{"id":87513,"date":"2023-03-17T00:29:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T00:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2023\/03\/17\/three-million-drivers-licence-delays-since-2020-report-finds\/"},"modified":"2023-03-17T00:29:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T00:29:06","slug":"three-million-drivers-licence-delays-since-2020-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2023\/03\/17\/three-million-drivers-licence-delays-since-2020-report-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Three million drivers’ licence delays since 2020, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three million people applying for a driver’s license have faced significant delays during the worst of the pandemic, according to a report.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some applicants lost their jobs or income and suffered from social isolation and mental health problems, Parliament’s budget committee said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The delays affected people who had applied by mail or who had health problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said it has prioritized its online services during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That’s because most applications are made online, the committee said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It has also focused on services where it believes delays in processing would cause greater problems, it told MEPs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Complaints to the DVLA rose sharply in the two years following April 2020, according to the Public Accounts Committee report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Around 17 million applications submitted online that did not involve a reportable disease were processed within three days, the report said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But three million applications on paper or requiring a DVLA decision on fitness to drive have had lengthy delays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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  • DVLA employees strike for another five days<\/li>\n
  • Qualified young truck drivers cannot take out insurance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    The committee heard from applicants who became isolated and depressed, and people who lost income as a result, sometimes for months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The committee said it was aware of a bus driver who was at risk of losing his job and a shift worker in a rural community who was unable to work. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Others are having trouble getting car insurance, driving abroad, or renting vehicles, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The committee said despite legislative changes allowing license renewal to be postponed and the DVLA hiring additional staff, the DVLA’s problems have persisted for two years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Poor customer experiences have been compounded by “major difficulties” in contacting the DVLA during the pandemic, it said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    It found that between April 2020 and March 2022 around 60 million calls went unanswered, 94% of the total the DVLA received.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The committee also criticized the Department for Transport (DfT), saying it had addressed issues at the DVLA “hands-off” and failed to ensure the organization was adopting modern labor practices. The chair of the committee, Dame Meg Hillier MP, described the DVLA’s activities as “antiquated”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “The pandemic has inevitably made operations more difficult, but the DVLA and DfT were unprepared for the challenge of keeping essential driver’s license services running, and especially for those who need it most,” she said. In a series of recommendations, the committee said the DVLA needed better systems to identify and expedite driver’s license applications where the customer would be severely impacted by a delay. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The DVLA said it had recently upgraded its telephony systems so it should be able to better handle future demand spikes. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    “We have normal processing times for our services again,” it said. “By May 2022, all standard paper applications had normal processing times again.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    It added that “online services have worked well throughout the pandemic and the vast majority of our customers would have had no problem dealing with DVLA.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    During the pandemic, the DVLA issued more than 24 million driver’s licenses, “the vast majority of which were issued within three working days,” she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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