The offices could be closed by the end of 2013 according to Roads Minister Mike Penning who believes that British motorists will benefit from its more ‘centralised’ and ‘flexible’ services.

“This is a major step change which will make dealing with the DVLA easier and quicker for motorists and businesses up and down the country,” explained Penning.

“Centralising the DVLA’s services is the first crucial step towards making more of its transactions available online, allowing people to deal with the DVLA at their chosen time and place. This will mean quicker turnarounds and meet our customers’ growing needs.”

Up to 10 enforcement offices could also be closed around the UK.

Essential change

The DVLA employs 6,116 staff but these closures would cut that by 1,213 with valuable work from the closed offices being integrated into the DVLA’s Swansea HQ.

Simon Tse, DVLA Chief Executive, said the decision is an example of the agency adapting to modern necessities.

“The DVLA has been serving motorists for over 40 years in one form or another, but times change and customers’ needs change,” he commented.

“That is why it’s essential that we move with the times and make the best use of our services and experience to make sure we give the motor industry and the general public a service that is fit for the 21st century, allows them to carry out their business in a way that suits them and offers the best value for money for the taxpayer.”

The affected offices include Manchester, London Borehamwood, London Sidcup, London Wimbledon, Glasgow, Sheffield, and Brighton amongst others. The ten enforcement centres are co-located with some of the regional offices at Birmingham, Bournemouth, Exeter, Glasgow, Chelmsford, Leeds, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Nottingham, Preston, and Sidcup.

A consultation has already started and will continue until March 2012.

Before today, the DVLA would have refused those with insulin treated diabetes a license to drive buses and lorries, however the revised rules now mean that applications will be met with special consideration.

Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said the change will open the door for more people to drive whilst ensuring the UK’s safety road record is protected.

“We have listened to expert advice and it is clear that treatment and diagnosis has improved since the existing medical standards were put in place, so a blanket ban is no longer needed,” he explained.

“Britain has some of the safest roads in the world and licensing rules have an important role in maintaining this position.

“We must make sure that only those who are safe to drive are allowed on our roads, while at the same time avoiding placing unnecessary restrictions on people’s independence.”

The decision comes after a consultation earlier in the year on amendments to driver medical standards regarding eyesight, epilepsy and diabetes in line with European minimum medical standards for drivers.

It is anticipated that laws concerning those restricted by vision and epilepsy could experience similar changes in coming months.

Under the Continuous Insurance Enforcement law (CIE), registered keepers of uninsured vehicles will be issued with a written warning to either secure insurance or declare it off the road with the DVLA. Failure to do either will result in a £100 fine, leading to the vehicle being clamped, seized or even crushed. They could also face court prosecution.

Road Safety Minister Mike Penning branded uninsured drivers “a danger on our roads” and believes the new law will “leave them with nowhere to hide”.

“These new powers will help us to take targeted action while freeing up police time to deal with the hard core of offenders,” he added.

Previously, owners were only in breach of the law once they got behind the wheel of an uninsured car, but Ashton West, Chief Executive at the Motor Insurance Bureau, said the DVLA had to act to address the number of deaths and injuries caused by uninsured drivers on UK roads every year.

He dubbed CIE “the final piece in the jigsaw against uninsured motoring”.

Mr West commented: “An estimated 1.4 million drivers are flouting the law by driving without insurance.

“This is a serious offence and results in accidents that cause about 160 deaths each year and more than 23,000 people are injured by uninsured drivers.”

Not if but when

Approximately 1.4m drivers are using British roads without insurance, resulting in honest drivers’ motor insurance policies by around £30 per year.

ACFO Director Stewart Whyte said fleet operators have a decent record for having insurance in place, generally but warned of potential traps for fleets.

He explained: “It is the responsibility of the insurance policy-holder to ensure that the details of every vehicle covered by the policy are recorded on the Motor Insurance Database (MID).

