Search functions were often unavailable, slow to respond or produced duplicate results on the first day of operation of the new Personal Property Securities Register.The register, which replaced 28 previous registers and was established under state and federal law, opened for business yesterday.The registration function for new securities - including the re-registration, for certainty, of many existing securities - operated satisfactorily on debut.But the lack of access to search mechanisms created the greatest headaches, particularly for motor traders, businesses that need reliable listings of encumbered vehicles to finalise sales and purchases.An advisory email to commercial clients of Veda Advantage yesterday afternoon listed the chief issues as "requests failing with timeouts and/or server errors… impacting registration search and grantor search."Veda cited a conference call with the Attorney-General's Department (operator of the PPSR) and other stakeholders for this assessment.    Yesterday afternoon the PPSR website confirmed "technical difficulties including slow response times". The website noted that "work continues on upgrading the register search functionality."The Attorney-General's Department advised users that they "do not proceed" with any searches until staff resolve the issue. Later in the day, the department updated its advice to note that "as anticipated there has been high demand in the early days of the new register being open. Work continues on addressing the technical issues identified with the register today."