The Digital Driving Licence
this year in the UK will go digital. The current plastic card will become an option. Your licence will be accessible via an app on your smartphone. For those who do not have a smartphone, the plastic card will still be available. Australia and many US states have already adopted the digital licence so it is a proven concept in operation. The digital licence is also intended to cut down on fraudulently produced licences.
Those of a certain age with a licence tend have a longer list of the types of vehicles being able to drive. These allowances have been inherited from previous decades where vehicle categories were more generalised. Examples include a milk float, trailers, minibus, and certain tonnage of lorries that will be not see on a younger person’s licence. The categories are listed on the GOV UK website: https://www.gov.uk/driving-licence-categories
The old paper green licence that was issued until 2000, was a document that some drivers kept in the glovebox of the car in the event of being pulled over by the Police. This was not mandatory and those who left their licences at home generally had seven days to produce their licence at a local police station if requested. The seven day rule is still in force today. A HORT1 ‘producer’ document will be issued to a driver if their documents are required. Going forward with the introduction of the digital driving licence, a police officer should be able to lookup the driver’s details at the roadside.
Presumably in a few years, the vehicle’s V5C document will also disappear into the ether as our digital age immerses more of our paper documents. Let’s hope our phones and apps do not stop working and online availability of information is not affected. Could we go full circle in years to come and paper copies of documents return ? Time will tell…
