Plans to close all DVLA regional offices by end 2013
- Thread starter A-AvantGarde
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A-AvantGarde
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I can see why they're considering it, and the article also talks about moving towards doing more on-line.
I've had a good experience with all of the local offices I've dealt with and have found it useful and handy to be able to go into a local office for a plate transfer / assignment.
Yes, it's a shame in terms of job losses, but if you consider the duplication and cost of offices around the country the costs are not insignificant. Perhaps the halfway house would be a handful of regional centres?
I've had a good experience with all of the local offices I've dealt with and have found it useful and handy to be able to go into a local office for a plate transfer / assignment.
Yes, it's a shame in terms of job losses, but if you consider the duplication and cost of offices around the country the costs are not insignificant. Perhaps the halfway house would be a handful of regional centres?
Scott_F
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there are banned words to describe people like you
You may find it acceptable to receive a non-service from lazy, incompetent and completely unaccountable DVLA staff.
I don't.
WesLangdon
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Public servants are accountable for what they do. When you indulge in such hysterical abuse of hard working people who's jobs are under threat it is always helpful to supply evidence or reasoned argument to support your stance. Otherwise it comes across as unpleasant (but vacuous) invective.
Doesn't sound hysterical to me. Rather, it sounds like the experience of a motor trader who is dealing with that office on a very regular basis. Have you ever dealt with that office, WesLangdon?
Because people are employed in the public sector, by you & me in other words, it doesn't automatically mean they are all really, really good at their jobs or give them some magic, bulletproof tenure so that they can screw off half the day, or that they can keep their jobs just because they have bills to pay & families to feed.
My experience with the DVLA is this. If no human contact with me is involved, i.e. I send in the paperwork & it gets handled, everything is fine. If something goes wrong with the paperwork (& it's ALWAYS a **** up at their end) I'm in for a long struggle to get it straightened out, mainly because the people I talk to aren't that great at what they do!
davidjpowell
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Not this.
We would end up driving miles to a regional centre to do what can be done locally.
At least closing the centres mean they will have to introduce online options for some of this.
Doodle
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I suspect this has been on the cards for some time - in the last couple of years the amount of stuff that is handled locally has been getting less and less.
WesLangdon
Banned
Nor does it mean they are really bad at their jobs anymore than you are. If someone is unhappy with a service, public or private, complain, with dates, times, who did what, what happened and what you thought ought to have happened. Don't condem (no pun intended) or parcel everyone up as being lazy, incompetend and unaccountable when it isn't true.
You are absolutely right when you say that.
When Jay said
& you took issue with that statement saying
surely Jay was the one making an observation, or dare I say it, a judgment, based on his empirical experience of dealing with that office on an almost daily basis for several years & you were the one indulging in an hysterical, knee jerk, abusive response, having almost certainly never dealt with that office & having no experience whatsoever of the Birmingham DVLA?
I am genuinly concerned though... as terrible as they are, we do need them and most traders do...
I know a local car trader who is there almost every day for taxing disabled cars etc etc.
They must have a plan to deal with this... a good option would be to let post offices do a lot of what the local offices offer.. taxing cars that are classified as disabled tax is the main one.
I know a local car trader who is there almost every day for taxing disabled cars etc etc.
They must have a plan to deal with this... a good option would be to let post offices do a lot of what the local offices offer.. taxing cars that are classified as disabled tax is the main one.
ss201
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Bad news on several fronts. Job losses for 1200 - some of whom must know what they're doing. That's 1200 people no longer paying tax, on the dole and massive amounts of redundancy - paid by er - who? Would it be taxpayers by any chance?
My local Inland Revenue closed recently. Now if I want an answer to a tax query, instead of being able to take my documents in and sort things out there and then....I have to phone a call centre. This entails listening to music (not of my choice) for what seems like hours, at my expense on an 0845 number, to finally get through to a child (always someone different every time) who knows nothing about my tax situation or my personal circumstances......Then if I have a problem, I'm asked to put it in writing - which is then replied to by someone new....it's a bloody nightmare.
Ever tried showing someone a piece of documentation down a phone line?
Some high up in the civil service seems to think that everything can be done by one central operation. Remind me, how much public money has been wasted on mega computer systems that don't work? If this is progress, I give up.
My local Inland Revenue closed recently. Now if I want an answer to a tax query, instead of being able to take my documents in and sort things out there and then....I have to phone a call centre. This entails listening to music (not of my choice) for what seems like hours, at my expense on an 0845 number, to finally get through to a child (always someone different every time) who knows nothing about my tax situation or my personal circumstances......Then if I have a problem, I'm asked to put it in writing - which is then replied to by someone new....it's a bloody nightmare.
Ever tried showing someone a piece of documentation down a phone line?
Some high up in the civil service seems to think that everything can be done by one central operation. Remind me, how much public money has been wasted on mega computer systems that don't work? If this is progress, I give up.
