In May 1999 I was unlucky enough to acquire 3 penalty points for speeding (41mph in a 30 mph limit!) Now that 5 years have passed without further naughtiness, I thought I might see about getting a clean licence again so had a look at the DVLA website.The procedure seems to go something like this....
1) You get yourself the approp form.
2) You get a passport size photo (to DVLA's specs!)
3) You get a professional person to sign the back of the photo
to show you've been 'certified'
4) You take this to a Post Office that has been delegated
to 'look at' identity documents.(Not all Post Offices do, so
you have either got to do a postcode search on the Post
Office website or phone and find out.)
5) Because I don't have a passport (have led a very sheltered
life!)and am not old enough to have a pension book, I will
have to take along my birth certificate.
6) Because DVLA say on their website that an (original) birth
certificate is not necessarily proof of identity, I may be
asked for some other form of identity (I kid you not!)
7) The (participating) Post Office then 'looks' at these
documents and charges me £4 for 'looking'.
8) If paid by cheque, this £4 will have to be accompanied by a
bankers card to confirm identity. (Despite the fact that you
are standing there in person, with your birth certificate
and current driving licence in your sweaty paw !!!)
9) Then you have to pay DVLA £19 for the privilege of getting
the new licence.
10)You are advised that this can take up to 3 weeks from the
date that DVLA receive the application.
Considering the fact that this is the only brush with the law I've had in 30+ years of driving the (minor) misdemeanour has cost.....
£40 fixed penalty with 3 penalty points.
5 years of confessing my guilt to insurance companies with 5 years of inflated premiums.(Probably £££s)
£19 for a replacement licence.
£4 for a Post Office to 'look' at my documents.
Cost of a passport photo.
Above all, though, UNBELIEVABLE HASSLE to get a clean driving licence again!
Wish me luck.....
Graeme
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Why not wait until you change address and get your licence changed for free?
Alternitively, you could ask the local council to register a change in your house name!
5 years after the event your licence is regarded as clean anyway.
Also, if you send them your passport as proof of identity (special delivery) they'll send it back to you under separate cover and you don't need anyone to sign the back of the photo.
SWMBO and I have just updated our licences.
H
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I had this hassle when I changed address. The dvla wanted to *charge* for the photocard driving licence and told me I couldn't have an ordinary paper one so I ignored them. I sent them my old licence with the forms, no photo and waited. This way I had complied with notifying them of a change of address but not offered them everything they wanted. They sent me the odd letter saying I hadn't paid my fee so they wouldn't process it and i had to have a photocard licence. I ignored this pleading and I waited. Some time later they sent me another letter saying photocard licences were now free with address changes, so I applied straight away :-) The post office wouldn't check my application as it wasn't with a passport (I dont have one either) so I had to post my original birth certificate and some other form of id. It is a royal nuisance and all the people with the dodgy licences just get them made without this bother anyway!
teabelly
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Do you suppose that if you sent in your licence under the change of address rules anyone at Swansea would actually check that the new address they are typing in is different from the one already on it. More likely they just type in the new data straight from the form.
Alternately if you changed something like adding a name to your house or spelling out the house number, Fourteen Pleasant Drive, say, or adding/removing a sub-district this would qualify as a change of address and get you a free upgrade.
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I've lived at my present address for 46 years! Something tells me I might have a long wait to get a free upgrade for a change of address!
I don't have a passport! (I know,it's sad!) I've never been abroad and don't have any real desire to roam. Still manage to clock up a fair few miles in the C5 of course - mostly going round in circles!!
To be honest, it's not really the cost of the upgrade that's bothering me - I'd happily pay that to have a nice clean licence (even although I probably already have one which technically counts as 'clean' anyway. Maybe just the old ego hurting a bit!) It's just all this silliness about proving you actually exist ten time over!
Cogito ergo sum dvla.....
