Take the problems not soo long ago where people sent off to renew their licences and suddenly were told they didn't have a motorcycle licence and they would have to take another motorcycle test to have the category put back on their licence. Not something you would want to hear if you had been riding a motorcycle for 20 years and had just sent of to renew your photo card licence.
When dealing with DVLA and others keep a copy of what you send, keep copies of their letters, post recorded delivery and this covers things.
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Ye, I agree with both posts. Everything was photocopied and I sent recorded delivery. Perhaps recorded delivery gives a message.
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Does not make any difference at all they are just as likely to loose a recorded delivery letter as they are any other corrospondence and deny they have ever received it.As above when the system works its ok when it doesn`t it is a disaster area,I have dealt with them for years with nothing but praise but we swopped a car recently they lost both car details no answer from them do not respond to letters recorded or otherwise.In Germany its still done by hand you have to take the relevent papers with you to get a log book and number plates frustrating as the wait can be hours but at least you get your log book .The tax goes to the city and if you do not pay they take back the plates till you do they are very efficient at that.
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How can they deny losing a delivery that is recorded ? That's why you pay - for the delivery to be recorded : proof its been received.
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What is quite telling is that Scott22 should highlight that, for once, the DVLA have done what they are supposed to do!
We are all so used to the best paid employees in South Wales messing up the simplest of tasks on a regular basis.
My clients would never think of posting on a forum that I had done what I was supposed to do - they just expect it! If I didn't, then they would go elsewhere. It ain't rocket science is it?? But the DVLA would like us to believe it is!
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My clients would never think of posting on a forum that I had done what I was supposed to do - they just expect it! If I didn't, then they would go elsewhere. It ain't rocket science is it?? But the DVLA would like us to believe it is!
Well the problem there is we can't go elsewhere. The Government force motorists by law - and threat of fines and prison - to fund the DVLA so they can pretty much do whatever they want. Public sector organisations simply don't suffer from their own incompetance in the same way as the rest of us.
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No - I did not want to highlight that 'for once'etc ( really is this the only time it is has been done correctly). What I did want to highlight is that it seems people are quick to criticise and the reality can be skewed by only hearing the negative. Perhaps your work is not so much in the public profile. The majority of organisations I know are very keen to show testimonials. I prefer to emphasise the positive, whilst I am also ready to complain and not accept substandard performance. It seems straightforward to me. In addition this constant denigration of the public sector is unjustified.
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I have a different slant on the incompetance of the DVLA. Living in France expats like me have to jump through a series of bureaucratic hoops to get cars that were first registered in the UK, registered to the French system. Many people have serious and costly problems getting their model of car accepted by the French system because as a french civil servant said when asked why registering UK vehicles can be such a problem:-
"Roughly 50% of your DVLA V5 certificates are wrongly filled in with vehicle details that don't match the makers variant numbers, I've even had Fiat spec numbers on a Ford V5 - if the Germans and the Italians can almost always do it correctly, why can't your DVLA?"
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"Roughly 50% of your DVLA V5 certificates are wrongly filled in with vehicle details that don't match the makers variant numbers, I've even had Fiat spec numbers on a Ford V5 - if the Germans and the Italians can almost always do it correctly, why can't your DVLA?"
Is the data corrupted by DVLA are are they reliant on info supplied by the registering dealer?
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How can they deny losing a delivery that is recorded ? That's why you pay - for the delivery to be recorded : proof its been received.
Becausethey can,mail of all descriptions is delivered to a DVLA distribution centre in wales with the recorded delivery its here to the specific department that it goes astray so they can deny receiving it or so I have been told by the delivery agents..
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Two interesting posts. It is a shame that some people are always ready to run down whatever is British - I know of some poor performance by foreign countries but , of course, some are always ready to speak the worst of our country - I wont. Collos, thank you for acknowledging that it is what you have been told. It may be correct, I'm working on what recorded delivery is advertised as being. Once the DVLA have received it, recorded, then they have accepted accepted responsibility and acknowledged receipt. That is the point I was trying, unsuccessfully to make : sorry if it wasn't clear.
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Just had a second look at focussed comments. So, a French civil servant is an absolute paragon of efficiency and correctness. Perhaps it was an excuse for the French process taking a long time - blame the British. Sadly some people are too ready to accept our country being derided. Could it have been a fault of the French ?
