‘A green light for cleaner motoring’
INCENTIVES to go green are welcome. Chancellor Gordon Brown’s radical proposal for tax disc reforms gives a green light to cleaner motoring. Reduced tax for cleaner vehicles is a great incentive to help drivers choose the most environmentally friendly model suitable for their needs.
EDMUND KING
Executive director, RAC Foundation
MOTORISTS will have to pay £2 billion extra next year after the highest increase in fuel duty for eight years. We can see the price at the pump being pushed to £1 per litre as the norm.
DAVID WALLACE
Director, AA Business Services
ALTHOUGH this budget is likely to provoke speculation about 4x4 values meltdown, an increase to £300 in the Road Fund Licence, rising to £400 next year, is a small sum for those who are prepared to pay a retail price of, for example, around £26,500 for a three-year-old BMW X5.
JEFF KNIGHT
Forecast manager for passenger cars, CAP
THIS budget is a clear sign that the greening of this chancellor continues. He has brought forward some interesting measures, such as further support for biofuel uptake, but the question remains: will this become a long-term trend, or is this opportunistic politicking?
MIKE WATERS
Head of market analysis, Arval
THESE changes may not influence the sale of new high emission cars to a retail customer. However, a drop in anticipated re-sale value (plus the increased annual cost) can have a big effect on the wholelife cost to the firm which is then less likely to want to add these cars to its fleet.
ALISON CHAPMAN
Tax partner, Deloitte
WE are seeing ongoing support for biofuel. As far as the standard 5% biofuel mix that can be used in most engines is concerned, this will soon become more widely available and fleets will use it as this occurs.
RICH GREEN
Managing director, GE Fleet Services
WE already have the highest rates of fuel duty in Europe. Now, Gordon Brown wants to hit the motorist, especially the business driver as well as his company, with yet more tax.
JOHN LEWIS
Director general, BVRLA
How are racing cars taxed?
COULD someone enlighten me on how racing cars are taxed?
OK, I’m female, but driving vehicles round a circuit for no good reason, burning God knows how much fuel, which may or may not be taxed, while I am now to pay more duty for driving a 4x4 vehicle, is rather annoying. I have opted for a 4x4 as about 90% of the traffic coming towards me appears to be searching for enemy aircraft, rather than lighting up the road in front of them, which in turn blinds me completely.
My 4x4 lets me sit above most of those mal-adjusted headlights.
In addition to this, if my vehicle uses more fuel, I pay more tax for said fuel.
Not all journeys can be made by public transport, especially as public transport is most unreliable in my area.
UTE SCRACE
PA to managing director, KaVo Dental
Answer to no-smoking sign problem
I AM writing in response to the letter from Trevor Clift ‘No-smoking signs will deface our vehicles’ (Fleet News March 15).
Our company was also concerned with defacing our vehicles with the 70mm no-smoking sign.
However, I have since sourced a supply of tax disc holders with the 70mm no-smoking sign printed on the back for less than 30p each from a company called WonderwebPrint (www.wonder webprint.co.uk).
As all vehicles have to display a tax disc by law, we have simply replaced the original tax disc holders with the new no-smoking ones, thereby complying with the new policy but without causing any defacing to any of the vehicles.
SAM BROOKS
Invoice accounts clerk, East Yorkshire Aluminium and Glass
Give us the fuel facts
HOW glad I was to see that CAP is taking up the cudgels on behalf of us van fleet operators in respect of publishing miles per gallon figures for commercial vehicles (Fleet News February 8).
I run a fleet of 20 panel vans and a few months ago they were due to be replaced.
I phoned round some of the local main dealers and none of them could tell me how many miles to the gallon I was likely to get from any of their models.
We are constantly being told by the Government to ‘go green’ and reduce our carbon footprint and I’m trying to do just that. But how on earth can I when few of the van manufacturers publish basic fuel economy figures?
It’s the same with CO2 emissions. Once again all the major makers don’t seem to give them out. I’ve asked to be sure and every time I’m told I can’t have them.
It’s not even as though the manufacturers don’t have these figures – as I understand it, they have to test their vehicles to get them type-approved.
One dealer told me that mpg figures were meaningless as they would be different on each journey depending on how much cargo was being carried. But at least if the playing field was level, I’d be able to gain a rough idea of how each model fared. Come on you van makers, give us hard-pressed operators the facts.
JAMES MEADOWS
Shoeburyness, Essex
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