“Many fleets outsource this task to their leasing/fleet management service provider or insurance broker for sound administrative reasons, but under the new law, the buck stops with the policyholder.

“Fleet operators should undertake internally or via their outsourcing partner a check that all current vehicles used/owned by the business are recorded accurately with care over detailed input of the registration number on the MID.

“They should also ensure that the system to keep the record accurate and up to date in future is robust. Special areas for attention are rental vehicles and demonstrators which can often be overlooked, but which are still the fleet operators/ policy-holders responsibility.”

Catch the minority

“Law-abiding drivers have nothing to fear from this move,” said Neil Greig, the IAM’s Director of Policy and Research, “but it is important that they ensure their paperwork is up-to-date.

“This move should release police time to catch the minority who completely ignore the system and literally fail to appear on it.”

Those with any confusion over the status of their vehicle’s insurance can clear any doubt at askMID.com

Mr West signed off with a stark message to those without motor insurance: “It’s no longer a case of if you will get caught, but when you will get caught.

“We know who the registered keepers are with vehicles that have no insurance and letters will be dropping onto their doormats from this week.”

At present, drivers only commit an offence when they get behind the wheel of an uninsured car.

But from 20 June, new rules introduced by the Government will make it illegal to merely own a vehicle without having it insured.

If written warnings from the DVLA go ignored, the registered owner will be slapped with a £100 fine for each uninsured vehicle, which could be clamped, seized or even destroyed if the owner does not produce adequate proof of insurance.

Crackdown

The new Continuous Insurance Enforcement law is all part of a crackdown on uninsured motorists who are collectively responsible for hiking up insurance premiums.

Currently, 1.4 million (around 4%) of UK motorists are uninsured said Ashton West, chief executive at the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, and it is hoped that a hardcore of insured drivers will be exposed with the help of number plate recognition technology used by the police.

“The change in law is a stepping up of enforcement activity, so that not only those vehicles driven without insurance will be caught,” added Mr West. “Now the registered keeper must make sure that their vehicle is insured all the time.”

Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said: “Uninsured drivers are a danger on our roads, killing 160 and injuring a further 23,000 people each year, and they cost honest motorists £500m in extra premiums.

“That is why we are introducing this tough new law which will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide.

“Our message is clear – get insured or face a fine, court action or seeing your car seized and destroyed.”

Graeme Trudgill, Head of Corporate Affairs at the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, has welcomed the idea saying it will make UK roads safer [full story].

The new rules will be publicised via a nationwide advertising campaign to help spread the word.

Vehicles that are registered off the road will be exempt from the new law.

David Evans, DVLA’s Director of Corporate Affairs, said: "This is a really good example of how DVLA works in partnership with the private sector to get important messages out to the right people at the right time.

“Moving house is a very busy and exciting time with lots to plan and do, but it’s important not to forget to let us know that you have moved.  By working together with Home Move Box, we hope new home movers will find the information leaflets a useful and timely reminder to update their address details with us – just click on www. direct.gov.uk/changeofaddress

Charles Wasdell, Home Move Box Director, said: “At Home Move Box we aim to make life a bit easier for home movers by providing them with all the essential tools they need on the day they move in.  There are so many things to organise when you move home, it’s easy to forget to do those seemingly little, but very vital things, such as updating your driving licence.

“With over 20,000 Home Move Boxes being delivered to new households every month, we hope the DVLA’s leaflet will prompt more home movers to update their licence as soon as they have moved.”

Under the new Continuous Insurance Enforcement rules, registered keepers of uninsured vehicles will be hit with a £100 fine if written warnings go ignored. The vehicle could then be seized or even destroyed if it remained uninsured.

Leasing and rental firms will be held accountable for making sure their vehicles are insured and subject to any fines that come along with failing to maintain them insured on the MIB’s Motor Insurance Database. Fines would not be transferable to customers.

However during a recent British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association seminar, David Hancock [pictured], Director of Enforcement at the DVLA, said that they needed to work with the industry in order to do all they could to ensure members of the BVRLA were not victims of any unintended consequences of compliance.

