this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Hot take: pick-up trucks should be illegal as daily drivers. You should need either a commercial license or permit. Vast majority of truck drivers don't need them regularly as a truck or to tow; they're just status symbols and make driving more dangerous for everyone else. Not to mention the inefficiency.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There's an easier solution. A vehicle weight tax that actual laborers are exempted from. Weight is what damages the roads, so a weight tax would accomplish practical and ideological goals.

[–] ngdev 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Why should actual laborers be exempt from them? Do you mean to say that if they drive a company truck, then they wouldn't have to pay weight taxes? (I would think it wise to have the company pay taxes for miles driven and weight of the vehicle driven during those miles)

[–] kautau 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah just because you’re an electrician for your day job doesn’t mean you need to own a pickup to drive to the company office where you’ll drive a company truck to job sites.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I was more thinking contractors or farmers who use their own truck for work. Not people using company trucks

[–] kautau 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, if you’re a contractor using your own truck then you should be reimbursed by the company hiring you, which should offset the tax. If you’re a farmer, same thing, unless you own the farm, in which case your truck should be licensed as a commercial vehicle

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm just trying to get the idea passed people and those two groups are always the ones sea lioned about.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm on a site with about 500 electricians right now. The vast majority of them don't drive company trucks. It's really just foremen, the general foreman, superintendent and various project managers and higher-ups.

[–] BombOmOm 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A vehicle weight tax

These large vehicles use more gas, and thus people with these large vehicles pay more in taxes. People already pay a vehicle weight tax.

[–] FellowEarthling 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Both then. You can't tax just gas because EV semis/trucks put plenty of wear on the road.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Also the gas tax fluctuates based on prices but road wear does not.

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[–] reddig33 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could do that, but in southern states they’d just make it too easy to get the permit. See Oklahoma’s “commercial vehicle” loophole where everyone has their car zoned commercial to get a tax write off. Also electric pickup trucks are a thing.

[–] skullrot 20 points 1 year ago

That and there are plenty of people who need a truck regularly enough to justify owning one vs renting one, but don't use it comercially. The "permitting" for this would have so much gray area, it wouldn't be worth it. Additionally, if you told all those people they couldn't have a truck, they'd just go get an SUV and you wouldn't really accomplish anything.

[–] JustAManOnAToilet 7 points 1 year ago

So...good luck with that. In the meantime they continue to sell like hotcakes.

[–] TidalJoint 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How else am I supposed to get my lumber from Home Depot every other week?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Is that for your job? You're in the extreme minority if you need 6'+ lumber twice a month. Also renting a $30 uhaul pickup for that will 100% be cheaper than buying and maintaining a pickup truck. $720/yr. You're just looking for reasons to drive a truck daily for the aesthetics.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

Bonus points for living on a 5 million dollar "rural" property 1:30 from the city center where they work.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

Just call them what they are for so many, emotional support vehicles.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't care what anyone says, it's just a fact that the vast majority of people who use these huge trucks as daily drivers do not actually need to. Obviously there are exceptions, but they are relatively uncommon.

I use my mid-sized pickup as a daily driver, but that's because I used to need it and my work situation recently changed. My plan is to get a little commuter car as soon as I can and use that as my daily driver and keep the truck for when I actually need it. The gas savings will pay for it, and again, I don't even drive a full-sized pickup.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Also always drives 130 on the highway and accelerates as aggressively as possible. Then they post on Facebook complaining about the new carbon tax.

[–] Hextic 15 points 1 year ago

But if I ask for help it's a "handout".

[–] ramble81 3 points 1 year ago

For a split second I thought they posted a picture of a Lightning and I was gonna laugh.

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