Motor Vehicle Traders Register API

The Motor Vehicle Traders Register (MVTR) API provides a facility for searching and retrieving public details of registered traders. See the API details page for the API definition and information on how to get access. Additional supporting information on the use of the API is provided below.

The Motor Vehicle Traders website has details about the register.

Purpose of register search

The Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003 specifies the allowable reasons for searching the Motor Vehicle Traders Register:

Section 58 Search purposes
A search of the register may be carried out only by the following persons for the following purposes:
(a) an individual, or a person with the consent of the individual, for the purpose of searching for information about that individual:
(b) a person for the purpose of determining—
  (i) who is responsible for a motor vehicle trading business:
  (ii) how to contact a motor vehicle trader registered under this Act:
  (iii) whether or not a person is registered as a motor vehicle trader under this Act.

All API requests must include a header that asserts that the request is being performed for a reason as allowed under the Act.

Search parameters

The API definition shows the search parameters that may be used. These are all the allowable search criteria that are prescribed in legislation for searching the Motor Vehicle Traders Register.  

Unless an exact match is specified for the parameter then the parameter text is case insensitive and is a partial match against the field.

E.g. /traders?trading-name=test will return results including trader names:

  • Test company 1111

  • Testing

  • Motors Ltd Test

  • Ravi Test Motors Ltd

Wildcards

Wildcards are not needed at the start or end of the parameter value as a partial match is used for most fields. For additional flexibility in searching the % wildcard character can also be used to represent 0 or more characters within the parameter value.

E.g. to search for an individual trader that might be known as James Smith or Jim Smith, and may or may not have a middle name specified on the register then use a query (with URL encoding) of /traders?individual-trader-name=j%25smith. This could also return traders with names including:

  • Jane Smith

  • Michael John Smith

  • Allen J Smithee