“All our members will comply with the law, but the less administratively burdensome we all can make it the better,” responded Nora Leggett, the BVRLA’s head of member services.

The DVLA met with ACFO to ensure that advance notice to their members can be provided, enabling them to make any necessary amendments to their fleet vehicle document handling and storage processes.

The DVLA says it has made the change to help protect motorists from vehicle crime after a large number of unissued V5Cs were stolen in 2006. DVLA report that approximately 2,000 of the stolen documents have surfaced so far but believe that as a worst case, up to 400,000 documents could potentially have fallen into criminal hands.

The new certificate, which is red instead of blue, clearly states that it is not proof of ownership of a vehicle, which many buyers mistakenly believe to be the case. The new V5C is clearly marked as proof of keepership only, not legal title. With a large number of unissued V5Cs stolen in 2006, the DVLA were compelled to make the changes to help protect motorists from vehicle crime as approximately 2,000 of the stolen documents have so far surfaced, with approximately a further 400,000 documents potentially free to fall into criminal hands.

The inside pages of the Certificate setting out all the details of the vehicle are essentially unchanged, and should not require significant adjustment for any fleet operator who scans their documents for electronic storage and filing, said ACFO director Stewart Whyte who was at the DVLA briefing.

He said: “In that connection, DVLA has offered the opportunity for ACFO members to receive a test copy of the new design. This has to be under very secure conditions – each document must be signed-for, protected and returned at the end of the short evaluation period. However it does provide an opportunity for some members to ensure their systems can be updated as necessary.”

Issuing of the new V5C also signals the start of a major increase in emphasis on the Government’s ‘Buyer Beware’ campaign, which provides advice to used car buyers.

Mr Whyte explained: “Although the campaign is primarily aimed at the consumer/retail buyer there is a relevance to fleets. Where employees are using their own vehicles in a ‘grey’ fleet situation, employers may wish to ensure that the employees are aware of the risks, for their own protection.”

In addition, he added: “Good provenance of an ex-fleet car or van might enhance the residual value where it is clear that the fleet operator has good title to the vehicle.”

All existing V5C documents will remain valid with the new-style documents issued when vehicle registration details change, such as a new keeper’s address. Also, old-form V5Cs will not need to be returned to DVLA but should be shredded for secure disposal once the new document has been received.

Mr Whyte concluded: “This whole process serves as a timely reminder that the registration document is an important and potentially valuable piece of paper, and should be handled as such in any filing systems. Although fleet operators should not be at material risk they should ensure that if they carry the responsibility for the V5Cs, some care and security needs to be applied.”

Confidence of a successful sale is high, especially as the registrations 7 O and 10 OOO are included. If they collectively sell for more than £128,000, it will set another milestone as the O-Series, which so far has included 1 O, 2 O, 3 O, 4 O, 5 O, 6 O, 9 O, 1 OOO and 2 OOO will have generated £1 million to date.

1,500 registrations will be going under the gavel over the three day event.

If you’re a Porsche 911 owner called Alan or Alison, for instance, there’s ALS 911; this week’s announcement that Formula One is returning to American should boost the sale of F1 USA, both of which have £1,900 reserves. Essex motorists proud of their roots will be attracted to ESS 3X with a reserve of £900 while other "fun" plates include N188 LER, N47 URE and OWN 805S with reserves of £300, £350 and £350 respectively. Arguably, the top surname-related registration in next week’s sale has to be EL10 OTT.

While registering deadlines to bid online or over the telephone has now passed, you can still submit an absentee bid online or the doors to the auction room are permanently open for bidders to turn up in person to register and gain a bidding number.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have said that there were 31,035,791 vehicles on Britain’s highways at the end of 2009, which is a fall of 0.7 per cent compared with the previous 12 months.

