Driving License question

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Fwiw, online renewal pretty painless, should take a week and they will nick your photo from your passport. Renewal date is date of application so don't apply too early.

pendragon_arther

You get a plastic card AND a paper counterpart because if any penalty points are accrued these are updated on the counterpart and if applying for a job involving vulnerable people or driving the prospective employer needs to see BOTH parts.

Aretnap

pendragon_arther wrote: »

You get a plastic card AND a paper counterpart because if any penalty points are accrued these are updated on the counterpart and if applying for a job involving vulnerable people or driving the prospective employer needs to see BOTH parts.

Not for much longer.

Iceweasel

In future any endorsements/penalty points will only be available on-line.

Another source of income for the DVLA selling the rights to view them?

AdrianC

Iceweasel wrote: »

Another source of income for the DVLA selling the rights to view them?

Any revenue DVLA get from commercial sources reduces the revenue they have to raise directly from vehicle owners and from driving licence holders.

I'd personally regard that as a good thing...

Car_54

We're the only country in Europe (or possibly the world) to have a paper counterpart, and that's only because it's taken the government donkey's years to get their IT systems sorted.

All the other countries seem to manage OK without it.

AdrianC

Car_54 wrote: »

We're the only country in Europe (or possibly the world) to have a paper counterpart, and that's only because it's taken the government donkey's years to get their IT systems sorted.

It's not the IT. Photocard licences has been in place for nearly 20 years, and I'd lay odds on the points/convictions record having been in place for quite a few years, too.

The minute a Policeman could first query a driving licence status over his radio, and get an authoritative answer without having to actually look at the paper licence? That's the point at which "the IT" was in place for starting a move to get shot of paper counterparts and paper licences.

The reason why we haven't done it before is simple - political will. That's the only reason that pre-photocard paper licences are being allowed to live on until 2033, the last possible moment the EU directives allow.

There's been three European directives on driving licence standardisation...
80/1263/EEC - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31980L1263&from=EN
91/463/EEC - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31991L0439&from=EN
2006/126/EC - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32006L0126&from=EN
(plus various intermediate amendments>

They're the published dates - the most recent only came into legal force from 2013, with a 20yr window to withdraw remaining non-photocard licences. Hence the 2033 date.

albionrovers

Strider590 wrote: »

Many people are holding on to their old paper licences because they see the photocard renewal thing for what it is..... Stealth tax.

I used to agree with this but the ageing process requires a photo to be renewed every 10 years. I don't hear many folk calling a passport a stealth tax? Maybe it is?

AdrianC

albionrovers wrote: »

I used to agree with this but the ageing process requires a photo to be renewed every 10 years. I don't hear many folk calling a passport a stealth tax? Maybe it is?

If it is, it's a much steeper one than the "extortionate" driving licence photocard renewal.

Passport - £72.50 every ten years.
Driving licence - £14 every ten years.

pendragon_arther

Aretnap wrote: »

Not for much longer.

And I just renewed mine two weeks ago and got both parts!