Worth a read

[slodger]

I received this mail from a friend today. I've just checked mine and luckily it's valid until this december.

 

Unwitting motorists face £1,000 fines as thousands of photo card driving licenses expire

Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid license.

They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print on their photo card license 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 licenses 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 licenses were for life. A mock-up driving license 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 licenses - unlike the old paper ones - expire after a set period and have to be renewed.

To rub salt into wounds, drivers will have to 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 licenses due to expire over the coming year, experts fear the number of invalid licenses 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 license, which is used in conjunction with the paper version.

Just below the driver name on the front of the photo card license 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 'license 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 license - that is until his or her 70th birthday.

 

 

 

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

Motorists who fail to renew their licenses in time are allowed to continue driving. But the DVLA says they could be charged with 'failing to surrender their license', an offence carrying a £1,000 fine.

AA president, Edmund King said: 'It is not generally known that photo card licenses expire: there appears to be a lack of information that people will have to renew these licenses.

'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.

Before photo card licenses were introduced, old-style paper licenses were valid until the age of 70.

'Many motorists still believe this to be the case with the new ones.'

Driving instructor Tony Carter, of Canterbury, said: 'It's outrageous; everybody thinks their driving license is for life.

'Why - when you have already paid £50 for your photo card license - should you pay the Government an extra £17.50 every 10 years?

'It's another stealth tax. Drivers will be very annoyed.'

Today the DVLA said the date of expiry was carried on the new-style licenses, even though the AA says this is 'not clear'.

The Agency was unable to say whether motorists were told the licenses would expire when they were first issued.

It said it was issuing postal reminders to drivers whose photograph was due to expire, to get the renewal message across. But a spokesman admitted this was the limit of their publicity.

Experts say many drivers will slip through the net because DVLA records are inaccurate and many motorists have changed address, making it impossible to trace them.

A DVLA spokesman said: 'Previous experience has shown that wide-scale publicity is less effective and can generate enquiries and concerns from those not affected. Instead, DVLA focused on targeted publicity to ensure that we got the message to the right person at the right time.'

The Driving Standards Agency is allowing L-test candidates with out-of-date photo card licenses to sit their driving tests as long as they provide a valid passport. This concession will end in January next year, raising the prospect that some L-test candidates will be turned away.

The DVLA said no one had so far been charged with failing to surrender a license.

[captain cojones]

pretty obvious really, that any identity document with a photograph..will need to be regularly replaced. its written on the cards ive seen,the expiry date quite clearly.

if the driver doesnt look at his own licence, then whos fault is it.

do passports last a lifetime? or do they need to be replaced?

my licence has a limited life too. under 40 years old,it has to replaced every 10 years. over 40 to 60 years,its 5 years..etc until at 70 its every 1 year. with a medical/eye..etc etc test required at every new licence.

i can see medicals being introduced into the uk soon.

[slodger]

pretty obvious really, that any identity document with a photograph..will need to be regularly replaced. its written on the cards ive seen,the expiry date quite clearly.

if the driver doesnt look at his own licence, then whos fault is it.

do passports last a lifetime? or do they need to be replaced?

my licence has a limited life too. under 40 years old,it has to replaced every 10 years. over 40 to 60 years,its 5 years..etc until at 70 its every 1 year. with a medical/eye..etc etc test required at every new licence.

i can see medicals being introduced into the uk soon.

 

There's obviously four thousand odd of us that aren't as smart as you then eh Eintstein?

[captain cojones]

thats 4,000.....out of how many million driving licences?

at some point,some people have to take responsibility for their own actions...or lack of them.

not having a go, by the way, its just im always reading about the nanny state in britain.

this seems a good example,what do people expect? a friendly tap on the door from the government..." have you checked your licence today?"

no...its down to people to look at their own licence....after all,they have had ten years to do it!

[slodger]

thats 4,000.....out of how many million driving licences?

at some point,some people have to take responsibility for their own actions...or lack of them.

not having a go, by the way, its just im always reading about the nanny state in britain.

this seems a good example,what do people expect? a friendly tap on the door from the government..." have you checked your licence today?"

no...its down to people to look at their own licence....after all,they have had ten years to do it!

 

Why bother posting then? I appreciated the heads up and I assumed a few others might also.

 

And BTW, maybe you should ignore stuff that isn't relevant to you and concentrate on your reading practise.

 

"....Official DVLA figures reveal that while 16,136 expired this summer, so far only 11,566 drivers have renewed, leaving 4,570 outstanding. "

[captain cojones]

ummmm....it was you that gave the figure of 4,000.......i would assume that there are millions of the new licences,in various stages of "running out". nothing wrong with giving a heads up............but the article you posted,was a prime example of nanny state whining, from people who need to take responsibility themselves.

like i said, i wasnt having a go.wonder if i should expect the spanish government to send someone round to remind me to renew my licence when the time comes?Nah.........its down to me to look.

[slodger]

ummmm....it was you that gave the figure of 4,000.......i would assume that there are millions of the new licences,in various stages of "running out". nothing wrong with giving a heads up............but the article you posted,was a prime example of nanny state whining, from people who need to take responsibility themselves.

like i said, i wasnt having a go.wonder if i should expect the spanish government to send someone round to remind me to renew my licence when the time comes?Nah.........its down to me to look.

 

Okay, I'll admit I'm a dimwit, but the point is that a license originally didn't have to be renewed, it's only since they've added the photo thingy. I certainly would have ended up on the wrong side of the law.

 

Anyway, is it not a little conceited to think that everyone is as astute as your good self? Is it 'nannying' for a government to look to help those without as much grey matter as you? Is it 'nannying' when the goovernment takes care of mentally challenged people or disabled people? Isn't that the very raison d'etre of any governing body, to take care of it's people?

 

......I cant believe this has resulted in a row.

[captain cojones]

theres no row chris.......none at all.

there are certainly occasions when governments have to look after their people.

but i would suggest, that people renewing a driving licence, is something that people should be capable of doing themselves.

it just seems that this is indicative of a wider problem in the uk, of it always "being somebody elses fault".

take responsibility.

[Newt]

A lifetime driving license with no need to periodically check if the license holder can still see well enough to drive; interesting idea.

 

Expecting the government to handle the expense of license renewals out of general tax revenue when only those wishing to drive an auto are benefited; and you complain about high taxes.

 

Expecting adults to read the fine print on an important document so they notice it expires; how unreasonable.

 

Sarcastic responses from several who don't live there; how cheeky.

[ayjay]

A lifetime driving license with no need to periodically check if the license holder can still see well enough to drive; interesting idea.

 

 

I've not upgraded (?) to a photo licence and still have the original paper one from 1970 something, it's valid until 2020, without any checks.