I have tried over the last few days to get the new licence disc for the car that is on SORN without any luck and now feel very

I have just tried the local post offices and it is Wednesday so they are closed. Tried last week at the PO and I could only have a disc dated from 1st January unless I applied 1st Feb. So I had another go over the web this evening and it will still only let me have one from 1st January.
So I used the phone service - all automated and only possible to give me one from 1st January.

I wanted to use it tomorrow from early morning so now either I risk the law and try to find a Post Office while out, unlikely, get up very early and try to buy one over the web and run the car without a current disc displayed or dont use the car until one arrives.
So the system either robs me of three to five days value of licence because technically I cannot use the car without a valid disc displayed or it forces me to break the law.

I am very very

So despite trying to be law abiding and comply with our extortionate road fund laws the Govt either has me for tax evasion, non display of a current disc or robs me of the use of my car for several days.

All I used to do until last year was keep it taxed, because SORN was possible over the web I assumed it would be easy to put it back on the road just when I wanted - how wrong could I be.

Robin.

Hi Robin,

Having been caught out before in that exact scenario you have my depest sympathies. I only recovered the situation by employing a smart lawyer. The system is a %^&*.

cheers

noz

"Road fund licence" is the sadest oxymoron still in everyday use...

It's a simple ownership tax just like a TV licence - just wait til the SWAT team come
crashing through your wall when, at the stroke of midnight a car's Tax disc and INSURANCE
expire with the car parked OFF the road on private property - the day's not far off...

have you seen the pending threat muttered in the press over the last week!

Bottom line; HMG wants continuous car ownership tax on EVERY vehicle whether it's used
on OR OFF the road.

Why doesn't HMG ONLY levy it's tax on fuel - EVEN the scummy totally illegal motoring
underclass can't avoid that form of direct taxation; mind it couldn't let up it's unending
£ pressure on the motorist could it...



Andrew

Hi all.

It frightens me how so much of the population seems to be sleepwalking to an acceptance that almost every single thing we do should be regulated, criminalised and most of all, taxed ! We've got information gathering on a scale Orwell wouldn't quite grasp and I really believe it won't be long before 'they' float the idea that for our own benefit, we should all be 'chipped'.
As the red mist descends, two main things strike me at present --- we allegedly have the fifth or so biggest economy, tax take is at an all time high, yet it's cutback central. Where does it all go ? For sure there's waste on a mind blowing scale, but seemingly we can't afford anything -- no proper railways, roads, leisure facilities etc. etc. etc.
Secondly, we very, very urgently need to get across to the Westminster club that they are our servants, not our masters. Strikes me that aside from their Citroens, that's the other thing the French have got right --- a very healthy 'up yours' approach to their politicians if they get too far out of line. I could go on -- and on -- and on--- and on once I start thinking about this lot !!

Mike.

Well my disc arrived with the Saturday post and I avoided, I think, being nabbed. I did put the receipt for the payment in the windscreen.
I am totally in support of putting the 'road fund' element of this super tax on the fuel but with the most expensive fuel in Europe already and a tax rate that once direct and secondary taxation is taken into account puts us way above any other country I know, I am ready to emigrate.
A colleague of mine who has fought like hell to break the 'female glass ceiling' secured a £160k job last year and God Bless her for doing it but she is a shadow of her former self. Having just done the maths on her income over the last year, with the higher rate taxation plus associated costs that are not a benefit and the additional tax on what are considered benefits she is approx £30k better off all in than when she earned £60k. Not a bad return on £100k. The net effect is a tax rate of 70% on the top earnings. Is it worth it?
I wouldn't mind the extra £30k but hell what a life she has now and I do not think she will stay in this career. The family and marriage will go first I suspect. She also earns far more than hubby which is beginning to tell.

And all I want to do is enjoy my cars.
Robin.

i have a kit car (citroen based of course) which i have generally only used during the summer. this was fine before they bought in the SORN. Now when the decent weather starts to arrive, usually just before May i have to try and find a post office which is open 48 hours before the beginning of the month. I'm not sure now, but it used to be that you could not get a new tax disc earlier than 48 hours before month start. Trying doing that for the May bank holiday! I have taken the risk many times but with all the cameras now, i am not sure i would.

didnt the tax disc start purely as a way of keeping track of vehicles (before my time i'm afraid)? so the initial cost was only to cover costs for this - a flat rate regardless of car. yet now they seem to believe a higher tax disc will put off all those gas gussling obscene 4x4s which cost tens of thousands. like those drivers care about the odd extra tener!

needless to say this particular topic really p****** me off,

[didnt the tax disc start purely as a way of keeping track of vehicles (before my time i'm afraid)? so the initial cost was only to cover costs for this - a flat rate regardless of car.]

Don't know about that ,Gav, but I do remember when it was based on R.A.C. horsepower at the rate of £1..5s..0d (£1.25) per horsepower.

Can't remember how R.A.C horsepower was worked out but it was favourable (tax-wise) to long-stroke engines, a classic example of politicians having a bad effect on technical design.

It resulted in cars that were described by their R.A.C. horsepower, e.g. Austin 7, Morris 8, Riley 9 etc.. The figures bore no relation to the actual horsepower developed.

Derek

Well you did ask

RAC Horsepower Rating

An obsolete engine horsepower rating system that was used as a designation as to the power of an engine.

The indicated brake horsepower per cylinder can be calculated if the mean effective pressure in the cylinder is known. This pressure is the mean of the varying pressures acting on the piston. Being the mean value, it is that notional unvarying pressure which acts on the piston during the entire power stroke.


where
L = stroke [feet]
D = bore [inches]
N = engine speed [rpm]
Vm = piston velocity [feet min-1]
n = number of cylinders
Pm = mean effective pressure [lb in-2]

The RAC horsepower rating simplified this by making three assumptions:

1. Mechanical efficiency at Vm is 75%
2. The mean effective pressure Pm is 90 lb in-2
3. The mean piston speed Vm is 1000 ft min-1


Assumption 3 takes the stroke of the engine into account.

This then gives the simplified RAC horsepower rating often abbreviated to hp as:


where
D = engine bore [inches]
n = number of cylinders

In the very early days of engine design this formula worked OK. However, the mean piston speed soon more than doubled, the mean effective pressure increased and so did the mechanical efficiency. Therefore, although this rating was used as a way of determining the tax of a vehicle it was very inaccurate and did not relate to the actual engine brake horsepower which soon became 2 to 3 times that indicated by this formula.