Renew your photo card driving licence!

Despite a fine of up to £1,000 for failing to do so, 2 million UK drivers are driving on expired photo card driving licences.

Back in December, one of the Cars UK team had cause to hire a car – or at least try to – but was horrified to discover that his photo card driving licence had expired.

A quick check across the team revealed one other expired photo card license and two who were still driving on the old pre photo card licenses. So we thought we’d have a chat with the DVLA to see if it was just our lot who are numpties, or if the problem is widespread.

Photocard licences were introduced in 1998 and come as a two part licence – the photo card bit and companion green form – but have to be renewed every 10 years to keep the photo up to date. So far, of the 44 million licensed drivers in the UK, 30 million have a photo card licence with the remaining 14 million still using the old style licence.

There’s no compulsion to swap your old-style licence for the new style photo card one, but if any of your details change you will have to swap to the new version. And if you do have the new style photo card licence there is a legal obligation to keep it up to date, and fines if you don’t.

But despite reminders being sent out to drivers whose licences are close to expiring, 2 million of us haven’t renewed and face a fine of £1,000 for failing to do so. The offence isn’t driving without a licence (you’re licensed until you’re 70) but for failure to renew the photo card bit.

So what do you do if you now check in your wallet and discover your licence is out of date?

First of all, don’t panic. Unlike road tax, there’s no automatic fine for not renewing (in fact, the DVLA admit they haven’t fined anyone to date), but you do need to get it sorted.

The easiest way we found is to pop off to a main Post Office where the helpful staff will complete the form for you and take your photo. They then electronically wire the details and photo to the DVLA and you get a nice new, shiny and up to date licence back in around a week.

If you have the latest biometric passport you can also do the whole thing online at http://www.gov.uk/change-photo-driving-licence and the DVLA will use your passport photo (only passports issued in the last 5 years work for this).

The fee to renew is £20 (although the Post Office charges an extra £4.50 for taking your photo and processing the application – well worth it) and it’s money well spent, not just to save the possibility of a fine, but also to save the embarrassment of not being able to hire a car when you’re stuck at an airport that’s gone in to meltdown.

So now all at Cars UK are basking in the glow of self-satisfaction that our licences are fresh and shiny, make sure you check yours and do the same.

By Cars UK