Pay per mile

[cromwell]

A "right of centre" think tank called Policy Exchange has backed dropping fuel duty and replacing it with a pay per mile charge.
They aren't only prposing to make you pay by how far you go though, they want you to pay more if you drive at busy times like rush hour.
To make this work though, it would seem that every car would have to be equipped with gps, tracking your every journey.
It's too much like 1984 for me I'm afraid.

[TheOstrich]

I would imagine that it will be a hybrid system if it goes ahead. Petrol / diesel vehicles will continue to pay fuel duty as now. The GPS pay-per-whatever system will be rolled out on new electric vehicles.

[cromwell]

Perhaps Os but it is worth noting that since May 2022 every car sold in the EU has been fitted with GPS, by law.

[Workingman]

So that's at least Policy Exchange, the Tony Blair Instituted, the AA and RAC who want pay-per-mile.

It has been coming due to EVs. As their numbers rise (slightly and slowly) the receipts from fuel duty fall - that money has to be recouped.

There are two main ways of doing it: annual log of mileage on the MOT or p-p-m. The problem with the MOT scheme is that new cars get a free ride for three years so everyone else is picking up their tab. The more affluent who buy new cars more often might never pay (the poorer subsidising the richer, again) so I guess that GPS will be it. The only way I can see round the MOT problem is for all cars to have an annual mileage check on the anniversary of the day they are first put on the road.