Finance chiefs at the DVLA have pulled the plug on plans to launch an electronic licensing scheme for fleets.

Despite the Electronic Licensing for Fleet (ELF) scheme being set for a 2008 launch the DVLA has cut funding and closed it down. The DVLA’s board of directors has also scrapped its Tracking Vehicles through the Trade (TV3T) programme.

“Quite frankly, I am at a loss to see why the DVLA has cancelled these projects,” says John Lewis (pictured), the BVRLA’s Director General. “We are deeply disappointed that the DVLA, without any consultation with those who would have seen significant benefits, has decided not to proceed despite the advantages that would have accrued to both the fleet industry and the DVLA itself. I see the decision as not only short-sighted but also as damaging to the Government’s programme to simplify and remove red tape.

“Our members along with other industry sectors have expended a considerable amount of time and resource in assisting the DVLA with these projects through the Industry Liaison Group. Now, it seems all that time, money and effort has been cast aside without even the courtesy of prior consultation with us. The first we knew of the cancellation of the projects was after the decision had been taken.

“This is particularly confusing when the recently published DVLA Business Plan for 2007/2008 clearly states ‘Roll-out will commence in 2008’.”

Commenting on the closures a DVLA spokesman said: “The DVLA Board reviewed the current development projects and programmes in order to confirm that the benefits originally identified could still be delivered and that the overall programme of work was deliverable.

“The Agency decided that two projects, Tracking Vehicles through the Trade and Electronic Licensing for Fleets, which was aimed at developing new systems of working to benefit fleet customers, should be stopped.

“The ELF project was at a very early stage and, whilst some market research had been undertaken, the Agency and key stakeholders had not made any investment in system development.”

The BVRLA’s Lewis added: “This decision needs now to be reversed so that we can gain the operating efficiencies we had been promised. To do otherwise will be seen by many as an irresponsible and cavalier use of the industry’s time and resource. If the DVLA wants our co-operation and assistance on future projects then it’s certainly going about it in a curious way.

“Cost savings would have been generated for both sides – for the DVLA and for the industry – and our best estimates put these at some £5 million a year. Instead, all we have seen recently from the DVLA have been cost increases – in first registration fees to the tune of more than £50 million a year and a proposed massive increase in driver licence checking fees of some 300%! It really does show this agency and this Government for what it is – a massive tax-raising machine delivering little value back to its actual users.

“We have also been ignored when we have brought further money saving schemes to the DVLA. The agency appears to be mired in a time warp of high bureaucracy with little thought or attempt at innovation or modern business methods. For example, we have been pursuing the idea of multi-year Vehicle Excise Duty. It’s a concept that would save the DVLA and the industry some tens of millions of pounds apiece, but despite a favourable view from ministers this now has disappeared without trace. The industry operates to best commercial principles and generates efficiency savings wherever it possibly can. It’s a shame that the DVLA does not.”

The DVLA claimed that it realised that “these decisions will be a massive disappointment to the motor industry. However, the need to deliver value for public money and safeguard the Agency’s core business systems is paramount and has to take priority”.

Licensing chiefs are now in the process of commissioning a study to review current vehicle licensing processes and ensure that they are fit for purpose.

“Key objectives of both the TV3T and ELF projects will be included in this review,” said a DVLA spokesman.