Drivers face new tests • Drivers are being warned to
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check their driving licenses following a number of cases in which people have had to retake their tests when they discovered that their licenses had expired up to 11 years ago.
The RAC says that the problem stems from three-year driving licenses which many people still have, although they were phased out in 1976.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (formerly the DVLC) says that all driving li cence holders were sent reminders 56 days before the renewal date. However, some of them appear to have slipped through the net and are unaware that they are driving illegally and may have to re-take their tests.
The DVLA says that the licence problem is unlikely to affect drivers of HGVs or PSVs whose licenses still have to be checked regularly — but this is not the case for drivers of minibuses and trucks up to 7.5 tonnes. The RAC is concerned that there may be a considerable number of such drivers unaware that they are not licensed. The senior legal adviser at the RAC, Ray Stone, told Commercial Motor: "In the past 15 months, seven of our members have contacted us because they have had cause to produce their licences for the first time in many years, only to discover that they had expired."
Stone says that in the worst cases the DVLA at Swansea has insisted that drivers retake their tests because, he says: "Legislation states that if you have not held a licence for 10 years you must take a test as it is assumed that you have not been driving."
He is concerned that, in a number of cases drivers' livelihoods have been put in jeopardy because they have faced a two-month wait for a new provisional licence and a test.
The RAC warns anyone who discovers they hold an invalid licence to stop driving immediately and contact the DVLA at Swansea.