The end of paper driving licences - forced to pay for plastic one?

veryintrigued

Article from BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20968886

Will we have to stump up for one in 2015?

neilmcl

Yes, what's the big deal?

Rover_Driver

It's the paper counterpart to the photo licence that is being phased out in 2015, not the old style paper driving licences.

neilmcl

Rover_Driver wrote: »

It's the paper counterpart to the photo licence that is being phased out in 2015, not the old style paper driving licences.

That's not what they said in the article -

Photo-card driving licences are set to become mandatory in 2015, when paper licences are officially phased out.

As far as I'm aware the EU want all drivers to hold a standardised, biometric photo licence. It'll probably mean anyone renewing their's now, as I've just had to do, will probably have to do it again in a couple of years time, no doubt at our own expense.

veryintrigued

neilmcl wrote: »

Yes, what's the big deal?

The 'big deal' is that I assume that for those who have just these - they will have to pay for these plastic ones. (See thread title)

I did think this was a money saving site after all Neil.

Rover_Driver

neilmcl wrote: »

That's not what they said in the article

It's not what it said in the article (one of many to get it wrong),but from the DfT:

'The counterpart driving licence is set to be axed. The Department for Transport (DfT) has revealed that the document, issued with the photocard licence, will be scrapped in 2014. And old-style paper licences will be abolished shortly after.

The DfT has also said it intends to recall paper driving licences shortly after the new system is introduced, calling it a ‘logical follow-up to abolishing the counterpart’. According to the DVLA, there are still around 12 million paper licences in circulation – so more than a quarter of all motorists have yet to switch to a photocard.'

thor

I still have a paper license and know almost nothing about photo licenses as I was never going to voluntarily switch so have not read up on them.
The one thing I have heard though is that they need to be renewed every decade(presumably like passports, due to the photo not remaining accurate). This is why I am not happy about this move.

Garage_Flower

thor wrote: »

I still have a paper license and know almost nothing about photo licenses as I was never going to voluntarily switch so have not read up on them.
The one thing I have heard though is that they need to be renewed every decade(presumably like passports, due to the photo not remaining accurate). This is why I am not happy about this move.

I had to renoew my licence this year as the photo was out of date. I did it online in a couple of minutes and it was free of charge.

Yolina

I still have a paper licence, mostly because it's going to be a PITA for me to get a photo one. I'm French, so obviously I don't have a UK passport for the DVLA to access electronically and because there is absolutely no way that I am sending my passport anywhere, I will have to go to one of the very few DVLA offices which can check IDs on-site. I was toying with the idea of wasting a day this year to get that done, but it looks like I might as well wait until the new standardised ones are out. And it's currently £20 to swap a paper license for a photo one

forgotmyname

I have no ID other than my driving licence, So how will they check that its me?

jizzler

These were only brought out because the id card scheme they was going to introduce failed, Its an id card in disguise really :cool:

The paper bit should of been phased out donkeys ago because all the details orginally was supposed to be on a black strip on the back & police was supposed to have a scanner to bring up the detals. How many times have you lost the paper bit of your licence ?

You get an extra point in fixed penalty for not providing the paper part of your licence too :eek: