Safe Speed Forums

Got home last night to find a letter from DVLA telling me my license was revoked, and I had been driving without knowledge of this!

Apparently the court in Kendal had failed to ensure my endorsement in July had been entered on the DVLA computer correctly, and DVLA said I had failed to send off my license for endorsement after the case in July.
Actually I handed it in when I paid my fine, and it was endorsed by hand and handed back to me on the spot!!

I took my license to Kendal Court this morning - only to find they dont open until 10.00 am, so I went back to work, where I telephoned the DVLA, ....to find the number engaged for ages.

I tried to telephone the court - but could not find the number easily (at all), so I went online and got the number.... for the court service in Barrow.

After some time, the lady in Barrow admitted my license WAS endorsed at Kendal back in July, and gave me another number for DVLA, telling me to ring, and if they could not find my endorsement, to refer them to her.

Negotiating the automated DVLA system was a nightmare - it takes 4 minutes to finally arrive at the department you want, and it then took a further 15 minutes for them to admit I WAS endorsed!!
When I queried why I was not given notice that I could be driving illegally when my license was revoked (from the 18th October).

I was told the letter was sent out on the 15th of September, but was held up in the post strike. However the letter is DATED the 15th of OCTOBER!! When I pointed this out, she told me that was a typing error!!

All in all, I did not start work this morning until 10.00 am, through sorting out their mess, and tonight I went to Kendal Police station, to ensure my name is not on the ANPR hit list!!
Unfortunately the civilian behind the front desk was not authorised to check the computer, but she did copy my letter and details to send off to Swansea!

Yet another DVLA computerised cock up!!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Yes! and you shouldn't have to be doing all that should you? Just think of the mess we could all cause if we all started claiming for time wasted through cock-up’s, such as above.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Oh, but Earnest, I was always led to believe from those who are in support of automated enforcement that if you haven't done anything wrong, then one has nothing to fear. It's interesting how if we forget to say, SORN our vehicle we are landed with an £80 fine, yet when the state makes a mistake, an apology appears to suffice.

Clearly that's nonsense.

The FIRST option when you dial their number is "do you wish to take part in our customer satisfaction survey after they have dealt with your enquiry! My choice was "no I want to ask why you have REVOKED my driving license without warning, on a false assumption!
I am extremely dissatisfied, I dont need to take a survey, I just want it resolving!"

Did you know when you take out a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notice) the form states that they will remind you when it is due for renewal in 12 months?
They dont - they send you an £80 fine (reduced to £40 for prompt payment) as soon as the due date arrives.

When you ring up and ask what happened to the reminder, they tell you "We are not under any obligation to send a reminder!". So WHY does the form tell you they will???

I had to write to my MP who contacted the Transport Minister, who admitted that I should not have been given a SORN, as I had told the DVLA I had exported the vehicle when I claimed back the remainder of the tax disc. They waived the fine for not renewing it simply because I kicked up a stink instead of rolling over and paying!!!


Next!
When my wife bought a car from the Peugeot dealer in Kendal three years ago, they put 6 months tax on it. When it was due for renewal we got no reminder - and still had not had the Registration document back from the change of ownership. So we could not tax it without!

A telephone call revealed they had sent a reminder to the old owner, who by now had two cars registered in his name, both with the same registration number!
Again, a call to DVLA came up with the excuse "That's impossible, the computer will not accept two vehicles with the same number." Well how come it sent out two reminders to one address for two vehicles both with the same number???
And how come the garage had been able to tax the wifes car with the reg. number on it - printed on the disc by the same infallible DVLA computer!
They said it would take 6 weeks to sort out, and in the meantime we could not tax the car without the Registration document, and therefore could not drive it!

Todays debacle took an hour of my time to resolve (apart from my trip to Kendal police station). Had I been scanned by ANPR and come up as a revoked license holder, I could have been stopped and possible had my car impounded. In some areas cars have been crushed with no recourse for compensation because the computer was not up to date!

This is the fourth time THEY have messed up, and each time they have failed to acknowledge they made a mistake!
If this has happened to me, how many others get clobbered for money they should not be paying and dont know how to stop it?

_________________
Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I know. We do rely to some extent on the database. If the car's an obvious heap and the driver is either a past customer, known to us or more than obviously illegal - then we will impound the car and tow it off immediately. If it's an unroadworthy heap - as I've posted in the past - we arrange a quick funeral for it as cleanly as possible

But all the same we tend to give 7 days grace to produce all the relevant documents and complement the "trendy computerised way" with some old fashioned personal checking of these documents when produced. If your licence has gone astray or been sent to be endorsed - we'd require some written proof of the latter as we also cannot rely on accuracy of someone punching data into the records either I am being very p.c. (or rather "politically incorrect" even) here but someone at the DVLA needs a kick-start up their backsides.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Sorry In Gear but that is complete bollocks. You personally may have higher standards and common sense but there have been numerous cases of legal, roadworthy cars being taken and crushed, including a £30,000 classic Aston.

