The number of licensed vehicles on Maltese roads has started to diminish (National Statistics Office release 023/2013; Motor Vehicles: Q4/2012).
The NSO’s data source is Transport Malta, which decided to change the presentation format from the first quarter (Q1) of 2012 on the pretext of “alignment with statistical collection to international counterparts”.
Exported, garaged and scrapped road vehicles diminish while newly-licensed (new or used) road vehicles increase the total number of licensed road vehicles. Since Q1/2012, a discrepancy is noted in reported totals.
There were 311,947 licensed vehicles at the end of Q4/2011. If 4,044 vehicles were newly licensed and 4,044 vehicles were exported, garaged or scrapped (E, G or S) in Q1 of 2012, the number of vehicles in this quarter should have remained at 311,947 and not gone up to 313,027, as reported.
At the end of Q2 of 2012, 4,301 vehicles were newly licensed while 4,958 vehicles were E, G or S. The number of vehicles in this quarter should have been reported as 311,290 and not 314,299.
At the end of Q3 of 2012, 4,026 vehicles were newly licensed and 4,805 vehicles were E, G or S. The number of vehicles in this quarter should have been reported as 310,511 and not 314,867.
And, lastly, at the end of Q4 of 2012, 3,791 vehicles were newly licensed while 5,303 vehicles were E, G or S. The number of vehicles in this quarter should have therefore been reported as 308,999 and not 314,510.
The number of road vehicles has started to decline to levels last seen at the end of Q2 of 2011. If totals supplied by Transport Malta (and reported by the NSO) are in fact accurate, it follows that the figures for exported, garaged or scrapped vehicles should be wrong.
Increases in newly-licensed road vehicles are overwhelmed by the numbers of vehicles being removed from Maltese roads for scrapping or garaging. The first is encouraged by the scrappage schemes introduced a couple of years ago but also by a hefty rise in annual circulating fees, which I consider to be the main reason why garaging has become substantial.
From 2008 to 2011, passenger car statistics were given by vehicle class (engine size in cc). For this period, of a total of 12,473 scrapped passenger cars, 75 per cent were small-engined class 1 and class 2 vehicles while only 25 per cent had higher capacity engines (over 1450cc). In the same period, 21,075 passenger cars were garaged, half were small-engined and the other half were vehicles with higher capacity engines. Bigger engines tend to be found in vehicles that may be perceived as having a ‘higher value’, so they would be more likely retained (garaged) rather than scrapped; prohibitively high circulation fees make them uneconomical to be kept on the road.
Scrapped, smaller-engined vehicles are being removed from the road but their numbers are being replaced with new vehicles. Garaging of road vehicles, especially of those with larger engines, may be getting vehicles off the roads but does not reduce traffic congestion because the number of licensed vehicles is always in excess of the number of licensed drivers (about 225,000).
The high circulating fees do absolutely nothing to improve traffic congestion but only deprive owners from using their own property. Once a licensed vehicle has a paid up annual circulating fee and insurance premium, it’s a waste of money not to use that vehicle!