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Paper driving licences set to go this month

Chris

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Have to confess I didn't know about this but they have just announced that the paper bit of your licence will be scrapped on the 8th of June this year. I have just been on the DVLA site to view my (clean) record and details. If you hire a car or need proof that the paper bit gave you traditionally, you have to log in, get a share code to give to the other party who can then look at your details for a limited time. There is no fee this time. There are certain exemptions for things like really old driving licences that some people still have because the drive like old farts and haven't moved house in 100 years.

Always found the paper bit a real pain. Of course we'll all just keep ours - just to be sure!
 
I think its a bit strange that htey have nearly given you any notice on this. i had a letter last night in the post. what happens if you need to rent a car in a country that the internet is not everywhere?
how do they check then i am sure someone in a backstreet country will put up a massive fuss.
 
More bad news for old fossils who have not got computers. If they do away with the "paper bit" of my licence I won't have anything at all apart from an empty plastic folder.

I assume Mr Goody Goody has a (clean) licence because he has never been caught. Or is it that he's only just passed his test compared with me. I have a record on my licence for failing to be escorted by a man with a red fag.
 
You'll still need the photocard and thats all you need to rent a car overseas anyway.

Don't see any problems with the change and it'll save me searching high and low for the paper counterpart for the very rare occasions I need it
 
You'll still need the photocard and thats all you need to rent a car overseas anyway.

Don't see any problems with the change and it'll save me searching high and low for the paper counterpart for the very rare occasions I need it

That's how it is here at any rate Mark, they can't make any sense of the paper bit and in fact car rental places and the police here look at you stupid if you try to offer the paper part of the license.

I welcome the change as an expat too, the paper version gets very damaged having to carry it with you all the time, it's OK in the UK because you're not obliged to have it with you when you drive, bet here you need to carry everything on your person, there's no time allowed to produce documents later, like in the UK.
 
The old paper license which I've had since the year dot still remains valid though.
 
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If your a professional driver you must carry the paper part all the time.
 
I guess I must drive like an old fart and not moved house in 100 years as I still have the old green paper licence!
 
Frank you have overlooked the very obvious 3rd option

Mr not so Goody Goody
 
If your a professional driver you must carry the paper part all the time.

Not after the 8th of this month

I got pull over by police a few weeks ago, it was only a small thing about the back of the truck, they only want to look at the plastic one
 
Yep, after the 8th the paper bit has no validity at all and can't even be used as a for of ID for things. Hence the bit I posted about getting a code from the DVLA so that people can see it on line.
 
Following these changes, it will be interesting to see how people get on with hiring cars abroad this Summer.........:think:
 
The interwebs say you'll just need the bit of your license that is still a legal doc, whether its the photocard or old paper jobbie.

I don't recall ever needing the counterpart for hiring outside of the uk but I've only ever rented in the states or Morocco
 
Only joking Chris.

Presumably the police will be satisfied with the old paper part until I am informed ?
 
The interwebs say you'll just need the bit of your license that is still a legal doc, whether its the photocard or old paper jobbie.

I don't recall ever needing the counterpart for hiring outside of the uk but I've only ever rented in the states or Morocco

My problem has been hiring a car in the UK, where at the beginning of May Enterprise insisted on the paper counter-part. I couldn't find mine when asked, and they were adamant that without it they couldn't help me. After 10 minutes at their desk at Birmingham airport dismantling my travel bag, I found it, but I would have been in trouble without it.
 
it's going to be a fucking nightmare!!

you will not be able to hire a car with just your licence because it won't show any convictions. You will have to obtain a code from the DVLA, the hire company then accesses the database using that code to check your licence history.

The code is valid for 3 DAYS!!!

so, when you go on your hols, and decide on a whimm to go out for a bit of a trip in a hire car, unless you can get on the internet and get a code, you can't. and likewise when you get back from your hols and find there's a train strike or your cars been nicked/broken down you won't be able to hire a car either.

Someone really hasn't thought this through, at all, but then, why is that a surprise!!
 
I compare it to displaying tax disks , no need any more because your registration plate gives police all the info they might need about your vehicle at the touch of a button .

A passport can get you anywhere in the world and contains no useful information about you at all other than a photo saying you might be who you say you are .

Small hire companies might suffer but i'm sure the big players will be on it like sonic and have probably been working to get instant access to everyone's personal data since it was first mentioned , i'm sure they can all afford a laptop at the hire desk as a bridge gap until they have worked out who to bribe .
 
it's going to be a fucking nightmare!!

you will not be able to hire a car with just your licence because it won't show any convictions. You will have to obtain a code from the DVLA, the hire company then accesses the database using that code to check your licence history.

The code is valid for 3 DAYS!!!

so, when you go on your hols, and decide on a whimm to go out for a bit of a trip in a hire car, unless you can get on the internet and get a code, you can't. and likewise when you get back from your hols and find there's a train strike or your cars been nicked/broken down you won't be able to hire a car either.

Someone really hasn't thought this through, at all, but then, why is that a surprise!!

Although understandable, I think this is a bit of an over-reaction.

I challenge anyone to name another country that has a two part counter-part piece of paper the size of the Daily Mail that you have to carry with you when you go abroad if you have any intention to hire a car or otherwise drive while you're there.

There isn't one.

If you have a valid license, hire companies should (and will I'm sure) be only too pleased to take your money. Their cars are block insured at lower than bottom premium rates, and basically they won't give a sh!t whether you have 3 points on your license for doing 34 mph in a 30 mph speed limit in Weston Supermare on a Friday afternoon more than 2 years previous.

JMO of course.
 
I suspect other countries have a rather better system!!

Hire companies generally won't hire you a car if you have more than 2 speeding convictions, so it definately does matter, and they definately are interested.

Have you not seen all the stories (some from people I know) about people being fined when they have tax, sent fines for no insurance when they have it, MOTs etc etc, it's so far been a typical Government fuck up and I suspect the licences will be the same.

If it wasn't a problem, why would they be issuing codes!! Hire companies do not have access to your details, as no one else has. It is also suspected it will cause problems if you get pulled abroad for a while until they get the hang of it.

The paper license is ridiculous, and it's introduction was another half assessed ill thought out piece of Government bollocks, but this codes business is absolutely not the answer
 
Don't believe everything the tabloid papers publish, 98% of it is bullshit
 
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