DVLA. What a stupid system.

[azekeil]

I have my new bank card. So I call up the DVLA to order a replacement driving license. Turns out that I can't order over the phone if I've only lost one part of my license - I have to return the counterpart through the post, and hence I have to fill in the form, write a check, post it, etc. Much hassle. I hang up.

They didn't ask my name. I checked that there isn't a price difference between losing one or both parts of the license - there isn't. So I just called straight back, told them I'd lost both parts, and they let me order it then and there with my card.

What a stupid bloody system.

Comments

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

*Laugh*. You master criminal, you!

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

It is a bit stupid, but the point is that the counterpart is tied to the card, and if one is gone then the other needs to be destroyed.

Be sure that you dispose of it properly (burn it I would suggest, or shred it thoroughly), as it won't be a legal document anymore and if you used it by mistake you could get into trouble.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I was planning on burning it on arrival of my new license.

Perhaps I can turn it into some sort of ritual to appease the DVLA gods in case they are angry at my deception.

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

To be fair, the DVLA don't make the rules, they're just stuck with enforcing them. They aren't actually a government department, they're a private company with a contract, and if they don't do it exactly as the government says, then they lose the contract. They're constantly being challenged by other companies who say they could do it better (and probably could as it is now, but the reason they don't get the contract is usually that they would be more resistant to changes to the system in future, either because of an inflexible system, or stubborn/strong willed management).

Or so my brother tells me anyway.

[tefkas.livejournal.com]

That's utterly mad! It still seems pointless to me that we have a two part licence, where one part isn't valid without the other. Why separate them, then?

Surely it's not beyond the wit of 21st century government to come up with a card-based driving licence without the need for the paper counterpart?

Especially since the_register relayed the news that one of the police forces in the UK is trialling handheld devices that can link to the national police database(s)...

[gerald_duck]

You think you've got problems? Once, I had to tear up my V5 in front of a Post Office clerk so that I could buy a tax disc!

yup to that.

[nemy.livejournal.com]

The DVLA is a bureacratic mess!