The abolition of tax disc project is overseeing one of the biggest changes in DVLA history...
The tax disc has been around for 93 years and our stakeholders and commercial customers have built their processes and procedures around it.
These include using the tax disc as:
- part of the vehicle sale process (the balance of tax left on the vehicle being passed on to the new keeper/owner)
- an aid in enforcement activities (for example police, local authorities, parking authorities and government bodies)
- a method of checking for parking and other concessions
- a way of checking a vehicle’s legitimate identity
- evidence of the purchase of tax to recover wheelclamped/impounded vehicles
- a way for a driver to check the vehicle they're using is legal
How we're addressing these issues
My role as the communication manager for the project has been to let you, our stakeholders and commercial customers, know about what we've done to help address these issues when the tax disc is no longer (from 1 October 2014).
We've introduced an automatic refund process where any remaining full months of tax will be refunded to the keeper on record when DVLA is notified that the vehicle no longer requires tax.
Workshops and meetings have taken place to communicate the changes to you and for us to understand what impact the change will have on your business, working together to find solutions that fits both our requirements.
We’ve enhanced our existing online services to provide additional information that previously was only available on the tax disc.
We’ve made changes to official documents such as the Confirmation of Registration certificate for our Automated First Registration and Licensing (ARFL) dealers to confirm that a vehicle is taxed and the removal of information which previously advised that a tax disc will be issued.
Abolition of the tax disc toolkit
I’ve been working with our communications team and in-house design team to create a toolkit of communications materials; it includes web banners adverts, posters, graphics, images, videos and infographics. I’m grateful for many of you sharing and using these materials to get the message out to your members and ultimately the motoring public.
I’m now working on a second toolkit that will be ready shortly that can used to explain the important message – that when someone buys a vehicle they must tax it before they use it! I’ll be using this blog to let you all know when the toolkit will be available.
How to contact me
You can email me with your specific questions and to receive the frequently asked questions document. It'll ensure that all stakeholders and commercial customers can see questions from other sectors, which the answer may help explain the changes.