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UK Government Tax Disc Renewal Website Buckles Under Pressure
An anonymous reader writes When you pay the tax on a road vehicle in the UK, you used to get a paper "tax disk" to affix to the inside of your car windshield. However the relevant records are documented electronically anyway, inspiring the government to replace the paper system with a purely online one. Unfortunately said system was still in beta when it launched today and predictably, it has broken under user demand. No alternative system is available. (The licensing agency actually ran out of the paper disks more than a month ago, and has been printing them out on normal office paper and asking vehicle owners to cut out the circle themselves.) The initiative is part of a larger "digital-first", restructuring of how the government provides services aimed at "meeting user needs".
Why cant the UK or US?
We've had online registration and health care services for years. I haven't had to fill out a medicare form or go into a medicare office... ever. Not once in my adult life.
As for online vehicle registration. Thats state based instead of national (well we only have 7 states and 2 territories) my state, Western Australia did away with registration stickers that you would affix to your windscreen years ago... Before I got my drivers license in fact. Apart from a the tired whines of a few dullards who ignore the reminder the government sends them about their expiring vehicle registration six weeks in advance it's been a fantastic success.
If I need to know when my registration is up, I just look it up. If I want to know if the car I'm buying is registered (and for how long) I can just look up the number plate. About the only thing a malicious person can do on this website is pay my rego for me.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
This is the dumbest thing. You've been able to renew your tax disc online for years now and the site's always been fine. You don't have to replace you're existing paper disc until it expires so I don't understand how they've taken a functional site, added barely any additional load and made it fall over.
I put it down to many sites saying that anyone can check any cars status on the government's vehicle inquiry service (currently down). Loads of people want to check whether their friends and neighbours cars are legal.
This is a Government Digital Service initiative. It will have been built using open source products almost exclusively.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe