I suppose it was inevitable following my failure to secure the top job at the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency last year that matters in Swansea were not going to improve. Despite putting Steve Cropley as one of my references, I was overlooked for the position and this had led directly to a glaring administrative error.

More than a month ago I sold my Mitsubishi Shogun and filled in the appropriate paperwork to inform the DVLA that the vehicle was no longer mine. A few weeks later, I received a nice little note in the form of an official acknowledgement through the post. Then, a couple of weeks after that, I received a V11, the official form that reminds you to retax your vehicle or declare it off the road. 

This is slightly alarming. I could have rung what appeared to be premium rate numbers to speak to someone who wouldn’t have a clue, so instead I went through many multiple option hoops to send an email via the DVLA site to ask what was occurring. Incredibly, I was warned that it could take up to three days to reply, since there could be some investigation involved.

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In the event, they emailed me back 24 hours later, and the happy ending was this: 

Dear Mr Ruppert

Thank you for your email received on 12/5/14. Your email reference number is 2059674.

Upon checking the record, I can confirm that you are no longer the registered keeper and the V11 reminder letter you can ignore.

The point here is that the DVLA has wasted postage on not one, but two letters. Looking on the reverse side of the original acknowldegement it does say that any V11 is printed up to six weeks before the tax disc or SORN runs out. 

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Now I know the system is changing to a discless one quite soon, but the evidence of waste, be it time or money, is quite overwhelming at the DVLA. Personally I wouldn’t reconsider joining them if they begged me.

Have you any outstanding DVLA issues? Or do you think that great big monolith in Wales sucking money out of our wallets is just dandy?