I always ponder this question. The answer is plain and simple - no one actually knows. Well, except maybe the thieves who take it in the first place.
My route to work covers many main roads, or 'A' roads as they are more commonly classified. The amount of potholes I come across on these roads is ridiculous.
The potholes on UK roads are just too much to handle. I mean, the average person is going to forking over at least £135 for 12 months of road tax. This is a hell of a lot of money, on top of the price of your MOT and insurance. For the money they take they certainly don't reflect this on the condition of the roads.
I know that weather takes its toll on roads but surely, as we are getting extreme weather every year now, it makes sense to invest in improving the roads. Look at roads on the continent - they can survive much harsher weathers than ours can! The money it would save not just us, but the whole country, is probably unthinkable.
The sad truth is that the money is probably spent topping up MP wages, or covering expenses scandals, paying for their luxuries whilst the rest of the country fork out road tax to them each and every year.
Of course, the alternative is to purchase a car with low enough emissions to qualify for free road tax. Unfortunately, not everyone's situation warrants such a car. They tend to have much less capacity so are no good for those with families. That said, low emission technology, especially hybrid vehicle, are becoming more popular and I can foresee them improving on their current model to allow larger vehicles to reduce their emissions.
The Government will always introduce a new tax when they see fit. The more popular hybrid technology becomes, and so less people have to pay road tax, they'll find some other area of motoring to con the population out of more of their hard earned pennies.
So the latest trollop to come from our country is the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) making the statement, "the fuel market is working well" - they will not investigate fuel prices any further, despite them once again going on the rise.
The OFT have stated that the retail price of fuel is one of the cheapest in Europe, once you minus the VAT and tax on there. What a pointless statement to make - it is something we already know. The main issue I, and many others, have is that prices always sky rocket when the wholesale price of crude oil goes up, but it fails to reduce in cost when crude oil prices drop. Now, even with tax in the loop this shouldn't be happening. If anything, the tax is less when the crude oil prices are lower so why aren't these savings being passed down to the consumer.
Another issue I have is the many different variations in price, depending on where you are. Competition is fine, it helps the consumer by providing the cheapest possible price but I'm not talking about these variations. Take me for example, I live in Stockport where the average price of fuel is around 132.7p per litre(source: www.petrolprices.com). Sam, on the other hand, lives in Oldham where the average is 132.2p per litre. Now I know this isn't a massive difference but the further up into the Saddleworth moors you go, the higher the price becomes. I think I remember driving past a service station up there that was selling unleaded at 153.4p per litre!
To me, this does actually warrant some form of investigation. I can understand the small, family run service stations charging a bit more but surely there should be some consistency to major brand pricing. Why does a Shell near me charge 132.9p, yet a Shell 10 miles away charges 139.9p? I just don't see how this is fair.
Below I have included a diagram from www.petrolprices.co.uk, showing the breakdown of a lire of unleaded at 132.9p and a litre of diesel retailing at 137.9p:
It is quite clear that the government is taking the largest chunk of the price we pay (don't forget they take the duty AND the VAT). This leaves 5p of every litre for the retailer. Whilst compared to the government share it looks pretty dire, it still doesn't excuse why the retailer puts the prices up in certain areas - maybe to increase the profits to compensate the lower priced areas?
At the end of the day, it's the consumer that is the victim in all of this. Maybe it's time the government rethought their strategy on fuel duty - it isn't helping put them on motorists' Christmas card lists...
