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NEW POINTS
SYSTEM. YOU MAY CHECK YOUR LICENCE ON THE INTERNET
4 July 2006.
The
facility to check your driving licence record for penalty points has been
added to the Trafico web site. It may be accessed at:
https://puntos.dgt.es/tramites/permisos/ppp_sin_cert.htm
As we know, the new system started on
the 1st July 2006.
You can also find out the closest
"school" to where you live for recovering your licence.
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SCRAPPING YOUR CAR. OR LOOKING FOR USED SPARES?
The Trafico web-site has lists of approved
scrap yards around Spain, including the Canaries and the Balearics.
Simply go to (Click):
http://www.dgt.es/tramites/cards/cards.htm
and select your Province and a list will be
presented, with addresses and phone numbers. Only approved scrap yards (desguaces)
are listed.
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CHANGE OF
ATTITUDE NEEDED? 18
July 2006
Last week end I paid a visit to Alhaurin del
Grande, a small town, not a pueblo, near Marbella about 20 km away.
There was a lot of people around but the most obvious and noticeable
motoring event was the high numbers of youngsters riding around without
crash helmets - at all. Two weeks into the new penalty points system,
and you would think that the news had not reached there yet. This is a
big problem in Spain, complete disregard for the law, and it happens in the
pueblos and smaller towns because the policia locales are not doing
their job. I am happy to say that my belief is that by insisting
that helmets are worn, as a long term motorcyclist who occasionally fell off
his machine especially on icy or wet roads where oil had been deposited by
lorries or tractors, I am doing the kids great service by insisting that
they wear their helmets and gloves at least. Falling off even at a
slow speed can result in serious head injuries, and hands that have
contacted the road with some force, means that no work can be done for a
week. We all owe it to our kids to set an example and o insist
that laws that were made as the result of deaths and injuries be obeyed, and
not just on the roads. Many say that it is too hot. As someone
who has ridden in very hot weather in the Middle east and Africa, rubbish.
At anything over 5 km/hr, the breeze keeps you cool.
Malaga City, Monday. Same story in the
back streets. Oh dear!
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ILLEGAL MOBILE PHONE USERS
BOSSES TO BE IMPLICATED IN THE UK?
19 July 2006.
A report in the Daily Mail today states that
a pilot scheme is being started in London to involve the owners of
businesses whose employees are caught using a mobile phone without a legal
hands-free kit, initially by a policeman visiting them and giving a lecture.
Forgetting about the amount of serious crime that needs to be policed, this
is the "nanny state" going again too far. Just increase the fines and
award penalty points. The scheme, according to the report, includes
employees in their own private cars, not just those in company cars.
I believe that perhaps the confiscation of the vehicle for a week (at first,
and then double the period for each succeeding offence) at the owner's
expense for the collection and compound charges is a better idea, and this
should be brought into action for those caught driving too fast in
residential areas. Remember that in a 20 kph speed limit area, 40 kph
is 100% over the limit and really means going to jail now, or at least
losing your licence. In residential areas, where there are no
pavements for pedestrians to use, there is automatically a 20 kph limit.
Link to article at this time:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=396420&in_page_id=1770
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NEW TABLE FOR SPEEDING
PENALTIES FOR USE BY THE GUARDIA CIVIL.
20 July 2006 (Table
corrected 30 August 2006)
From the 1st July, the table on a separate
page (Click)
TABLE is to be
used as a guide by the Guardia Civil and policia locales when issuing
multas (fines) for speeding. The table on page 52 in my book is
up-dated by this table. Please remember that the book,
Motoring in
Spain, is the only book of its kind - in English, including those on
general Laws on property, etc, that is updated on a specific easy to access
web site: this one. It is suggested that you print it out and carry it
in the vehicle with your book, or just do not speed in the "wrong places".
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HAS Someone
you know been caught?
