Dvla Reviews 1,713

Shocking company.
Slow at replying to messages if you even get a message. You call up and get put on hold for 20/30 minutes. Then you speak to customer service and they have no clue what they’re doing. Shockingly bad service!!!

Am on a 1 year medical license renewal cycle and have been waiting for the DVLA to process my bog standard no complications renewal since early November 2024. That's 5 months !!!! Spoke to them again today (25th March 2026) to be told 'Ah yes, we've prioritised it since the start of March and will be done when it's done, they're very busy'.
In the meantime I can't hire a car on any overseas trips as I don't have a license.
This is yet another Gov't agency that is clearly not fit for purpose in this utterly useless country.

This is getting ridiculous. Roads are in poor condition, markings are almost invisible, and every March there’s a rush of roadworks just to use up the budget. The result? Massive traffic across London. It’s badly managed and incredibly frustrating.

Dire across the board. My son did a SAR, asking for 4 pieces of data, one to include a medical report. A jobsworth stated it must be completed on a form (email with ID and clear request was on an email. They’ve now came back and stated they will need 3 months to honour the request. 3 months for 4 pieces of data- honestly you couldn’t make it up. They game my son 1 year in his provisional - following a private medical - yet no report or update as to why the time scale. RUBBISh

The DVLA Are a complete wast of time..

Sending you threatening letters if you fail to respond within there time frame but its ok for them to drag there feet for months on end with on communication.. they are an absolute joke..

Still Sending things by paper 🤣😂 i dont think they know email is a thing..

Just like the government that employe them... a laughing stock.

Absolutely incompetent asking questions from gp 1 at a time with a 6 week turn around. No information given. " im not medically trained" seems to be the buzz line. All I asked was if you can read out the questions you've asked my doctor or read his reply.

3 year DVLA medical sent off end of December, received licence back start of March, Considerable less time than the last time I had to do this. Now, whether thats because my MP got involved (I'm off in May and need licence for abroad), or the fact my hospital consultant was asked nicely to do it quickly, or else the new online system has improved things, is unknown. However, and a big however, at no point in the entire process (apart from when they sent a letter to confirm the application was received - I did ask for an email) was I informed of any part of the process on my application. Also, I tried to contact them by phone, was expecting a call back, none came.

Not fit for purpose . Greedy and totally useless .the staff sound so disinterested on the phone . Only thing they care about is money .

I have been left going round in circles because the DVLA
Bought a car that had the tax as disabled which I needed changing to just normal tax class so I can pay but it’s been such a faff getting it changed so I can tax the car.
I’ve spoken to various people at the DVLA on the phone filled in online forms also back forth with emails to then get the V5C posted through in my name but still showing as disabled class.
Did some digging online only to find out I could have sorted it all straight away at a post office. Why wasn’t this mentioned by DVLA in the first place?
I have had a car sitting on the drive not able to be used because of lack of information from DVLA 🙄

I sent my DL for renewal in late July 2025 - It was due for renewal Nov 2025 - they finally responded in December 2025 asking me to provide new DL photo as medical records had been checked and all OK for my DL to be renewed. I had a pro photo taken right away; wrote check , returned Form D797M and cheque, as they requested and posted it at 3pm on Christmas eve.,even putting on a First Class stamp on their prepaid envelope,. I have since spent 30 HOURS on hold and NOT able to find out why, on March 16, 2026 they have not responded and still have my DL. It is impossible to get through on phones ***always HOURS on hold listening to awful music and NO response. I have written (recorded delivery) to ask where my DL is and they have not even the curtesy to answer this. WHERTE IS MY DL????? I have complied with every rule and they are so lazy and rude and the phone systems appalling. I just cannot seem to speak to anyone as NO human ever answers….they can, however, cut your call off before it is even answered. Any help suggestions?

I have tried to use the online service through the gov app to change my address on my driving licence, since moving a week ago. No joy on both occasions yet they say you could get fined £1000 for not doing so.
It said they couldn't find my ID yet I gave them my valid passport details and old and new address as requested.

