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Archive for July, 2013

How To Really Piss Off Other Drivers

I recently read a post on Facebook that read “Pleasing everybody is impossible but pissing everybody off is a piece of cake.”  Now, most of us try to be good drivers and to keep everybody else on the road happy – especially that white Holden with a few extra antennae and lights that you strongly suspect to be an unmarked cop car. Plenty has been written about good driving etiquette and how to be a nice courteous driver. But instead of inflicting yet another one of these on you, let’s work out how to really annoy other drivers.

When deciding on the best methods to induce road rage in others, remember the old safety first rule. You don’t want to drive on the wrong side of the road or play chicken with a B-train.  Randomly rear-ending people in traffic is also out – no point denting the emblem sitting proudly on the nose of your new Audi, after all. And remember to keep your door closed when some red-faced person with swinging fists comes up to your car.

Ten ways to lose friends and irritate your fellow road users:

  • Go round and round a roundabout several times, making everybody else give way to you.
  • Overtake someone right at the end of a double lane and cut in front of them as the traffic merges. Then pull over abruptly to the left onto the shoulder of the road to take a phone call that requires your hands.
  • Do all of the actions in Point 2 with minimal use of the indicators.
  • Wait until the very last minute before dipping your lights for an oncoming driver when driving at night.
  • Drive well below the speed limit (i.e. more than 10 km/h below the limit) and sit right out in the middle of the lane.  See how long a line you can get building up behind you.
  • Throw rubbish out the window where it will fly backwards and narrowly miss the driver behind you.  Bonus points if the rubbish is old chewing gum or a cigarette butt and it hits the person in question. Double points if the person behind you is a motorcyclist or a bike rider.
  • Slow down in front of other people if there is no passing lane and the road rules have turned into Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dum (“You! Shall! Not! Pass!”).  Then speed up when passing is possible.
  • If you are held up in any way possible even for half a second, lean heavily on the horn.
  • If you’re the person behind, get as close as you possibly can to the car in front so you can overtake at the next possible opportunity. Even if you make the other car jam on the brakes when you’ve completed the manoeuvre because you didn’t quite have enough space to overtake the three cars in front of you.
  • Use the bike-only lane as a left-turning lane and get into it early. Cyclists are safe to irritate because they will go out of their way to avoid a collision.

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FBT and the proposed changes: the fallout.

Although it has yet to be put to the proper decision makers, Kevin Rudd’s proposed changes to the Fringe Benefit Tax have already affected companies that would normally be purchasing cars for their fleet customers. Unfortunately, there’s a human cost too, with Fleetcare having to stand down around twenty staff as their orders have dropped to virtually zero. Another company, based in Perth, Fleet Network, have also removed twenty staff whilst South Melbourne based salary packaging group, NLC, have shed seventy five people and McMillan Shakespeare, a major salary sacrificing has also placed on hold a core aspect of its business.

Part of the issue is the proposal to backdate the changes, causing companies to pause their fleet purchases, such as a major Sydney based university has been forced to do. It also adds to the parlous state of affairs the local car makers have; with 35% of fleet cars made locally, the current situation has the potential to potentially hasten Holden’s local manufacturing closure whilst it negotiates for more funding to keep its manufacturing operations underway.

Automotive industry leaders have called upon Mr Rudd to withdraw the plan and discuss better options. With so many jobs at stake, it would make sense to do so. http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/mgnovennye-zaimy-na-kartu-bez-otkazov-kredito24.html

Driver Distractions They Can't Ban

When the traffic safety boffins talk about driver distraction, they’re usually talking about the perils of texting while driving.  And they’re pretty much right.  I guess we’ve all seen people having near misses because they’ve had their eyes on the phone rather than on the road.  Saw one on a main road the other day just about crossing the centre line and frantically correcting before having a close encounter with an oncoming car.

distraction

However, I had done something similar a few days previously.  Not because I was trying to text and drive, though. I got distracted (and nearly crossed the centre line, etc.) thanks to suddenly spotting a spider that looked like one of the nasty ones crawling around on the sweatshirt sitting on top of the centre console beside me and I was trying to squash it. Now, they may be able to outlaw texting while driving but that’s one thing that they can’t outlaw easily (“Excuse me, madam; we’ve just got to check your car for deadly spiders.”)

