Change to the driving licence – paper counterpart to become obsolete

From 8 June 2015 the paper counterpart of the driving licence (D740) is to be abolished and will no longer be issued by the the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

“There will no longer be a need for drivers to keep the paper part of the driving licence as the photocard part will be all that is needed going forward. More sophisticated on-line systems allow data to be stored about individual motorists driving offences making the counterpart driving licence effectively redundant.” says Sue Robinson, Director of the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA).

“Counterparts after 8 June 2015 will no longer have legal status and motorists are advised to destroy their counterpart after this date. Paper driving licenses issued before 1998 will remain valid and should not be destroyed.”

Robinson mentions that “the changes to the counterpart licence affect the UK only and if drivers are going aboard they need to check the licence requirements for each country before hiring a vehicle.

Dealers need to be aware that they will need to change their procedures if they lend courtesy cars or run self-drive hire fleets where they will need to check customers entitlement to drive.”

DVLA offer an on-line system to check driving licences which can be accessed for free at www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence.

Further information is available at: www.gov.uk/dvla/nomorecounterpart