Club Meetings & News
Club meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of each month (excepting January). Visitors and friends always welcome.
Glen Iris Citizen's Hall
Eric Raven Reserve
Estella St
Glen Iris
Melway Map 59 K9
NOTE: New temporary meeting venue from July 2010 will be in the newly built hall off Saxby Rd Glen Iris.
Melway Map 59 K10
Club meetings start at 8.00pm sharp.
(Committee meetings start at 7.30pm)
September General Meeting: Wednesday 8 September 2010
Stop Press:
Proposed Changes to Club Permit Scheme
Whilst there are only a dozen or so cars in the Citroen Car Club of Vic currently operating under the Club Permit Scheme (CPS), the issues that VicRoads has to consider in revising the scheme should be of interest to the broader membership. In fact there are some 8,000 car club members in 200 car clubs that are permitted to legally operate their cars on club permit plates outside the general registration scheme.
To give some historical perspective to the scheme and the reasons for its revision it is worth summarizing some of the main issues. The CPS was introduced in 1960 for vintage and veteran vehicles only. In the ‘70s this was extended to cars 25 years or older and this is still in place today. Club permit vehicles are permitted to be used for designated club events, and non-club events, if they have a “special use” permit issued by the club’s permit officer. All vehicle owners are required to be members of a registered club, pay an annual permit fee and maintain their cars in a roadworthy condition. Cars in the CPS only pay an annual fee of $37.40 plus the TAC charge ($110.00 total). It is important to understand that cars under the CPS are not road registered. In effect owners are driving an unregistered vehicle which means any use of the vehicle outside the strict guidelines constitutes a breach of the regulations. Owners must belong to a motoring club and abide by the rules and regulations as prescribed by VicRoads.
Since its inception the number of cars in the CPS has grown considerably and the scheme has become increasingly complex to administer. In 2005 VicRoads began the much awaited revision process and at last a discussion paper has been issued. There are several reasons for the review some of which include
• Vehicles on the CPS are currently not on the police database.
• Aspects of the CPS rules are unclear.
• The issue of special use vouchers and safety regulations needs review.
• Review of the eligibility age of cars.
• The fee structure needs review.
• CPS vehicles are currently not required to display windscreen labels.
• Clarification of replica, modified and street rod vehicles in the CPS.
• Need for better info exchange between VicRoads and participating clubs.
• Sanctions for inappropriate use of vehicles.
VicRoads has proposed a number of changes outlined in the discussion paper which was recently presented to all stake holders including the Association of Motoring Clubs, the Federation of Vintage Veteran and Classic Car Clubs, the Australian Street Rod Federation and the Confederation of Motor Sport, RACV and VACC and all clubs and members who have vehicles eligible for club permits.
The main change involves the issue of 90-day or 45-day logbooks allowing vehicles to be used for club and non-club events at the owner’s discretion for up to 90 days in any one year. The proposed logbook will need to be completed before any trip is undertaken and shown to police on request. Police will have access to the VicRoads database of CPS cars. A similar scheme is operating successfully in SA and VicRoads says there is over 90% support for this by Victorian clubs.
VicRoads also proposes that the age eligibility be increased to 30+ years though some car clubs, including CCCV, wish to maintain the 25 year model. The 30+ model could result in a whole generation of cars being lost. This argument was further supported by representatives of the historic commercial vehicle clubs. Their view is that trucks and buses are expensive to keep fully registered since they need periodic compulsory technical checks whereas cars are not required to have annual roadworthy certificates. Expecting commercial vehicle owners to keep them for an extra 5 years (to 30 years) before applying for a club permit would result in additional costs and more vehicles being scrapped.
Unlike the requirement for current special permit vouchers, the destination of any trip will not be a mandatory in the log book.
At this stage is unclear how certain replicas, modified vehicles and street rods fit into the scheme. It may be that application for these vehicles to participate in the CPS will need to be scrutinized by a “recognition committee”.
There is no proposal to increase the yearly permit fee or the TAC charge. The log book will need to be purchased annually at a nominal cost expected to be around $10. It also makes sense that the revised CPS would require annual windscreen labels.
VicRoads has limited powers in controlling illegitimate car clubs and abuse of the CPS in its present form. Also the administration of records by some car clubs is not “up to scratch”. Because the CPS will be administered by VicRoads responsibility for management of club plate vehicles will be partly lifted from car clubs. At present VicRoads records of ownership don’t always match the information held by the clubs.
Clubs will be able to cross check information with Vic roads. Previously this was difficult under privacy laws, the new forms will contain a provision for owners to give permission for their information to be used by Vic Roads for this purpose. Any owners not agreeing to this will not be able to belong to the CPS scheme.
Car insurance premiums are not expected to rise but that will be subject to review by insurance companies once the new CPS structure is in place.
The proposed changes are too lengthy to reproduce here in detail so members are advised to download the discussion paper from the VicRoads website www.vicroads.vic.gov.au
After feedback from all stakeholders VicRoads will present their recommendations to the minister. Subsequently draft regulations will be drawn up and put to the state government for ratification. The revised scheme is expected to be implemented late in 2010 or early 2011.
CCCV Response to VicRoads Age Eligibility Proposal
22 December 2009
Club Permit Review
Registration & Licensing Operations
VicRoads
1st Floor, 60 Denmark St
KEW VIC 3101
Dear Sir/Madam,
The Citroen Car Club of Victoria Inc is a club of nearly 200 members from which we have 12 cars on the current Club Permit Scheme, we are affiliated with the AOMC.
The Committee, with input from members, has carefully considered the VicRoads discussion paper and by and large support the proposed 90 day (with a 45 day option) log book scheme. We believe the proposed scheme will be workable and benefit our members. We do however have one suggestion for consideration.
The Citroen Car Club of Victoria Inc. has considered, and is of the strong opinion that the existing 25 year eligibility criteria should be retained. This would encourage the preservation of more vehicles for the future and encourage more owners to join car clubs. This would benefit the car club movement as a whole, as opposed to the proposed 30 year eligibility rule which we consider to be detrimental to the preservation and enjoyment of cars 25 to 30 years old.
In our club we are seeing declining numbers of cars aged 20 to 30 years, for CCCV this specifically affects CX and BX models, and soon Xantias. These used to be common everyday cars but are increasingly becoming uneconomic to drive on a daily basis. Many are being wrecked for minor faults, or driven into the ground. By being eligible for club plates, these cars will be repaired or restored for club events instead of being lost as they would be if the 30 year rule is implemented.
We consider that the argument put forward in favour of a 30 year minimum age is misleading, as it is not economic to have a car on club plates just for the purpose of driving it to work. Whilst the proposed club plate scheme opens the possibility of any club plate cars being driven to work, we consider the number of cars using the scheme as cheap registration will be very low, and the benefit of keeping the existing 25 year rule outweighs any perceived advantage of a 30 year rule.
We believe many other clubs with similar age vehicles would be in a similar situation, where vehicles aged 20 to 30 years old are being scrapped and could be saved by retention of the 25 year eligibility rule. The retention of the rule would benefit clubs by encouraging more owners to belong to the car club movement, and benefit society in general by preserving cars that will in the future be considered as historic.
Yours Sincerely,
David Rogers
Secretary