The Vehicle Licence Application form for the Golf turned up in the post today, however since the last time we taxed a car, it seems that the DVLA have taken a step forward. Rather than have to go and queue up in a local post office to get a tax disc, the envelope and renewal form were plugging the chance to pay your car tax online.
It has to be said that in typical fashion the URL they are putting all over the renewal document is currently wrong – http://www.direct.gov.uk/taxdisc producing a ‘Document contains no data.’ error. However it looks like this is only a problem with the redirect, a bit of digging around located http://www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk/, which is the site itself. (www.direct.gov.uk is the central site for government services, but it is really just a collection of links to the individual departmental sites.)
Anyway, the one obstacle I thought there would be to an online service is that the trip to the post office to tax a car has a second purpose, which is for someone official to check that each vehicle has valid insurance and if over three years old, has passed it’s MOT test. However these checks are actually done automatically during the online process by checking details against the Motor Insurance Database run by the Motor Insurers Information Centre to combat the problem of uninsured drivers, and the MOT details can be validated as a result of the new computerised MOT testing processes.
It’s a lot quicker, and is also available 24 hours a day. Essentially all you need to do is type in your reference number or car registration number, select 6 or 12 months tax, and type in a debit card number, so no more queues in the Post Office at lunchtime for me!
Why is there no renewal service online
Renewal service for what? The tax disc renewal service is online.
trying the online renewal for car tax ..directed to ebay ,what is going on !!!!
Not sure, all the links above seem to work fine from here.
Incidentally, had the renewal for our other car come through this month, but no online option available in the paperwork. Maybe it is only for newer cars. 🙁
Can not get through to the web site . Had to use phone which took fully 10 minutes. It may be easioer to go to the Post office.
It’s not easy finding where you are to obtain the tax disc on line can it be made a little more obvious where you are. Sign in on your www. and it just gets ambiguous
Donald Marriott.
its all to difficult webpage all but useless i’m off to post office to talk to a human
Have been trying now for nearly 1 hour to find it, gave up going to the Post Office.
you cannot apply before the 15th of the month it all seemed easy.
You’ve never been able to renew a tax disc more than two weeks before the old one expires, so the site is merely enforcing the same rule.
Incidentally, just to re-enforce the point, both the DirectGov site at http://www.direct.gov.uk/taxdisc that I had trouble with when I tried to renew online in 2005, and the http://www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk/ site work fine. There is also now a link from the main DVLA page at http://www.dvla.gov.uk/.
The main posting on this page was written back when the service was just getting going, and had a couple of teething problems with the URL that was being printed on the form, however once I got to the site through the http://www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk/ all went well, and with the project I was working on at the time, being able to do the renewal outside normal Post Office opening times was great. However to balance that I was unable to do our older car a couple of months ago as the V11 did not include the reference number required by the site or phone service, so I had to go down to the local Post Office and got the tax disc that way.
I’ve just renewed our newer car for the second time using the online service, and had no problems at all, the URL on the V11 form worked fine, the site was responsive, and I got through all the relevant pages, paid and complete in about five minutes. Whilst I can’t say what the site is like at other times of the day, it was certainly straightforward for my renewal.
Jean 22nd September 19.07pm
I read the comments and thanks to Richard I got straight to the site , I did not register our car as our Insurance has not been registered? so why do they say you can do it over the Internet I have the Insurance certificate here in front of me , What a shambles like all our government I give up!!
My vehicle has just been registered under the disability Living Allowance why cant I register the car online. please reply asap.
hank you. Christine
I’m sorry to say I can’t help.
Having said that, I suspect like a lot of online services it can only cope with some straightforward renewals – and as I’ve mentioned previously I can only renew one of our two cars online currently so it’s by no means a universal renewal service – so I’d certainly expect renewals that require extra documents to be checked for example will still have to be done manually. I assume the Disability Living Allowance requires just that sort of extra check to ensure that the applicant qualifies, which is why the DVLA won’t allow it to be done online as yet.
I sold the vehicle registration mark K108PKR over two years ago, and informed your office at the time, so I don’t have either a current licence disk or the vehicle which was a green citroen bx.Can you please advise what action I now need to take with this licence application
Can I just point out that this is a personal web site, where I wrote about my experiences with the online registration service. This site is not the DVLA!
Richard, you might like to add a little something (in bold) to the top of your post that says that you are not the DVLA (even though it’s pretty obvious to folks like us) with a link to the DVLA online licensing website: http://www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk.
I suspect that people are simply not reading closely enough or getting to those parts of your comments where you point it out.
Gareth
Yes, I’ve renamed the post adding ‘My’ and ‘Experiences’ – hopefully that should make it clearer. I would just close comments, but then I suspect people who make the same mistake will just use the contact page instead!
like all the folk who dread the post office queue, i tried in vain to find the site as advertised on the DVLA envelope which droped on the mat today……what a waste of time & money, & I mean my time & money, the government seem to have lots of both to waste and spend. Actually theirs is mine as well…. my tax, my rates, my cartax! oh, if only i could complete the car tax purchase, theyd have even more of my money… when will I/they learn!!!
