NSW motor registry system suffers statewide outage

Updated: The NSW government's driver and vehicle registration system has suffered a statewide outage, preventing drivers from being able to register their cars or renew their licences.

The outage is understood to have originated on Tuesday night, affecting the Driver and Vehicle System (DRIVES) operated by Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), one of the largest databases run by the state.

The RMS advised via its website on Wednesday that “full services are unlikely to be restored today”.

Updated 16/01/2014 7:30 am: However it appears that the issue was resolved some time late on Wednesday night. RMS advised that the system is once again operational.

Earlier and spokesman told iTnews that the RMS was still working to identify the cause of the crash.

"Our service provider Fujitsu Australia is continuing investigations in the hope full services can be restored as soon as possible," she said

The DRIVES system processes around 25 million transactions annually, including licensing services for around 5 million drivers.

While the system was down NSW residents were not be able to register their cars or make payments towards their registration, or renew their drivers licences. RMS said driver tests would go ahead but it would have to issue licences by mail at a later date.

"Every effort is being made to restore services as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.

"Strict privacy security and privacy provisions are in place on the DRIVES database to protect the privacy details of all licence holders.

"Roads and Maritime is working with NSW Police to ensure those who have tried to transact with us are not penalised."

Vehicle and licensing transactions delivered by the state's new Service NSW shopfronts and website were also affected.

In 2010 the NSW auditor-general described DRIVES as a “vast, complex and critical computer system”. It went through a difficult upgrade process between 2004 and 2009, over which period its budget expanded from $9.3 million to $32 million.