I applied in December for my license to be renewed at 70 years old with a medical so I could retain my rights to drive an HGV and a minibus. Managed to ascertain in February that they had received my application so I could continue to drive. Put it out of my mind and was patient till I realised that I needed my license to be able to drive in France. I then spent two days trying to contact them by phone. Was promised they'd make it a priority and was told eventually that my medical had been assessed and a recommendation made to issue a license, but it has to be passed to a different department to do so. I was told that even when it is issued it can take 24 hours to show on the website. Still waiting and had to cancel the holiday. What sort of computers do they have, clockwork ones? Useless service, the people answering the phones are polite enough but unable to achieve anything. Thanks Tory party for 14 years of austerity and Labour for not getting off their backsides and fixing the broken systems they inherited.

Absolutely shmabolic

I genuinely struggle to see the purpose of this department in its current form. The processes feel outdated, inefficient, and entirely out of step with modern expectations. Relying on paper V5 documents that are easily lost—then charging £25 to reissue them, only for replacements to also go missing in the post—is unacceptable.
Customer interactions add to the frustration; contacting the call centre is consistently difficult and often unhelpful. Taxing a vehicle without a V5 to hand becomes an unnecessarily painful experience, despite this being a common and foreseeable scenario. In 2026, there is simply no justification for not issuing secure electronic documents via email or an online account. The lack of basic digital capability is both costly and deeply frustrating for customers.
They don't deserve a 1-star!

Turned off the ability to review them on google because they were getting so many bad reviews. What about improving the service???

Anyway..it’s 2026 and you’re still using paper forms? What a joke. My nearest post office to pick up a D1 is driving distance. Great job when I can’t drive for medical reasons! And I have to make another journey to return the form and PAY for postage. This is discrimination against disabled people who have their licences periodically revoked for medical reasons.

waiting provisional license three months? I call the customer service, so rude talking to me

The DVLA are utterly useless.
My youngest son bought a car and insured it and then went to tax it, but It has been impossible for him to tax the vehicle.
He has had the car for one month today with it sat on the drive in a situation where the DVLA demand that it must be taxed, but they have made it impossible for him to tax it.
The reference number on the new keeper slip did not work to tax it online and from what I can tell by googling this, it's a common faults (of the DVLA).
He has been told his logbook has been processed and issued, but it has still never arrived.
He has explained all this on the phone to the DVLA after a stupid wait time on the phone, given them all his details and the cars chassis number, but all they have told him is that some of the information he has given them is incorrect. They refused to say which part of the information is incorrect. What is that about? Is it some sort of silly game keeping that secret.
Who buys a car and one month later is still unable to drive it because the DVLA.
They demand he buys tax, he doesn't want to, the DVLA want him to, but they have made buying the tax impossible.
Absolutely useless!
Also while I'm at it, this whole month thing where your tax is backdated to the start of the month and so is your refund is a con as well to make money.
There is zero reason tax couldn't start from the day it's purchased and run out on that date a year later.
Useless!

I applied to renew my driving licence on 30 October. It is now March, and I am still waiting.
In this time I have contacted DVLA repeatedly – email, phone, webchat, letters and even through my MP. Nothing has moved forward.
Because I cannot upload a valid licence to the work app I use, I have lost my job. DVLA’s delays have literally taken away my ability to work.
On 20 January DVLA wrote to say they were waiting for a response from my doctor. When I checked with my GP surgery, they confirmed that the medical form from DVLA only arrived there on 22 January.
So what happened during the almost three months between 30 October and 22 January before the form was even sent?
Since then, nearly two more months have passed and my licence is still nowhere.
When I contacted DVLA again today via webchat, they simply told me my application is with the Medical Department — something I was already told back in November. The only advice they give is to call the Medical Department, where the waiting time is at least 90 minutes just to speak to someone.
Nearly five months to renew a driving licence is unacceptable, especially when people rely on it for their livelihood.
This delay has caused serious financial stress and completely disrupted my life.
If you depend on your licence for work, be aware: DVLA delays can leave you without income for months.
Extremely poor service.

Contacted to ask why my MOT date was earlier than the registration date and was told “that’s how it is sometimes “ . No explanation and I felt I was bothering them to find out,still don’t know why.

Terrible experience. I have tried five days in a row to get an answer from someone and just talk to a person to get my query answered. I am working on behalf of an elderly person who is getting extremely anxious about not being able to obtain their licence progress. I am now on hold again for 45 minutes. No one seems to be answering. I am also accessing the chat, but no luck there either. No wonder we are all suffering from mental health issues. It is so hard to get anything done in this country!!!!! Not acceptable to be on hold for anything more than 10 minutes. Can the Government please put a customer charter together for all private and public services to deal with customers in a respectful and efficient way, within certain timescales?