The guy on the right has never seen a worksite or a dirt road. He drives around town to go shop at Whole Foods

Maybe we should tax them a lot. It's disgusting that these monstrosities are even allowed.

Thanks Rutte!

I'd also add a max vehicle tonnage. I'd not limit it to urban areas but everywhere.

Or easier, prohibit these cars altogether. If I even have to argue it that way, the prohibition would protect the car industry also from those megacars (which take up more parking spaces, leading to fewer car possibilities, and endangering bicyclists and drivers alike).

That happened in the UK too. Vans are differently taxed to cars here for businesses. Vans are defined by the volume of their cargo area, which these just about meet. Thankfully though, the government changed the rules so that for any new leases or on the date of renewal, double cab pickups are considered to be cars for tax purposes.

Cars are taxed on their co2 emissions and on the user it's given to (ie not the company). This still needs to change as it doesn't quite work anymore as the massive electric SUVs have taken over. A think tank has recommended a weight and/or price component so hopefully at the next budget they'll change it.

Maybe you can lobby to get the same?

But the kicker is: the vehicle can be bought by any company. You can just start a business that doesn't do anything, get a car in that business's name for a reduced fee, and drive it whenever you want.

This isn't completely true.

First of all, company needs to pay for the vehicle, so one would have to put the money into the company. This comes with consequences for tax purposes and one obviously needs to have the money ready. A lot of cars are bought on a loan, this won't work in this setup. Same with trading in the previous vehicle, that won't work unless the company was the owner of that vehicle as well (and companies usually get terrible trade in prices). Then there's the issue where the car can't be used for personal trips, only for trips related to the company. There needs to be an administration and trips need to be convincingly for the company. The owner can opt to use the vehicle for private trips if he wants to, but then needs to pay the taxes, just like anyone driving a car they got from work. A company that doesn't do anything also can't exist. At the least there needs to be an administration and taxes. This will have costs attached. It's also required for the company to pay the primary employee (owner) for the work he puts in, this is mandatory. There are ways to postpone these payments, but at some point they need to get done. A completely empty company that does nothing is usually a vehicle for tax evasion, so it will face frequent inspection.

Now there are workarounds with grades of legality, but overal it isn't worth it just to prevent the tax on a new car.

The reason for the license plates is the way these are imported. They use the Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) loophole to import the cars. That way they don't have to comply with normal regulations. It's a terrible loophole that needs to be closed off asap.

We also need a max emissions, max size, max weight and max noise restrictions on all cars. It's getting terrible out there. Especially some of those new huge Range Rovers are terrible, those are actual tanks and people inside are so cut off from the rest of the world they don't even notice how much they are speeding and how reckless they are driving.

The way my US state got around that was that the company had to have a sign on the truck. Name of the owner and a phone number.

Y'all need to start fighting against them sooner-than-later.

Owners of these trucks have an over-abundance of entitlement. They go into absolute temper-tantrums at attempts to get these monsters off the road. Nip them in the bud while there aren't to many of them- they are the urban-planning version of an invasive weed.

A big, expensive wrench that's never been used by a tradesman