The DVLA’s ‘Register a Vehicle’ (RaV) service has handled over 1.5 million new vehicle registrations in the first year in operation.

The new cloud-based RaV system replaced the old Automated First Registration and Licensing (AFRL) service with a roll-out which started in July 2018 and, since then, 150 motor manufacturers and over 5,000 dealers have migrated to the new, fully digital service.

DVLA chief executive, Julie Lennard, said: “Legislative changes and advances in technology are seeing an increasing industry need to record more detailed information about a vehicle when it’s first registered, and it’s vital that the industry has the tools to do this in a simple, intuitive and user-friendly way.

“Over the two-and-a-half year journey developing the new service, each vehicle manufacturer told us about their requirements, worked with us to build and test the service and gave us frank feedback, which helped us to fully understand their needs and develop a service around them.

“I’d like to thank our motoring industry colleagues for all their help and support in rolling out the new service”.

In a statement issued this week, the DVLA said that what had started as the implementation of new legislation requiring the ‘list price’ of some vehicles to be captured to calculate the rate of vehicle tax, had led to a service that “showcases DVLA as a hub for digital motoring as the agency continues transforming its vehicle services for the future”. 

The RaV service enables the capture of data outputs such as Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedures (WLTP) and Real Driving Emissions (RDE) data, in-line with the requirements of new legislation.

The use of Application Programme Interface (API) technology, meanwhile, means that manufacturers and dealers can now integrate first vehicle registrations, and data recorded at this point, with their other systems and applications. 

In addition to the API, smaller manufacturers can access the benefits of RaV through the cloud-based web service.

User feedback for the new RaV service has been extremely positive, according to the DVLA.

Pauline Lawless, SsangYong Vehicle Sales Supervisor, Operations, said: “The team at DVLA worked closely with us to ensure a smooth migration to RaV, addressing any potential concerns at any early stage and offering us a great deal of support throughout the process. 

“As a result, we were able to migrate the vast majority of our dealer network very smoothly without any significant issues.

“We’ve had very positive feedback on RaV from our dealers, who tell us it’s much simpler to use than the old AFRL service.

“The ongoing improvements to the system have been welcomed, and DVLA’s support teams have been very efficient and supportive whenever we, or our dealers, have needed to ask a question.”

Seftton Samuels, operations director at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said: “The new service has been positively received by manufacturers and their dealer networks, with the quick and simple functionality helping businesses to run their registrations more efficiently.

"Vehicle data drives competition in the sector, and we value DVLA’s ongoing positive approach to collaboration on improvements to the management of data.”