Very impressed – just applied for my tax disc on line – took minutes – no queues, no using my whole lunch hour and getting annoyed. Great idea to purchase on line.
I was well impressed once I found the site, went on ebay at one point, whats that about!!
Anyway will use this service again, no more queing in the post office for me, will recommend it to anyone only took a few minutes.
Well done DVLA!
This service is very VERY creaky and I nearly gave up, after many attempts, in favour of a damp walk to the post office.
I am now in mid-process again and……… yep! it’s failed again. Now where’s my brolly and all that paperwork….?
I tried to declare sorn by phone, was asked for a ref no in yellow box, there is no number in box -aborted
Tried again on line , was asked for ref noon V5C tied every number on same — none worked
Back to post office!
Oh my oh my, I’ve given up. I’ve had the same problem as the person above me with the yellow box ref no. So I entered my reg no and ref no from the log book as instructed,but to no avail.
I envy those who’ve achieved this mission. Give yourselves a clap on the back.
Thank u though to richard without this site I would never of found it.
Off to the post office now. %-(
It does seem that only certain cars can be renewed online. One of ours turns up with the yellow box on the form, and all the details of the online service, the other doesn’t.
I have just successfully relicensed my vehicle on line, but only thanks to your help and the link, Richard. Before that I too ended up on ebay! Or I could have taken the option to compare holiday flights and prices! As these responses date back to July, wouldn’t you think they could have altered the form by now? Incidentally, my car is 15 years old, which didn’t present a problem. Thanks again for helping this old gal move forward over yet another government hurdle.
I have just had my car tax reminder. I decided to tax on line but thought I would check all comments first. Doing this I had pause for thought. Yes I hate queing at the post office, but, I live in a rural area, already those that did so can no longer buy television licence stamps, can no longer get the telivision licence and have to travel by a very infrequent bus service to the next town to do this.With the post office already under threat of closure how long before all but the main post offices go and those that can, have to struggle on the bus with heavy parcels or even just to post a registered letter. Thereby adding to the cost of the bus fare to the postage. I am lucky I have a car so I think I will go and queue at the post office just to try stop the goverment having their wicked way with the closure. Anyone care to join me.?
There are some very thick people on here!!!
The web-site is easy to use and get a disk from, you don’t have to queue up with winging old people and then have a low paid “shop-keeper” look over your documents like they are a clever forensic scientist and then refuse your insurance cause it’s a print-out – if you can understand the broken english (www.swiftcover.com do not send paper documents – don’t bother checking your so stupid you will end up on e-bay!) then after an arguement and wait while they “check” with another person who is too bored to argue with you.
No thanks, let me do it simply on-line.
If the rurul post office bit closed at our local it will be a lot easier for me to get into the sweet-shop to buy a birthday card without the igronant old people queuing!!
who needs a local post office anyway? we have cars….?
Like everything else to do with government/civil service departments, nothing works. Why send me a invitation to renew my tax disc on line when I cannot get through. A typical shambles: wish I was surprised !
Earlier this year I sucessfully applied for the tax disc on my vehicle but I am having no such luck with trying to re-new the tax on my sons car.
The internet address keeps going to Ebay and I haven’t got a clue how to continue.
I also tried the telephone number but after I was asked for the 16 digit number (what 16 digit number?) it cuts off saying number can not be found.
I wish it was easy to get to our nearest Post Office, but we’ll have to manage.
The sixteen digit number is printed on some renewal notices. With us, the notice for one car has such a number, the other doesn’t.
just wondered from your experience whats the time delay issue for online application regarding displaying of relevent disc.
or have we moved on from pay & display urgency with computerised data bases?
The two occasions I have been able to renew online, the new tax disc has arrived within two days. As far as I am aware, the requirement to display a valid tax disc has not been relaxed, so you do need to leave enough time for the disc to arrive in the post if you do it online.
Hi,
Snore! I just tried, my reminder notice does not have the reference number printed on it, and when I enter the first 11 digits of the doc ref no. from my v5 form that doesn’t work either. Why can’t they just provide access to this function via the vehicle regn alone?? Well I’ll have to wait til tuesday now and go to the post office. tra la!!
Applied on-line, completed all the sections, didn’t press back at any point, paid, and apparently the transaction got cancelled. So had to clear the garage yesterday afternoon to fit the car in. Not impressed…
I think your problem may be that your site is more professional and easier to use than the D.V.L.A. !
Like everyone else I had trouble actually getting onto the D.V.L.A. site, its their fault, surely they must try to get onto their own site to check its functionality !
I found as have others, that if you type in http://www..etc that it will take you to the site properly. Save it in your favorites file and the problem is solved.
However, I have to agree with the observations that older vehicles are not suitable to online transactions.I tried to register my sons car s.o.r.n. no chance! The system is good if you can get onto it, I have taxed my other vehicles online and as long as you are only trying to do something straightforwards it does save you the time and effort.
