parked cars b&w

New DVLA changes to be aware of

New DVLA changes come into effect today meaning that now your paper counterpart driving licence is no longer valid – or required.

The official DVLA website has advised that drivers destroy their paper counterpart licence.

This new scheme means that all of your details will be stored online in a safe and secure government database that the police, amongst others, will be able to access.

Upon logging in to the website users can see if their current address is up to date, along with their licence information and renewal date.

Further tabs include information regarding the vehicles that the licence holder can drive as well as any penalty points.

And finally there is an additional tab that allows drivers to apply for a code that can be used to hire vehicles abroad. Now that the paper counterpart driving licence is no longer recognised in the UK, drivers will have to access the site and obtain a code before issuing this to rental companies abroad.

Although this new system has hit some teething problems in these early days, which is to be expected, we think that having everything online is much better!

Have you used the new online system?