2. Petrol tax is simple to administer and serves the same purpose and is visible every time you drive by a petrol station. Km-tax will be seen once every month and is thus less noticeable. Petrol tax is also paid extra during rush hours due to queuing.

3. Consumer electronics is cheap as manufacturers allow for faulty items to a certain degree. On average 5-10 % of all electronic devices are broken when sold or will be within 6 months, what happens then? Will 5-10 % of all the drivers get severe fines for having a broken device on their car?

4. Do people really want a government mandated GPS in their car?

5. Next step: automatic speeding tickets when the GPS registers that you drive to fast.

In the long run, it may be necessary to have a distance based tax when everyone is running an electric car, but that will not happen the next 20 years or so, but then I suggest the following: At the yearly car inspection, read in and report the milage marker (and mandate that it is reported when a car changes owner), then you can send out a monthly bill next year with the last years distance traveled taxes. And, well, yes people may tamper with their meters, but that is already illegal and would not be a big problem if only a small fraction of the population does it.

By Mattias | January 13, 2010 11:22 AM

a 'device to track their movements'. 'Drivers will get a monthly bíll' and THEN... 'motorists will be better off under the new system'...???!!!?? in what way exactly? I cant wait for the poll!

By Jennifer | January 13, 2010 11:36 AM

In addition to the invasion of privacy, consider that the company that manufactures and sells these GPS devices - required equipment on every vehicle - will make out like a bandit!

By Don Pratt | January 13, 2010 8:28 PM

@Mattias ...and by putting the tax on petrol people in less polluting cars pay less and most foreigners will eventually have to pay anyway.

I quite agree I really do not want the government getting a list of exactly where I've been. It is nothing to do with them. I recently received a survey wanting to know why I was on a particular road at a particular time. My answer is that it is none of their business. If the road is not wide enough then make it wider or let me queue up with everyone else. A tax that forces some people to look at alternatives automatically means that it will be those less able to pay that stop travelling by car.

Everything about this scheme just seems badly thought out.

By Nick | January 14, 2010 7:52 AM