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Just had a second look at focussed comments. So, a French civil servant is an absolute paragon of efficiency and correctness. Perhaps it was an excuse for the French process taking a long time - blame the British. Sadly some people are too ready to accept our country being derided. Could it have been a fault of the French ?
No Scot22, what i recounted was not meant in praise of french fonctionaires, they can either be extremely helpful or extremly obstructive, depending on wether you visit them before or after their two hour lunch break. But when one of them says that because of the errors in entering spec and variant numbers by the DVLA when the vehicle was originally registered in the UK they are having difficulty in identifying your vehicle, you tend to believe them.
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How can they deny losing a delivery that is recorded ? That's why you pay - for the delivery to be recorded : proof its been received.
Becausethey can,mail of all descriptions is delivered to a DVLA distribution centre in wales with the recorded delivery its here to the specific department that it goes astray so they can deny receiving it or so I have been told by the delivery agents..
If youquote the reorded delivery number DVLA WILL accept that you have sent whatever it is you have sent, ie driving licence (perhaps you forgot to sign) and issue a free replacement.
Any unsigned document is simply destroyed.
I once forgot to sign a change of address and once i told them the above points it was sorted.
Think...... Do you want your documents going to an old address?
I have phoned DVLA for medical advice, and once went to see them, after I waited a short time i was seen by one of the medical advisors who advised me correctly.
The actual percentage of errors is low.
Make sure all documents are correct and then there is less chance of a problem.
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3 weeks ago I was diagnosed as having Glaucoma in my right eye. I was already aware that this may affect my driving licence but having read the DVLA site it appeared pretty clear since it was only one eye there was no need to inform them. But the consultant told me I MUST inform the DVLA.
Looked on the DVLA site for a form but could not find one so I rang the number. The chappy that answered confirmed that since I was only affected in one eye and the sight in my other eye was unaffected (in truth the sight in my affected eye still meets DVLA requirements) there was no need to inform them. He said that a letter would be sent confiming this. 2 days alter letter arrived, job sorted.
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I regard the DVLA in the same way as the BBC - you're forced to pay them for a service you didn't ask for and if they make a mistake its acceptable, but if you make a mistake its fines and prison.
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No focussed I wouldn't tend to believe one person telling me. Especially as I suspect he may blame German and Italian departments if one of their nationals is complaining. I tend to lack confidence in people who blame others. The percentage he gives is unbelievable, and I don't believe it. Sort of headline figure for a tabloid newspaper sensation - not backed by fact. Oldroverboy correctly makes the point about forms not being filled in correctly and says the actual percentage of mistakes by the DVLA is low. Yes it is from one person but I feel a more cautious approach to stating a case. We can all improve and we can all mistakes. The DVLA, like all organisations is included in this. Let's not exaggerate shortcomings which may become accepted as factual.
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I regard the DVLA in the same way as the BBC - you're forced to pay them for a service you didn't ask for and if they make a mistake its acceptable, but if you make a mistake its fines and prison.
Reasonable assessment. Whenever an organisation like the DVLA make a mistake, it's never their fault. It's always your fault for not taking 23 years out of your life (spent working to fund the DVLA) to understand their plethora of needlessly complex forms. They've always got the seemingly impossible answer, the clever twist of language to make it your fault.
If it really is their fault, they never apologise, they just don't respond at all.
If they do respond, they tell you their staff need extra training. It's a training issue. When the solvent member of the public makes a mistake, it's not a training issue for us is it? No, it's a criminal offence to be punished with wallet raping and inprisonment.
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Replacing a blue allowed against a license in credit card format (PCC)
CHF 50. -
Change of Address
free
Change of address with editing a CPC
CHF 50. -
Change in marital status or origin
free
Change in marital status or origin with editing a CPC
CHF 50. -
Replacing a Swiss driving license
CHF 100. -
Exchanging a foreign driving license cat. C, C1, D
CHF 200. -
Exchanging a foreign driving license (other categories)
CHF 150. -
International Driving Permit
CHF 40. -
Traffic permit
Benefit Price
Registration package, including sets of plates for cars
CHF 135. -
Registration package, including a motorcycle plate
CHF 115. -
Change of vehicle
CHF 95. -
Registration of a second vehicle interchangeable plates
CHF 95. -
Liability insurance change
free
Edited by oldroverboy. on 11/03/2014 at 05:53
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A lot of what DVlA do is free, see what switzerland (Geneva) charges, in the previous post.
