F-ing DVLA 😡😡😡

[GoodnightGrandma]

Applied for DS’s provisional on-line back in the summer. Money taken out, then nothing.
About 4 weeks ago I finally got to speak to someone after trying hundreds of times. She said we should have had a letter, she’d send another. Nothing.
Tried ringing again, ‘we’re really busy so push off’ message.
What can I do, I want to complain to someone who will listen 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

I waited 10 weeks for my provisional. Got it in August. My husband also waited 10 weeks for his new photo renewal.

It's an absolute disgrace. You can't contact them at all, they are sitting with people's passports and important documents for months. If you look on twitter people have lost new rentals and job offers as been waiting on their passports or photo ID yo be returned. Even worse, I read of a foreign national whose parent died unexpectedly they couldn't travel home for the funeral because the DVLA had their passport!

I had applied for a new passport because I thought the process would be quicker. It isn't because you only sign the new passports when they arrive. So the DVLA need to send out a form for your signature!

Passport arrived in 2 weeks so they were previously a lot quicker!

You can still work when you’re isolating at home. Covid has hit the whole country and yet other businesses and institutions (ffs look at the nhs) are able to run a service. No excuse for this level of chaos, at this stage in the pandemic. I agree an investigation is needed.

I’m a bit shocked by the blame the workers are getting here. It’s been widely publicised that precisely because homeworking isn’t possible in many DVLA roles and because the government mismanaged Covid controls at the DVLA offices they had some massive outbreaks and have had a lot of staff having to isolate/off sick long term.
This created an even larger backlog in what is already an underfunded and under resourced department. It’s not people being lazy - it’s one person trying to do the job of 2,3 or 4 others.

I’ve also had this. Took 12 weeks for licence to come back to me and it hasn’t been renewed because of a small error (my fault) so I have to start again. I did eventually phone and the guy I spoke to couldn’t have been more helpful.

I realise it’s no consolation for lorry drivers or those waiting for provisionals but if you already have a standard licence and have a renewal in process you can still drive.

Sorry for everyone going through this - it is super stressful and I get the frustration. I just don’t think it’s the fault of ordinary folk who work there.

Thing is, just because people on the internet say ‘Covid isn’t an excuse anymore’ doesn’t make it true. The majority of the people are probably still working from home, there are probably still high levels of sickness as numbers are still high and despite what people think it has actually been really hard to hire at the moment. The call centre I work in is at half numbers because while we’ve lost the usual amount of staff over these twoish years we haven’t been able to hire the same amount.
Guarantee they all feel as stressed about the waits as you do, complaining and moaning at them just takes them away from tasks that can be completed in order to get the queues down (and also causes the aforementioned staff loss because it’s incredibly demoralising to be shouted at over the phone all day)

We're in the same boat...applied for DDs back in July...have tried hundreds of times to phone but nothing.

She's provisionally booked an instructor back in May for after her 17th birthday in September as there's significant waiting times here, and he's now had to remove her from his waiting list.

At this rate it'll be a miracle if she passes her test before uni.

This thing is, if DVLA were not set up for mobile work/wfh, if there systems are all online and staff used desktops, where were they meant to get 6000 laptops from at once to facilitate this ? DH’s office (not civil service) was due their (12) laptops to be replaced on their routine IT service contract in April 2020, but there was just no equipment available. There was a massive rush on laptops as the world started locking down, which has taken months to backfill.

I work for the civil service (not DVLA!). We can’t just use “domestic” privately owned laptops to log into our networks and systems. Too much security, not enough power.

@MrsDThomas

I think it time the dvla moved out of wales. (Or up north) It appears those working there don’t want to work and are happy using covid as the excuse, and unions supporting them.

Working from hone certainly does not work fir this agency.

What a ridiculously stupid and offensive statement. I doubt you'd get away with posting that about other countries. There are plenty of other organisations in Wales that got their staff homeworking sharpish and are operating as normal - land registry, dvsa, bt and admiral to name but a few. The problem lies with the top management at dvla who never bothered to try and get people working from home and with restricted numbets of people allowed in the office they've created an absolute shit storm. Suddenly magicking them into England (presumably you see scotland an northern Ireland as work shy too) wouldn't change that.

Moved house in July. Still waiting on updated license with new address. Just keep being fobbed off.

My dad sent off for his replacement license in July, still waiting.

Ffs. Get some top management consultants in and sort it out. Needs leadership to take charge.

Our local authority is still working from home ‘due to Covid.’. You can’t contact anyone, despite hundreds of attempts. They just don’t pick up the phone.

Covid rates are low in our area. Is it union strength, public sector inefficiency, in these organisations? I just don’t know.

