The missing millions
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The Government is planning shock tactics to claw back £163m a year in lost VED revenue. An estimated 14,000 LGV offenders could be hit with on-the spot fines and find their trucks clamped...
• Faced with a loss to the Exchequer of around £163m a year. the Government has finally decided to get tough with those who don't or won't pay their vehicle tax.
New laws were announced in October last year to deal with the problem. Once the results of a London trial have been analysed all classes of vehicles, from cars to lorries, found on a road without a tax disc could be clamped.
The trial is due to begin in Kensington and Chelsea and other London boroughs this spring. If successful, it is expected to be extended to the rest of the country within a year. Once a vehicle has been given the "boot", the driver will have to go to a local authority "parking shop" to be interviewed about the absence of a tax disc.
"Whenever a clamp is fitted we complete an offence report," says Hoiwel Harris, a manager in the enforcement strategy group of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. "Quite frankly, if the vehicle is promptly taxed we would probably not follow up that report unless there has been a duty loss. There is every incentive for a person to trot out and pay his tax. If he does not, then he will most certainly be prosecuted."
First announced by the Chancellor in his Budget speech in November 1994, the scheme breaks new ground in terms of the powers that it confers on the authorities to clamp for a revenue offence, and is the first of its kind in the world. The power to claw back lost revenue by clamping the motorist and the professional driver was provided by the Finance Act 1995 and subsequently written into a new schedule for the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.
The DVLA is under considerable political pressure to get the three-month pilot scheme off the ground, but doubt remains about whether a planned March start date can be achieved. Enfield-based RK Traffic Manage ment is expected to be awarded the first London contract because it has been carrying out clamping work for Kensington & Chelsea for 18 months. However, it is still waiting to have details confirmed.
"The DVLA has asked us to make a vehicle clamp available to them." says RK director Claudina Brinklow. "We have a range of type approved clamps that will allow us to deal with even the largest vehicles—even if the right size clamp is not on the van at the time, we can get it to the scene very quickly."
Even the largest 22.5in WV wheel can be dealt with by the Home Office Type Approved Lionweld Wheelok Model C clamp.
Rising incidence
The object of the scheme is to stem the rising incidence of VED evasion by acting as a deterrent to those who might be tempted to avoid payment. The DVLA has made it very clear that it is not its intention to clamp all and sundry but to target only the most serious offenders.
"Clamping will be used selectively and we are targeting serious evaders in a high-profile way, backed up by advertising," says Hoiwel Harris. "We are looking for a strong deterrent effect with this scheme."
To ensure consistency, guidelines have been drafted in consultation with a number of bodies including the Lord Chancellor's department, the AA/RAC, the insurance industry and the police.
"We insisted that no clamping should take place on the red routes or any other main road in London," says Malcolm Fuller of the Metropolitan Police contract removal unit. "We also agreed certain criteria so far as the clamping of LGVs carrying valuable or dangerous loads was concerned."
Drivers carrying perishable, valuable or dangerous loads will be able to invoke an emergency de-clamp procedure allowing them to pay a £100 surety at the roadside and be released within 20 minutes without the need to go to a parking shop. However, relatively few hauliers are prepared to risk their reputation for the sake of not paying for a tax disc, and fewer still would consider leaving their vehicles parked on the highway where the clamping procedure wilt operate.
"Most hauliers pay their \TED," says the Freight Transport Association. We don't see why those who don't should be allowed to get away with it. The safety implications have been taken into account and clamped vehicles should not therefore pose any problems to other traffic."
The Road Haulage Association agrees. We have no problem with this scheme. If hauliers break the law they deserve to be caught."
Of the £163m in VED revenue lost to tax dodgers every year, ,L23m is attributed to LGVs. Neither the PTA nor the RHA were included in the consultations. Nevertheless, the DOT has estimated that some 14,000 LGVs are evading payment of duty and they are determined to crack down on these offenders.
In case anyone should think the Government is putting all its eggs in one boot, the more traditional methods of detecting excise offences will continue, with the DVLA working alongside the police and the VI in roadside checks. A major regional campaign against evaders is already being planned for next month.
Fl by Patrick Hook
PUTTING THE BOOT IN • Unlicensed vehicles found with no licence disc displayed {initially in the London area) will be checked against central computer records to see if a licence has been issued.
• If no licence exists, the DVLA officer will authorise clamping. The charge for removing the clamp will be £68. from cars to LGVs, and drivers will have to pay this at a local parking shop • If a driver fails to arrange for the clamp to be removed within 24 hours his vehicle will be removed to a pound and the release fee will jump to £135 plus a daily storage charge.
• To have the clamp removed a driver will have to produce a valid disc or pay a £100 surety in addition to the £68 clamping fee. If he chooses to pay the surety, he will have 14 days to produce a licence after which prosecution will follow and the £100 is forfeit. • The power to clamp vehicles in these circumstances is contained in the Vehicle Excise Duty (Immobilisation, Removal and Disposal of Vehicles) Regs 1996.