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What is pay-per-mile ‘road pricing’ and what could it mean for British motorists?
MOTORISTS in the UK could soon face a new form of road tax where they pay for every mile they drive.
This potential shift is driven by the need to find alternative revenue sources as fuel tax revenues decline with the rise of electric vehicles.
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What is pay-per-mile road pricing?
Pay-per-mile road pricing is a proposed system where drivers are taxed based on the distance they travel on public roads.
Unlike the current fuel tax, which is based on how much petrol or diesel you buy, this method charges drivers according to their usage of the road network.
This could result in higher costs for those who drive more frequently or over longer distances.
Advocates argue that it offers a fairer way to tax road use and encourages reduced driving, while critics believe it could disproportionately affect lower-income individuals and those in areas with limited public transport.
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How does per-mile road pricing work?
To implement pay-per-mile road pricing, the government would need to track the distance each vehicle travels.
This could be accomplished using various technologies, such as GPS-based trackers, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, or smartphone apps.
However, such measures have raised privacy concerns among critics who argue that they could be overly invasive.
Will per-mile road pricing be used in the UK?
The idea of per-mile road pricing faces significant political and public challenges.
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While there are no immediate plans to roll out this system, it is seen as a potential solution to replace declining fuel tax revenues as more electric vehicles hit the roads.
With ongoing discussions and shifting public opinion, it's possible that the UK could introduce per-mile road pricing within the next decade, especially as it works towards reducing reliance on fossil fuels and adapting to changes in vehicle technology.
At the moment, it’s thought to be the fairest alternative to fuel duty - which will need replacing in the next decade or so.
And while there are no immediate plans to force drivers to pay per mile, due partly to the political implications of doing so, road pricing at some point before the year 2030 is pretty much inevitable.
Otherwise, the government will have to rise taxes elsewhere.
Why is per mile road pricing being discussed?
At the moment, car drivers pay tax when they fill their cars at petrol stations.
For every litre of petrol or diesel they buy, around 58p goes to the government.
That means someone filling their 45-litre petrol tank in their Volkswagen Polo from almost empty will be paying around £25 in tax.
Spread across every petrol station, every day, that’s a lot of money flowing into government coffers - about £28 billion every year, in fact.
But because petrol and diesel cars are being slowly replaced by electric cars, this figure will drop.
Around 15% of all new cars being sold in the UK are electric.
And with each one of these cars - around 33,000 per month - representing a petrol tank not being filled at a forecourt, that’s a big gap in government earnings.
And the government is trying to find ways of replacing this valuable cash generator.
Has road pricing been used before?
London’s Congestion Charge zone and Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) are both versions of this system currently in use in Britain.
Drivers pay to use certain roads in the capital, which are monitored using hundreds of ANPR cameras.
Drivers must remember to pay online to use these roads - if they forget, they could receive a huge fine.
Electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles are exempt from these charges, as are most motorcycles and scooters.
Several bridges, motorways and tunnels have tolls for use, including the Dartford Crossing and the M6 Toll.
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In Europe, large amounts of the motorway network cost drivers money to use, in the form of tolls collected either automatically or in person at toll booths.
But nowhere has successfully implemented a nationwide per-mile road pricing scheme.
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