How Hard Can Something Be?

[AndyTBoater]

Registering and taxing a boat.

 

Download form

Complete form (taking care not to include your Debit/ Credit card number, expiry date and the three digits on the back as requested)

Post off form complete with Insurance and BSS

Wait 2 weeks for the form to be processed (Their estimate)

Get email confirmation that my application has been processed

Wait for separate PIN to be sent out by post

Enter PIN to activate my account

Log on to their system

Wait for details of the boat are added

Find out that new boat has been added but discover that the old boat which has been sold is still there and there is nothing I can do to remove it.

Follow the 5 links to the payment page

Pay money

 

Surely this could be simplified? I know its only a one time thing but nonetheless its all a bit of a faff.

My suggestion would be

1. Go online and set up account and enter the details of you and the new boat. If you already have an account, log in to that and click "Add New Boat" and click "Enter"

2. Fill in a short form online with BSS cert number and insurance policy number. BA should be able to verify this without needing copies of the form.

3. Pay the amount of money they say you should pay.

 

Do I win a prize for simplifying this or is it just something that is done the way it is because we have always done it like this?

 

Andy T Lovejoy

 

[Helian]

Alternatively:

Extract credit card from wallet.

Phone nice lady in tolls dept at BA.

Verbally convey credit card details and boat reg.

Wait for authorisation and confirming email.

Job done. 

 

That's how it was for me last year 😉

 

 

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

Its been some time since I did so.Fairly sure I did by phone also.Far easier .

[AndyTBoater]

Paying tolls is the easy bit. But only if your boat is registered. 

Registering the boat before you can pay is the long drawn out bit. 

And the fact I am getting reminders to tax Marmalade which I no longer own. 

[JanetAnne]

I think renewals over the phone are easier but when you come to change of ownership it all gets a bit tedious

[Oddfellow]

Given that you've only just sold Marmalade and that March/April is the busiest time of year for the tolls office which operates with just two or three people with over 10,000 boats to process, maybe you just need to cut them a little slack :-)

[JanetAnne]

When you sell a car privately part of the existing log book goes with the vehicle and part goes to dvla. The dvla part generates a new logbook for the new owner.

When you sell your boat, part of the registration certificate goes to the new owner and part is returned to the BA. Neither of those actions generates a new certificate nor even an acknowledgement to either party. That leads to a requirement to a whole new registration requirement.

This is the 21st century after all. 

[marshman]

Despite all the comparisons with the DVLA, I see they employ 6000 people and no doubt have a full time I/T dept (Re boot it! ) The BA don't even have a full time I/T dept and the present system works pretty well.

Any improvement, and I/T costs involved, would be toll payer funded.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

50 minutes ago, marshman said:

Despite all the comparisons with the DVLA, I see they employ 6000 people and no doubt have a full time I/T dept (Re boot it! ) The BA don't even have a full time I/T dept and the present system works pretty well.

Any improvement, and I/T costs involved, would be toll payer funded.

Correct me if I am wrong but seem to remember an artical about replacing the computer system last year in a funding/ projects meeting, was the cost £240k?

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

Correct me if I am wrong but seem to remember an artical about replacing the computer system last year in a funding/ projects meeting, was the cost £240k?

They bought another hamster wheel I believe, a much faster one, cost the toll payer £240 million.

Disclaimer: Not an actual fact!

[JanetAnne]

Dvla - 6000 staff managing 30.000.000 (30 million) active records works out at 5000 vehicles records each...

I think my comparison fair

[AndyTBoater]

8 hours ago, FreedomBoatingHols said:

Given that you've only just sold Marmalade and that March/April is the busiest time of year for the tolls office which operates with just two or three people with over 10,000 boats to process, maybe you just need to cut them a little slack :-)

Yep thats all true. Paperwork for Marmalade was signed a couple of days ago and I have been told that the buyer keeps a bit of it and sends the other bit to the tolls office.

That's what I did when I bought Marmalade and about a week later got a letter telling me that Marmalade was now logged with them in my name. Now could I complete the enclosed Application for Registration and Insurance declaration. 

