BMF: Bike tagging threat removed

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Wednesday, 19, Mar 2008 12:00

The British Motorcyclists Federation has welcomed the decision by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to abandon plans to use electronic chips for motorcycle identification purposes.

The plan had been for Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) to be used as a means of tackling Vehicle Excise Duty evasion, but as this announcement follows the recent disclosure that the VED evasion figures for motorcycles had been erroneously grossly exaggerated* by the Department for Transport, the BMF sees the two issues as not unrelated.

Further, in the BMF’s submission to the DLVA’s consultation document last year, the BMF had said that the ‘fitting of Electronic Vehicle Identification to motorcycle number plates would be ineffective at addressing any of the issues relating to VED evasion and instead would be akin to ‘tagging the law-abiding motorcyclist with an ankle tag.’

According to the DVLA’s figures, the scheme would have cost around £100 million to recoup £27 million in lost VED revenue, but the BMF had already said that Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) has proved that a significant number of vehicles of all types use cloned or stolen plates so even this figure could not be guaranteed.

In addition, EVI might be more easily read but an embedded chip could be easily masked or indeed stolen along with the registration plate. This could mean, as now, that the victims of cloning or theft could be the ones held liable for the actions of criminals. Without adequate road policing for ‘stop checks’, the culprits would remain unidentifiable say the BMF.

Commenting, BMF Government Relations Executive Chris Hodder said: “We are pleased that the DVLA has taken note of our comments. EVI is not the solution to VED evasion. We knew it would be expensive to introduce and in any case be largely ineffective in deterring the criminal. All it would have done is ‘tag’ the honest and law abiding citizen.”

*Note: Initial VED evasion figures quoted a 38% evasion rate whereas revised figures proved it to be only 6%.

Issued by Jeff Stone: t: 0121 709 1040 m: 07802 763094 e: jeff.stone@bmf.co.uk

Details on this and other BMF activities can also be found on our web site: http://www.bmf.co.uk