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TAN21: Why are we waiting?
Page 24
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Emma Penny gets tough on the long-delayed government on-line project There's little, if any, chance that the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) could ever run its own road transport business. After all, it has taken two years longer than expected to deliver the TAN21 on-line computer system — and it still hasn't arrived on operators' screens yet.
The system promises much — the ability to electronically add or remove vehicles on 0-licences, and transfer them between licences in different traffic areas over the Internet— and would certainly cut office paperwork.
As long ago as June 2001, CM reported that the system had teething troubles and "would not be ready for its July deadline". A spokeswoman for the Traffic Area Network — part of VOSA's forerunner — added that it wouldn't cover the entire country "until next April"; but she meant April 2002.
More recentl y,we reported the system would be up and running by late spring or early summer (CM 3 April). Now it's September and it still isn't ready, except for the 100 or so operators who are trialling the self-service system.
If road transport companies turned in a result like that, they'd be instantly dismissed — and
"The system
they'd most likely be out of business pretty fast too. So what's gone wrong?
In November 2002, a DfT spokeswoman admitted to CM's sister title Computer Weekly that there had been a problem with the selfservice system, namely in -securing and integrating the service", and that it was being tested.
Now, as the project moves into its third year of overrun, VOSA says it is installing three more servers to ensure the system doesn't crash when it goes live, due now to be "by the end of this year".
However, a VOSA spokeswoman says the main reason for the delays have been that the agency wants to ensure the system is right before it launches nationwide."We're gradually rolling it out so the capacity can cope. Operators accounting for 10% of licensed vehicles are now using the system and they are very positive about it. We just don't want to put something out that is not working properly."
Roger King, chief executive at the RHA, says the project seems like a mirage:"When we reach out for it. it's as far away as ever. We're blase about it now — industry attitude is 'wake me up when it happens'."