The VOSA GB operator licensing e-service (VOSA)

This innovative e-service launched in June 2004 has transformed the regulatory service for the UK commercial vehicle operator industry (110,000 businesses; 450,000 vehicles). It is the first government regulatory service that has provided the responsible business with full accountability for maintaining their own data, allowing licence holders to transact a major part of their licensing business with government on a self-service basis, with real-time access to and an ability to amend their own data 24x7. 50% of all goods vehicle transactions and 79% of passenger vehicle transactions were done on-line in Feb 2005, far exceeding the first year target of 20%. Feedback from users has been excellent.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The commercial vehicle operator regulatory service has been dramatically improved. Licence holders are no longer bound by paper processes and office hours; they have 24/7 e-access to their licence records and can update vehicle details, register local bus services and track progress of licence applications on-line. Soon they will be able to pay their invoices and update other records. This enables members of the industry to be more compliant and keeps the Regulator's records up to date without the intervention of the Regulator. Statutory objectors and enforcement agencies now have 24/7 electronic access to, and search for, details of licence applications and licence holders in their area. Van rental companies can also check that their customer holds a licence before renting out a vehicle. This has significantly improved an existing service or delivered a new one, which has encouraged increased checking for compliance with the law. £1m pa saved in VOSA staff costs. Staff undertaking this transactional work has fallen by10% (30 posts); an additional 10 posts will be lost in 2005/6. £100,000 pa savd on VOSA's printing and postage costs. £1.5m pa saved in lost production by commercial vehicle operators who now get their licences quicker and do not have delays in putting vehicles on a (time to get a licence reduced by 25% and time to add a vehicle to a licence reduced from 14 days under paper based system to seconds under self service). £1m pa saving in staff resource employed by licence holders, statutory objectors, van rental companies, enforcement agencies, councils, passenger transport executives, Taveline and Transport Direct as a result of e-services and on-line access to data and search facilities delivered by the project. 50% of goods vehicle and 79% of passenger vehicle transactions done on-line. The project itself cost £9m.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

There is a closure report which has been shared around the UK government departments and can be shared with EU partners. The lessons learned are to do sufficient planning, take your customers are key partners in development, ensure that the infrastructure is sufficiently robust to meet the needs and planned take-up rates. Prepare roll out of the systems so as not to overload in the first few days and manage expectations (ie it could go wrong in the first few days, but that is what can be expected of IT systems in the first few weeks/months). And make sure the solution is scalable and able to link easily to other systems. Becuase the system is web based it can be accessed by a hole range of users and from anywhere in ther world. It can be adapted for use by other commercial regulators (and indeed other countries are looking at how they might use the same type of software/solution.