One of my drivers had his licence returned to him by the DVLA after he changed his address and the Cat C (Class 2) was gone! We rung them up and they said the medical form that he had completed the month before was not filled in correctly and they sent it back to him. It went to his old address, allegedly, but this was not a problem as he re-directed his mail. He didn’t receive this letter and the first he knew of the problem was when he passed the new licence to me and I noticed it.
We were advised to fax a copy of the medical (a new medical as the old one would be too old now at a cost of £90) and eye test certificate so they could process it but this would take up to 3 weeks! After a week of ringing to see if it was all good, I was told the fax was not an acceptable means of passing this onto them it would need to be posted. One week wasted! So £7 for a super doper registered delivery later it was gone. They confirmed the letter was received, so we can asked can we have it hurried up as the chap cannot drive and is losing money. No, we don’t do that say DVLA!
Another week passes, still no answer that it is on the system. Driver leaves for holiday for two weeks. On his return on his door mat, no not the licence, but the eye test certificate. The letter explains that the eye test certificate is too old in relation to the date on the medical, so a new one of them is required!!! Driver gets a courier off his own back to whizz the new eye test certificate to DVLA at a cost of £92 that day.
Ring them again to confirm receipt. They confirm receipt but advise it could still take 3 more weeks!
Anyone else had this problem or similar?
Does anyone know an avenue of complaint to the DVLA as this is a farce!
Why do DVLA in this day and age not use email■■? I could scan certificates email them through, an “expert” could look at them and then email confirmation. They don’t even tell the poor driver that they have revoked his licence?? This system has to change DVLA!!
I am sure they only keep this archaic system going to keep half of Wales employed, they need to change and roll with the times. Posting items through the post is ridiculous, doctors can email DVLA with scanned certificates to ensure some numpty hasn’t made one up on his PC. Come on DVLA have a heart and help the man that needs the licence to pay his bills! DVLA is shocking in its customer service, I know they deal with millions of people a year, but they need to take HGV/PCV drivers as a priority surely■■?
The DVLA appear to have 2 extremes, I have found them to be really good when I have used them and never had a problem, in fact I have complemented them on the service the provide on at least one occasion on here. However it appears to be all too easy to fall into the “traffic jam” of red-tape when something very simple goes wrong, which appears to have happened on this occasion.
Complaints advice for DVLA here:
Could also be worth trying to get help from his local MP, some are actually very good at kicking ■■■ when needed!
Martin:
The DVLA appear to have 2 extremes, I have found them to be really good when I have used them and never had a problem, in fact I have complemented them on the service the provide on at least one occasion on here. However it appears to be all too easy to fall into the “traffic jam” of red-tape when something very simple goes wrong, which appears to have happened on this occasion.
One of our mature drivers been driving donkeys years found all his HGV entitlement vanished when he got his licence back.
Apparently all records wiped from DVLC’s computers so up to him to prove he had entitlement (like some bloody banana dictators hell hole), luckily the company take copies of licences so DVLC had to accept, could have been nasty otherwise.
You can see how easy it is to rewrite history for warmongering prime ministers and other slime.
Much better when we had the old HGV licences, never had trouble like this when we posted them to the local office (Birkbeck Nottingham anyone?) and got yet another page stuck in your little book proving to the world your full HGV history incl the pink slip the day you passed your test.
It must be a pain in the arse when this happens. It was well documented in Motorcycle News a few years ago when it became common for DVLA to miss off motorcycle entitlements when renewing photo or changing address.
The advice then remains valid now, ALWAYS take a copy of both parts of your licence before sending it to DVLA.
I would recommend contacting your MP regardless, requesting him to formally enter a Freedom of Information Request into an exact trace of their process of this application with full details of times, names and dates and particularly wanting to know why their telephone operative could not have sorted this out at the first phone call. Furthermore although unlikely to be successful, either through him or otherwise put in a claim to the small claims court for compensation. Is the fee for entering the claim worth the satisfaction of the aggravation you will cause Swansea management?
I have been to Swansea and handed in forms and documents personally in the hope that things will move more quickly but no, they still take 3/4 weeks to ‘process’ them!
Should close it down and reopen the local licensing offices again - at least then you could ‘eyeball’ the operative you were dealing with and they could identify you immediately!
iDriver:
It must be a pain in the arse when this happens. It was well documented in Motorcycle News a few years ago when it became common for DVLA to miss off motorcycle entitlements when renewing photo or changing address.
The advice then remains valid now, ALWAYS take a copy of both parts of your licence before sending it to DVLA.
It wasn’t exactly common, but inevitably when this sort of thing happens the few ■■■■-ups get much more airtime than the millions of jobs they do right.
