MICHAEL OWEN General manager Commercial Vehicle Finance Basingstoke, Hants
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Up to 200,000 drivers a year are prosecuted for driving without insurance , and Owen says government pledges to tackle the problem have had little effect. But he has a simple solution: "Why don't we adopt the practice common on the Continent, which Is to insure the motor vehicle rather than the driver?
"Or do what they do in Australia, where the annual registration tax includes automatic cover for Injury or death to third parties."
At the same time Owen would consign road tax to the scrap heap. Instead, he favours a system of graduated congestion charges based on peak periods of demand: "This would encourage trucks, urban distribution vehicles and vans to run at the quieter times.
"The knock-on effect is that heavy trucks would run outside of rush-hour times so they wouldn't sit in the jams — which would mean less pollution."