ANPR

[sirwiggum]

Lets take a theoretical situation.

A car owner, let's call him Wir Siggum, was daft and forgot to change the address on his V5 (yes I know...) from his mothers address where he registered the car because he was moving house soon after having bought the car.

He forgot to get the V11 tax renewal, as he was waiting til payday anyway.

The end of the month was on a Wednesday, he drove to and from work on the Thursday (tut tut!) but took a half day on Friday the 2nd to try and get a couple of errands - one of which was to sort out his tax (which he couldn't do online as the DVLNI are useless, and couldn't do over the phone as it was constantly engaged). Unfortunately before he got a chance he had to run his lovely lady to the doctors. On the way, there was a Tax Enforcement Vehicle with the cameras which he drove past.
He got everything sorted, got his form and went up to the post office literally an hour later to tax his car (which runs from the 1st of the month onwards).

So, in this theoretical situation, do these tax enforcement cars batch up all offenders for overnight processing, in which case his car should then be marked as taxed?
Would/should they have radioed ahead to a traffic branch car?
Or, does it look up the tax and send a fine immediately? (The most likely scenario)
Would the fact it was taxed an hour later work in his favour?

14 day grace seems to apply to cars parked on private land.
There are rumours of a 6 day grace, but these have no foundation in law.

All in all, he was a bit of a silly billy, and if as is likely, will pay his fine and take his medicine and learn from the situation.

[Bailes1992]

There is no grace, by law you MUST show a valid tax disc. Even if the car has tax you can be fined simply for not displaying it. The grace is an old wives tale.

Although I'm sure if you did get caught on APNR a Police car would have chased you, realised your VTEC powered monster was no match for his Ford Focus TDCi, went and got a 530d, caught up with you and your VTEC powered monster while you were filling up with petrol and shot you dead So I reckon your ok

[waue1978]

There is no grace, by law you MUST show a valid tax disc. Even if the car has tax you can be fined simply for not displaying it. The grace is an old wives tale.

Although I'm sure if you did get caught on APNR a Police car would have chased you, realised your VTEC powered monster was no match for his Ford Focus TDCi, went and got a 530d, caught up with you and your VTEC powered monster while you were filling up with petrol and shot you dead So I reckon your ok

Not sure if it is still accurate, but a couple of years ago a friend in the know informed me that the Police weren't chasing people up on tax discs (hence the DVLA vehicles making an appearance). He did say though, that you would probably find that a police officer would severely scrutinise the rest of the car if you weren't showing a valid tax disc. The basic thinking behind that is that if you skimp on the tax, you may be skimping on more safety conscious items too.

[CalamityJames]

I got a letter once from the DVLA a couple of days before my tax ran out saying something along the lines of "You still haven't taxed your car. No need to panic, we're giving you another 5 days to get it sorted"

I don't remember if the letter stipulated it couldn't be driven or not in those 5 days but I was quite surprised to get the letter!

[sirwiggum]

There is no grace, by law you MUST show a valid tax disc. Even if the car has tax you can be fined simply for not displaying it. The grace is an old wives tale.

Yea I thought this. Though I was once told off-record by a DVLNI employee that they don't start sending out the computerised notices til you are 2 months out of tax.

Although I'm sure if you did get caught on APNR a Police car would have chased you,

I was wondering if they just immediately sent a signal to HQ to start printing fines, or does someone down the road chase you down? Or do they batch it up such that an hour delay in taxing could be put down as transaction time?

realised your VTEC powered monster was no match for his Ford Focus TDCi, went and got a 530d, caught up with you and your VTEC powered monster while you were filling up with petrol and shot you dead So I reckon your ok

Hehe by the time the autobox of the VTEC powered monster woke up and dropped down with the kickdown, I'd have been stopped and ticketed!
They'd probably upgrade to a V8 armoured Land Rover in deepest darkest South Belfast, although I've noticed the local cops using a load of Astras with GB registrations.
Would only get shot with a plastic bullet as it's less paperwork

[sirwiggum]

I got a letter once from the DVLA a couple of days before my tax ran out saying something along the lines of "You still haven't taxed your car. No need to panic, we're giving you another 5 days to get it sorted"

I don't remember if the letter stipulated it couldn't be driven or not in those 5 days but I was quite surprised to get the letter!

Yea this is the one I've heard. 5/6 days. But no doubt it'll need to be 'parked up'.

Quite willing to take the hit for the mistake and learn from it.
But was just curious as to how the whole DVLA/DVLNI ANPR tax enforcement camera car system works.

[sirwiggum]

There is no grace, by law you MUST show a valid tax disc. Even if the car has tax you can be fined simply for not displaying it. The grace is an old wives tale.

Although I'm sure if you did get caught on APNR a Police car would have chased you, realised your VTEC powered monster was no match for his Ford Focus TDCi, went and got a 530d, caught up with you and your VTEC powered monster while you were filling up with petrol and shot you dead So I reckon your ok

Not sure if it is still accurate, but a couple of years ago a friend in the know informed me that the Police weren't chasing people up on tax discs (hence the DVLA vehicles making an appearance). He did say though, that you would probably find that a police officer would severely scrutinise the rest of the car if you weren't showing a valid tax disc. The basic thinking behind that is that if you skimp on the tax, you may be skimping on more safety conscious items too.

I've seen Road Wars where an ANPR flags up something like a lapsed MOT, they find the driver has no insurance, licence etc.

[CalamityJames]

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I managed to track down a copy of the letter, someone on another forum had got one!

[Bailes1992]

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I managed to track down a copy of the letter, someone on another forum had got one!

Thats only if you bought a new tax disc and waiting for it to be delivered!

[sirwiggum]

Yea looks like its after it's on their system. Such that ANPR will show it as taxed, but peelers will see an out of date disc "tax in post".

Whereas my theoretical situation:

Tax up
ANPR -> Lookup Tax table with numberplate -> Tax up if immediate?
1 hr later
Post Office -> Update Tax table with new tax - > Immediate update or batched?
If ANPR batched, tax is up to date?

[FarmerPug]

the DVLNI seems to be fairly good at sending out tax reminders, my dads car, my car, even the SORN reminder for my jeep come well in advance of the expiry date.
They have the worlds worst website though, so you need to go to the tax office which seem to always have a long queue and rather sad people serving.

[Welly]

I'm sure you get 5 days grace whichever method you use to tax your car.

[sirwiggum]

the DVLNI seems to be fairly good at sending out tax reminders, my dads car, my car, even the SORN reminder for my jeep come well in advance of the expiry date.
They have the worlds worst website though, so you need to go to the tax office which seem to always have a long queue and rather sad people serving.

Yea they sent out a reminder. Just I still had the car registered to my mums, and as I was too skint last month to tax it, didn't think to ask for it before pay day.

Their website is a shambles. Tried to tax via the DVLA website, but it didn't recognise the numberplate.

The office is a shambles. Pick up a number and it is something like 176, and the currently serving is 34.
Only have about 4 people on desk at lunch hour, and everyone seems to have awkward forms / queries that take forever.
I've seen a lunchour last 2 hours waiting in there.

[FarmerPug]

the first time i taxed the 406 was the last time ive been in the office, being an english reg car it needs sorted out for over here, 3 hours that took, mainly because some old fart tried to haggle with the woman behind the desk, but she kept saying i dont decide the price.
After that though you can do it at the post office which is handy enough.

[lozz]

ithink tax works the same as insurance,

if it flags up its a tug, and vehicle seized,

theres trucks going about up here with hoists lifting cars left right and centre,
some are even clamped whilst parked on a private car park,

not worth risking driving a car with no tax, the fine is pretty big,