8 July 2014

RAPID - Is it generating money?

| James-T-Kirk
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Hi everybody,

I am driving past more and more RAPID camera equipped police cars with their lights flashing having pulled over some dreadful infringing member of society. It has also been ages since the ACT Government issued registration labels. This raises the all important question…

Where do we go to see how many cars are (caught) driving unregistered here in the ACT, compared to previous years? How can we identify whether the infringements are genuine (I forgot vs I couldn’t be stuffed vs The paperwork didn’t arrive)? and finally, how can we see the staggering amount of funds that the new system of RAPID detection, coupled with not reminding people when they get into a car that their rego is due this month…..

The cynic in me can’t help but believe that the overall system is now designed to increase revenue through people being forgetful. I’m safe as the wonderful Mrs Kirk has a spreadsheet in the budget reminding us of when each of the families 4 cars are due for rego / insurance. But others may not be so lucky!

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Grail said :

More police out driving RAPID cars means more visible police on the roads. That’s a good thing, regardless of revenue.

Including expectations of RAPID and Speed Camera revenue in the budget? That’s a different thing entirely. The Government should be working to reduce infringement revenue to 0, not betting the bank on people breaking the law.

Agree we need more police cars with or without rapid. Not speed cameras that ping you for doing 89 in an 80 zone. Yes its speeding but i doubt many people change their habits because of this.

I think safety cameras that record everything at a set of lights would be the way to go. If someone sees a bad driver, they report it online, someone checks the video footage, if its conclusive, they get a fine. I say this because I had someone turn right from the lane designated as straight ahead and overtake me that way, because they didn’t want to queue behind the other cars turning right!

Or at roundabouts where people enter because they think they can without giving way as you are in a different lane. Focus on making people drive better and you’ll find that people will speed less. you’ll never stop those who don’t give a rats arse though.

More police out driving RAPID cars means more visible police on the roads. That’s a good thing, regardless of revenue.

Including expectations of RAPID and Speed Camera revenue in the budget? That’s a different thing entirely. The Government should be working to reduce infringement revenue to 0, not betting the bank on people breaking the law.

Even without the internet, there’s nothing stopping you from putting a discrete sticker on your gauges with the date of your rego expiry. You only need to do it once for each car as well as the date should stay the same every year if you do 12 months worth.

You can do it without the paperwork really easily.

They have the rego checker:
https://rego.act.gov.au/regosoa/public/findRegoByPlate.jsf

Which has the vin/chassis number on it which is all you need to do rego and it updates straight away.

Gazket, as you have internet access to post here you do know that you can pay bills online too right? Or over the phone?

With no rego labels anymore you just make your payment before or on the day it’s due (no need to pay days in advance to wait for a label to be posted out) and your rego record is immediately updated, including the link to RAPID.

You’re welcome.

Your theory seems highly illogical.

I am pretty good at keeping track of when my registration is due, but not very trusting of others. If I am going to drive another person’s car I check the relevant website for currency before moving. Having seen more than once the wicked situation a person injured by an unregistered/uninsured driver is placed in, I have no sympathy for anyone caught.

“coupled with not reminding people when they get into a car that their rego is due this month….. “

you do get posted a rego reminder

Reprobate said :

Can’t go along with the conspiracy theory sorry – if say for example 100 people don’t pay their rego and one quarter of them are picked up by RAPID or the P2P cameras, the gov’t misses out on much more money (100 x $1,000 annual rego fees = $100,000 revenue, 25 x $500 driving unrego’d + 25 annual regos @ $1,000 ea = $32,500). So you’d need 80% or more of unrego’d cars to be picked up (unlikely) before the conspiracy becomes profitable.

I’m a strong advocate against speed cameras (ineffective for road safety, what benefit is there in getting an invoice 2 weeks after an event – speeding – that allegedly could kill you on the spot) but fully support visible policing including RAPID (immediate cause and effect, checking for other road safety factors like alcohol/drug screening & roadworthiness, targets drivers without compulsaory 3rd party insurance that is vital).

driving unregistered fine is around $800 for no rego and $800 for uninsured. So the gov make money they don’t loose money. How much is a rego sticker worth anyway $3 , I doubt the gov save any meaningful amount of money at all by not supplying labels.

It certainly hasn’t made the line at the rego office move any quicker. Making the line to rego your car more efficient would saved more money.

I’m at the desk in under 5 minutes to rego the car, here’s my rego number , how much rego I want , here’s my key card , take the papers thankyou, see ya.

A lot of morons are there for 20 minutes or more.

TheBusDriver4:10 pm 09 Jul 14

My inner cynic says the people that complain about this are the ones who have gotten fines before in their lives. Because yeah, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gotten fines before that has an issue with this.
Dear OP, in the interests of full disclosure, have you ever gotten any driving / car related fines before? If so, how many and what for?
I’ll happily tell you I’ve never had a fine for anything in my life.

Reprobate said :

PS you can also sign up for email rego reminders and SMS alerts for expired regos here: https://rego.act.gov.au/regosoa/public/maintainContactDetails.jsf

Thanks for that link.

I don’t get the reference to ‘genuine’ infringements. You’re either registered or you’re not. If you’re not, then you’re driving around uninsured and a financial liability to everyone around you, if nothing else.

Doesn’t matter whether it’s intentional or not. And I say that as one who has forgotten and been done for an unregistered vehicle in the past. There’s no excuse. It’s just sloppy life management. Everyone knows the deal.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back12:51 pm 09 Jul 14

Rollersk8r said :

What Reprobate said. I’m generally against speed cameras because I don’t believe they serve their so-called purpose of improving safety.

However, I’m 100% supportive of RAPID – because if you crash into or injure me then you sure as hell better be registered and insured.

+1.

What Reprobate said. I’m generally against speed cameras because I don’t believe they serve their so-called purpose of improving safety.

However, I’m 100% supportive of RAPID – because if you crash into or injure me then you sure as hell better be registered and insured.

PS you can also sign up for email rego reminders and SMS alerts for expired regos here: https://rego.act.gov.au/regosoa/public/maintainContactDetails.jsf

Can’t go along with the conspiracy theory sorry – if say for example 100 people don’t pay their rego and one quarter of them are picked up by RAPID or the P2P cameras, the gov’t misses out on much more money (100 x $1,000 annual rego fees = $100,000 revenue, 25 x $500 driving unrego’d + 25 annual regos @ $1,000 ea = $32,500). So you’d need 80% or more of unrego’d cars to be picked up (unlikely) before the conspiracy becomes profitable.

I’m a strong advocate against speed cameras (ineffective for road safety, what benefit is there in getting an invoice 2 weeks after an event – speeding – that allegedly could kill you on the spot) but fully support visible policing including RAPID (immediate cause and effect, checking for other road safety factors like alcohol/drug screening & roadworthiness, targets drivers without compulsaory 3rd party insurance that is vital).

I genuinely forgot to recently renew my rego… I drove around for about a week til I remembered. That’s only because I went, sh#t it’s June and my rego ran out late May.

I called up immediately to pay my rego and asked why a renewal was never sent. I had moved recently and updated my address mid May. I was advised it was sent to my current address early April. Which I laughed at as they wouldn’t of had my current address on file then and if they did it was a construction site in April.

Apparently they also send out reminders about 10 days after your rego expires. So in my opinion.. Even though I genuinely forgot… They at least remind you, so if you’re more than a month out of adage. No excuse

“The cynic in me can’t help but believe that the overall system is now designed to increase revenue through people being forgetful.”

That’s bordering on conspiracy theory levels of suspicion. I don’t know about the ACT, but in NSW (which did away with stickers before the ACT) the RMS just sends you a reminder email a few weeks before your rego is due. If it’s really that big a deal, then just sticking the date in your calendar/diary should work fine for most people.

The biggest savings are almost certainly through reducing the number of staff needed to administer the rego system, and time savings for police officers.

It doesn’t matter whether you couldn’t be stuffed, forgot or lost the paperwork it’s still your fault and you suffer the consequences. No rego, means no insurance and you’ll be up for all costs if you have an accident and injure someone.

They send you a reminder notice in the mail about 6 weeks out from the expiry. If it goes to the wrong address, then it’s your fault for not updating your address. If the system breaks, it’s normally in the CT and they fix the problem.

Realistically, did anyone actually look at the rego sticker stuck to the opposite side of the windscreen every time the got in the car? No. This is evident by the number of fools still with rego stickers still on their cars from 2 years ago. I’m pretty sure it’s still an offence to display an out of date sticker as some vehicles are still required to display them.

If you still think you could possibly forget, put a reminder and alarm in your calendar.. I’m sure about 90% of us use one at work or on the mobile phone.

Most people don’t have a problem with this and I don’t see why we would go changing the system to cater for the small number of idiots or the forgetful.

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