Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) website went down last night after failing to cope with demand for its service as thousands of drivers tried to renew their car tax. Car owners drove the site to collapse, after the paper tax disc was retired today.

Luckily for the DVLA they are a monopoly provider, however, a more commercially focused organisation would surely have anticipated and planned for a spike in demand that such an historical change would inevitably create?  Especially if they risked disgruntled customers taking to social media in droves.

But would they? Very recent history suggests that organisations are often taking a very cavalier approach to the care of their customers, never mind their brand reputation and revenue streams by either carrying out unrealistic IT performance testing or none at all…….you’re not one of them, are you?  Sleep well!

The Independent reported that many drivers took to Twitter to report that the website was not working for them or that they were unable to access it.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said on Tuesday evening it was receiving more than 6,000 visits a minute, hours before the old tax disc system became obsolete.

In a post, the agency said it received “unprecedented demand” on its website, which was causing a “slow response”. An estimated 270,000 people had taxed their cars by the end of the day – 30,000 more than on the same date last year. The DVLA has a digital record of payments and number-plate recognition cameras are used to track vehicles and identify those that are not taxed.

A spokesperson for the DVLA said: “We are currently experiencing unprecedented demand which means that some customers may be experiencing slow response times or having difficulty accessing the service.

“We are of course very sorry for any inconvenience and we are urgently investigating to improve service quality for the minority of our customers that are experiencing issues.”

Mark Adamson

Head of Operations, StarBase

See the story reported elsewhere

Independent –

Car tax disc changes: DVLA website crashes as drivers rush to renew tax online

Telegraph –

DVLA website crashes on first day of law change

Posted by:mark

Head of Operations, StarBase

Mark Adamson has responsibility for planning and driving continuous improvement in the operation of the business overall, focusing in particular on quality of service and solution delivery to clients. He enjoys working with smart people on interesting, challenging projects which can make a real difference to the success of our clients businesses. He also derives great satisfaction from helping graduate trainees develop into highly effective consultants.