It also got me thinking about other things that can distract drivers but can’t be cracked down on in the same way that using phones and texting can.  I mean, anything can pull a driver’s attention away at a crucial moment.  Here are my top five driver distractors (that don’t include things you choose to do like check makeup or eat):

  1. Children in the car.  Some children just do not grasp the idea that even though Mummy is sitting down and looking relaxed when she is driving, she cannot look at the lovely picture you drew, open your drink bottle or put your shoe back on.  Babies are the worst offenders because they don’t understand and can start to scream, especially if Mummy is nowhere to be seen.  The safety experts who say that children nine months old (the age where they go through major separation anxiety) should be in the back seat facing backwards need a reality check – a distressed child makes for a stressed driver.
  2. Sound systems.  Steering wheel-mounted audio controls for advancing, repeating and adjusting the volume are all very well. However, fine-tuning the balance between bass, treble, left and right and so forth is a bit more fiddly.  Changing CD doubly so.
  3. Advertisements.  They say it’s more of a guy thing, but those ads showing bikini babes that are designed to catch the attention are put beside the road where people driving will see them.  Tell me, guys, which would you rather look at? The road in front of you or a seriously photoshopped woman without a lot of clothing?  Bit of a no-brainer in more ways than one.
  4. Anything that insists on giving you instructions while you’re negotiating tricky traffic. This can include a navigation system or a passenger with a map. At least you can tell the passenger to shut up while keeping your hands on the wheel.
  5. Any type of animal in the car, especially the smaller ones that have more than four legs and bite, such as wasps, spiders, bees and mosquitos.  They might be able to come in the window but can they find their way out again?

They have come up with devices in some new safety conscious cars (such as the new Volvos  that shut down the radio and the phone when the car detects that you’re driving a bit more hectically and possibly need the distractions to a minimum. If only they could do something about the Top Five as well – although a good set of lungs can deal with #1: “SHUT UP!  It’s busy here and I can’t pay attention right now, OK???!!” http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/migcredit-dengi-v-dolg.html

Fringe Benefit Tax Changes: How It COULD Affect YOU.

Disclaimer: this is not intended to be taken as financial or taxation advice. Please see your accountant.

As if Australia’s flailing car industry didn’t have enough to worry about, the Labor Government’s proposed changes to Fringe Benefit Tax and the Carbon Tax have sent a chill wind through their offices as figures show that a potential extra cost of around $1400 per year per vehicle could stop the car lease industry in its tracks.

PM Rudd announced on July 16 that a reversion to a emissions trading scheme would replace the carbon tax, with part of this change involving a $1.8 billion AU cut in FBT concessions. Under current measuring methods, FBT is calculated at 20 percent of a vehicles cost, regardless of whether used for private or business use or private use via salary sacrifice, with the assumption that the car is being used for predominantly business use anyway. The change will require a comprehensive log book keeping of the vehicle’s use. The Government Minister for Transport, Joe Albanese says: “There’s a lot of people clearly fiddling the system. Those people who are salary sacrificing who use their car less than 20 per cent but claim the 20 per cent offset – less than one kilometre in every five they actually use for work – the chances are it’s not a Holden Commodore, it’s a BMW.”

Federal Climate Change Minister Mark Butler said recent technology made it possible to get a far more accurate idea of work-related car use and the Government had considered the FBT changes very carefully.

“It’s not the same as it was in the 1980s. You can download these very easy apps that use GPS systems to do the work all for you,” he said.

“You effectively just press the button, let it go and after you’ve finished marking that travel or recording that travel over the 12-week period every five years it can be automatically sent to your employer or your tax agent.”

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries has responded with CEO Tony Weber claiming: “The changes undermine the long-term certainty the FCAI and its members have called for from government and threatened to affect around one-third of new car sales in Australia.

“The effects will flow right through the industry, including to dealerships and service centres,” Weber said.

 

He said he doubted whether the government truly understood the consequences of its decision, and questioned why the industry was not consulted on such a significant change. I fear what this means for domestic manufacturing and I am urgently seeking meetings with the government to encourage them to reconsider this decision,” he said.car-calculator

The Shadow Minister for Transport, Joe Hockey, had this to say at a meeting with automotive groups in western Sydney: “”This is going to be like a baseball bat to the motor vehicle industry in Australia. This is poorly thought out, there was no consultation with any stakeholders.”

 

Mr Hockey said 75 per cent of recipients earn less than $100,000 a year.

“They are going to be hit with a tax bill of $1400 a year, every year going forward,” he said.

Both Holden and Toyota have backed the calls from the FCAI to rethink its strategy, with other automotive industry analysts suggesting the changes further indicate an “out of touch with the real world” government, with the suggestion that technology will make the log keeping easier. It ignores the fact that the costs involved to companies to process manual log book keeping will result in higher prices of vehicles, more real time paperwork and the potential to damage the 80% fleet market sales Australian car makers have. It’s already caused one major fleet vehicle purchaser to freeze their order, pending further developments.

As stated, please consult your accountant for information, as it stands. http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/moneza-online-zaym.html