DVDL should exchange licence plates at all offices
Why are the new licence plates not available at the Breakers and West Bay locations of the Department of Vehicle and Drivers’ Licensing (DVDL)? You go and get your vehicle inspected and licensed at these two places, then have to go to the Crewe Road office to pick up your new licence plates. Such an inconvenience and waste of time.
Auntie’s answer: To make sure there is no confusion, I (and DVDL) assume you are referring to exchanging your old plates for the new tamper-proof and chip-embedded white plates. Apparently, in the beginning of this process, the DVDL did try to offer the new plates at the locations where the original licensing was done.
A DVDL official explained to me that it was thought that most people would want to pick up their new plates at the same office where they took care of other driver/licence-related transactions. “The rationale was if a customer is going to a particular location, that must be the most convenient place for them to go.”
However, in practice that logic didn’t seem to hold. Even though the department issued press releases and public service announcements informing the public that they should return to the location where their last transaction took place, information which could be found on the receipt, and then sent the new plates to that specific office, “this proved to be a bigger problem than a solution”.
It turned out that the “overwhelming majority” of customers went instead to the main DVDL office on Crewe Road looking for their new plates, only to be informed they had been sent to either Breakers or West Bay. Not surprisingly, after several months of trying, the department was forced to abandon that strategy and only issue the new replacement plates at Crewe Road.
Worth noting, though, is that if someone is registering a new vehicle or purchasing new plates, that can be done at any of the three locations. But for all exchanges of old plates for new plates, that can only take place at the Crewe Road office.
Category: Ask Auntie, Vehicle Licensing Questions
Without exaggeration, some of the tab stubs on the DVDL website haven’t been updated in nearly a decade… ie. “Last Updated: 2008-06-05”, “Last Updated: 2010-03-23”, “Last Updated: 2012-09-25″…
In some cases, the links point to employees that haven’t worked there in years. Spending as much as we do on public payroll, this level of complacency is beyond comprehension!
might be worth the $75 to just get new plates when in the office next instead of having to co e back to collect when ready
I tried this – even though my plates were not ready in late Sept 2017, nor even now, I tried to pay the $75 to avoid hassle of having to return to waste productive hours at DVDL – I was told I’d have to wait another year, and that “hopefully” they would be ready by next Sept 2018…DVDL haven’t updated their list of “available plates” since February, so it looks like they have given up any system of distribution beyond renewal visits.
Glad to learn this – I am still waiting to be called to come into the West Bay office to collect mine, as I was told very clearly not to come back till they called me to say it was ready!
They aren’t calling anyone, and like the article says, replacements are only being done at Crewe Rd. It would be helpful if the DVDL showed some interest by updating their list of “available plates” from Feb.