Licence to drive!

rml380z

I've had a paper licence for a while, but I've finally cashed it in for a plastic one. Nice to know I can drive a truck with a trailer, up to 8250kg; how much bigger than my usual car (a Vauxhall Corsa) is that?

I'm sure the same information was on the old paper licence, which is my full name, date of birth and address. For something I'll keep in my wallet, with all my credit cards, isn't that a bit insecure? I guess it's lucky nobody will guess my mother's maiden name is Smith.

Am I being paranoid to think that, as you have to carry it, the licence has far too much information on it, especially as you have a paper copy as well?

schlepcycling

Do you have to carry it?, I thought you only had to produce it when required at a police station of your choice within 7 days.

Wallace1492

You are not required to carry any ID, including a driving license.

rml380z

Wallace1492 wrote:

You are not required to carry any ID, including a driving license.

I thought you had to carry it while driving.

If I don't need to carry it when driving, then I'll just leave it at home.

Agent57

I doubt many people carry their licence with them when driving. I usually do because the plastic part lives in my wallet anyway, but I never used to carry my old paper one.

Wallace1492

rml380z wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

You are not required to carry any ID, including a driving license.

I thought you had to carry it while driving.

If I don't need to carry it when driving, then I'll just leave it at home.

Do not require to carry it in this country.... some European countries require it to be carried, check before you drive abroad.

You just have to produce it within 7 days.

mudcovered

rml380z wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

You are not required to carry any ID, including a driving license.

I thought you had to carry it while driving.

Unless something has changed there is no need to carry either the photocard or the paper part. If you get stopped by the Police they may require you to produce your driving license within 7 days of the stop at your local police station. Had to do that with the paper part of my license (and my insurance details) after being involved in an accident a few years ago.

Mike

graeme_s-2

mudcovered wrote:

Unless something has changed there is no need to carry either the photocard or the paper part. If you get stopped by the Police they may require you to produce your driving license within 7 days of the stop at your local police station. Had to do that with the paper part of my license (and my insurance details) after being involved in an accident a few years ago.

Mike

My sister had to do this after crashing her car a few years ago. What the officer neglected to mention was that she also needed to produce the note he'd issued her with saying what she needed to present. She showed up at a police station on the 7th day with the documents she had been asked to present, but without the note, only to discover that she would be charged with failing to produce the relevant documentation if she couldn't also produce the note. Luckily my Dad still had this, and after he'd driven an hour to the police station, all was resolved!

mudcovered

Graeme_S wrote:

My sister had to do this after crashing her car a few years ago. What the officer neglected to mention was that she also needed to produce the note he'd issued her with saying what she needed to present.

Fortunately the one I dealt with mentioned that. Would have been a scary moment if she had lost it. :shock:

Mike

graeme_s-2

mudcovered wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

My sister had to do this after crashing her car a few years ago. What the officer neglected to mention was that she also needed to produce the note he'd issued her with saying what she needed to present.

Fortunately the one I dealt with mentioned that. Would have been a scary moment if she had lost it. :shock:

Mike

I think it was a scary moment until they realised it must have been at my Dad's house, and luckily he still had it!

Jon8a

Don't carry it.

It cannot be cancelled so if you have your wallet stolen it remains in circulation. MY GF had all sorts of trouble after she had her wallet stolen. Mobile phones etc. being bought and accounts set up for months. Unlike a credit card there is no way to cancel it.

rf6

Technically it is an offence not to be able to produce to a police officer in uniform when required your driving licence, test certificate for the vehicle (if applicable) and certificate of insurance (again if applicable) if driving a motor vehicle on a road.

Obviously common sense dictates that people will not always carry these with them, so the HO/RT1 form was introduced. Also there were cases were people left their documents in the glove compartment, and car thieves used these when stopped by the Police. This allowed the documents to be produced within a specified time at a police station of the driver's choice. The time limit is most commonly 7 days, but can be longer (for instance if you are stopped whilst on holdiay).

lost_in_thought

Thing is, even if you have your photocard with you when asked for your licence by the po-po, you need to produce your counterpart (paper bit). So, if you have the photocard but not the counterpart, you're still getting a 7-day wonder.

Hence, there's little point carrying the licence, unless, like me, you get ID'd a lot in supermarkets etc.

I'm 27. 27, FFS.

:roll:

1340jas

Hey guys,we now live in the computerised age. Yes plod can require you to produce all your documents at a Police Station of your choice within 7 days. However if you are driving a vehicle the cops can check via the Police National Computer if you have a driving licence, if your vehicle is taxed, even if the tax disc is missing; if the vehicle has an MOT and is insured.
The only draw back can be if you pay insurance in monthly installments, some companies don't register their customers as so many cancell their insurance after the certificate arrives on their doormat. They presume by producing the document plod will believe thy are insured. It doesn't work.
Lots of police cars now have number plate readers and computers to identify stolen vehicles andones with no insurance etc.
Don't start on about Big Brother as I think it should mean if you have all the right documents then you shouldn't get stopped.

shouldbeinbed

mildly drifty but I resent having had to pay £40 for me and the Mrs to renew our perfectly good licences on threat of a £1000 fine to update the photograph.

1340jas - not just the cops. I get my tax disc online now and it does the same checks before it gets processed and isued.

_Brun_

lost_in_thought wrote:

Hence, there's little point carrying the licence, unless, like me, you get ID'd a lot in supermarkets etc.

I'm 27. 27, FFS.

