License validity question

Yes, try here.

No, that only says when the curent license is valid from, not the date that I passed my test.

Have a look at the page that lists dates for each vehicle class (2nd tab).

It's the same into as printed on the rear of a photocard licence (which also gives the earliest date).

Mine is not a photocard - it is paper. It shows a start date of

Second tab shows Group A and Group D - but there is no date information shown.

Um, I don't think so. Have you not moved house since passing your test? Maybe the new "valid from" and expiration date arose from a change of address.

Many don't ask for exact dates, just an approximate "longer than" time.

Ask you mum. They remember stuff like this. ;-)

Tim

I think you face a big problem.

DVLA can't help you. DVLA only ever had details of tests from the 1990s when DSA (now DVSA) took over testing. And DVLA didn't even begin issuing licences until 1973. Before that the "red book" licences were issued by councils. I don't know if the council kept records but if so those records didn't go to DVLA. DVLA recorded entitlements but AIUI not the date of the test(s) passed. (Bear in mind computer storage in those days cost real money so you didn't capture data which wasn't needed.)

I don't know if DVSA have records inherited records by DSA from the system in Swansea but I doubt it very much. The licence is meant to be the authoritative evidence.

A big problem finding the exact date, a "non-problem" as far as insurance is concerned.

Tim

I last moved house in April 1978, and several times in the period from

Strangely, the current renewal quotation increases by £20 if I show the date on the licence (1977) rather than the date I know I passed my test (1970). Obviously I'm looking elsewhere.

The poor dear is 96 and doesn't remember very much at all now. Not sure her word would carry any weight with the insurance people.

DVLA were known for "losing" entitlements when licences were renewed or when a replacement licence was needed when changing address or adding new entitlements. People were urged to photocopy their licence before sending it off, and more so for those who passed tests before much of the system was computerised.

As you had to send in your paper pass certificate in the "old" days, you are of course stuck if a group vanishes off your licence.

The "validity from" would normally have come from adding a new group as a result of passing a test. A group entitlement is valid from the day you passed the test for that group.

Steve formulated on Tuesday :

Mine shows the date when my licence was replaced in 1979, after the previous one expired. I didn't gain any new groups then, or in the previous 15 or more years. The paper one I am using now, shows it is the 07th issue, I assume since the 1979 issue and due to address changes.

OP here - mine says issue number 63 which seems odd since it would only have been reprinted 4 times for the endorsements I received between passing the test in 1970 and the "valid from" date of 28/05/1977 - which must have been about the time of moving to my current address.