UK DRIVING LICENCE [ 2022 issue ]

Approaching 73 … I applied for my new licence, which arrived yesterday.

It’s in a new style, without the EU branding, but the most significant difference is that the photo is appalling:

The last one was a little pale, but showed my white hair reasonably well against a skin tone … This one, from the same original photo is ridiculously high contrast … The white is burned-out and the skin tone is dark grey.

I don’t care … but wonder if this is typical of the ‘post Brexit’ product

MichaelG.

Photo? Good heavens! A photo on a driving licence? What will they think of next? Mine's a piece of paper with green and black printing on it, dating back to 1981... I wonder how many of those are still in use?

My French driving licence photo is very feint yet the Carte de Sejour (or permit to reside in France) is so dark, you can't see where my pullover starts and my neck stops.

Hi MichaelG, my new one that I got in February makes me look washed out, my previous one made me look like someone on a wanted poster.

Regards Nick.

Snap!! mine is from 1981 as well from when I last moved house. Unfortunately it expires this time next year when I'm 70 and I'll have to have a photo one.

My current licence is the 5th plastic one I have had, the first had a good colour copy of the photo I had sent to DVLC, and every one since has had a progressivly fading black and white picture. They have really gone to town with the "UK", there are 15 of them that I can see on the license, plus at least 4 "UNITED KINGDOMS". I got my age 73 licence in December, so it has a possible life of three years and four months as it is valid to 3-2025.

Rant follows, ignore if you don't like rants !

Be glad you've got one. The DVLA is a disaster area, too busy playing macho-management vs. unyeilding-unions to actually look after the people they're supposed to be serving. I had to surrender my licence last march when I had a bit of a heart problem. Last October I applied for a new one, accompanied by a letter from the cardiac consultant saying I was fit to drive. Apart from getting my identification documents back a couple of weeks later I've heard nothing, zilch, zero. Sixth months later I'm still in the dark. I've tried ringing them, but there's no way through the telephone-tree hell that lets you talk to a human being for medical matters. I tried emailing them, all I got back was an acknowledgement and a reference number, but no suggestion how or where that number might be used. I live in the middle of nowhere, so my wife has to drive me everywhere I need to go, there are no buses, and a taxi to the nearest town costs £14 one-way. I'm beginning to wonder if asking my MP to look into it might prompt some action.

I'm 75. At this rate I'll be long-gone by the time they get round to doing their job - perhaps that's the plan...

Rant over.

Bob. take out a court judgement against the DVLA ?? Even if it gets thrown out, it should elicit some sort of response from the DVLA ??

Otherwise carry on driving, get a ban, keep on driving etc until you get a prison sentence - cheaper than an old folks home.

another Bob

This subject came up yesterday morning on Radio 2, (Jeremy Vine show). Don't normally listen to Radio 2 but I was in a traffic jam.

Have to say I wasn't impressed by the DVLA's input. Rather than take the opportunity to have a human being explain the problem and fixes, they chose to post one of those dishonestly bland statements that annoy me so much. Worse, this one accidentally implied the grief is all the motorist's fault. You know the sort of thing: senior politician found with his hand in the till, says: 'The government is committed to the highest standards of probity in public office', so that's all right then.

By all means write to your MP, but ask him to call the minister responsible to account with a question in the house. Ministers hate having to make statements!

DVLA are responsible to the Department of Transport, and the Secretary of State is the Right Honourable Grant Shapps MP. As COVID is at least part of the problem in Swansea, it's handy that Mr Shapps also has oversight of all departmental COVID responsibilities: thus he is in charge of the COVID counter-measures applied by DVLA and of the funding provided to implement them. Furthermore, as co-chairman of the Conservative Party, he has the ear of the Prime Minister. Although Mr Shapps may have inherited a serious mess from the notoriously 'unlucky' Mr Chris Grayling in July 2019, his is the neck that needs to be squeezed.