The figures were based on data released by the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Agency (DVLA) and are signs of the impact that the recession has had on motorists, according to the SMMT.

Experts believe the decline could continue during 2010, as there has been fresh evidence of a fall in motoring due to the record fuel prices drivers have to pay.

Emeritus Professor at Cardiff Business School a leading expert on the motor industry, Garel Rhys said, “We have had the deepest recession since the war and incomes stopped growing for the first time in a very long time. In addition, because of the scrappage scheme, cars that would have remained in the market were taken out of circulation. In some cases, these cars would have been sold through small advertisements. Instead 400,000 have disappeared.”

The figures come at the end of a year that saw fuel duty increase as the UK government reacted to falling oil prices and the cost of motor insurance rise.

Stephen Glaister, Foundations Director at RAC was surprised at the figures saying, “This likely to be a blip rather than the start of a trend. The population is forecast to rocket by ten million in the next couple of decades and these people will need to get about. We know people are driving less on an individual basis and lifestyle changes might mean people working from home in the future, but with nine out of ten passenger journeys already being made on the roads population growth and economic recovery will almost inevitably mean more cars. The challenge is to make these vehicles greener and with average new car CO2 emissions steadily falling, that challenge is already being met.”

Meanwhile, Professor of International Business Strategy at Coventry University believes the fall in the number of cars on Britain’s roads is due to changes in family spending. He said, “I think we are seeing a shift in consumer habits with people thinking about the kind of car they have and families about how many vehicles they need.”

Fleet management software company Jaama has said that new employee ‘fit notes’, which have been introduced in place of the traditional sick notes will require careful monitoring.

The new Statement of Fitness for Work was introduced this week by the Department for Work and Pensions in a bid to reduce the 172 million working days UK firms lose to sickness each year.

The new Statement of Fitness for Work allows GPs to advise employers on one of two options:

• Not fit for work: where their assessment of an employee is that they should not work for a stated period of time

• The employee may be fit for work but may not be able to complete all of their normal duties or hours, or they may need some support to help them undertake their normal duties.

As a result of the introduction of fit notes Jaama has updated its Key2 Vehicle Management software to enable fleet decision-makers to record individual changes to working practices that may be recommended by a GP.

The ability of Key2 software to also integrate with existing client software operated by departments such as HR, which is likely to be the depository for employees’ fit note information, means that staff records should be automatically updated – particularly vital as driving against a GP’s advice could invalidate insurance.

The Key2 system will not just record whether staff are allowed to drive or not but all tasks their GP has ruled in or out – for example lifting goods or sitting for a specified period of time.

The change has been made by the DWP against a background of evidence that shows:

• Work has therapeutic value and is generally good for physical and mental health.

• The longer an employee is off work, the lower their chances of getting back to work.

• In most cases an individual does not need to be 100% fit to return to work.

• People with common health conditions could be helped to return to work, as part of their recovery, following a few basic principles of healthcare and workplace management.

While there are DVLA rules that employers should follow in relation to the fitness of employees who drive LGV (light goods vehicles) and PCV (passenger carrying) vehicles, there are no such rules governing company car or employees who drive their own vehicles on business trips.

Jaama managing director Jason Francis said: “If an employee had a sick note they generally did not report for work and therefore did not drive. However, the introduction of fit notes requires increased vigilance by employers.

“An employee may well be fit to undertake some of their duties, but may not be fit to drive. This may be due to the type of drugs they are being prescribed or the fact that sitting down in a vehicle may not help their condition.”

He added: “If a fit note recommends no driving and an employee takes to the road and is then involved in a crash it could mean that insurance is invalidated.

“The Government’s reasoning behind the change and to encourage employees to work is to be supported, but it does mean that employers must have comprehensive details of what tasks affected staff are allowed to do when in possession of a fit note. Vigilance is without doubt the watchword.”

The new measures will ensure that Great Britain meets new European requirements on driver testing, training, examination and licensing which come into force in 2013. Other motorists will not be affected.

