About Still on the road

The purpose of this website is show all the vehicles registred by the DLVA in UK since 1994. The number of vehicles is divided into two categories. Vehicles with a valid Tax Disc and Vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN).



Data

The data shown in this website is provided by 'Vehicle licensing statistics' that is published by the Department for Transport. Data errors are responsability of DLVA.

Statutory Off-Road Notification (SORN)

From 31 January 1998 it has been necessary to make a Statutory Off-Road Notification for any vehicle for which the keeper does not wish to renew the tax, or wished to claim a tax refund, because it is not being used on the road. SORN declarations made prior to 16 December 2013 had to be renewed after 12 months. Declarations after this date no longer have to be renewed annually, and will remain valid until the vehicle is re-taxed, sold, permanently exported or scrapped. When a vehicle with a SORN declaration is sold, the new owner will need to tax or SORN the vehicle themselves. For statistical purposes, this change to ‘continuous SORN’ may make a difference in a very small proportion of cases to the estimation of whether a vehicle was licensed or SORN at the statistical census date (i.e. the end of the previous quarter). The removal of the requirement to renew SORN declarations annually has resulted in an increase in their number.

‘Missing’ or ‘incorrect’ model names

As described in the Sources section of this note, the vast majority of new vehicles are registered through the DVLA’s AFRL system which takes the data directly from manufacturers. The DVLA do not change this information at all, so any mistakes in the final data are usually as a result of errors make by the manufacturer. The remaining vehicles are registered by individuals or manufacturers with the DVLA using V55 forms. Any mistakes in the final data for these vehicles are as a result of errors made by either the individual completing the form or the DVLA operator when keying the information into the system. There are nevertheless some conditions under which individual vehicles either have no model name or it is seemingly incorrect:
• Modern vehicles which are on general sale in the UK have DVLA model names as defined by manufacturers. This usually does not include mark (or version) numbers so in most cases it is usually impossible to distinguish between vehicles of the same model name but of a different mark number. Similarly, manufacturers may not choose to use the full model name within the description.
• Vehicles from before 1963 are less likely to have a specific model name or any model name at all. Model names would only have existed if the manufacturer created one at the time.
• No model codes exist for imported vehicles of models which have not been on general sale in the UK (or are sold in the UK under a different make or model name). In these cases the DVLA operator will either try to find the nearest, sensible, match to the name as written on the V55 form, or will record the vehicle in the ‘model missing’ box. The former is often done when keepers want something to appear on the V5 document for insurance purposes. The nearest match would usually be a shorter, more generic term for the vehicle.
• Small-volume manufacturers who do not take part in SMMT’s coding scheme will often register their vehicles without model names. This is also very common for commercial vehicles.
• Multi stage build vehicles (especially motor caravans): if these vehicles are converted by body builders in the UK they are likely to have model information relating to the base chassis but if they are imported to the UK as a finished vehicle they are unlikely to be coded. Any vehicle of a given model name which cannot be located in the data tables will most likely be included in the ‘model missing’ categories.