London luxury car owners foil congestion charge by registering as taxis

[PanterroR]

It seems London’s ridiculous congestion charge of £8 ($16) is too much even for Rolls Royce and Bentley owners. A number of luxury car owners in the UK capital have found a loophole that allows them to avoid paying the daily charge if their vehicles are registered as ‘private hire’ cars, essentially posing as taxis.

All they have to do is pay a £82 ($170) application fee and then a further £27 ($56) every year for the license. This means they can avoid paying the daily congestion charge, which in several months will be increased to £25 ($50) per day for heavy polluters like the Rolls Royce Phantom and Bentley Arnage.

The guys at Clean Green Cars have pointed out that the laws are so lax that a total of eight Mercedes SL models are registered as hire vehicles, a car with no back seat. So far, 31 Bentleys have been registered under the scheme, eight Rolls Royce Phantoms, one Cadillac Escalade and 52 Range Rovers.


Source: Motor Authority » London luxury car owners foil congestion charge by registering as taxis

 

[Kowalski]

£8 is not too much for a Rolls-Royce owner, it's too much for anyone full stop.

 

[Matt530i]

Perhaps you can clear this up for me. Is it £8 per day or is it £8 each time you enter the downtown area?

There was brief talk of instituting something like this in Toronto, but at a much lower rate (something like $5 Cdn per day). Public outrage killed the idea pretty quickly though.

 

[Kowalski]

£8 each time you drive in a congestion charge area in Central London.

If your car is in the Band G, i.e: Porsche 911. Then you have to pay £25, because your car is a "Gas Guzzling" threat to the climate... so Mr. Livingstone says.