In scenes reminiscent of those that occurred with the paperless tax disc changes, the DVLA has been accused of poorly publicising changes to driving licences, that will mean paper counterparts are no longer required. What’s more, critics have said that the changes could leave UK holidaymakers, and especially those that are travelling to Europe and wish to hire a car when they arrive, unable to get the car that they have booked without facing hefty roaming charges and causing untold queues.
From a driver’s point of view, the changes will make very little day-to-day difference, except that they will be able to throw away battered paper licences, and points will be held on a central database that will be accessible to insurers and other parties with a genuine need to be able to see the data.
The two part licence, which includes a plastic driver details section, similar in size to a credit card so that it fits into a wallet or purse, and a paper counterpart section, including details of driver penalties and points amassed over a four year period, was introduced in 1998. The new licence was unpopular when it was launched, because it was seen as being unnecessarily complicated. However, if the government or DVLA thought that scrapping the counterpart section would win them praise, then they were mistaken.
The primary objections to the changes seem to be regarding the hiring of rental cars. Currently, when renting a car, a driver is usually required to present their paper counterpart when collecting the car. This section is used to detail the penalty points and convictions that a driver has, but these details will be held on a central penalties database.
Critics have said that the new system will cause problems when hiring in the UK, but will cause even greater problems when abroad. Some European rental companies are completely unaware of the changes, which take place on 8th June, and they may still demand paper counterparts. It is possible for drivers to go online and obtain a code that can be used to access a driver’s details, but these are only valid for 72 hours, which means that holidaymakers may have to access Internet cafes or face paying hefty data roaming charges to get online and get their code.
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