The main aspects of the new requirements are:

Motorcyclists – The current two categories of motorbike will be replaced with three – A1 (up to 125cc), A2 (up to 35Kw) and A (above 35Kw) – and new rules introduced for riders of larger bikes. Riders wanting to progress to larger categories of motorbikes will have to take a further test and there will be a rise in the minimum age from 21 to 24 for those wishing to start riding larger bikes without previous experience. However, riders moving from smaller to larger motorcycles will not need to do a familiarisation course as originally proposed in the consultation. Instead, as suggested by the Motorcycle Industry Association, riders who have had a full licence for smaller bike for two years or more will need to be accompanied by an Authorised Trainer while on public roads until they have passed their test.

Trailer towing – New car and light van drivers wanting to tow trailers will be able to tow a slightly larger trailer on a normal car driving licence (category B), if they take a further test or undertake training. There will also be a restriction on the overall size of the vehicle/trailer combination that can be driven on a category B+E licence entitlement (car/light van plus trailer).

Licence renewals for bus and lorry drivers – at present, drivers of medium-sized and large buses and lorries need to renew their licences every five years once they reach the age of 45. Over-45s also need to demonstrate their fitness to drive through a full medical report. From 2013, under-45s who drive these vehicles will also need to confirm medical fitness and renew their licence every five years. However, under-45s will not require a full medical report and will still only need to renew their photograph every 10 years. All other drivers and riders will continue to renew their driving licences every 10 years as is currently the case.

Driving examiners – Compulsory initial qualification, periodic training and quality assurance checks for driving examiners will be required for driving examiners. The DSA already fulfils most of these requirements but the introduction of periodic training will enhance these existing arrangements.

Noel Shanahan, chief executive of the DVLA said: “We are implementing the requirements of the new directive with the least possible inconvenience to the UK bus and haulage industry who already operate to a high levels of safety with the vast majority of drivers in the industry already ensuring that they are fit to drive. However, we believe that this new measure will provide a useful additional reminder for drivers.”

Toyota is already working with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to identify the owners and registered keepers of the vehicles involved. Once contact details have been obtained, Toyota will communicate the details of the recall fix process as quickly as possible.

Toyota has communicated details of the 180,865 affected UK vehicles to the DVLA. The total is made up of certain models from seven Toyota ranges:

• iQ
• Aygo
• Yaris
• Auris
• Corolla
• Avensis
• Verso

Further to the earlier announcement of those vehicles affected across Europe, Toyota can confirm that, in the UK, manual Aygo models and all versions of RAV4 are not included in the recall. No Lexus models and no other Toyota passenger cars or light commercial vehicles are affected in the UK.

“The safety of our customers is our top priority. We appreciate their concerns and are doing everything we can to deliver a speedy and thorough solution to the issue with the minimum inconvenience,” said Miguel Fonseca, Managing Director of Toyota GB PLC.

"We would like to reassure customers that the potential issue identified with the accelerator pedal only occurs in very rare circumstances. Our recall action is a precautionary measure."

“At Toyota, we’ve built our reputation on quality, durability and reliability and most importantly trust. We want to rebuild that trust with our customers by effectively working through this issue.”

Toyota’s engineers have developed and rigorously tested a solution that involves reinforcing the pedal assembly to eliminate the potential risk of excess friction that could, in rare instances, cause the pedal to stick.

The first shipments of parts required for this fix will begin arriving in the UK next week and Toyota will be in a position to start repairing cars from 10 February.

The repairs will be carried out by qualified Toyota technicians, at Toyota-approved service centres. The procedure should take 30 minutes to complete.

To help provide clear and up-to-date advice and assistance to owners affected by the recall, Toyota is providing additional website and telephone helpline services.

Any customers who have concerns should contact Toyota GB Customer Relations on 0800 1388 744.

Regularly updated information is also available on a dedicated recall information page on the Toyota website at http://www.toyota.co.uk/recall