(un)Taxing Experience

Although it has been feasible for a few years I had never tried to buy my Vehicle Excise Duty (aka the tax disk, Car Tax, Road Tax, etc) over the internet. Why? I preferred the certainty of going in with my documents and the cash and walking out with the correct tax disk. No fear of things getting lost in the post and I always either lived or worked within easy access of a Post Office that could issue tax disks and always had a lunch break long enough to accommodate even the worst Post Office queues. Now I live in a village and I don't know if the local Post Office does Tax Disks and, in any case, the customer service is somewhat variable and the queues depressing and I avoid it wherever possible. As a result I decided to give the online process a try. I checked my bank account to make sure I could afford a year's tax and then I logged on to the DVLA's site. I was impressed with the clarity and simplicity of the process, I think I would have preferred slightly fewer pages to click through but it only took 10-15 minutes to complete. All I need now is for the new tax disk to arrive by post in the next few days and I'll conclude that this was one of the government's more successful IT projects.