Photo Style Driving license.....read this, it may affect you

Just copied and pasted from the VolksTorque forum…………

This may affect you…..

Unwitting motorists face ?1,000 fines as thousands of photocard 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 photocard 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.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/09/11/...8x293_popup.jpg

A mock-up driving licence from 1998 when the photocards 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 photocard 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 photocard 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 photocard 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.

Before photocard licences were introduced, old-style paper licences 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 licence is for life. Why - when you have already paid ?50 for your photocard licence - 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 licences, even though the AA says this is 'not clear'.

The Agency was unable to say whether motorists were told the licences 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 the DVLA's 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 focussed 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 photocard licences 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 licence.

im still on the old license,never got a photo one  :?
Bert

Just looked at mine…..4b.02-11-09            Me..

Just checked mine dude cheers for the heads up !!!

another 17.50 to pay.......

daz1971 said

another 17.50 to pay…….

Another stealth tax for the poor driver, what's the betting in another 10 years it'll be near to ?100.

I'm the same as Bert…old paper license and dont intend to change until it is forced upon me.

easier way (and its free then) is to move to your mates/parents house etc for a few months

they have to re-issue with a new driving license FOCif you move

just fill in the form and send it off, thena  few months later move back home again!!

that way its free!!


Just checked mine and although my pic is from 97 because i last moved in 08 it starts from 08…

also when doing above, should you  have any expired points still printe don your license, it'll coem back clean!!!

my license is still in pops address,i moved to rowley for 4 yrs,moved back to pops gaff,moved here and still not updated it  :?  if i get a pull i will say i live there  :wink:
Bert

changed mine a year ago and have a letter stuck the fridge asking me for 17.50 and a new picture.

how stupid.

im still on paper too but its registered at my mums house,waiting on bans and points expiring to swap addresses and go plastic

Just looked at mine

Passed in 05

Points off 08 so new licence acquired

Valid from 12-08-08

Valid to 12-07-12

05 to 12 is not ten years :dontknow:

My new one post address change expires the same time as the old one 12-01-10

Few things of interest about the new driving license.
Surname and categories on front and some details on back are in raised lettering.
Pic is black and white because it's lazer etched.
hologram beneath is last 5 digits of license and expiry date
Hologram overlapping your face is a steering wheel, tilt the card andthe wheel turns left and right.
On the back the steering wheel turns from green to gold when tilted.

I love telling other bouncers this because for the rest of the night people getting ID'd are watching in confusion as the bouncer tilts the card this way and that and rubs various parts of it.

Oh, there's also a lot of stuff that only shows up under uv light.

Nordoff said

Oh, there's also a lot of stuff that only shows up under uv light.

Driving licences take on a whole new world of amasement when you're really tanked up and your taxi driver tells you he has a UV light.

novocaine said

changed mine a year ago and have a letter stuck the fridge asking me for 17.50 and a new picture.

how stupid.

Perhaps they couldn't believe anyone was that ugly and needed a 2nd pic to confirm the awful truth      

A5OPY said

novocaine said

changed mine a year ago and have a letter stuck the fridge asking me for 17.50 and a new picture.

how stupid.

Perhaps they couldn't believe anyone was that ugly and needed a 2nd pic to confirm the awful truth      

yep i'll agree with that. :roll:
my passport has to be carried in a paper back for fear of someone seeing it.

"i am not an animal" etc etc. :wink:

thanks for the heads up   ops:

Cant say I had realised and needs changing this summer so id better make sure I do it, another expense.