What is a clean driving licence in job seeking?

dbs

Just got my driving licence back from the DVLA but not had my 3 penalty points removed.

Phoned the DVLA who said although in a court of law my points would not count against me because 3 years have expired, I cannot have them removed off my licence until 4 years have past?

Does anybody know why this is and can I quote on a C.V. that I have clean driving licence or not?

magyar

Well, technically you don't have a 'clean' licence, but it means that the points wouldn't be counted in the totting-up process.

Some points stay on your licence even longer: drink driving for example is eleven years. The police and courts can always request to see the number of points - they don't seem to be considered 'spent' in these cases.

One point is that insurers will always ask for details of any endorsements within five years, so this is relevant if your company is going to insure you to drive, for example.

I wouldn't worry too much; so many people don't have clean driving licences anyway.

november

dbs wrote:

Does anybody know why this is and can I quote on a C.V. that I have clean driving licence or not?

I would say not. I would say you have a current driving licence though and own transport (if applicable) as that may be relevant for some jobs.

It depends on the nature of the job. We like a clean driving licence. I would say if a job comes up which says 'clean driving licence' on the job ad. it is probably still worth applying and explaining what the points are for. For example, I would probably view being 5 mph over a 70 mph speeding 5 years ago very differently to being 10 mph over a 30 mph twice 6 months ago. And the reason I would be interested for any of our job applicants is they may have to take vulnerable clients in their car as part of their job.

magyar

november wrote:

I would say not. I would say you have a current driving licence though and own transport (if applicable) as that may be relevant for some jobs.

It depends on the nature of the job. We like a clean driving licence. I would say if a job comes up which says 'clean driving licence' on the job ad. it is probably still worth applying and explaining what the points are for. For example, I would probably view being 5 mph over a 70 mph speeding 5 years ago very differently to being 10 mph over a 30 mph twice 6 months ago. And the reason I would be interested for any of our job applicants is they may have to take vulnerable clients in their car as part of their job.

Whether you can even ask for a clean licence is only true in certain circumstances: speeding fines dealt with by a fixed penalty aren't actually criminal offences, so you might be better off stating "Full driving licence, no bans or convictions", (assuming that's the case)

hjb123

I would just put Full UK Driving Licence as thats what you have - you arent lying - you are just omitting that you have points. To be honest though so many people have 3 points now.

C_Ronaldo

personnally id say i have x amount of points but that they are so many years old, i rather be honest about it rather than later on down the line im asked why i didnt mention the points

magyar

C_Ronaldo wrote:

personnally id say i have x amount of points but that they are so many years old, i rather be honest about it rather than later on down the line im asked why i didnt mention the points

I tend to disagree with you here: I would want to know why someone had mentioned this, myself - it would raise issues that to be honest are unlikely to be brought up.

You want to make sure you have things to say in an interview, but your motoring convictions probably aren't one of them!

dbs

magyar wrote:

Well, technically you don't have a 'clean' licence, but it means that the points wouldn't be counted in the totting-up process.

Some points stay on your licence even longer: drink driving for example is eleven years. The police and courts can always request to see the number of points - they don't seem to be considered 'spent' in these cases.

One point is that insurers will always ask for details of any endorsements within five years, so this is relevant if your company is going to insure you to drive, for example.

I wouldn't worry too much; so many people don't have clean driving licences anyway.

Not worried about it but why cant it be all made simple to sort out also I have never had an accident in 23 years of driving surely that is more important.

magyar

dbs wrote:

Not worried about it but why cant it be all made simple to sort out also I have never had an accident in 23 years of driving surely that is more important.

I would totally agree with you. And it is quite simple. I would be frankly staggered if someone, who would otherwise give you an interview, changed their minds because you'd missed off the word "clean", so should you happen to be interviewed you can just explain the situation.

november

magyar wrote:

Whether you can even ask for a clean licence is only true in certain circumstances: speeding fines dealt with by a fixed penalty aren't actually criminal offences, so you might be better off stating "Full driving licence, no bans or convictions", (assuming that's the case)

Agreed. We don't ask for a 'clean driving licence' on applications I was using the same terms as the OP for quick clarity which, on reflection, it probably wasn't!

We actually just ask for a driving license and the point I meant to make was that if I asked to see it as evidence that it existed I may ask about any points and discuss how they were obtained

I think putting full driving license on a CV is fine

magyar

november wrote:

Agreed. We don't ask for a 'clean driving licence' on applications I was using the same terms as the OP for quick clarity which, on reflection, it probably wasn't!

We actually just ask for a driving license and the point I meant to make was that if I asked to see it as evidence that it existed I may ask about any points and discuss how they were obtained

I think putting full driving license on a CV is fine

Out of interest, I had a look on sites like Monster to see how often people did make "clean" driving licences a requirement, and it's surprisingly high. Some of them were for jobs like "HR Advisor", so you'd imagine they'd know whether you can say that or not.

So maybe I'm wrong, and you can make it a requirement.