New rules are now in force to attempt to force uninsured drivers off the road...
The DVLA have installed a new computer system to check the insurance database against the Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) database. It is now illegal to keep a vehicle on your drive or in a field without a SORN.
The computer will automatically issue warning letters, £100 penalties and can even tell the local plod to immobilise the vehicle, tow it away or even crush it. So, if you are motorist who hasn't taxed or insured his vehicle and hasn't filled in a SORN, then be afraid. Be very afraid.
In fact, if you own a vehicle at all, then be afraid!
Why?
Well, because in my long experience of working on computer systems for the government, they are completely incapable of writing a specification or controlling a contractor to write the software properly. Expect fines to be issued to innocent people, expect vehicles to be towed away that are properly taxed and insured, and expect guilty people to be totally missed and get away scot free. Trail by computer is an inherently bad idea.
In any case, people who break the law will continue to break the law. I remember once meeting a minicab driver who was given a twelve month ban for drunk driving. He was still driving his minicab. When I asked him why, he simply said that he needed to earn a living and that the vehicle didn't drive any differently just because he didn't have a piece of paper.
The idea is a step in the right, but even in the unlikely event that they get the system to work properly, it ain't gonna work.
Remember, you heard it here frst...