He went online to renew it but it asked for a code from the renewal notice he had not received.
No problem. Can be done without this, so he started the process only to find he needed something from the V5 (logbook) which, foolishly, he tends not to take on holiday with him.
But all was not lost. It said he could set up a DVLA account, which he did as he had scans of his passport and driving licence on his phone. Having set this up, he went to renew it only to find that in spite of doing all this, it still needed data from his V5.
So he used their webchat to resolve it. They told him he just needed the code from his reminder
No further suggestions other than to ring the help line.He did, only to be told that as they closed in an hour they were not taking new calls, their backlog was too large. Please call tomorrow.
He called the next day, to be told that the wait was half an hour. But if he left his number they would call back in 30 minutes and he'd keep his place in the queue.
Three quarters of an hour later he received a voice message (strange, as they had not actually called) to say their lines were closed for the day as they had a large call volume..
He eventually had to ring a relative to call at a neighbours, pick up a spare key and root around his house for his V5.
Don't you just love bureaucracy!
P.S. he did hear there had been significant issues with July reminders...