Driving licence only lasts 10 years, has yours run out?

brockmar

This was emailed to me recently and then I checked my licence and discovered that it will run out in December.

IS YOUR DRIVING LICENCE STILL VALID?

Unwitting motorists face £1,000 fines as thousands of photo card driving licences expire.

Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence.

They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print on their photo card licence which says it automatically expires after 10 years and has to be renewed - even though drivers are licensed to drive until the age of 70.

The fiasco has come to light a decade after the first batch of photo licences was issued in July 1998, just as they start to expire.

Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most' drivers believed their licences were for life.

They said officials had failed to publicise sufficiently the fact that new-style licences - unlike the old paper ones - expire after a set period and have to be renewed.

Stealth Tax
To rub salt into wounds, drivers will have to a pay £17.50 to renew their card - a charge which critics have condemned as a 'stealth tax' and which will earn the Treasury an estimated £437million over 25 years.

Official DVLA figures reveal that while 16,136 expired this summer, so far only 11,566 drivers have renewed, leaving 4,570 outstanding.

With another 300,000 photo card licences due to expire over the coming year, experts fear the number of invalid licences will soar, putting thousands more drivers in breach of the law and at risk of a fine.

At the heart of the confusion is the small print on the tiny credit-card-size photo licence, which is used in conjunction with the paper version.

Just below the driver name on the front of the photo card licence is a series of dates and details - each one numbered.

Tiny writing
Number 4b features a date in tiny writing, but no explicit explanation as to what it means.

The date's significance is only explained if the driver turns over the card and reads the key on the back which states that '4b' means 'licence valid to'.

Even more confusingly, an adjacent table on the rear of the card sets out how long the driver is registered to hold a licence - that is until his or her 70th birthday.

A total of 25 million new-style licences have been issued but - motoring experts say - drivers were never sufficiently warned they would expire after 10 years.

£1,000 Fine
Motorists who fail to renew their licences in time are allowed to continue driving. But the DVLA says they could be charged with 'failing to surrender their licence', an offence carrying a £1,000 fine.

AA president, Edmund King said: 'It is not generally known that photo card licences expire: there appears to be a lack of information that people will have to renew these licences.

'People think they have already paid them for once over and that is it.

'It will come as a surprise to motorists and a shock that they have to pay an extra £17.50.'

The AA called on the Government to use the annual £450million from traffic enforcement fines to offset the renewal charge.

Mark_Hewitt

Well I know mine hasn't. Your licence does not expire every 10 years of course, the photo does. I changed my address this year and took the opportunity to change the photo too, and paid £17.50.

Not after a lot of hassle tho. Somehow my photo card and licence got seperated at Swansea and I got them back in two seperate letters saying
"You only sent your photocard, please send the counterpart too"
and
"You only sent your counterpart, please send the photocard too".

I bunged them both back in an envelope and it was sorted within a few days. But I find that sort of thing par for the course with everything, goverment and business!

As for lack of information, the expiry date is printed on the front of the photocard! I guess most people don't look at their licence day to day.

All that it takes is for the DVLA to send out letters 3-6 months before the expiry with a renewal form. Don't they do that already?

oldagetraveller

Mine expires 6 months before my 70th birthday when it also has to be renewed, so a "double whammy" for the DVLA there. Bad planning on my part too.:o

basill

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

All that it takes is for the DVLA to send out letters 3-6 months before the expiry with a renewal form. Don't they do that already?

They do and its gone up to £20 now greedy sods.

I hung on to my old license and ticked the "lost" box, just in case it came back with entitlements missing as recently coverd by watchdog and local radio.

B

UKoap

oldagetraveller wrote: »

Mine expires 6 months before my 70th birthday when it also has to be renewed, so a "double whammy" for the DVLA there. Bad planning on my part too.:o

Would it be legal to wait a few months until aged 70..
What would happen if folk couldn't afford the £20?

KeithP

UKoap wrote: »

What would happen if folk couldn't afford the £20?

If you can't afford the costs involved with motoring...

Give up driving.

Rallydriver

basill wrote: »

I hung on to my old license and ticked the "lost" box, just in case it came back with entitlements missing as recently coverd by watchdog and local radio.

Whats this about entitlements missing?

Inactive

Rallydriver wrote: »

Whats this about entitlements missing?

Some drivers that have passed say a motor cycle test, have received back a new licence without the motor cycle group being included.

patty65

I've had a driving licence since 1964 and can't ever remember having to pay anything other than the original 10 shillings* I think it was back then

And it does not need to be renewed until 2016 and it is a green paper one.

*It may not have been 10 shillings.

Patrick

mcjordi

Rallydriver wrote: »

Whats this about entitlements missing?

thats why i intend to photocopy mine before sending it back
mines due around 2012 sometime

SailorSam

I'm another that have kept the old green paper licence.