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The DVLA Earning Millions through Premium Rate Phone Lines
A somewhat surprising story in the news today states that the DVLA in the UK has earned more than £3million in 4 years by using UK Premium rate telephone numbers charging customers .51p per minute to call. As a comparison the standard 01 and 02 numbers generally cost caller .16p per minute.
The majority of calls made to this number come from car hire and insurance companies calling to confirm customer driving license details. Over the 4 year period over 3.34 million calls were made to the number by car hire firms with the average length of the call lasting 92 seconds.
During the last financial year this revenue has dropped as more firms used the free online digital check. Presumably this revenue will be considerably lower in 2020 as hire firms struggle through the coronavirus crisis.
This type of revenue generation by the UK Government has been brought into question previously as it is also used by the passport office.
