Penalty points system unfair?

Question

I think I have had all of 3 points on my licence in 10 years, but I drive about 100,000 miles a year.

Should professional drivers be permitted ten times the points allowance because they drive ten times further than most drivers?

As things stand, a driver who is ten times less likely to have points, can get banned very easily by the totting up procedure.

Answer 1

repeat after me. life is not always fair

Answer 2

What you appear to be suggesting to me is that you have only been caught out once during your 10 years of driving to collect your 'all of three points'.

You are in no way a better driver because you describe yourself as professional driver or spend an excessive number of hours at the wheel of a vehicle.

It possibly means that you are a greater risk on the roads.

Answer 3

But, professional driver or not, if you drive carefully you won't get points!  Your statistical chance of getting points on your license is exactly the same as a recreational driver if you both drive carefully and observe speed limits!

10 times the amount of points is 10 times more chance of causing a fatal accident!

Answer 4

Using that curious yardstick, you're 10 times more likely to cause an accident, therefore should you be on the road at all?

Answer 5

But if you drive lawfully you won`t get any points, so i think it`s fair as it is really. I don`t really see how they can measure it if they have different levels of car use.

Answer 6

No, a professional driver should be smart enough to hold himself up to a higher standard.  They used to, and they were called the "knights of the road", now too many of them are called "bullies of the road", simply because of attitudes like yours.

You shouldn't have any points, my last one was in 1984.

Answer 7

Drive safe and correctly and you wont have to worry about this but to answer your question 'NO".

Answer 8

Definately not.

Professional drivers, especially those who do 100k/year, should be expected to have a considerably higher standard of competence than ordinary motorists.

In that respect they are like any other 'professional'; we expect that their trade standards, skill and competence to be very high - or they should not be doing the job.

For example-

I would expect a professional doctor to have a higher standard of medical competence than a part time "first aider", and not be allowed "more mistakes" just because he's doing medical things more often.

Also, I would expect a professional builder to construct a better brick wall than an amateur - every time. You wouldn't let him off building an occasional wonky one just because he builds hundreds of walls a year.

Sorry, your argument is flawed. In fact, I would expect very high standards from a professional driver and think that perhaps they should get heavier penalties for lawbreaking - because their opportunities for causing death or damage are greater than the rest of us.

Driving is potentially leathal, there should be no room for complaceny on the road.

What you suggest would give long distance motorists (& lorry drivers) a "licence" to exercise lower standards than the rest of us. An accident can occur within yards of a journey starting so 100k miles/year only increases the chances of one.

Answer 9

.

Read the above twice and withdraw your question.

Even SOME professional drivers don't quite get it. Safety IS THE paramount consideration in 1 or 100,000 road miles.

.

Answer 10

Obey the laws and you will not have any points on your license.

Answer 11

As a professional driver, you should know more about the law than anyone else and therefore be less likely to break it.

PERHAPS there's a case for having a private and professional licence which would mean that if you did get caught for something in your private car it wouldn't end up affecting your job.

Answer 12

Stick to the limit and you won't have to worry about points, it's not hard to stick at the speed limit.

Answer 13

So that would mean in your calculations that a person could be 10 times over the legal limit of alcohol if they drove 100,000 miles in a year??? Cause that is the same catagory? isn't it!.

Serious driving offences get you banned, if you drive further you should be a better driver/ rider than one who only goes round the corner to get thier paper..!

Little old lady in Bristol  got confused and ended up on the M4, realizing her mistake she quickly wrote a sign appologising for her mistake stuck it on the back window of her little car and drove to the next off ramp/ intersection at 20mph along the hard shoulder. A caring motorist called the police who ( you'd have thought were sympathetic to her problem) escorted her off of the motorway to safety. They then reported her for summons and she subsiquently lost her licesence for driving with undure care and attention... ( your calculations would see that as FAIR!!!).

No Totting up is a way of showing drivers / motorists that their driving/ riding is not up to standard, you get a number of warnings and the ban is only for a month (not a year). Exceed  100mph on any Uk road and you will get a summons and up to 3 months ban,

Cause an accident and it is a year. Drive without insurance or other doccuments and it could be three years ban.  Drive with over the legal limit is a year ban reduced to 9 months with rehabilitation. Drive at over twice the legal limit of alcohol and you could be looking at 3 years ban.This is sensible, the more you drive the higher the probability you will be involved in an accident not  a lower risk.

Take your driving test, do advanced driving courses take a  ROSPA refresher but don't be complacent. and don't mock the system. Contest it...

If we all drove within the speed limits for 12 months speed cameras would not pay for themselves they would become expensive white elephants. The road safety partnership ( not the police) govern the use of speed cameras and the more they gain in revenue means more lower speed limits and more speed cameras.

I hope this assists with your question

Answer 14

Don't you just hate these oh so self righteous people who answer your question.

Answer 15

No because that means they would be allowed to break the law 10 times more before they lose their liscences.

At say 3 points a time, they can break the law 40 times to an ordinary persons 4 times.