Driver & Vehicle Computer Services Division

Customer Service Charter

We are committed to providing a high quality of customer service to you. The purpose of this Customer Charter is to set out the standard of service our customers can expect to receive from this office.

Our Aim

We aim to provide our customers with a professional, efficient and courteous service, and to do our best to improve the standards of service which we provide.

1. Customer Commitment

• Provide you with clear and accurate information
• Address your query promptly, efficiently and to the best of our ability.
• Treat you with courtesy and respect
• Protect your information
• Consult with you to establish your needs when developing, delivering and reviewing our services
• Provide redress when you have a complaint

2. Telephone Enquiries

We will be available to answer your telephone calls from 9.15 am to 12.45pm and 2pm to 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding weekends and bank holidays). For telephone calls we commit to:

• answer your call as quickly as possible.
• identify ourselves and our area of work
• be polite and helpful
• give you clear and correct information
• if we cannot address your query immediately, we will take your contact details and let you know when you should expect a full response
• if we have to transfer your call, we will tell you who we are transferring you to and why
• respect your privacy and treat your enquiry or complaint in confidence.
• make it easy for you to contact us, by, for example, providing a LoCall number.

Our phone service also includes a number of automated messages that address the most commonly asked queries to our office. This service is 24*7.

3. Written Correspondence

For written correspondence, we commit to:

• Send you a full reply within 10 working days, or if this is not possible, send you an interim reply explaining why, and setting out when you can expect a full reply
• Provide information to you in clear and simple language, with any necessary technical terms only used where necessary
• Make sure that all our written replies include a contact name, and email address.
• Respect your privacy and treat your enquiry or complaint in confidence.
• If correspondence is for another Government Department or Body, we will pass it on directly to that office, and tell you where we have sent it

4. Email

• Acknowledge receipt of your email immediately
• Issue instantaneous automated reply setting out answers to the most commonly asked questions taken from communication with our customers
• Where automated reply does not address your query, and you reply seeking a specific response, we will give you a full reply within 5 working days.
• Where a full reply is not possible within 5 working days (e.g. where an enquiry requires considerable research), we will email you and let you know that your response may take longer than normal, and give you an approx. timeframe of when you can expect a full reply.
• Provide information to you in clear and simple language, with any necessary technical terms only used where necessary
• Make sure that all replies include a contact name, and email address
• Respect your privacy and treat your enquiry or complaint in confidence.

5. Personal Callers

Our office will be open from 9.15 am to 5pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays).

If you visit us in person, we promise to:

• Be fair and helpful in dealing with your enquiry as efficiently as possible
• Be polite and professional; and behave in a courteous manner
• Respect your privacy
• Keep our public offices safe and clean and comply with health and safety standards
• Make sure our offices are accessible for our customers, including customers with disabilities

6. Documents

We will produce all documents (such as forms and information leaflets) in as user-friendly a format as possible, and in both the English and Irish language.

7. Accessibility

We are committed to providing easy access to our services by:

• Making sure that we use simple clear language,
• Offering a range of options for contacting us,
• Supplying you with full, up-to-date and accurate information in the format you request, wherever possible

8. Service in Irish

We will make every effort to accommodate you if you wish to conduct your business through the medium of Irish.

At a minimum:

• If you write to/phone/email this office in Irish, we will answer in Irish,
• All motor tax documents and information leaflets are printed and made available in Irish
• All our websites, including the online motor tax website, are available in Irish, for both processing of your transaction and retrieving relevant driver and vehicle information

9. Our Website (www.motortax.ie)

We will make sure that our website:

• Updated regularly
• Contains clear and accurate information
• Easy to access and navigate

10. Making a Complaint

If you are not satisfied with any aspect of our services or you believe the services you have received are not in accordance with this Charter, you have a right to make a complaint.

For all written complaints we receive, we will do the following:

• Investigate them thoroughly
• Treat your complaint fairly and without bias
• Reply to them in writing within 15 working days
• Include a contact name, address, telephone number for any reply issued to you
• Update our records immediately, where necessary, arising from a complaint

Complaints should be addressed, in writing, to the Customer Service Manager.

The fact that you have complained to us does not stop you from also complaining through the Ombudsman (see contact details below) However the Ombudsman will normally expect you to have made a complaint to us first.

The Ombudsman is completely independent of the Government, and the service is free.

Address Details:

Office of the Ombudsman,
6 Earlsfort Terrace,
Dublin 2
D02 W773
Telephone: (01) 639 5600
Email: complaints@ombudsman.ie

We promise to co-operate with the Ombudsman or any other people or organizations that act for you. Our Customer Service Manager will be happy to give any information or help you may need.

11. Help us to help you

• Treat our staff the way you would like to be treated yourself
• Give us all the information we need to help you
• Make comments, complaints or suggestions about the service you receive (positive and/or negative),
• Complete and return any customer survey questionnaire that we send or make available to you

12. How to Contact Us

Driver & Vehicle Computer Services Division
Department of Transport
Shannon,
Co. Clare
V14 P298

LoCall: 0818 411 412
E-mail: motortax@transport.gov.ie
Web: www.motortax.ie