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BVRLA warns of huge disruption when Government abolishes paper counterpart
Date: 25 November 2014 | Author: Daniel Puddicombe
The BVRLA is warning customers that the Government's plan to push forward the abolition of the paper counterpart could leave them facing increased costs or queues.
The counterpart is being axed in January 2015 as part of the Government's red tape campaign to reduce bureaucracy, however the industry body believes the DVLA could go back on its promise to provide the rental industry with an affordable and workable alternative for checking the counterpart in real-time.
The BVRLA said there are around 10 million vehicle rental transactions every year and the majority are approved by checking the paper counterpart.
Should the abolition go ahead in January, the body is warning many licenses could become out of date, and could lead to rental firms having to use the agency's premium-rate telephone number to verify a licence.
"Rushing the abolition of the paper counterpart before the DVLA is ready with a real-time driver checking service is going to cause huge disruption and may result in customers having to pay to have their own driving licence details verified," said Jerry Keaney, chief executive, BVRLA.
"We applaud the government's attempts to reduce red tape and bureaucracy, but this piece of poorly-timed political point scoring could cause chaos for our industry and its customers during this busy festive season," said Keaney.