Graeme
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It's all a vain effort to clamp down on massive identity fraud. Being of foreign origin, Mrs V has been through any number of procedures during which she's had to prove her ID and it's even harder for someone whose birth certificate for example is foreign. It seemed very strange to me that whilst official documents weren't considered sufficient proof on their own, sending a gas bill or something similar was accepted. IMO anyone who goes to all the trouble and expense of getting a false passport or whatever isn't really going to fnd it too difficult to get a utility bill registered in their name. Now we have the crazy situation in which for example to move money from one a/c to another within the same bank you're often asked for proof of who you are even though you don't need that same proof to withdraw the money entirely (unless you're talking large sums of course). Nonsense!
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Might provide a few weary souls with a laugh. How I spent my day.
Driving licenses here expire every 3 years on one's birthday. There are numerous offices (good system in principle) in shopping malls where one can renew any time up to 60 days within expiry. Supposedly new plastic one is available in 20 mins or so.
Both of us have birthdates within a week of each other, although the years are another matter....
Rock up to LTO kiosk in the Coastal Mall, takes 1.5 hours to get there due torrential rain and terrible traffic.
Wake up clerk who is snoozing. I don't have my original receipt along with the license issued 3 years back. Fill in this affidavit of loss, sign here, go to the notary public on Floor 3 . Then go in back room and provide ...well...use this bottle.....for drug sample then get your blood pressure measured.
I get my affidavit notarized (I could be Mickey Mouse, no one gives a stuff about checking my ID) My BP despite years of abuse as usual comes out OK, if it didn't a donation to the LTO would sort that. I also deliver the required into the bottle without difficulty after a liquid lunch.
Herself is less fortunate. Seems unable to comply with the sample requirement.. Send her off to get large bottle of mineral water along with packet of Kleenex while I peruse the daily paper. Eventually a sample containing sufficient of the needful is submitted with considerable embarrassment and the necessary dipstick check carried out in front of a line of waiting people. Catherine hides her head somewhere in my armpit during this process.
Now we are ready. Ah but sir our camera is not working, can you come back tomorrow. No photo possible today. Sir it is OK for your partner but you have to go to Quezon City head office ( 1 hr away) because you are a foreigner and you want to get motorcycle endorsed on your licence. You must produce your residence visa and income tax clearance also at the head office. I get this far and now they tell me that. I scent the inevitable.
(Furtive sotto voce conversation between Growlette and clerk follows).
What's he on about? Never mind, give him 200 pesos. What for ? Never MIND, just give him 200 pesos. But the camera isn't working. Will you just DO what I tell you, it'll be OK, go in the back. But why? Babes if you WANT your license just DO what I say, OK? Camera suddenly springs into life and we are mug-shotted.
Now what, I say? Never MIND. We have coffee then we come back for the licenses. What's happening? Will you just STOP IT, I will handle this. Give me 200 Pesos more. Why? Just GIVE me, I will fix it. Do you want your licence or not?
Sure enough I did, she did and we both have brand new licences valid 3 years.......
Never argue with a Filipina.
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A great story Growler. Just how much is 200 peso ?
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In the face of Growler's story, I think £4 for a Post Office clerk to 'look' at my documents maybe isn't such a bad deal after all.I've just had a terrible vision of me standing in the Post Office queue attempting to 'perform' in a bottle - a little old lady in front of me picking up her pension........
Graeme
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Please don't, I rather enjoy his postings - It's kind of like listening to Terry Wogan in the mornings :)
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£1.70? I thought you were going to say something like 70 quid which even then I suppose to get the ball rolling is alright :-). If only it were so simple over here.
Picture the situation. You're driving home one night and get pulled.
POLICE OFFICER - "Excuse me sir, do you know how fast you were going?"
ME - "Not fast enough by the looks of things"
*Glare from the cop*
ME - "I'll tell you what, here's a tenner for your trouble. I'll be on my way"
POLICE OFFICER - "Is that a brake light out sir?"
ME - "There's a twenty. Bye"
POLICE OFFICER - "Those tyres look a bit sketchy - VERRRY dangerous"
ME - "Theres 30 quid. See you later officer"
POLICE OFFICER - "Thank you sir...have a nice evening..."
...on second thoughts - let's stick to the system we already have!
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And if stopped by a police sergeant, always resist the temptation to call him 'corporal'.
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Sounds like the kiss of death. OK, that's it, no more, you'll just have to wait for the book.
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