Car Hire Confusion over new Driving Licence Rules - What does it mean for You?

There have been many newspaper and online articles over the last three weeks or so since the DVLA in Britain decided to stop issuing "Counterpart" paper driving licences. These counterpart documents had all the info about penalty points etc that someone at a car rental desk could look at. Personally since I have had a plastic card driving licence no one has asked for the counterpart, but apparently it could happen.
 
iCarhireinsurance sent an interesting email out yesterday - Thinking of hiring a car? Changes by DVLA could affect you. -

As you may already know, from 8 June 2015, the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence will not be valid and will no longer be issued by DVLA. If you are thinking to hire a car this summer, this could possibly affect you. 

What does this mean for you? Fortunately, we have a page dedicated to provide you with this information. I followed their link to the website and they had put together a very imforative page to help address this problem. 

 

They say that "The DVLA (The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) are going to get rid of their paper counterpart that accompanies all UK photo card licences from the 8th June 2015. Although this is quite a big change and has been widely reported in the media we don’t think that this is going to cause a massive problem for UK travellers this summer as long as you follow a few simple steps before you travel.

 

In the long run this move will probably be beneficial to car hire users as not having to worry about taking your paper counterpart on holiday with you to hire a car will ultimately be more straight forward and is the way that a lot of other EU licences operate anyway, however there could be some delays and confusion in the meantime as rental companies have to adapt their processes to cope with this change."

 

 

 

Going to the DVLA website they say.....

From 8 June 2015, the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence will not be valid and will no longer be issued by DVLA. The counterpart was introduced to display driving licence details that could not be included on the photocard. These details include some vehicle categories you are entitled to drive and any endorsement/penalty points.

Please note, this does not affect photocard licences issued by DVA in Northern Ireland

 

If you already hold a paper counterpart, after 8 June 2015 it will no longer have any legal status. You should destroy your paper counterpart after this date but you still need to keep your current photocard driving licence.

 

After 8 June 2015 if you are hiring a vehicle or you drive for a living and you are asked to provide evidence of your driving record (entitlements and/or penalty points), you will be able to do this online for free by accessing our Share Driving Licence service. This service is currently in development but will be available before the counterpart is abolished. The service should be used by both paper and photocard driving licence holders and will also allow you to download a summary of your licence record which can be printed or shared.
Alternatively you can call DVLA and give permission for your driving record to be checked verbally by a nominated person/organisation.

From 8 June 2015, you may wish to check with the hire company what they need to see when you hire a vehicle. If you are asked for evidence of what vehicles you can drive or confirmation of any penalty points, you will be able to request a unique code from GOV.UK which will allow you to share your driving licence details or you can download a summary of your driving licence record. The code will last for up to 72 hours and will allow the hire companies to make any necessary checks. You can also request a code by calling 0300 083 0013. This also applies if you have a paper licence that was issued before 1998.
Not all vehicle hire companies will ask for this information and we advise that you check with your hire company.

There could be some delays when you go to collect that hire car in the next few  months. The iCarhireinsurance article says There’s no need to panic so long as you still keep your paper counterpart for the time being, print off your details from the DVLA web service as well as generate their online passkey. Be prepared for longer queues and slightly confused staff at rental desk across Europe in the period immediately after this change even though we don’t think there will be major disruptions as a result of this it may take the industry a bit of time to adjust their processes completely to cope with this.
See article Here

Go to DVLA Here            
 See iCarhireinsurance Excess waiver insurance products here