As I said earlier, I do wonder what the bigger picture will be.
Ok, it will save the government some money in direct payments to companies who physically produce the paper tax discs, and some delivery costs and admin work.
On the other hand, I guess this will also lead to some layoffs somewhere, you can't stop making and distributing millions of physical items every year without some people losing out.
Likewise, now there will be nothing on a car to identify it, other than the number plate which can be got around for £15 I can't see the incidence of people doing this (to vanish off the radar totally) to decrease. If anything, it will increase.
Would that, in insurance, police and court time end up costing more in the longer term?
I love technology and new gadgets, but it does seem sort sighted and dumb beyond measure to remove ANY means of a general method of identifying a car from the outside.
If we legal car drivers (such as myself who has never driven without paying all I should do) DO pay and have proof. It's a shame such proof cannot be displayed on a windscreen, perhaps in a manner that it's easy for someone to check up. Insurance, MOT, Tax.
I pay them all legally, always have done. And would be happy to have 1 card that displayed this on view.
Now, it's been made super easy to pay none, drive without anything, just by buying some plates, and no one, not even the police car travelling behind you that reads your plate and see's all ok, all paid up, will have a clue you have not paid anything.