Limo Hire Charges Twice

The limousine and luxury transport industry is built on large cars. That is why people hire a limousine instead of driving themselves, or piling into a friend’s car, because a limousine is guaranteed to be comfortable, luxurious and above all, spacious.

And so big cars have big engines, there is nothing anyone can do about that because the limos need enough power to not only move their own weight and the extra weight of the extra passengers, but also to be completely in control of themselves too. So the fact that limousines have big engines and use more fuel than a normal vehicle is inescapable.

In the UK there are also extra taxes on the sale and the yearly registration of vehicles with larger engines and those which consume more fuel. So not only do limo hire companies have to pay the extra when they fill up their limousines, they are also paying extra for having those limousines in the first place.

However, the fuel is already heavily taxed and over 70% of the cost per gallon already goes to the government anyway. So not only do limousine hire companies use more fuel in their big cars and contribute more to the government via their fuel taxes, they are also paying from the outset for their larger engines and paying twice for the size of their vehicles.

While there is no reason the government shouldn’t tax larger vehicles, especially when people are driving their personal SUVs into work with only themselves in the car, when they could make use of public transport or organise a car pool and get some of the larger cars out of the fuel consuming peak hour traffic. However, limousines very rarely ever carry just one person, they are usually carrying groups of people to a business meeting, a dinner celebration or a school prom and there are all of those cars which are not on the road.

So is there not some way that limousines can avoid being penalised twice for their size when they are actually one of the few companies encouraging car pooling and doing something about it.