Twice a month on a Tuesday afternoon from 2 - 3
pm, I appear on the Mary Harboe Show (now with Mike Soutter) on REM.FM
Radio. On the Tuesday 18th July, Mary had a guest who is an artist, a
very attractive lady I might add, but her beauty did not stop her getting a
fine for €105 for using her mobile phone while driving, although it was
while she was stopped at the side of the road trying to find her way to
where the show was taking place which was at the La Cabane Hotel on the
beach opposite the Costa Del Sol Hospital. As one of the main topics
of the show was the use of mobile phones while driving, she could not have
picked a better time, but, of course, not for her, because she then had no
cash to buy my book to prevent the possibility of receiving other fines for
other "transgressions". It does show that any one of us can be caught
for what we may consider an innocent and harmless action, but the use of
mobiles with ear-pieces or held to the ear is specifically banned because of
the number of accidents it has caused. And Trafico recommends that a
hands-free setup is only to be used for not more than
a minute at a time as it distracts the driver from the main task;
driving safely. I forecast that within five years, the action will be
banned altogether due to accidents still occurring.
To remind you, you are not allowed to use a
mobile phone held to the ear/s, or with any device in the ear/s (such as
Bluetooth earpiece or wired earpiece/s) on the roads, and this
includes on the hard shoulders. You must leave the road completely and
not cause a blockage to other vehicles or pedestrians.
Me? I have just had a Parrot brand (the
best?) model CL3000 hands-free kit fitted, and in the next few days I will
learn how to use it with my Bluetooth mobile phone. It connects by
radio and automatically starts when you switch on the "ignition" ( We have a
diesel) even with the phone in your pocket. You can even ask by voice
for the phone to dial a specific number for you if you have pre-programmed
it in. More later.
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PAYING THE Annual IMPUESTO MUNICIPAL SOBRE DE VEHICULOS DE TRACCIÓN
MECANICAS.
Notes in
addition to those in the book.
Or as we
call it the road fund tax which is paid annually to your local council, not
to a central agency as in for example, the UK- the DVLA. The methods of
paying this annual tax, the cost of which often varies from council (ayuntamiento)
district to another, are as I know them at this time, but this is Spain so
there may be others:
1.
If a smaller town, you simply go to the ayuntamiento cash
desk with your car documents, especially the permiso de circulacion
and if applicable, the receipt for last year, and pay the cash as on their
rate list (Tarifa/lista de Tasas) and you will then be given the new receipt
immediately with sometimes a copy which will be identified as such so it
cannot be used for any other purpose. If you are not on the
Padronamiento, do this first.
2.
If you live in a large town, then you can go to the council
office desk/building where the receipts are issued, and shown the clerk your
permiso de circulacion. He/she will call it up on their PC screen,
and if you are correctly registered as on the permiso, you then to to
another desk where you will be given a form which is printed out while you
wait (a few seconds if you are lucky).
3.
Then you have to go to one of a list of Banks as shown
usually on the council office wall. Then you hit problems because most
banks will not accept these types of payments except first thing in the
morning, so note the times which are usually shown against the participating
Banks in your town. You go to a noted bank, join the queue and wait for 40
minutes (yes I have done this, and fought off the little old ladies pushing
in the queue) and then you get told by the teller, that as you do not have
an account at their Bank, you cannot pay the money in there.
4.
So, as the Various Banks’ time limits have expired, you wait
until tomorrow and look for a Bank that will accept your payment without you
having an account there.
5.
The simpler way, of course, is that you arrange for the
amount to be transferred form your Bank to one of the Banks listed, but make
sure that the account is the correct one for the payments. Usually your
Bank can advise on this. Then the council should post you the new receipt.
6.
I have just completed this in Marbella where we moved to
recently, and the second method applies. But the bonus is that for our Ford
Focus, in the last pueblo, the annual charge was about €130, now in Marbella
it is only €84. Quite a difference!
7.
Remember as I say in my book, you pay this tax at the council
for the area as shown on the permiso de circulacion. That is why it
is important that you get the addresses changed at Trafico if you move.
8.
When you buy a new car, normally the seller will do all of
this for you for the first year but if buying second-hand, private or though
a dealer, all the caveats in my book apply here.
9.
Final tip, if doing this in the summer, carry reading
material and a bottle of water, and perhaps a portable chair.
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UPDATE AUGUST2006
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