Vehicle owners were told that from Wednesday they would no longer have to display the vehicle excise duty disc on their windscreens, with those needing to renew it either doing so online at the DVLA’s car tax website or at a Post Office branch.
But many people have been unable to get on to the DVLA site, prompting the agency to issue an apology and to advise vehicle owners to “keep trying”.
The AA reported that a number of its members had complained about not being able to access the DVLA site, with president Edmund King saying it was “a bit ironic in this digital age” that the system had been overwhelmed.
The DVLA said: “More than 270,000 people successfully used our online car tax service yesterday – that’s 30,000 more than on the same day last year.
“We are currently experiencing unprecedented demand which means that some customers may be experiencing slow response times or having difficulty accessing the service.
“We are of course very sorry for any inconvenience and we are urgently investigating to improve service quality for the minority of our customers that are experiencing issues.”
A DVLA spokeswoman said: “The system has not crashed – it’s just slow at the moment. We are advising people to keep trying.”
Earlier this year, in written evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee, the AA said: “The AA believes that ailing mainframe systems like the vehicle and driver registers at DVLA have worked admirably well given what is now expected of them.
“However, they are no longer fit for purpose to deliver the motoring agencies’ vision now proposed.”