Driving licence expiry - Check yours!

[Dave_L]

An interesting bit of info, you may find it useful to check your driving licence

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 the they start to expire.

Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most'
drivers believed their licences were for life. Enlarge A mock-up driving licence from 1998 when the photo cards were launched shows the imminent expiry date as item '4b'

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.

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.

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

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.

[msh paving]

just looked at mine expires in may this year,no one told me

[Dave_L]

There, that'll cost ya £17.50.

[msh paving]

thx

[dig dug dan]

i've got until october. but i never realised till now! bloody govenment

[Dave_L]

i've got until october. but i never realised till now! bloody govenment

Nope.....and many many other people won't realise either.

[Dave_L]

It would appear that DVLA are indeed sending out reminders before these licences actually expire. I guess that's where some of our £17.50 is going towards!

[GB_Groundworks]

25-07-09 expiry on mine would have never known that otherwise

[Tony McC]

I still have an original paper driving licence. I thought it must be the very first one I got after passing my test in 1980, but then I noticed it has the Culcheth address, so it can only have been issued in 1991 at the earliest.

So: how come paper lasts until I'm 70 but placky dies after 10 years?

[msh paving]

you cant have a paper on any more,you must be a semi perfect driver........with no point's otherwise you would lose it.till you get points or change address you will be able to keep it :p

[Tommy]

I recently lost my photocard, and sent off £35 for a replacement on 4th december, the new one arrived 26th of Jan - please allow 3 working weeks

[Dave_L]

So: how come paper lasts until I'm 70 but placky dies after 10 years?

After ten years the photo likeness goes - people loose their hair/it goes gray etc!!

I'd keep hold of yours for as long as you can Tony!

[meany]

U dont really need to produce ur licence anymore as everything is done there and then if u get pulled.As for identification,they always ask for the paper part to photo licence.Recently hired a van,even the rental agents had a direct line to DVLC

[remus]

Like Tony I still have the old green paper driving licence. Mine goes on till 2027 so that should keep me going. It cost just £5.00 back in the 70's

[Tony McC]

Clean licence - always have had, except for the 19 endorsements I got when I was 13 for riding motorbikes on the road. They never ever appeared on my licence when I was old enough to get one, and I completely forgot to remind them!