A recent discussion on my impactbumpers classic Porsche 911 forum, which I founded almost 20 years ago, centred on the process to register a classic car of over forty years old for free road tax by converting it to Historic status with the DVLA through a main Post Office branch. Several members have now done this on early Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 models and, as you would expect, the UK does not make it easy.
Chris had been to his local Post Office to apply for free road tax only to be met with blank looks:
“My car was born in September 1984 and is currently SORN’d. It therefore becomes MOT free with free road tax from 1st April 2025. On that date I’d like to tax it (at £0) and drive it. The gov webpage is out of date, – it talks of cars born before 1st Jan ’84 being eligible on 1st April 2024 – and it states that I should take my log book, current MOT and a V112 (MOT exemption certificate) to my Post Office. I did exactly this to be met with a blank face.
“I can tax it, SORN it, register a new keeper but I cannot change the taxation class.”
“I know,” I reply, “the .gov website says I bring the log book to you, you then post it the the DVLA who return it to me in due course as a historic vehicle.” Still a blank face….
“You must post it to them.”
“That’s not what it says on website,” I reply…. Suffice to say I failed. DVLA have no contact number to enquire about free road tax so I’m still in the dark. Any suggestions? I could take the log book etc. to the post office on/after 1st April but I’d have to wait for DVLA to process and return. I COULD tax it on 1st April and once sorted hope for a refund. Any experience or suggestions?
A number of users said that they had done theirs through the post with the DVLA, but Mark had had some success at the Post Office.
“You can only do it at the Post Office on, or after April 1st. You have to ask to tax it as historic, do not mention changing the tax class as it confuses them! Just say you have all the required documents for them to send off to the DVLA as required.
“Historic taxation class does not appear automatically on their screen as an option. Disability exemption does and there is a drop down option next to it which brings up the Historic option.
“I know this as I was stone walled by a Post Office pleb last year when I tried to get my Porsche 911 SC taxed as Historic. I politely demanded they get the senior person in charge to come and sort it out, which they reluctantly did when they realised I was not moving. The senior person knew how the system worked and talked the pleb through it, while I listened on.”
Free Road Tax potential fail points at a UK Post Office
Mark has done this for a number of cars and noted the following potential fail points:
Apart from staff ineptitude I think the following three steps are the main failure points.
- Post Office staff can’t find the Historic classification, as I posted above.
- Your car does not appear to be eligible due to a DVLA database error, in this case the PO can do nothing and you have to sort it out with the DVLA. The problem with this is you don’t know if it’s a genuine DVLA database error, or staff ineptitude. Only option is to make yourself a bit of a nuisance, insist the most senior staff member also tries and confirms the issue.
- Poist Office staff can’t finalise the transaction process as there is apparently no option on the screen to move forward without a payment method being selected, even though nothing is actually due. They have to select the “cash” payment option and then it moves forward with £0.00 auto filled.
David had recently registered his 1984 911 Turbo for free road tax and noted:
“I did mine yesterday at my local PO and it took less than a minute. She clearly knew exactly how to do it but explained that she’s tried on three previous occasions and mine was the first that brought up the option to reset tax status to historic. The others only brought options up to tax at cost or change disability status. My car (1984 Porsche 911 Turbo) was registered in June 1984 on the V5 so maybe completely standard on the system. Seems a bit of a lottery.“
I have not yet done this, but will be interested to give it a try on one or two of my 40+ year old cars this year. Have you managed to get your free road tax application approved without a hitch at your local main Post Office?
Pic by Milo Kaye at Unsplash