Overview

DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) is a huge organisation, situated in Swansea, Wales. Nearly 6000 people are employed there. Most of these jobs are unskilled and generalist; the majority of which are call-centre jobs. It interacts with the public using postal, telephonic and web-based means. There is (was before COVID) public access to a counter, with a queuing system, for handing over documents.

Who are the UK DVLA and what do they do?

The Wikipedia summary of their function: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is the organisation of the UK government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers in Great Britain and a database of vehicles for the entire United Kingdom.

The DVLA's summary of their function: We maintain the registration and licensing of drivers in Great Britain and the registration and licensing of vehicles, together with the collection and enforcement of VED in the UK.

This information helps us improve road safety, reduce vehicle related crime, support environmental initiatives and limit vehicle tax evasion.

Our summary of their function: A profit-oriented, self-autonomous, non governmental organisation recording details of vehicles and drivers; overseeing vehicle transactions and collection of vehicle tax.

collect tax	strive for profit	big employer	public database

How have they evolved

The DVLA HQ has been in Swansea for a long time. It is a case in point where government have situated a hub of labour in a place where there is perceived to be a shortage of jobs. Expansion and development (leading to more jobs) has been encouraged through investment and  free rein on raising cash.

Pre 2013, for decades, there were up to 39 DVLA local offices, situated all around the UK, where people could go for vehicle and licensing services and help. The DVLA closed all of them and made 1200 people redundant, centralising all of its work to Swansea, for online and telephone access only.

Common problems with the DVLA, regarding vehicular administration

Lack of knowledge: it being a call centre, there is a general lack of knowledge by employees of vehicles and often even of DVLA procedures. This leads to public frustration when they are met with contradictions, confusing advice and lack of concise direction.

Inefficiency: the DVLA do lose paperwork and post ocassionally. Why would that not happen though? It is after all a massive place with lots of departments and staff. In our work we are often told of DVLA losing precious documents and losing whole applications within their system so be careful what you send and how you send it.

Confusing procedures placed on the public: starting with older and less web-savvy people, all the way through to experienced paperwork boffins like us, people wishing to register vehicles suffer lengthy, superfluous, flawed and over-complicated DVLA procedures (this is only our opinion).

Contradictions:

The DVLA collect VED (Vehicle Excise Duty), AKA 'tax' and they fine non-payers. But they are not the HMRC. They actually make it difficult to register a vehicle and start paying tax by creating red tape around vehicle registration.

The DVLA claim to 'reduce vehicle related crime' but they do not make VIN research (the ability to check VINs against reg numbers and search by VIN) publicly accessible.

The DVLA claim to support environmental initiatives and reduce vehicle crime but they make it difficult for people to road register 'off road' vehicles and make legal their 'unregistered' vehicles. Is it better to have an unregistered trials bike kick around Green Lanes or better to have it numbered, road registered and taxed??

The DVLA are proud of their role as database keeper but they do not share this public data widely for the good of the people and the nation. The DVLA revealed in December 2012 that it had temporarily banned 294 public bodies, including local councils and police forces, for not using their access to the database correctly between 2006 and 2012. A further 38 bodies were banned permanently during the period.

The DVLA operate as a governmental sponsored organisation masquerading as a 'public service' for the good of the nation and the people. However, they charge ridiculous and excessive amounts for 'cherished' numbers figured out by their computers and analysts; and they fine people. This profit-making side undermines their credibility as a public service.

The DVLA are a governmental sponsored organisation but are a law unto themselves. This manifests itself in heavy handed treatment of motorists, a high handed attitude in general to independent organisations set up to help motorists, and worst of all - in a set of rules that appear to most as corrupt or illegal. For example, they 'retain' documents, they lose documents that they then fail to replace, they force registrants to pay fees to DVSA and VCA service providers for unnecessary VA (Vehicle Assessment) tests when they should allow a simple vehicle registration.

The DVLA force registrants to trawl organisations and contact manufacturers to come up with 'supportive information' which they (the DVLA) could provide and verify themselves. Why?

We give free advice, help and assistance with all DVLA matters and problems. We would feel we had described our operation badly if people were to think that we are affiliated to or work with the DVLA (eg. from our marketing and trading names), but we have to market ourselves as DVLA ADVICE AND ADMIN SERVICES because that is exactly what we do and it is what we offer.