I am sure that other EU countries are the same or close.
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A lot of what DVlA do is free, see what switzerland (Geneva) charges, in the previous post.
I am sure that other EU countries are the same or close.
Although once you factor in our high fuel tax, CO2 obsessed road tax and umpteens of hidden taxes I think the DVLA should be entirely free.
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They're not free. We all pay for them every day, even though we never asked for them.
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When a car is first registered, You pay the fee for that cars V5 for the life of the car.
Then they make money from licences, First licence application £50 and now with the photo licence renewal £20.
And don't forget they make about £8million a year by selling peoples personal data!
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Do they make money? Or do they just cover their costs?
If they do make money then what happens wo that money?
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In 2012/13 DVLA raised £6 billion in Vehicle Excise Duty and £401 million in fees and charges - a surplus of £10.9 million against their business plan. These sums would go to Treasury.
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In 2012/13 DVLA raised £6 billion in Vehicle Excise Duty and £401 million in fees and charges - a surplus of £10.9 million against their business plan. These sums would go to Treasury.
The VED element is what they're there for.
Not clear what the £10.9m surplus agaist business plan means but it's reasonable that costs of driver licensing, registration of vehicles and suplying keeper details to those with cause are overed by users fees.
Sale of fancy plates is (rightly) a profit centre.
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"Not clear what the £10.9m surplus agaist business plan"
The business plan anticipated they would achieve £390 million in fees and charges - they acheived £401 million.
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"Not clear what the £10.9m surplus agaist business plan"
The business plan anticipated they would achieve £390 million in fees and charges - they acheived £401 million.
But what were thr running costs of the DVLA? Were they covered ?
They may have received more in fees/charges but could still run at a loss.
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No focussed I wouldn't tend to believe one person telling me. Especially as I suspect he may blame German and Italian departments if one of their nationals is complaining. I tend to lack confidence in people who blame others. The percentage he gives is unbelievable, and I don't believe it. Sort of headline figure for a tabloid newspaper sensation - not backed by fact. Oldroverboy correctly makes the point about forms not being filled in correctly and says the actual percentage of mistakes by the DVLA is low. Yes it is from one person but I feel a more cautious approach to stating a case. We can all improve and we can all mistakes. The DVLA, like all organisations is included in this. Let's not exaggerate shortcomings which may become accepted as factual.
Ok scot22 - this is what can happen here in France-
You take all the paperwork required to the prefecture - including the original V5 for the vehicle you attempting to register. The prefecture fonctionaire enters the version and variant numbers of the vehicle into their system which is linked to the manfacturer's database. If it doesn't register with that a technical inspection at the owner's cost may have to arranged to determine what actual vehicle it is. Happened to some friends of ours recently, trying to register a perfectly standard ordinary Mitsubishi Outlander .Quite often when this happens it turns out that the vehicle is not according to what is on the V5, because somebody somewhere has not entered the correct information in the first place - now who could that possibly be?
Right - got it in one, it's the DVLA.
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In the last couple of days I have needed to contact the DVLA.
The first time I had to listen to the options and choose an option and eventually I got a recorded message saying "Your licence will be returned within 3 weeks and any supporting documents could take a further 2 weeks to be returned" There was no information about what I should do as they had not arrived.
The second time I called I just got an immediate recorded message saying "all 240 lines are busy, Please call back later"
Eventually, I got through to a human today, Who has confirmed they have my licence and supporting documents and he is going to send me a letter saying it is OK for me to continue driving until my licence is returned. It sort of begs the question, Why don't they just send me the new licence? or am I being too idealogical?
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Yesterday I called the DVLA, for my old mate (the one I bought the chevrolet aveo for a bit back) He received his "tax" renewal, but I think (?) using the options, tried to sorn it. he tried again, but after two attemps in 2 days (he is in his 70's) gave up, and monday told me he had not received his tax disc.
Upon calling swansea, ot through to a human quickly, who checked using the vehicle reg , and explained what had happened and was advised TAKE the log book to a post office and they will help fill in the form and pay. Job done!
Thanks DVLA, who wre kind enough to speak to me on behalf of a friend.
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