I’d go one further; don’t just take copies, but “lose” your old licence before applying and then send it in after you get the new one.
Fred; no thanks. I still remember the queues around the block at the local offices to re-tax a car when the post office couldn’t do it for whatever reason, it was advisable to take sandwiches and a sleeping bag if this happened towards the end of July when the new registrations only came out in August.
As others have said I find DVLA to be one of the better Government agencies. I’m currently in the middle of importing a motorbike from the USA and I’ve found them to be very helpful.
I imagine the reason behind having everything posted is due to seeing original documentation. Unfortunately I don’t think the DVLA are as likely to be open to rule-bending within reason in comparison to private firms! You are completely right in saying that they could have authorised doctors and such send forms across however - I can’t imagine there being that many cases of application for a false HGV licence.
By the looks of it, the issues here are dealing with too many representatives and not being given accurate information from the get-go. If he sent off his original medical and there were errors, sure, send it back - but pick up the phone and let him know about it.
When you say you were advised to fax - was that from the DVLA? If so, horrendous service all round. This is probably their prime opportunity to put things right and consider that he would’ve needed the eye test - even if he didn’t, no harm in sending the form out!
For any future dealings with them I’d always recommend taking note of who you’re speaking to and preferably ask for them. Anyone competent in their office will deal with you personally and have a better knowledge of the driver’s details in question - hopefully they’ll apply some common sense / logic to the situation too.
Poor bloke - definitely worth a letter of complaint in my opinion.
FreddieSwan:
I imagine the reason behind having everything posted is due to seeing original documentation. Unfortunately I don’t think the DVLA are as likely to be open to rule-bending within reason in comparison to private firms! You are completely right in saying that they could have authorised doctors and such send forms across however - I can’t imagine there being that many cases of application for a false HGV licence.
By the looks of it, the issues here are dealing with too many representatives and not being given accurate information from the get-go. If he sent off his original medical and there were errors, sure, send it back - but pick up the phone and let him know about it.
When you say you were advised to fax - was that from the DVLA? If so, horrendous service all round. This is probably their prime opportunity to put things right and consider that he would’ve needed the eye test - even if he didn’t, no harm in sending the form out!
For any future dealings with them I’d always recommend taking note of who you’re speaking to and preferably ask for them. Anyone competent in their office will deal with you personally and have a better knowledge of the driver’s details in question - hopefully they’ll apply some common sense / logic to the situation too.
Poor bloke - definitely worth a letter of complaint in my opinion.
I wish it was easy as getting a name! I spoke to Bob today from team 17…TEAM17!! How many people work there?? Is it a village? Crazy, just the whole, sorry mate there is nothing we can do to make it quicker.
When you sit and work out what we pay it is terrible customer service.
New driver in the first ten years:
HGV test and training £1200
Photocard licence £20
Digi card £20 x 2
DCPC training @ £75 a session £750
Grand total £2010, or £201 per year, or £4 a week.
Yes I know it doesn’t sound a lot and this is not all going to the DVLA, but lets not forget road tax at £1200 on an artic, medical costs at the quacks, eye tests at Specsavers (other opticians available) MOT’s massive VAT on fuel, its a wonder anyone can afford to drive!
theonlybigman:
I wish it was easy as getting a name! I spoke to Bob today from team 17…TEAM17!! How many people work there?? Is it a village? Crazy, just the whole, sorry mate there is nothing we can do to make it quicker.
We run licence checks on all new drivers and have a 3-month rolling check; think the highest I’ve had is Team 64 from memory. Think you were quite lucky
Karl86:
I wish this thread was yesterday, sent my liscence off just for a new photo god knows what ill get back and I never copied any off it :/.
You’ll be very unlucky if there’s a problem.
But, in future, I would as has been suggested, ‘lose’ your licence. I always do this as a ■■■■ up can be easily and clearly sorted and with minimum delay.
theonlybigman:
I wish it was easy as getting a name! I spoke to Bob today from team 17…TEAM17!! How many people work there?? Is it a village? Crazy, just the whole, sorry mate there is nothing we can do to make it quicker.
Not so much a village as a small town. Put it into perspective; how many queries and applications do you think that place deals with every day?
This is DVLA;
I’m not defending the obvious ■■■■-ups, but given how many people have duff info on driving licences and V5’s to start with, it’s to DVLA’s credit that as little goes wrong as does.
Karl86:
I wish this thread was yesterday, sent my liscence off just for a new photo god knows what ill get back and I never copied any off it :/.
Your company will have copies when they do their 6 month license check.
In 8 years hes checked mine twice. Both times after my test to make sure when I said I passed I wansnt bull shining him. I don’t think his records would be much help .
