DVLA Age Related Application

[minivin]

Just thought I'd write up a little about what I have found over the past few weeks with getting an age related application in for my Series III.

Anyone looking for an Age Related number for a vehicle has one form they will have to work with, the DVLA Form V55/5, if you contact the DVLA on 0870 850 0007 they will be able to post you this form and the associated literature pack. Intially this pack looks daunting, but it's all in the detail and what you need to take into account.

There are a lot of tabs in the form that look very daunting, "Type Approval Number", "HC g/km or g/kWh" et cetera. A lot of these tabs are for modern vehicles around the ten years or younger bracket that will have had type approval, so you do not have to worry about these. The tabs you are interested in are:

Tab 4; Period of License applied for: 12 months or 6 months road tax?

Tab 5; Make: Land Rover

Tab 6; Model: "Series 3; 109 LWB", or any such title that describes the model as best as possible

Tab 7; Type of Body/Vehicle: Most Landies will come under the "Light 4x4 Utility" with code "54" entered in tab 13 for those vehicles that are three door and have a load bay rather than passenger seats in the back (such as three seat 88's and 109's where the three seats are in the front). Those vehicles such as CSW's et cetera may come under another class which you will need to confirm (Your local Land Rover agent should be able to tell you since they have to register every new vehicle they sell).

Tab 8; Wheelplan: 2 Axle Rigid, with code "C" entered in tab 15

Tab 9; Colour: this will depend on your vehicle naturally, this will be in the help guide that you get with the form, you will also find a code letter that will need to also be entered in tab 17 which helps to passify the DVLA paper-shufflers as it means less work for them and hopefully a more speedy reply.

Vehicles with more than one colour need both colours entered, such as a Black and Green camoflaged ex-MIL 109 would require on the V55/5 "BLACK and GREEN" and in Tab 17 "PH"

Colours as follows:

Colour Code: Description:

S Biege

P Black

J Blue

B Bronze

A Brown

V Cream

G Gold

H Green

L Grey

T Maroon

K Mauve

E Orange

D Pink

C Red

M Silver (Aluminium)

U Turquoise

N White

F Yellow

R Multi-coloured (For vehicles with 3 or more colours)

Tab 28; Date from which License is to run: This is your road tax start date, normally something like "01/02/06" so that it runs from the beginning of February and will run out either 6 months (See tab 4) at end of July, or twelve months at end of January "2007". Enter as you require

Tab 29; Type of Fuel: either "Heavy Fuel", number code "2" in tab 10 is required for Diesel, or "Petrol", number code "1" in tab 10 is required for Petrol engines.

Tab 30; VIN/ Chassis/Frame No.: This is where you enter the chassis number of the vehicle

Tab 31; Engine Number: This is where you enter the engine number of the vehicle

Tab 32; Cylinder Capacity (in cc): This is where you enter the engine cubic capacity in cc's, NOT litre's! so a 2.25ltr standard engine for a Series would be "2286", and a 2.5NAD, 2.5TD and possibly the TDi's would be "2495"

Tab 42; Year of Manufacture: This is where you enter the year of manufacture of the vehicle for the DVLA to determine whether correct or not to base their age related number on.

Costs

When you apply you will have to pay for your first tax (About £170 for a diesel for 12 months or £165 for a petrol for 12 months), this will require sending through your insurance certificate, MoT paperslip and the funds for this (cheque to "DVLA Swansea"). Also requied in this is a one-off payment of £38 to pay for the processing of the paperwork to get your age related number

Paperwork

You will need to send your driving license off (both card and paper piece if you have this), however please note YOU MUST SEND ORIGINALS AND NOT PHOTOCOPIES, your application will be rejected if you send any form of photocopy. The reason for sending your driving license is for proof of identity, however fear not if you have sent your driving license off for updates as there is a way around not being able to send your driving license. If you have a valid passport, a medical card, a bank statement or a council tax bill or a utility bill you may use two of these to prove, once again originals required and you MUST send TWO to satisfy them.

Insurance certificate once again for the satisfying that you have a insured vehicle to receive your tax

Completed V55/5

MoT Test Certificate to prove that the vehicle is fit to go on the road (and for road tax)

Proof of age of vehicle; this is a good one, if you got a ex-MIL vehicle you will hopefully have a MOD Form 654 "Application for Disposal of a Cast Vehicle" which details the vehicles age and when purchased. Alternatively Land Rover provide a service to track down the age of a vehicle from their records, it takes a few weeks to a month for them to reply, but if you send them your chassis number they should be able to tell you when the vehicle chassis was made or when it left the factory. They can be contacted as follows:

Traceability Systems,

Land Rover,

Lode Lane,

Solihull,

West Midlands

B92 8NW

Other than that, one nice touch I did with my application was included in six photo's of the vehicle from all four angles (front, port, starboard, rear), the engine bay and the cabin, which then helps them see that the vehicle is standard(ish) and that if you've done a restoration, it aint another munter of a vehicle being pushed onto the road. It also means the DVLA people get something to look at and you never know, if the person is a Land Rover enthusiast they may just spend their time doing your application rather than other peoples

I think that has covered most of the details, I posted my application Monday lunchtiime, I had it back Wednesday due to sending a photocopy of the insurance document (This is how I learnt this fact ), posted it Thursday lunchtime, and I found the paperwork confirming my license number and enclosing my road tax disc as of Saturday, best service I have ever received by the DVLA.

Any comments please let me know and I'll edit the above