For Me Friends Only
A blog that's much ado about nothing really.Monday, May 14, 2007
Car Matters
I had to renew my road tax and car insurance this month and I was frustrated and perplexed with what I had to go through. My experience got me thinking again about how efficiency is achieved with mandates. Here's what happened.
My road tax renewal was due on the 8th May and I went to the post office wanting to get it done.
I was in a rush that day. Had things to do and I was illegally parked, at the slot designated for the post truck no less, as there weren't any empty slots. The post office closes at 5pm and it was already 4 in the afternoon and I wanted to rush to NTUC Income to pay my car insurance for the year to come, after renewing my road tax.
So I was in a rush. But as my luck would have it, there was a long queue. I waited and waited, worried about being fined and feeling frustrated at the slow moving line. Finally, my turn. The lady didn't even looked at my vehicle inspection certificate, ok, whatever. Guess it wasn't crucial even though the government mandated that all three year-old car had to pass inspection before they would give you permission to continue driving your used 2yo car.
Then the lady asked for my insurance papers, I said I have yet to renew as I was going to get it done AFTER I had renew my road tax. But she said no, can only renew road tax whenI have proved that I have insured my car.
My question is, is there any *ucking difference as to which gets renewed first? It was only the 5th May, which means I'm still covered (insurance) and I have not violated any law (road tax).
So what's the LOGIC of making it a rule that all drivers have to renew their car insurance first before they are ALLOWED to renew their road tax? In any case, even if there were any accidents, the drivers bear and pay for the consequences and not the government. So why mandate that car insurance must be paid before road tax? And in any case, I'm STILL covered, so why the inflexibility?
It's totally senseless and I thought about the incident and came to a conclusion. Our government takes very good care of us. They make sure that you WILL pay less and probably face mitigated charges if you were that unlucky to have an accident, since there is absolutely no way that we would not have protected ourselves with insurance.
Then two days ago, I received a RFID tag from HDB informing me that because of the good response they had for switching to a RFID tag instead of the paper tag for season car parking, it is now extended to all car owners.
Ok, I appreciated the convenience since I no longer had to change the piece of paper every month. Covenient for the department too since it is now easy to catch any violaters. With one scan, they know if you have faked that season parking label.
But I read with interest about losing the RFID tag. If I lose it, I pay $5 to get it replace. Right... so I'm given something I did not asked for, but I will be punished me if I lose it? Definitely an efficient and convenient move for the department but at the expense of ...???
I wonder how many of us thought about these issues. Or is the "prestige" of owning a car so big that not having a say/control in our own business is ok?
My road tax renewal was due on the 8th May and I went to the post office wanting to get it done.
I was in a rush that day. Had things to do and I was illegally parked, at the slot designated for the post truck no less, as there weren't any empty slots. The post office closes at 5pm and it was already 4 in the afternoon and I wanted to rush to NTUC Income to pay my car insurance for the year to come, after renewing my road tax.
So I was in a rush. But as my luck would have it, there was a long queue. I waited and waited, worried about being fined and feeling frustrated at the slow moving line. Finally, my turn. The lady didn't even looked at my vehicle inspection certificate, ok, whatever. Guess it wasn't crucial even though the government mandated that all three year-old car had to pass inspection before they would give you permission to continue driving your used 2yo car.
Then the lady asked for my insurance papers, I said I have yet to renew as I was going to get it done AFTER I had renew my road tax. But she said no, can only renew road tax whenI have proved that I have insured my car.
My question is, is there any *ucking difference as to which gets renewed first? It was only the 5th May, which means I'm still covered (insurance) and I have not violated any law (road tax).
So what's the LOGIC of making it a rule that all drivers have to renew their car insurance first before they are ALLOWED to renew their road tax? In any case, even if there were any accidents, the drivers bear and pay for the consequences and not the government. So why mandate that car insurance must be paid before road tax? And in any case, I'm STILL covered, so why the inflexibility?
It's totally senseless and I thought about the incident and came to a conclusion. Our government takes very good care of us. They make sure that you WILL pay less and probably face mitigated charges if you were that unlucky to have an accident, since there is absolutely no way that we would not have protected ourselves with insurance.
Then two days ago, I received a RFID tag from HDB informing me that because of the good response they had for switching to a RFID tag instead of the paper tag for season car parking, it is now extended to all car owners.
Ok, I appreciated the convenience since I no longer had to change the piece of paper every month. Covenient for the department too since it is now easy to catch any violaters. With one scan, they know if you have faked that season parking label.
But I read with interest about losing the RFID tag. If I lose it, I pay $5 to get it replace. Right... so I'm given something I did not asked for, but I will be punished me if I lose it? Definitely an efficient and convenient move for the department but at the expense of ...???
I wonder how many of us thought about these issues. Or is the "prestige" of owning a car so big that not having a say/control in our own business is ok?
Labels: car insurance, RFID tag, road tax
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