I sold a van this time last year and have never had the refund on the tax.

DVLA should suspend taking people's money and documents and update their automatic responses to say the backlog is over 6 months.

New applications would then be submitted knowing the reality of the situation.

They should then have a 2nd stream for urgent turn around (like passport office do) which costs more money and is potentially outsourced (privately or to a different government agency) so if you need the document by a specific date you pay £100, £200, £300....(quite frankly, some lorry drivers losing money, would probably pay £1000) to guarantee quick delivery of the licence.

Online trackers say "awaiting document return" 3 months after Royal Mail confirm safe receipt. The advertised procedures of contact do not work. Contacting via twitter very rarely solves the actual issue raised.

The current process is broken.

We must be really lucky. I applied for DS’s provisional licence on 8 November we received it 10 days later. We ticked the option to use the same photo as his passport, maybe that makes it quicker .

@FutureHope

Ffs. Get some top management consultants in and sort it out. Needs leadership to take charge.

Our local authority is still working from home ‘due to Covid.’. You can’t contact anyone, despite hundreds of attempts. They just don’t pick up the phone.

Covid rates are low in our area. Is it union strength, public sector inefficiency, in these organisations? I just don’t know.

People have a right to a safe working environment. That’s why we have unions. The DVLA had the biggest Covid outbreak of any workplace in the UK.

We’re paying a million pounds a day to private consultants on track and trace. Let’s take some of that and temporarily staff up the DVLA. It wont be an instant fix but let’s get new staff, more training, more resources in place. Put in place measures to support staff wellbeing and improve staff retention. Temporarily expand the office sites through renting new buildings so that social distancing can be maintained to minimise cases. It’s very hard but not impossible. And it doesn’t need a whole lot of spending on external consultants to do it. What they need is more people and more computers in a safe environment to minimise sickness until the backlog is more manageable.

BishBash did your child need to do anything re the signature on passport/driving licence as somebody up thread has mentioned.

We are hoping DS new passport arrives soon and we can take this route as the paper version simply doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

(We did apply for provisional clicking "use passport" it appeared to use the passport, then at the end, after payment, it said it was sending out a form to fill in....)

The U.K. is looking more like a third world country each day. The services that were reliable were one of the best things here.

We tried applying for a provisional and couldn't find her ni number so that seemed to trigger a form coming out. So I hunted high and low and got the ni number and that went through completely online then. However we applied end of October and haven't had it yet so who knows.

@NotBabiesForLong Nope we just completed the application online. Didn’t have to do anything else.

Think that's bad? Try the medical department at DVLA I had my licence taken off me I was deemed fit to drive it took them 15 months to issue a 3 year fixed licence I'm dreading going through that process again. They are the shittest government department

Thanks BishBash. I will keep my fingers crossed.

VeeVee that is terrible!

This thread has reminded me. I had to re-apply for my licence in July as it had a) expired b) needed the address updating. I was aware at the time there was a backlog so expected it would take a fair few weeks.

At the beginning of October I received a letter from them saying the cheque I had sent was out of date (well, yes, it was dated for July after all) so they sent the whole application form back to me asking for an up to date payment and to send it back to them using the envelope provided which had some kind of red hand writing on it that looked like heiroglyphics but would apparently mean it would be given priority treatment once it got back to them. To be honest I was doubtful but sent it back the same day.

End of November and still nothing, the cheque hasn't been cashed so my application still hasn't been processed. I need it for ID and I'm really pissed off.

It's obvious the DVLA is not fit for purpose. I will be complaining but I fear that no one there is going to give a shiny.

I’m also still waiting since May for a tax refund. They have managed to send the reminder for the next six months though. (same car, changed ownership from me to daughter and had to re tax)

My DD passed her test few weeks ago on a monday and received her license through on the Thursday. They must be prioritising those who pass their tests

Yes, same here. DD passed last Tuesday and I assumed we’d wait ages for her licence, but it arrived on Friday! It’s weird because you’re eligible to drive in the interim but obviously you’re not able to learn with no Provisional Licence. Maybe it’s because technically they have all the details for your full licence already so not as onerous a task.

At the beginning of October I received a letter from them saying the cheque I had sent was out of date (well, yes, it was dated for July after all) so they sent the whole application form back to me asking for an up to date payment

Cheques don’t expire though, and even if banks put a limit on cashing them, it’s six months from date of issue - maybe it’s just a strategy for them to pass it back so it doesn’t form part of their backlog.

Bizarre isn't it, we applied for DDs and it arrived within a week, yet her friend is still waiting from August. Utterly bonkers.