Tax disc gets relegated to the waste paper bin

The guy on the radio last night who collects tax discs as a hobby was ecstatic.

His reason? The news that the tax disc will cease its paper life and become digital, consigning it to the waste paper basket of history, meant his collection of tax discs (particularly the rarer ones) would go up in value.

I’d never thought about this one, I must admit. But rare tax discs can now command 10 times their paid for price. And it will only go up.

Good for him and his fellow velologists. (OK, I had to look that one up, but you’ve probably guessed that’s a person who collects tax discs.) And good for the Chancellor too. It will save those of us in fleet management not only time, but an estimated £10m in reduced administration. £10m! Now that is a saving worth pocketing.

The changeover to ‘digital discs’ will happen in October 2014 and mark the end of the traditional roundel placed on the front of the car’s windscreen which was introduced in 1921 – for those sentimentalists out there.

It also means fleet managers can rest assured that all their cars will be taxed.

Renewing will be a click away, and you can always check the status of your cars tax, insurance, MOT, service and so on, with systems such as e-fleet – our cloud-based fleet management and reporting suite – which enables you to view live information on your fleet.

The other great saving, of course, was the fuel duty rise freeze.

Now this is great news, but that doesn’t mean fleet managers should take their eye off the cost of fuel.

It’s still imperative that fleets choose the most CO2 efficient – and therefore the most fuel efficient – cars for their fleet to minimise the impact of benefit in kind and to reduce overall running costs.

Of course, those fleets choosing cars with CO2 emissions up to 100g/km – cars as diverse as the Fiat 500 to the new 98g/km Vauxhall Insignia – will not only benefit from lower running costs, but they won’t have to worry about road tax. Because they are exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty.

Although you will still need to apply for a tax disc. Whether that’s paper – or, in the more efficient fleet world of post October 2014 – electronic.