Ray Clarke, BT's head of fleet control, said the new system would reduce the re-licencing cycle by a full six days per month. 'This works out at a potential saving of five man-days per month, and means we will send the discs out six days earlier,' said Clarke. 'It enables us to redeploy resources into more value-added tasks which will give people better, more interesting work.'

Further advantages include cash flow benefits because BT will now direct debit BT for each tax disc, whereas previously it deposited a significant sum with the DVLA to cover re-licencing fees. In addition, BT will be able to use electronic data from the DVLA to decide which of its vehicles to relicence and for how long, if they are coming up towards the end of their fleet life.

The DVLA hopes BT's commitment to the system will pave the way for further privatised utilities to add their sizeable fleets to the project. Electronic re-licensing project manager Barry Chiles said: 'BT was one of the original members of the external user group and has been involved in the project from the outset. It is the largest owned fleet to come on board and we hope it will encourage other owned fleets to do so.'