We've recently been made aware of a problem that our customers are facing when trying to renew their car tax using the DVLA automated service - either online or via an automated telephone service.

A problem will arise if the MID (Motor Insurance Database) contains different information to that held on the DVLA database.

The DVLA database holds all the correct licensing information, according to how the vehicle has been registered.

The Motor Insurance Database holds information provided by insurance companies, taken from insurance policies and keyed in by their own staff (or by brokers if the policy is an Electronic Date Inerchange (EDI) case). The customer will not be able to utilise DVLA's auto services if this information does not match up.

An example of this would be where the vehicle registration contains the digit '0' (zero), but the policy has been set up using the letter 'O'. It may not be visibly identifiable by the customer, so they would not necessarily realise there was a problem.

Likewise the Post Office would not pick up on this when checking documents, as they would both look the same. The problem would only occur when the customer wanted to use the new service now being offered by the DVLA.

How to resolve this
Where a customer experiences this problem the insurance broker or service centre will need to process a Mid Term Amendment (MTA) on the policy to correct the registration number. This information will then feed into MID and be updated overnight. Once completed, the customer will be able to renew their tax with the DVLA using the auto service.

How to prevent this happening
Please take care to make sure the correct registration number is used when setting up policies. This should be the same as the DVLA (or V5 document). Where there is any confusion, it is best to check with the DVLA on 0870 240 0010.

We hope this information is of use to you. We are receiving an increasing number of calls relating to this problem and hope this will help to resolve these issues allowing us to continue to provide a high level of service to our customers.

Published: 07/09/2007