:roll:

I've been asked to show ID quite a lot over the last week. This is despite being quite beardy again. Bet I could buy a gun with less hassle.

deptfordmarmoset

_Brun_ wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Hence, there's little point carrying the licence, unless, like me, you get ID'd a lot in supermarkets etc.

I'm 27. 27, FFS.

:roll:

I've been asked to show ID quite a lot over the last week. This is despite being quite beardy again. Bet I could buy a gun with less hassle.

I saw my daughter, 31, getting challenged about her age last year. I think it made her day being taken for a minor.

Appleman

I think that the OP is being deliberately obtuse, if they don't know that that isn't a fair bit heavier than a Corsa I would suggest that they are not in the best position to be driving with a train weight of 8250kg in an LGV or HGV!

In saying that, you could drive a "dual purpose vehicle" with a trailer of any size as long as the tractor vehicle's gross weight is 2050kg or less.

As for the licence, it is not a legal requirement to carry it; only when asked to produce it (a HORTI in Scotland) by the Polis.

Euan

1st post, woop, woop, etc!!!

WesternWay

rf6 wrote:

Technically it is an offence not to be able to produce to a police officer in uniform when required your driving licence, test certificate for the vehicle (if applicable) and certificate of insurance (again if applicable) if driving a motor vehicle on a road.
.

*Holds up "Bluff" Card*

gordon861

WesternWay wrote:

rf6 wrote:

Technically it is an offence not to be able to produce to a police officer in uniform when required your driving licence, test certificate for the vehicle (if applicable) and certificate of insurance (again if applicable) if driving a motor vehicle on a road.
.

*Holds up "Bluff" Card*

Nope, WesternWay is correct, the offence is ignored if you then produce the documents within the 7 days.

But as mentioned earlier the police rarely care about the paper/plastic bits now, if their computer says you have no licence or insurance it is very unlikely you are driving the car away no matter what paper you show them.

spen666

gordon861 wrote:

WesternWay wrote:

rf6 wrote:

Technically it is an offence not to be able to produce to a police officer in uniform when required your driving licence, test certificate for the vehicle (if applicable) and certificate of insurance (again if applicable) if driving a motor vehicle on a road.
.

*Holds up "Bluff" Card*

Nope, WesternWay is correct, the offence is ignored if you then produce the documents within the 7 days.

But as mentioned earlier the police rarely care about the paper/plastic bits now, if their computer says you have no licence or insurance it is very unlikely you are driving the car away no matter what paper you show them.

Wrong again.


The legislation is covered by S164 of the Road Traffic Act.

It is not an offence to not produce a driving licence at the road side if you produice it within seven days.

The "offence" is not ignored as it is not an offence at all.

Subsection 164(6) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 as amended by the Road Traffic Act 1991, the Road Traffic (Driver Licensing and Information) Systems Act 1989 and the Driving Licences (Community Driving Licence) Regulations 1990 creates offences relating to the failure to produce a driving licence and its counterpart, certificate of completion of a training course for motor cyclists, or failure to state their date of birth.
164(6) If a person required under the preceding provisions of this section to produce a licence and its counterpart or state his date of birth or to produce his certificate of completion of a training course for motor cyclists fails to do so he is, subject to subsections (7), (8) and (8A), guilty of an offence.

164(7) Subsection (6) does not apply where a person required on any occasion under the preceding provisions of this section to produce a licence and its counterpart:

(a) produces on that occasion a current receipt for the licence and its counterpart issued under section 56 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 (licence receipts) and, if required to do so, produces the licence and its counterpart in person immediately on their return at a police station that was specified on that occasion, or
(b) within seven days after that occasion produces such a receipt in person at a police station that was specified by him on that occasion and, if required to do so, produces the licence and its counterpart in person immediately on their return at that police station.

Wallace1492

Jeez.......

Why do some people think you have to carry license? We are not (quite) a Police state yet...

beegee

So I am thinking; not always a good thing : What is the difference between (a) and (b) in the very last bit - to me it seems like (b) is the same as (a) but with the change from 'immediately' to 'within7 days'.

rml380z

Appleman wrote:

I think that the OP is being deliberately obtuse, if they don't know that that isn't a fair bit heavier than a Corsa I would suggest that they are not in the best position to be driving with a train weight of 8250kg in an LGV or HGV!

You're right, of course; I'm in no safe position to drive such a large vehicle. I wasn't being obtuse, more illustrating the ridiculous nature of some of my licence entitlements.

Wallace1492

beegee wrote:

So I am thinking; not always a good thing : What is the difference between (a) and (b) in the very last bit - to me it seems like (b) is the same as (a) but with the change from 'immediately' to 'within7 days'.

Correct. a) produce it immediately and b) produce it within 7 days.

Overworded, keeps lawyers in a job.

tiny_pens

rml380z wrote:

I've had a paper licence for a while, but I've finally cashed it in for a plastic one. Nice to know I can drive a truck with a trailer, up to 8250kg; how much bigger than my usual car (a Vauxhall Corsa) is that?

I'm sure the same information was on the old paper licence, which is my full name, date of birth and address. For something I'll keep in my wallet, with all my credit cards, isn't that a bit insecure? I guess it's lucky nobody will guess my mother's maiden name is Smith.

Am I being paranoid to think that, as you have to carry it, the licence has far too much information on it, especially as you have a paper copy as well?

Better that than the other way round. There are a few stories in the motorcycle press of people losing their motorcycle entitlement when renewing and being asked to retake their tests.