WesLangdon
Banned
I was critical of Scott_F's comment, and my remark was addresssed to him, you jumped in to defend your mates comment about Birmingham staff, this, although similar was not quite as rude or as bad. So at the risk of being boring I repeat if you are not happy with the service, complain.
Scott_F
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Firstly, you will notice that I avoided using the term "public servant" in my post since the term implies somebody who actually provides a service. The DVLA employees that I am referring to provide no service to speak of and there are many others like them that I have dealt with elsewhere in the public sector.
Secondly, they enjoy a lack of accountability that doesn't exist in other organisations. I wasn't going to bore you with the details of my experiences but since you ask I will describe one of them.
I had cause to visit my local DVLA office (shiny brand new building on the outskirts of town. Built at great expense in the back-of-beyond but no decent bus service and totally inadequate parking). Having waited for ages my turn came and I presented the woman behind the counter with a document that had to be faxed to a 3rd party. She disappeared and then came back and returned the document. Previous experience of dealing with useless people who don't like the concept of accountability compelled me to insist on proof of faxing. She looked very uncomfortable but assured me that the fax had been sent and eventually agreed to stamp and initial the document.
A week later, I contacted the 3rd party who told me that nothing had been received. An e-mail complaining to the manager of the DVLA office received no response (what a surprise that employees aren't accountable for their inaction when managers couldn't care less either).
When I pursued the matter further I was fobbed off with the excuse that the office was very busy and had taken 6 days (!!!!!) to send the fax. That's the same fax that was initialled and stamped to say it had been sent whilst I waited. The idle manager claimed never to have received my e-mail despite it still sitting in my sent box and as far as they were concerned that was that.
I took further time, effort and phone calls to sort out what would have been a straightforward matter if the local office did a simple job and didn’t lie to me.
I could go on and cite other examples but frankly I can't be bothered. I can spot useless and incompetent people from afar and when I hear that some of them will soon lose their jobs I have no sympathy. You can only mess people about so many times.
I'm sorry to pop your balloon with regard to "hard working people". They often fail to do their jobs, don’t like any sort of criticism, don’t like accountability and ignore any complaints.
You need to distinguish between “abuse” and legitimate grievances and until you can do so I'll leave the “hysterical” outbursts to you.
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WesLangdon
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You are describing management failings and they aren't limited to the public sector or we wouldn't be in the economic mess we are in. Your post without the explanation you have now (though not the where) supplied was rude...end of.
Scott - you seem very bitter about this issue. I just can't get my head around the fact that you seem to think that every single employee at the DVLA is a bad egg, and that due to your personal experience this news 'serves them right'. All of them.
I'm pretty sure that there's good and bad people doing all sorts of jobs in this world. Don't tar everyone with the same brush, and refer to 1200 people as 'wasters', citing your very limited personal experience just shows how much of your viewpoint is based on assumption and ignorance.
Like I say - no connection with or bias to the DVLA myself, but I'm pretty confident that not everyone who works there is a 'waster' or somehow deserves to be made unemployed because of your personal experience.
I'm sure you've never made a mistake or ever done anything wrong yourself...
I'm pretty sure that there's good and bad people doing all sorts of jobs in this world. Don't tar everyone with the same brush, and refer to 1200 people as 'wasters', citing your very limited personal experience just shows how much of your viewpoint is based on assumption and ignorance.
Like I say - no connection with or bias to the DVLA myself, but I'm pretty confident that not everyone who works there is a 'waster' or somehow deserves to be made unemployed because of your personal experience.
I'm sure you've never made a mistake or ever done anything wrong yourself...
Scott_F
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I refer you to post #23....end of.
grober
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Let's take an other example of a highly centralised organisation in the "private sector" this time----- which motorists often have to interact with---- the car insurance call centre. Exemplary service, "finger on the pulse" staff who know their product inside out, never left waiting on the phone, an incredible eye for detail, highly motivated, polite, helpful, never lie or mislead you, with in depth understanding of the nuances of the English language----- I'm running out of superlatives here.
Scott_F
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I'm not bitter - I just dislike being given a discourteous non-service from people who couldn't care less because their managers are just as bad and who know that they will still get paid no matter what.
My viewpoint is based on experience not "assumption and ignorance". I have not suggested that all DVLA employees are wasters but the ones that I have come across (and it seems from this thread that many others have come across the same) certainly were wasters.
If 1200 jobs are to be lost then I would hope that it was the non-performers who were finally weeded out. I also recognise that there is such a thing as workplace politics and that those who cosy-up to the right people often escape the axe whilst far harder-working colleagues do not.
Whatever happens, I have no influence over these decisions but still feel perfectly justified in pointing out that many staff at the DVLA are a waste of taxpayers’ money and should have been chopped a long time ago.