Dave

Thanks folks. Not sure I want to end up in prison though . I may well do as you suggest, SillyOldDuffer, thanks for the information.

I applied online for my new license, on 07-April … and it arrived on 13-April

Not much wrong with that for turn-around

It was just the ‘product quality’ that apalled me.

MichaelG.

I did my application online as soon as the form arrived, but still had to cut the old licence in half and send it back to them. The replacement came within a week.

Off-topic maybe, but HMRC are as bad - if not worse. I stopped gainful employment years ago but kept on getting instructions to submit a full, annual tax return each year. The first time I completed their questionnaire to secure their agreement that returns were now unnecessary. I got some standard reply that "we aim to respond within 5 weeks". For the past 2 years, I keep reminding them after a couple of months and get the exact same reply each time.

Sorry to stay 'off-topic', but have to agree with FF above - I have been fighting HMRC for years now. Latest is an appeal against a 720 pound fine for failing to send in a return for 2019 (I did send one) - first they fined me 100 pounds for a 'late return', which I paid, then appealed - after getting my money back after about 9 months, they immediately fined me 720 pounds for non-submission. I appealed that, and (shock!) someone form HMRC called me, and asked why I was submitting a self-assessment return each year - same reason as FF above. I was told it was unnecessary, and there was no need for it - so I asked why they fined me for not submitting something they didn't want, and got no answer.

- OK I'll stop now because its going off-topic, but it just indicates the unsuitability for purpose of HMRC, and it looks as though DVLA is the same - I did finally get my money returned a couple of months ago - more than 2 years after the event.

I've just renewed my licence, and received something of a shock. I did it on the internet, and submitted it on April 24, 2022, ie 4 days ago. The new licence arrived this morning and is dated to start 25 April 2022.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

The cops here don't even want to see your drivers licence half the time these days. They step out of their car with a tablet computer, scan your number plate and all your details including picture and licence status, vehicle rego status and God only know what else, all appear on their screen. And now their cars are fitted with a number plate scanner front and back, so they have ll that info before they even pull you over. Big brother is watching.

I hope you've checked that it's the same as the one you sent in. The DVLA are notorious about removing classes that you're entitled to drive, like motorcycles or HGV. Then when you contact them, they check on the same computer that produced the error and you have to prove they screwed up.

Make a copy of your licence before you send it to them!

A few years ago a lady living on Exmoor, where you have to have a car, found that her renewed licence would only let her ride a motorcycle, something she had never done in her life. And she had not copied the old licence. It made the local news.

JA

Hi, I've always copied my licence before posting them off, in the past years it was done on a photostat copier at work and the latter few on my own scanner, but my last one which was my first photo one, I just copied both sides on my mobile. I still have al the copies for every address that I have lived since having a licence.

Regards Nick.

I did actually lose a category some years ago, but as I was no longer interested in driving tractors, I didn't bother chasing it up, although having checked online, it seems that I, and I presume others as well, can indeed drive tractors. But it was nice to be able to say, "Yes, I've taken 3 tests & passed them all, and here's the proof." Mind you, the tractor test I took all those years ago (61) was a bit of a laugh. The examiner had a day out & came to see me. The first thing was the number plate reading test. He took me down the lane to read his car, and as he's marching on in front of me, I looked across some gardens and read it out. He commented that there was nothing wrong with my eyes. Then the emergency stop. He was trying to hide behind a telegraph pole so when he jumped out I thought "Shall I go up to him before stopping, or should I stop now" I chose the second option. Then, when I parked up, I had problems with getting it into reverse gear, and had to roll forward before I could engage it. Those of you who have ever driven a little grey Fergie will know the problems. He jumped back out of the way, so of course I had to explain what I was doing - poor locking device on the footbrake so we always, without exception, left in either forward or reverse as appropriate. Happy days back then, and life was so much simpler.

Otherwise the licence seems ok.

I did copy back & front of the old licence before cutting it up and sending it off, but this was more so that I had something to show if stopped.

Peter G. Shaw