It is nevertheless unfortunate that these various regulations do not rely more on cost-efficiency studies. It is possible, in fact, through improved knowledge of social costs, to produce increasingly good evaluations of the effects of regulations in monetary terms, and it should be possible to place regulatory decisions on more rational bases, using this type of estimate. It is also to be regretted that, in certain countries, regulations are poorly policed. The technical inspection of vehicles in particular has fallen considerably behind standards in some of them. Financial instruments play only a slight role in the direct control of road noise, pollution or accidents. In fact, road transport tends to be taxed only through taxes on fuel, taxes on ownership(the annual road tax charge), or taxes paid on the original purchase.