Driving Licence Renewal

[desmo]

I have got a class 1 HGV licence along with my car & bike licence, once you reach 45 yrs old you have to have a full medical & renew your licence every 5 years.
Mine is now due for renewal again & after all the reported problems of the DVLA sending licence's back with missing catagories, I was very concerned about sending mine off.

I thought about photocopying it before sending it off, until I read about the guy who did just that, his licence came back without his bike entitlement, when he went to the DVLA in person to show them his photocopy, they called the police & accused him of fraud!!!

Anyway, I popped in to my local solicitors, they said they would photocopy & verify my licence for me for free, but if it came back with a catagory missing then they couldn't help because they were mainly involved with conveyencing, but they did recomend another firm.

So I rang the solicitors that they recommended, they said no problem, they would photocopy & verify my licence for me & the charge was £5.00

Worth doing I think.

[LouSCannon]

Very good advice that!

[rac3r]

Another thing people do is 'loose' their photo card and send off the paper part. If it comes back with things missing they magically find the photo card again :D

[scrapps]

I think someone told me if you ask for your old photo part to be returned they will send it back with the new one and the corner cut off. then you have the original to show them.

[Shuffy]

I think someone told me if you ask for your old photo part to be returned they will send it back with the new one and the corner cut off. then you have the original to show them.

That's what I did and I sent then an SAE with a covering letter to return it in and there were no problems.

[MrsC_772]

Before you send your licence off, write to DVLA to make a "subject access request" under the Data Protection Act, asking them to provide send you a copy of the information they hold about you and your various licence entitlements.

That way, you should have their record of your entitlements, so that if when you send your driving licence off for renewal and it comes back missing any entitlements, you can use their own evidence against them, so to speak. No arguments about photocopied licences if you're using information the DVLA themselves have sent you.

DVLA's website states that "2. Release of information about yourself - Driver Register
Enquiries of the Driver Licence Record should be addressed to DCS (Data Subject Enquiries), D4, DVLA, Swansea SA6 7JL. You should give details of your address, driver number or full name and date of birth and reason for request. A fee of £5 is payable."

Technically, under the DPA, you do not have to give a reason for your request. You could simply say "I want it and I the law says I can have it/Iam entitled to it under the Data Protection Act". Might be worth specifically referring them to section 7 of the DPA and using the phrase "subject access request" (some large bureaucratic organisations have special teams who deal with DPA and freedom of information requests - hopefully using the magic words might lead the droid who opens the mail to send it to someone with a clue).

Obviously you need to leave enough time before your licence expires for them to have responded to your request and sent you the info.

Goes without saying - send your licence off recorded delivery.

I plan to do this before I send my photocard off for renewal, as it runs out in October.