I passed my motorcycle test today, and had planned to go out for a ride with my Dad this afternoon. But I discovered that, in the time between failing my first test and now, the tax had expired on my bike.
This has two main implications. The first is that I can’t ride it until the insurance certificate makes it through the post, because you need that to get tax. The second is that since I hadn’t given tax, for an unused bike being kept in a garage, a second thought, I failed to send in a “statutory off-road notification” (SORN). Thanks to the new tax rules and automatic fines, I may end up in trouble over forgetting to fill in a form.
It’s not as if I haven’t had to jump through enough hoops already:
- Compulsory basic training (at which I had to produce my driving license)
- Theory test (at which I had to produce my license and CBT certificate)
- Direct access course
- Bike test (at which I had to produce my license and CBT certificate and theory test certificate)
- Insurance
And now a combination of tax and SORN.
The automatic fines are supposed to be, “aimed at cracking down on individuals who do not tax their vehicles.” If I fall foul of them then they missed their target, because I do tax my vehicles. They are shown to be fines against forgetfulness; against failing to cope with the ever increasing arbitrary bureaucracy that defines one’s relationship with the modern state; against being one of those people who finds it much easier to apply themselves to productive activities than to spend time satisfying ancilliary whims.
But the concept of SORN is even more problematic than the fines. I may yet get away with the fine, I haven’t received a summons despite being told that they’re normally sent out 14 days after the tax expires (it’s been 27 days), and there may well be an appeals procedure. But SORN itself requires you to declare to the authorities that you’re not breaking the law. It’s an unjust requirement. One of the reasons I’m against compulsory ID cards is becuse of the principle that a law abiding citizen should not have to come into contact with the state. A law against not declaring you haven’t broken another law is absurd.
Some may argue that SORN prevents people going around in un-taxed, un-insured, un-roadworthy vehicles. I find that hard to believe. Anyone determined enough would simply fill in a false SORN and be in much the same situation as if there was no SORN: waiting for a policeman to notice the out-of-date tax disc. What’s left is a system that merely penalises people for getting out of date with the paperwork.
More generally, the concept of creating hoops for people to jump to as a preventative measure is flawed. The law should be about dealing with people who have committed crime, not hassling everybody who conceivably might.
Update: This never came to anything. I went to the Post Office, filled in the form, and got the tax disc with no drama at all. Maybe the notion of 14 days and then you’re automatically fined is just a threat; maybe the DVLA was too incompetent to catch me; or what the hell, maybe they really can tell the difference between forgetfulness and deliberate evasion. The point remains that according to the letter of the law you can get fined for not filling in a form.
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