all will change depending how much public money they manage to waster on national ID cards
personally i hope the election forces a plug pulling excercise on this 5 billion quid nonsense
if not then expect all sorts of snoopers being able to get involved
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Speedy service, too: about a one week turn round time, and that over the new year break.
New picture is in Black & White, tho...(even if you send them a colour one) I preferred colour.
Tim
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The reason for 10 year renewals is that after 10 years you look 10 years older than your photo.
HJ
Edited by Honestjohn on 26/01/2009 at 09:41
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The reason for 10 year renewals is that after 10 years you look 10 year older than your photo.
That would be fine once everyone has a photo licence. In the meantime surely even a 20 year old photo is better than no-photo? There are still loads of drivers with old licences with no photos.
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I have done replacement on the phone with a credit card. On another tack, is it true that it doesn't cost anything to change the address on your licence? If so, renew with an address change and then a month later do another free address change! ISTR a thread earlier mentioning this money saving plan!
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You need to pay to change your photo though. And change of address does not reset the expiry date of the licence. I've moved a couple of times since I got a photo card licence in 1999. It still expires in 2009 despite having a few new ones issued.
It's all to do with wanting a new/recent photo.
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Thanks RTJ - I thought it was too good to be true!
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There are still loads of drivers with old licences with no photos.
Like me for instance. I have no intention of getting a photo licence until I am forced to. There is just no need. The only times I have had to show it in the last 20 or so years is for ID and the rare occasions when hiring a car, and I have never had a problem.
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I hire about 3 times a year and get some strange looks, especially outside Europe, when I get my old paper licence out - issued in '99 and starting to get very ragged.
One day it will get refused and then I'll regret not coughing up for a new one.
MPZ
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We were in the US last year and they didn't bat an eyelid at our paper licences.
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The stupidity is that the photocards were originally issued before the DVLA had the technology to do the job properly. The cards should be chipped and everything on the ridiculous 'paper counterpart' included in the chip, together with insurance status. No one in any other country I have driven in has ever asked to see the paper.
HJ
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The stupidity is that the photocards were originally issued before the DVLA had the technology to do the job properly. The cards should be chipped and everything on the ridiculous 'paper counterpart' included in the chip together with insurance status. No one in any other country I have driven in has ever asked to see the paper.
A few years ago I was in Manchester Airport and went to the rental car desk to collect my car.
There was a guy being served and the discussion was very heated. It transpired that the guy only had the photo part of his driving licence and not the paper part so the attendant refused to let him have the rental car he had booked. There followed a further heated discussion as the rental company would apparently phone the DVLA to check whatever details are on the paper bit, but it would cost the customer 50 quid to do this. The guy eventually stormed off, without his rental car.
I simply showed my german driving licence, which the attendant clearly couldn't read, and was presented with the keys to my car. These british 2 part licences really are the most idiotic invention.
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will spent convictions that appear on the paper section automatically be removed too when renewing the photo card bit? or do we have to pay through the nose for their removal too?
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Don't know Zookeeper. I'll find out in a few months as my old points from 1998 are spent and I need to get a new licence. It would be silly if they print a new licence with expired points but it could be a money spinner.
I wish I asked that when I had a tour of the DVLA building a few years back.
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"These british 2 part licences really are the most idiotic invention."
Couldn't agree more, Bagpuss! Maybe the keyword is "British".....
I had a similar 'incident' three or so years ago at Stansted whilst I was working in Cork. I'd returned for the weekend in something of a rush and forgotten my paper counterpart. In a bit of a panic I checked in at the (pre-booked) Budget car rental desk at Stansted, ready for an argument.
By a stroke of good fortune, I was told that Budget was the only rental co at Stansted which didn't require sight of the paper counterpart - something to do with being Irish-owned, I was told. What a relief!
Amusingly, I was then asked if I'd like a vehicle upgrade - "only £10 a day extra, Sir". I politely declined the offer, but was then told that they didn't have my booked vehicle available. So yes, in true Irish style, I was 'upgraded' for free :-)
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A good number of years ago now I worked for a company which had an account with, I want to say, Europcar hire. May have been one of the other ones, can't remember.
At that time among other places, I had a regular fortnightly trip to Italy. It involved catching the last flight on a Sunday night from Heathrow to Venice and returning on a Tuesday night. I always needed a hire car while I was there so I had a standing booking. In those days we still had the old style licences but the hire company issued me with a credit card type thing which held all my details and that was fine for them. Given that this was probably 20 years ago, we haven't moved on much have we?
On the upgrade thing, it was almost always a given that if you arrived off the last flight of the day you would get a free upgrade. The standard issue entry level car in those days was a Mk1 Panda which was all I really needed. Most times though, they had "sold out" of those by the time I arrived and I got whatever was left at the same price. Had some cracking cars from time to time including big V6 Alfas and the like.
Happy days !
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This thread got me thinking about the whole issue of "photo ID". I have to renew my Spanish driving licence this year so will finally get a plastic CC type one to replace the horrible pink card one with a staple across my forehead. My new licence will then serve as ID for 90% of day to day transactions, as my "EU resident card" expires and cannot be replaced as they are now abolished. (Long story...)
I wonder whether British driving licences will one day be accepted as "official" ID for the purposes of travel both in Britain and the rest of the EU. It would take two small changes - compulsory (rather than the now optional) transfer of electronic photo from the Passport Agency to the DVLA and one extra section - where applicable - on the front of the licence: "Nationality: British Citizen".
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Mine arrived this morning. Applied for it Thursday 15th, so the antiquated postal system is working reasonably efficiently.
HJ
Edited by Honestjohn on 26/01/2009 at 19:23
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mine took a week so well impressed with service.
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They don't need to be chipped. A simple plastic card with all the supporting details held on a computer somewhere does the job in most places. Whoever's interested notes the number and if there's ever any need to follow that up, a simple database access provides the other info.
KISS engineering at its best. The problem with chip cards is you either make them updateable (change of address, points, etc) and thus easy to fiddle with to anyone with a bit of knowledge and the right kit, or make them read only and have to replace them every time a piece of data changes.
Heck we've already got the computer system to support it and any commercial organisation who want vehicle or driver details seem to be allowed to access it at will anyway....
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The reason for 10 year renewals is that after 10 years you look 10 years older than your photo. HJ
I think that may be part of the EU standard that these things comply with. Just checked mine over here - 10 years.
Rather interestingly, I had to push to get it. They saw no reason to swap it here in NL until the British one reached its expiry date. Same story was trotted out by the authorities in CZ when I was living there too. None of your "must swap within n months" bit on the continent.
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