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Markets in everything: driver's license points
It is the latest ruse on the roads of France: drivers are avoiding disqualification by trading licence points on the internet. Complete strangers are taking the rap for speeding offences in return for up to €1,500 (£1,000), and police admit they are powerless to intervene. Even pensioners who have not driven for many years are getting in on the act.
The market is growing:
French officials were unable to estimate the scale of points fiddling. Across the border in Spain, the Autopista.es online motoring site, estimates the black market in points there is worth €30 million a month.
One seller explains he does abide by ethical standards:
“I don’t have a bad conscience,” he [the seller] told le Parisien. “I only offer my services to people with small excesses of speed. And I always ask to see a copy of the ticket. I would never sell my points to a road hog.”
Here is the full explanation. The pointer is from Kurt Muehmel.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 12, 2007 at 07:19 AM in Law | Permalink
Comments
I guess, at least the French, government are encouraging this in two ways (I live in France and have been caught speeding):
1) The fine is issued to the owner of the car, and the owner is responsible to forward the fine to the offending driver. However, there is a discount if the fine is paid within two weeks and not disputed (ie. the owner takes the blame). This makes a monetary and time-saving incentive for the owner to pay and get on with life.
2) The owner of the car is liable (as far as I understand), while eg. in Norway only the offending driver is liable. Ie. in Norway the government has to identify the driver and can not rely on the owner to 'rat out' whoever was driving the car. This clearly makes an incentive for liable owners to forward the fine to a convenient 'offender'. The offending driver might refuse to take the blame, in which case the owner is stuck with it, and maybe losing her license (again, as far as I understand the system).
Posted by: Morten at Jul 12, 2007 10:14:10 AM
Dammit, I wanted to mail in about this. I got beaten to the punch.
I guess if you paid for tips I would've been more diligent.
Posted by: PEG at Jul 12, 2007 12:51:02 PM
I think that the lesson here is, "Speed limits are a polite fiction. People do not want speed limits enforced."
Posted by: Michael B Sullivan at Jul 12, 2007 1:05:59 PM
As far as I know (I live in France as well), the driver is liable, and unless proven otherwise, the driver of the car is assumed to be the owner. The whole point being that with the fancy automatic speed cameras they've put up all over the place, identifying most of the offenders is near impossible, and /someone/ has to take the blame. Naturally, if you get pulled over by a human officer, there's no evading the fine.
Posted by: Chris at Jul 12, 2007 5:09:00 PM
Once a person with points sells them to a car owner who has been hit with a ticket, what's to stop the seller from simply not paying the fine/denying culpability?
Posted by: fustercluck at Jul 12, 2007 8:43:03 PM
@Chris: 1) My commment was obviously only concering speed-cameras ... as is this whole discussion and 2) the point is that it lies upon the owner to prove her innocence ... as opposed to the normal principle of innocent until proven guilty. As the government takes this (in some peoples view) extremely dubious position, people have less moral qualms gaming the system. It might be impossible for the owner to prove (or even know) who the driver was.
Posted by: Morten at Jul 13, 2007 10:04:11 AM
Having gone to the UK last year and seen how the speed cameras are just there to make money for the authorities I would have no problems selling my points to someone else. Great business idea. No doubt they'll try to make it illegal in which case it will just go underground.
Posted by: Dylan Downhill at Jul 13, 2007 12:18:36 PM
guess that's why in Germany they take the pics from the FRONT - including the face of the driver. quite efficient.
Posted by: Stephanie at Mar 17, 2008 7:11:54 AM
