4 Jan 2011 by Pitchcare Peter Last edited 4 Jan 2011
Posted on behalf of David Green at Terrain Aeration:
In the last year the DVLA estimates that somewhere in the region of 42,000 motorists did not return their driving licences to be endorsed with points for traffic offences. As a result their licences were revoked, meaning that if they wanted to continue driving then they would have to reapply and pay an application fee.
There doesn’t seem much wrong with that. Motorists had 12 months to return their licence to a court or the DVLA in order that the endorsements could be added. This seems more than an adequate length of time for anyone to ensure they had surrendered their licence.
You may or may not have known about this 12 month “concessionary period”, but it is almost certain that you did not know that on 7th November this period was squashed down to 28 days.
So, as of now, you have four weeks to return your licence or else wave goodbye to your driving entitlement.
Even this new, lean, grab-me-an-envelope-quick time limit can be just about understood; apparently the Association of Chief Police Officers was getting frustrated with the number of driving licences it was seeing that were not up-to-date.
But, what is less clear, and quite bewildering, is why the DVLA decided not to bother informing the public of this change.
A call to its press office to find out why it didn’t feel the need to produce a press release, or mention the change on its website, does not exactly solve the mystery: “We have had a few enquiries on this,” says a spokesman, as though journalists lifting up stones were an adequate way of disseminating government policy information. “We would send out a letter anyway if you were in that situation, informing that you have 28 days.”
Look at that 42,000 figure again. How many of these people do you think had moved house following a traffic offence and had not yet got around to letting the DVLA know? And how many more are going to be caught out now that the period has been reduced considerably?
The Freight Transport Association is furious that it only found out about the change “third hand” from a licence checking company and policy manager Ian Gallagher is now busy trying to make all of the association’s members aware.
No-one is suggesting that it is not a driver’s fault if they fail to inform the DVLA of an address change a year after being snapped by a Gatso. At a stretch 28 days should be enough time too, although if you are caught by a speed trap on the way to the airport for an extended trip to Australia then problems might arise.
But, if the DVLA doesn’t want to be suspected of deliberately tripping people up then you’d think telling us all what its plans are would be a necessary part of the process.
I make the strong recommendation that when ever you send a license to the d.v.l.a. that you retain a photocopy.
Licenses returned without motorbike added, or full license returned provisional, and then the problem trying to prove that the tests were taken and passed.
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