January is usually a fairly quiet month. It normally takes people a while to get back into things following the Christmas break.
This year however, everything seemed to have hit the ground running. Lots of projects have moved forward quickly and it looks like the first half of this year is going to be rather productive.
This month the first phase of DVLA’s Vehicle Management service has moved to a public beta. Motor dealers can now notify DVLA that they’ve bought a vehicle online without having to return the paper V5C document. This will automatically update DVLA’s records, refund any vehicle tax due to the original keeper and cancel a vehicle tax direct debit if it’s set up.
It’s not a perfect service yet – there’s still lots to do. It’s not in a state yet where it can be run 24/7, but we wanted to get people using it as soon as possible rather than wait till we’d resolved all the issues. We’ll be iteratively improving it over time.
Also this month, the second phase – for motor dealers to notify DVLA they’ve sold a car to someone – has gone into private beta with a small number of traders. And, to top it off, DVLA are starting to work on the third phase – making it possible for people to notify DVLA that they’ve sold a vehicle to someone else.
In addition to all of that, over the past few months, DVLA have been working on a service to let fleet operators see all the information about the vehicles in the fleet. That service went into private beta with 12 fleet companies last week.
And If that wasn’t enough, there have been lots of other tweaks and improvements to services as they’re continuously improved. Lots and lots of stuff going on.
Finally – just in time for the end of the month, DVLA have published adverts for up to 17 developers to join the team. If any of the above sounds like something you’d like to work on – send them an application by 12 February.