Tony
I spend ages trying to do a simple search for this site to tax my car. What’s eBay got to do with a government website? It’s mad. Finally to be told “SORRY THIS SERVICE IS UNAVAILABLE” Well, what do expect from the government? There should be a hash key attachment because DVLA have made a right hash of it, and yes, it will be much quicker to go to the Post Office and wait. Big brother, i hope you are watching and taking note of this incompetance.
I THINK IT IS SO STUPID TO SAY ON THE REMINDER FORM THAT YOU CAN GO ONLINE AND DECLARE SORN WHEN IVE SAT FOR NEARLY AN HOUR TRYING TO FIND THE STUPID NUMBER IN THE YELLOW BOX (THE ONLY THING IN MY YELLOW BOX IS A NOTICE TO SAY I CAN APPLY ONLINE OR DECLARE SORN ONLINE!!)NO NUMBER AT ALL, IVE LOOKED EVERYWHERE AND THEN WHEN I CALLED THE OFFICES IT ASKS AGAIN FOR THE SAME NUMBER AND THEN CUTS ME OFF AS I CANT FIND IT AND DOES NOT DIRECT ME TO A HUMAN BEING TO ASK…….PANIC ATTACK…WHAT DO I DO? I CANT GET OUT TO POST IT AT THE MOMENT AND MY CAR NEEDS TO BE SORN..WHAT A TOTAL COCK UP THAT ONLY “SOME” CAN USE THIS SERVICE YET IT ADVERTISES IT IN A BIG “YELLOW” BOX ON A RENEWAL FORM THAT DOES NOT HAVE THE DAMN NUMBERS!!!!!!! TYPICAL!
If your insurance expires around the same time as your taxdisc you can’t renew on line.
Now having to wait for my insurance company to send me my new certificate then off to the post office before they close them all down.
For the second year I was not allowed to renew tax on line,my insurance is up for renewal at the same time and although I will continue with this insurance for the following year the system is unable to manage this!….
Had the same problem reminder cheerfully saying you can declare SORN online It’s quick and easy, em NO ITS NOT! I too had the form which said this on the back but no number in a yellow box.
I decided to air my comments to those concerned through the feedback form, I normally copy text before I send but forgot this time. When I pressed send I got a message from their site saying it had timed out. Probably lets you type for ten seconds then times out lol It’s just there to make your blood boil.
I’d read the other comments including the phone ones, but decided to have a go and got it to work.
It’s not really a trick, simply just choose the option on the automated line to declare sorn using your log book and NOT THE REMINDER. This way they only ask for the Doc ref 11 digit number. Very Quick job done, pitty they can’t just do this on the website. I stated this on my wasted email to them, enough security is provided.
Hope that helps everyone with Sorn now.
Justin Lee Farr
Hang on just remembered copy text just in case lol!
Chicken Curry Rules!
Thought that would make it easy to find
Justin, in happy Shipa(mmmm)mood, now don’t have to drive to Post Office.
JUST GOT MY TAX RENEWAL FORM (DID NOT GET ONE LAST YEAR FOR SOME REASON) SAYING THAT 28/02/2007 IS THE DAY MY TAX IS DUE, LAST YEAR MY TAX WAS DUE ON THE 31/03/06 AND I WAS TOLD THAT IT WAS NOT DUE UNTILL APRILSOME ONE IS DOING ME OUT OF A MONTHS TAX OR THEY HAVE GOT SCHOOL KIDS SORTING THERE PAPERWORK FOR THEM
I’ll just add a warning here about declaring SORN online – don’t do it!
I declared my second car SORN using the DVLA site. It all went through fine with no errors. However I recently got a fine letter from them saying I had not re-licenced or declared sorn so £40 fine please.
I complained and they ‘investigated’ only to be told i had cancelled the sorn declaration part way through, which is total rubbish! (I’m a very experienced user and site designer.. i know what i’m doing) I have no evidence to back it up however, so had to pay the fine. Note that they state you get a confirmation letter after ‘about a month’. Which of course i never got, and to be honest forgot about..
apologies for adding more to your blog about this but it’s just a warning for some 🙂
The site must be up and running ok now,not that good on my laptop but did not find any problems getting my details on the site. Just wait to see if the tax disc actually turns up!!!
UPDATE……… Having ordered my tax on Friday 16th February 2007, my tax disc popped through the door by first post on Tuesday 20th march – well impressed!
No more queuing at the post office for me.
i bought a scooter but i dont have documents or a number plate, how can i find what my registration is?
if i tax my car online today can i still drive it til the tax comes through get back 2 me asap cheers cassie
Yes, renewing online doesn’t invalidate your existing tax disc.
I used on-line service and found it great. No probs atol punch in ref number, 6 or twelve months and hey presto recivie my tax disc in 5 days(apparently) just dont dont know if i should drive my car between now and then as my current tax disc has expired. what the hell i have paid for it from the start of the month.
No you can’t drive your car,as it is an offence to keep a vehicle or drive a vehicle on a public road which is not displaying a valid tax disc,even if you’ve paid and are waiting for it to arrive.