I duly completed the forms using the same information as I had put in the transfer of ownership document (which as you may recall from a paragraph ago I have already sent them) and sent it back. A week later I got a letter saying that my pin was enclosed and I could go onto my online account which just shows that all the paperwork I sent them is now online.

But just to re-iterate, my comments were not to do with the staff or the length of time it takes (although I did mention the 2 week delay) but the PROCESS of registering a boat. Surely there must be a way that does not involve me writing out 3 forms with 2 of them having the same info. And then posting them so a human can read it and post me a new form back?

And yes - there may be 10,000 boats to process - but I would imagine a very low percentage need to be registered to new owners.

The ones that are already registered can go onto their online account and click "Pay Toll" or whatever the button is called and it all goes through without human interaction.  

Just so you all know. I am not moaning about the people or the organisation. I am questioning whether there is a better, more streamlined and efficient way to register a boat.

 

Anyway - I wish I hadn't bothered starting this thread. 

Best regards

Andy T Lovejoy

[AndyTBoater]

20 hours ago, Helian said:

Alternatively:

Extract credit card from wallet.

Phone nice lady in tolls dept at BA.

Verbally convey credit card details and boat reg.

Wait for authorisation and confirming email.

Job done. 

 

That's how it was for me last year 😉

 

 

 

Hi. This is not an alternative or an option if the boat is not registered with BA in your name. Which is the process I am talking about.

 

Now I am really sorry I started al this off. :)

[marshman]

OBB - you are right! Whether it will come on line by next year remains to be seen!!

The couple of I/T people, neither full time, have been busier than normal this year or so I believe, as they are dealing with all those working from home requiring kit and sorting problems as they inevitably arise.

There is a cost to all these things and new I/T is expensive and guess who is paying for it - yep you and me out of the tolls!!

[grendel]

to be fair IT doesnt have to be expensive, I probably have a better network setup than most small to medium compnies with over 13Tb of data storage, and it didnt cost me the earth, but then its all used equipment bought second hand which for most companies would be unacceptable, and I run the free versions of most software (IE Libre office rather than Microsoft office) software licensing for a hundred employees will be quite a large portion of the IT budget.

I once had to argue that point when our IT department were trying to replace our CAD computers with cheap workstations that were not to a spec to run it by pointing out it was not worth skimping £100 on the machine that was running £9000 of CAD software, if the replacement they were proposing would not run that software properly, the graphics cards we needed were over £250 per machine, and those wouldnt even fit inside the proposed machine, they did a test, put one of the cards in their machine they were going to give us (even though they then couldnt close the case) plugged it in, turned it on, and promptly fried the power supply (our IT werent great thinkers, putting a 250W graphics card into a machine with a 200W power supply. we then got the high powered machines we had asked for, with the two spare machines of the lower spec with a marginal graphics card, but our main CAD operators had decent machines

[Smoggy]

Half the it departments consist of a bloke that can switch it off and back on again....

 

[DAVIDH]

 

[ranworthbreeze]

1 hour ago, DAVIDH said:

 

Hello David, my favourite episode was the Internet!

Regards

Alan

[Cheesey69]

The bureaucracy is expanding to service the bureaucracy 

[Oddfellow]

On 24/03/2021 at 13:05, JanetAnne said:

Dvla - 6000 staff managing 30.000.000 (30 million) active records works out at 5000 vehicles records each...

I think my comparison fair

Not really. 

The DVLA processes vehicles every day of the year in vast numbers. The BA tolls office processes the vast majority of enquiries between Mid March and Mid May each year and I can assure you that the 12th April will be spurring a great many people on. And there's plenty of people (I could name a good few) that perpetually cause problems for the office too which causes delays all round. 

It's very easy to sit back and criticise whilst having no real knowledge of the workloads. I am sure there could be efficiencies, but unless you're a systems analyst with a working knowledge of the current system and experience of possible solutions. you're not gonna solve it. And, does it even need solving? We're hardly talking about life or death. 

  

[Maxwellian]

One of the problems today is that our faults are visible to all. People choose to be critical of these faults and completely oblivious to their own.