Tolls

[Aboattime]

So we have all paid this years Tolls,and had the receipt from the BA ?Well this is up for discussion, there is a very well known Broads boat sales company selling boats that do not have this years tolled paid.So are some of us shocked?Could it be the case that the BA are turning a blind eye to this?Would the private boat owner be treated the same and leave there boat in the marina without a toll ? Looking forward to what every body thinks.

[Smoggy]

I thought boats under brokerage were exempt from tolls.

[Aboattime]

Never knew that, thought all boats had to have current toll.

[Meantime]

First I've heard of it. Under the adjacent waters all boats in a marina have to have a toll, unless they are on the hard standing.

[Aboattime]

All the boats are in the water.

[WherryNice]

Boats moored at commercial premises for sale or repair etc are exempt from requiring a toll, it's in the Adjacent Waters regs somewhere.

Edited April 17, 2019 by WherryNice
spelling

[rightsaidfred]

Boats under brokerage  in a sales marina are  exempt until sold

Fred

[dnks34]

Dont think this is anything new, boats in brokerage are not forced to renew the Toll.

As soon as they sell, if the Toll hasn't been paid its due. 

 

[WherryNice]

Here we go section 3.2 https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/468014/BA-Act-Tolls-in-Adjacent-Waters-nc030909.pdf

I only knew about it because the boat I bought a few years ago was untolled and had no BSS so the yard owner explained about it.

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by WherryNice
added section number

[Aboattime]

Thanks people you learn something new every day.

[Chelsea14Ian]

We brought our last boat on 2013,she is x hire.So we did a short term toll then got a yearly one.You then get back the cost of a temp toll.

[dnks34]

I think it becomes unfair if you buy an untolled boat part way through the year, your paying for the whole year unless its changed?

[Chelsea14Ian]

We got our boat in April 2013,so for us it was okay. 

[Vaughan]

This is why a brokerage will have trade plates, so that they can take un-tolled boats out on the river to demonstrate or test them.

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, dnks34 said:

I think it becomes unfair if you buy an untolled boat part way through the year, your paying for the whole year unless its changed?

No different if you buy a boat from another waterway, I had to toll mine in september for a full year when I got it.

[unclemike]

how can the foster 30 at potter(the one with the light on) get away with no toll,

accordeing to craigs database it has not been  registered since 2013.doe not show any details on  BA toll checker.its reg no is L320 and is called tessa II

[expilot]

The boat in question is moored in a privately owned boat dock.  The boat dock is owned by the same person who owns the Foster 30.  Had the boat belonged to anyone else, it would, I believe, have needed to be registered and tolled.  Broadland Swift, my own boat, is moored in our own wet-shed at Potter and similarly hasn't been tolled for several years.  On the rare occasion I have had to bring her on to the river, I have stumped up for a visitor toll.  At the moment we have another boat moored on our river frontage.  Because it is on the frontage as opposed to inside one of the wet-sheds, she, too, has to be registered and tolled.

[MauriceMynah]

This is a subject that often comes up with the cry "Not fair" but I tend to think of it this way...

The more simple the system is, the cheaper it is to run. Also being very simple makes it harder to abuse, again keeping the price down. There are those who would look for loopholes and try to get away without paying, or just paying for a few months a year. The broads exist 12 months a year, work needs doing 12 months a year. if you make it cheaper for some, the others have to pay more.

Whatever system you use, someone will, with good reason, find it unfair. so my vote goes for the cheapest unfair option, the one we have.

[TheQ]

The one thing I would change is every one having to renew on APR 1 because it must be a terrible train for the office staff to deal with all those registrations in one go. If the dates were to be from first registration it would spread the load out throught the year, the losses from Apr 1 to the new dates would be minimal. (yes there would be some peaks in the spring)

[Smoggy]

19 minutes ago, TheQ said:

The one thing I would change is every one having to renew on APR 1 because it must be a terrible train for the office staff to deal with all those registrations in one go. If the dates were to be from first registration it would spread the load out throught the year, the losses from Apr 1 to the new dates would be minimal. (yes there would be some peaks in the spring)

But as it is the staff are free for other stuff for most of the year.

[Seagypsy]

20 minutes ago, TheQ said:

The one thing I would change is every one having to renew on APR 1 because it must be a terrible train for the office staff to deal with all those registrations in one go. If the dates were to be from first registration it would spread the load out throught the year, the losses from Apr 1 to the new dates would be minimal. (yes there would be some peaks in the spring)

I agree it would be a fairer system, it works well with road vehicles

[BroadAmbition]

I would too prefer annual tools from registration and not April each year.  Nowadays it doesn't bother us too much as we just renew each year come April.  However when we launched 'B.A' back in 07, had to pay a full years toll in the October, then another full years toll come April 08.  No one likes getting ripped off, but when you know it before handing over your beer chits and there is nowt you can do about it - That sucks

Griff

[marshman]

MM - yet again m8 you are so right.

Although it appears the BA have a seperate tolls dept it is not full time and any change in structure would involve more cost. If thats what you want, by all means push for a bigger department, to handle everything you want, then so be it, but for the vast majority it works fine and if its not broke, don't fix it!!

I am sure JP would love to have a bigger department paid for out of the navigation account - but few would see any improvement or change other than more BA money going down the pan!!

[Meantime]

We now have these new fangled things called computers. They are very good at keeping track of things and sending out automatic reminders and compiling lists of things that overdue. Why would it cost any extra money if people were allowed to toll their boat for 12 months from when they purchased it? Why would the department need to increase in size? It's still the same number of tolls ultimately. It would smooth the massive peak of work load around April and spread that work load out over the course of the year.

Since the BA have done away with the toll plaques, the only way a ranger can tell if a boat is tolled is to enter the reg number into a database and check it has been paid. Doing away with the plaque which was a different colour each year and a quick visual check that a boat had been tolled for that year, has in my opinion removed the last barrier to creating a fair system where people should be able to toll a boat for 12 months from date of purchase or first use on the system.

To stop people trying to play the system and only pay for part of a year and taking the boat out of the water during the Winter, you simply make the toll 12 months non refundable from when it is registered to you, or first put in the water. If you chose to take the boat out of the water at the end of the season that is your choice, but you don't get a refund for any unused months.

[Meantime]

Thinking about this some more, it is actually quite worrying that people feel they must be careful not to give JP any excuse to create bigger departments, or excuses to increase head count etc. That says more about the way JP is perceived as running the BA than anything else!!! That is the real concern here!

I received a toll account reminder email from the BA on the 20th February as I'm sure did every other toll payer who has opted to give the BA an email address. This email is plainly a computer generated email using a standard template populated from the tolls database. In other words the actually creation and sending of that email needed no human input other than the initial setting up of the system. At some point after I received the email, I logged onto the tolls system and paid my toll. A computer system processed that payment and updated the tolls database to reflect the fact my toll has been paid. I had no interaction with anyone in the tolls department, and I doubt anyone in the tolls department has expended any effort in prompting, or processing my toll. You could say my whole toll transaction has involved no actual input from anyone in the tolls department this year. Therefore the system could have generated my toll reminder on any date, and I could have paid it on any date and still not disturbed anyone in the tolls department. Food for thought! Perhaps if everyone moved to paying their tolls online there is room for savings to be made within the BA. I certainly see no way in which JP could justify increasing his empire!