Ricardo (www.ricardo.com) is one of nine leading organisations — representing fleets, motorists, the automotive industry, energy providers and local government — that have contributed to a new BVRLA report Road to Zero: time to shift gear on tax.

This is focused on the needs of the UK, but it has relevance to many nations with a similar vehicle fleet mix and system of motoring taxation.

The report’s authors warn that the advent of increasingly connected, electric and shared road transport presents challenges and opportunities for future Government motoring tax policy.

They point to the impending decline in revenues from the current CO₂ emissions-based regime, and they highlight the potential for a new tax system that could help to tackle transport priorities, including urban air
quality and congestion.

The report says new technologies present an opportunity to develop a fairer and more ‘sophisticated’ tax system that could be based on distance travelled, time of journey, location or air pollution, adding that Government taxes and incentives need to give fleets and motorists a clearer and more-consistent long-term message that investing in plug-in electric vehicles will bring economic benefits.

It also says that the Treasury needs to protect future ‘motoring tax receipts’, as drivers move over to electric vehicles and CO₂-based tax income declines — by up to £2 billion per year.

The report also says the UK’s increasingly devolved transport policy has given cities and regions greater powers to impose local motoring charges and taxes; and that local policy-makers need greater national Government support in designing and implementing these schemes, so that they are both fair and consistent.

It also highlights the fact that the way we are driving is changing — from ownership to shared use — and that the tax system needs to keep up.

The BVRLA wants the report to stimulate a dynamic discussion between drivers, the automotive supply chain and policy-makers about creating a tax system fit for the future.

At the launch of the report, the BVRLA’s chief executive, Gerry Keaney, said: “Time to Shift Gear on Tax is the first report of its kind, bringing together a host of policy perspectives and ideas that all demonstrate the urgent need for vehicle tax reform. We thank all our partners for their valued contributions.”

Further details can be found at the Web site (www.bvrla.co.uk/resource/it-s-time-to-shift-gear-on-motoring-tax.html).