The idea of the system is good but there are insufficient safeguards to prevent mistakes and there appears to be no method of correcting the mistakes when they do happen.

Hi Ern

Sorry to hear of this problem. I honestly do not think you are the only one and it's why my old guv and many here are unwilling to go down the "path of automation" 100%.

All very well to have databases - DNA.. driving licence records... TV licence records - whatever. But these have to be updated and just like the handwritten clerical errors of the past - we all know what can happen if we hit the wrong key on our keyboards - or fail to update something in time. It goes "belly up"




Don't you just love the spiel... and it's costing you money to listen to all those options too. I want to speak to a person when I telephone someone. I thought that was the point of a telephone But no.. I want to talk to my bank about my own money.. I end up talking to someone in India. No disrespect to the Indian guy - but he can no more understand my North Eastern accent any more than I can his strong Indian accent. Because both of us are patient and polite types (though this is tested on my part ) - we manage to ascertain what I need to know - only to find he cannot actually help me and I need to talk to some other guy

A separate rant.. but somehow "relative"



Civil servants Computer speak Rip Off Britain



I think we all have to fight our corner for our rights. I have to say we perhaps have "positive discrimination" and it's now becoming that normal rights are only obtained if we fight for them - politely (with a no nonsense attitude. ) and properly



I think we have in a nutshell why we should not always rely on a computerised database. It's only as good as those employed to update this data after all and the sheer volume of work will naturally lead to errors as well. If we are to go down this route of automation - then in the interests of justice, integrity must demand that there can be no room for error and delays in updating these records.

Oh.. I've no doubt the software to do this exists. But people have not developed their skills to cope at the same rate.. hence the grave and seriously flawed potential for error.

I am a realist after all. I do not swallow spin and cobweb policies.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Well that has not happened here - I doubt it would. We don't take the "database" as gospel here . If any of us found an expensive vehicle like an Aston or .. there was one other. The Mad Cats were hissing over it somewhere and I think the Swiss "hooligans" hammered it on a foreign forum similar to PH and this board.

Well - anyway common sense dictates to this patch that expensive cars are usually insured and if the records say otherwise . then there has to be some error somewhere. If we find the car was lacking insurance (could be a bounced instalment or a bank glitch on a DD) - we would probably impound pending documents being produced. If no documents appeared - we'd more than likely send to auction here. Our concern is more with removing heaps and potentially dangerous on our patch. We ain't into the "vindictive or stupid" I cannot answer for other forces. I would hope common sense prevails all the same as lack of common sense like this rather undermines us in bleak reality.

But we have the same with speed cam policy Here - we will always prosecute daft behaviour - but - we will use professional judgement or discretion at all times. Of course - we are charged with the responsibility of enforcing the laws of the land and protecting the folk out there to our best ability.

But this does not ever mean "to the letter" or "unreasonable application" of these laws. But I admit sometimes we tread a thin tightrope on the "professional judgement" issue. Police work? It's demanding.. challenging.. fascinating and you never ever get two minutes the same. Get it right.. we are "heroes". Get it wrong? "Hell has no worse fury than the tabloid press and internet fora" (and the Mad Cats seize it.. and worry out the guts of the story with sharp claws )

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

You always could tax a vehicle new to you without the docs, there was just a form to fill in at the PO. Now we have the revised V5 I take it you can't?

More generally Ernest has clearly unwittingly upset someone somewhere and is now on the DVLA most wanted hit lists.

Incidently I won't phone the DVLA because it makes them money which is plain wrong. So when I had a query I E-mailed and got a reply in less than 24hrs.

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

You can find court locations, phone numbers, opening times, admin details etc here

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/HMCSCourtFinder/

Since the letter was sent on the 15th, and my license was REVOKED on the 18th, and I did not get home to the post until the evening of the 18th, I was not prepared to take the risk of emailing them - I drove straight to the court in the morning!

The thing was with my wife's tax disc, the tax disc put on by the garage was PRINTED out by the DVLA, so HAD to be on the database as being registered to at the very least the Peugeot Dealers, or my wife.
When they sent the reminder, they sent the previous owner TWO reminders, one for his new vehicle and one for his old vehicle, AND issued a tax disc to A NEW owner (either my wife or the dealership) - thus disproving their assertion that the computer would NOT ALLOW two vehicles with the same registration number to be recorded!


That was how I found them - but I have internet access.
I looked in the telephone book first, under COURT, KENDAL COURT, HMCS, HER M.C.S., MAGISTRATES COURT, etc., to no avail.
I'm not sure how my in-laws would fare - they dont have a computer!!

_________________
Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! is all I can say Ernest.... A growing trend of mistakes and deliberate obstruction for complaints and 2 way communication IMO, whether from Public or Private organisations these days. You have my heartfelt sympathy old Chap!