Driving Licence renewal at 70 - preserving C1 & D1 entitlement

Ganga

Deleted_User said:

When I past my test I had code 01 on my photocard, when that card expired my new one was missing code 01. Although it's no biggy to me, it shows that mistakes still happen. I'm way too young to have had an old school paper licence.

Your lucky, I not only had a paper one but before that a little red book ( you might have to google that one ) my father told me he never passed his test but drove all his life ( he was in the army from 1939 till 1945 and was taught their way to drive ,I think you obtained a civilian one that way ) I do not if what he told me was true ,I have a lot of his army records,photos etc even his fuel ration card but he has passed away so cannot ask him.

castle96

me age 18 (1970). Happy days

[Deleted User]

AdrianC said:

Deleted_User said:

When I past my test I had code 01 on my photocard, when that card expired my new one was missing code 01. Although it's no biggy to me, it shows that mistakes still happen. I'm way too young to have had an old school paper licence.

01 is simply "eyesight correction". I have it on mine, because I was wearing glasses on my test. It has no functional value at all - you need glasses if your eyesight doesn't meet the minimum, you don't if it does, whether or not it's on there.

I know what the code means and I know that I need corrective lenses to see. What I'm saying is they are still missing codes off renewals.

Scrapit

I thought H was for tracked vehicles. And I know of people very recently that have lost or gained categories on their licence upon renewal of their photocarss.

gpc273

Scrapit said:

I thought H was for tracked vehicles. And I know of people very recently that have lost or gained categories on their licence upon renewal of their photocarss.

Right on both counts, a tracked vehicle is cat H, and a tank/abbot/ etc falls neatly into that, I passed my cat H driving a Chieftain on the Hohne range road.
There are still mistakes made at DVLA when reissuing licences, the most common one is cat A (motorbikes) being omitted and you cannot argue with DVLA! I have in the last few years tested a motorbike cop who had moved address and rightly updated to his new one, when the licence was returned he had lost cat A. No arguing, even a letter from his Chief Constable fell on deaf ears, I had to retest him, strangely he was pretty good at riding a bike 

Scrapit

gpc273 said:

Scrapit said:

I thought H was for tracked vehicles. And I know of people very recently that have lost or gained categories on their licence upon renewal of their photocarss.

Right on both counts, a tracked vehicle is cat H, and a tank/abbot/ etc falls neatly into that, I passed my cat H driving a Chieftain on the Hohne range road.
There are still mistakes made at DVLA when reissuing licences, the most common one is cat A (motorbikes) being omitted and you cannot argue with DVLA! I have in the last few years tested a motorbike cop who had moved address and rightly updated to his new one, when the licence was returned he had lost cat A. No arguing, even a letter from his Chief Constable fell on deaf ears, I had to retest him, strangely he was pretty good at riding a bike 

I've known people to gain them too. And I've been advised to never return the old one because it shows what entitlements you have. Then the DVLA can argue with the DVLA.

alanpennington

I have recently received notification of my impending driving license renewal at 70yrs of age in April 2021, firstly I have the old paper one so no photo ID was given to the DVLA back in 1971 When my new one was supplied, that should not be a problem because you can supply a photo and you don't need it signing on the back if you supply the DVLA with your valid passport details, NOW on this old one I have Grandfather rights to tow a trailer or caravan etc. of a certain size and weight and can drive a vehicle 3500klg up to 7500klg, BUT BE AWARE if you have those rights if you apply online for your 70+ new license you automatically lose them, to KEEP those rights you have to apply by POST ONLY and also a D1 & D4 form has to be filled in and sent which means a visit to a doctor for a medical and supply your medical history together with a medical report on your eyesight if the doctor can't do a sight test then you must also visit the optician for an eye test, ONLY THEN CAN YOU APPLY and hopefully keep your C & D categories of your old drivers license. Hope I have got everything correct I made a phone call to the DVLA whilst pandemic was on and even then the person on the other end of the phone wasn't sure on some things and had to run off and ask the questions from someone else! Typical DVLA.

alanpennington

Back around 1965 I was a Apprentice Motor Mechanic in a BLMC garage  a Technician as they call it now, we also had a very large scrap yard with all the scrap cars in neat lines or rows. The scarp yard had an Austin Champ with a large wheel & tyre screwed to the front so you could push scrap cars and vans in line behind the last one in. I took great pleasure when I could to drive the Champ and push old cars to their resting place, if it was busy and there were plenty cars coming to be scrapped we used to get three or four drivers one in each scrapper and I would push the fourth into the third, second, first and push them all in a line about 1/4 mile to meet their doom. The Champ had a Rolls Royce fully water sealed engine with snorkel & breather pipes, it had 4 forward & 4 reverse gears, it could go just as fast in reverse as forward, those were the days.     

alanpennington

I forgot to mention when reporting on grandfather rights to driving after 70yrs. A friend of mine reached 70 about 6/7 years ago and at the time he had recently bought a fairly large motorhome about 3700klg, when he applied for a 70+ license he did not realize you had to apply to keep your grandfather rights C & D classes filling in forms D1 & D4, he was driving his motorhome for some time before he realized his mistake and contacted DVLA they refused to do anything other than tell him to take a fresh driving test to allow him to drive this 3700klg motorhome, in the end he sold the large motorhome and bought one under 3500klg the max. you can drive with a standard car license, SO BE VERY WARY OUT THERE.

Iceweasel

Several of the posts in this thread mention losing 'grandfather rights' for towing trailers over 750kg.
Can someone explain exactly which trailer towing entitlements are reduced or lost after renewing one's licence at 70?
I quite willingly gave up the C1 and D1 as I feel I'll never need to drive such a vehicle again and perhaps more importantly I couldn't be bothered with the annual medical needed, but AFAIK I have the same BE towing rights as before.
Have I misunderstood something?