Driving Licence

VERY IMPORTANT FOR UK DRIVERS!

Unwitting UK motorists face £1,000 fines as thousands of photo card driving licences expire.Thousands of UK 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 they start to expire.Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most' drivers believed their licences were for life.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 25 million 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 £450 million from traffic enforcement fines to offset the renewal charge.

I still have my original (although tatty) paper licence issued to me in '84, so they can get STUFFED!

Same here, got my good old paper license in early 1998 just before they switched to the photocards! and I intend to hang onto it as LONG as possible.....

my green paper licence dates from 1977 I still have a red book licence from 1960 whitch was replaced by the paper one.

I have all three... red book, green paper and the new card type... expires 2014... glad you told me though because I didn't know it expires... don't they send you a reminder then?

On this side of the pond Drivers Licence expires every 5 years. To renew for a motor car is $60 CND and a picture which is taken at the DMV. For Trucks ( Lorries ) A written test is required every 5 years and picture taken as well. For 'A' Class heavy trucks a medical is required every year as well.

As for limits, a road test is required for anyone that has an accident in the 10 years preceeding their 80th birthday. No accident? then just a written test. Their is no age limit on persons in good heath to drive a motor vehicle. My Uncle now 84 did his road test on a horse, really he just mailed away for it with a money order.

What happens to persons at 70 years of age, can you no longer drive motor vehicle?

TonyK.

Yes, you can drive after 70 but only with the doctor's permission, he gives you a health check... or so I'm told! I haven't had to find out myself you understand! :oops: