VicRoads boss Giles Thompson has apologised to Victorians after issues across the organisation’s website continued into this week, with motorists still unable to process vehicle registrations as recently as yesterday.
“As we sit here this morning, all services through all channels are fully operational,” Mr Thompson told ABC Radio Melbourne this morning, explaining the upgrade was three years in the making as part of $300 million in IT upgrades following privatisation in 2022.
Victoria is the only state or territory in Australia to have privatised its vehicle registration and driver licensing functions.
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“We did a major system overhaul and upgrade on the [June 6-8] long weekend that was replacing a very old system from the mid ’80s that was no longer fit for purpose, and we upgraded to a new cloud-based system over the whole weekend that caused some issues, particularly in our digital channels.”
The disruptions included limited or no access to digital licences, lodgement of roadworthy certificates, and the ability to register a vehicle – leaving new and used-car sales up in the air.
It led one new-vehicle dealer to describe the situation as an “absolute clusterf**k” after being unable to deliver brand-new cars to customers, who were forced to wait for VicRoads to solve the issue.
Mr Thompson was apologetic, but after claiming the issues were resolved last week, ABC Radio Melbourne reported seeing internal communications to VicRoads staff about vehicle registrations not updating in its system as recently as yesterday (June 15).
The VicRoads boss confirmed the rollout of the upgrade will be reviewed.
“Clearly… we’ve had problems last week. There has been real significant challenges for our customers over the last week. You can’t possibly say that that is therefore a success in that regard. And we are really sorry about those problems that we’ve had,” he said.
ABC Radio Melbourne also raised ongoing issues during the live interview, with a vehicle still showing as unregistered on the VicRoads website after payment was made via credit card yesterday.
The issues have also placed VicRoads staff under pressure from frustrated Victorian motorists, who continued to report problems yesterday.
“They’re reporting to us that there are still major problems,” said Tash Wark, branch secretary for the Australian Services Union, to ABC Radio Melbourne.
“They’re being told to do things like, you know, they’ve got to go and check receipts, they’ve got to go and process cash transactions rather than be able to do an electronic transfer.”
Ms Wark said VicRoads wasn’t supporting staff in the face of the issues.
“We’ve heard about customers yelling at our members [VicRoads staff], hurling abuse at them, you know, telling them there’ll be a price to pay,” she added.
“There’s all these sorts of examples of poor behaviour because of the levels of frustration. We’re talking about going on over a week now. That’s too long, you know, and there’s not an end in sight… they’re not being given that clarity of a clear pathway through this.
“Our members are being asked to deal with customers with patience and empathy, and that’s about the sum total of the advice that they’re getting from management about how to manage the situation”.
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