Communications manager Kelly Taylor recently spoke with one of DVLA’s commercial customers, Dil, who along with Jo-Anne are the managers for the Vehicle Licensing and Documentation team at Motability Operations.
They met up at a demonstration event in Bristol. Motability Operations is a high volume fleet operator providing over 630,000 disabled people a simple way to lease a new car, scooter or powered wheelchair without the worry of owning and running one, through the Motability scheme.
Thanks for agreeing to feature within our Inside DVLA blog Dil - can you tell me a little about your role?
Jo-Anne and I manage a team of 16 people dealing with a range of activities relating to Motability Operations fleet vehicles which include:
- ensuring all vehicles are licensed
- up until 1 October, making sure all our customers received a new tax disc before the current one expired
- changing the tax class of a vehicle
- arranging Personalised Registrations (PR) and retentions
- dealing with any enforcement issues
- checking queries with the accuracy of the record – either on the registration certificate (V5C logbook) or electronically
- accurate storage and retrieval of all V5Cs
- notifying DVLA of disposals to trade/auction
- updating keepers
- liaising with insurance companies (re insurance write-offs)
- dealing with end of contract customer sales
A large part of what we do involves Personalised Registration checks. We have strict guidelines on the use of Motability Scheme vehicles to ensure they are used for the benefit of the disabled person. If a customer wishes to put a personalised registration plate onto their vehicle we have to be satisfied that these are the wishes of our customer and not just that of the named drivers.
With this in mind, I’m keen to see PR online – for simpler, quicker and better customer service. Motability Operations is really keen to be involved in the first launch of the PR online service and will assist DVLA with this as much as we can.
Where does DVLA fit in as part of your role?
I deal with DVLA on a daily basis, liaising with the commercial vehicles team, who deal with fleet transactions, as well as the Product Owners for vehicle management, PR and direct debit.
Moving DVLA services online will allow us to become more efficient and help us improve the service we offer because the information will be more accessible.
What do you think are the benefits to Motability Operations of the relationship with DVLA?
My team have built up an excellent working relationship with DVLA over a number of years and we know that we can rely on one another and help each other whenever we can, which ultimately means we can deliver efficient and reliable services to our Motability Scheme customers and our dealer network.
What's your favourite part of the role within Motability Operations and affecting change with DVLA?
Seeing people develop and achieve their goals. My team is high performing and when we achieve our targets, it’s a great feeling. It’s not about what we do but how we do it. Motability Operations has an engaged, positive employee culture and we are highly customer-focused.
And what do you find to be the most challenging aspect?
Change is always challenging. The key to successful change is how you handle it. Often the day begins one way and can end with you doing something completely different to what you had planned, but it’s about being flexible and facilitating – values which we live and breathe at Motability Operations.
How are the current developing services benefitting Motability Operations e.g. vehicle management (disposal to trade) and PR?
Motability Operations are happy to work alongside DVLA and provide feedback on system changes and improvements, and to take part in testing of new services and pilot phases, such as the ‘Disposal to trade’ online system.
Moving this process online will mean records are more accurate and we’ll be able to manage them even more efficiently. The introduction of PR online also means it’ll be quicker and easier to track vehicles with personalised registration plates.
Our priority is that the enhancements introduced from the DVLA will, in the long term, provide benefits to Motability Scheme customers and our dealer partners.
Biography:
Dil has worked at Motability Operations for 9 years and previously worked for TV Licensing. His first job was at Vauxhall where he took orders for fleet vehicles from companies such as Vodafone.
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