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Car Hire Abroad - Important Changes After 8 June 2015!

cafcfancafcfan
in Not Sports Related
This article indicates that the paper counterpart will be defunct after 8 June but you need to get a code from the DVLA instead if you are hiring a car abroad. But you can't get a code more than three days in advance of your hire - usual DVLA shambles presumably. Surely it's got to be easier than the article suggests?

bbc.co.uk/news/business-32481382

Comments

  • brogibbrogib
    There are 100's if not 1000's of expats driving around on the old paper licences without the photo cards over here, god knows whats gonna happen after 8th of June. I keep getting told by the ob here that my photocard (Wirh EU badge on and what we were told was meant to be valid across Europe when we paid 80 quid for it) ain't worth toffee here and that I need to get a French licence
  • MrLargoMrLargo
    Well I certainly hadn't heard that, so thanks for posting. Sounds like a ridiculous system thought up by total halfwits - I can therefore only presume that the DVLA sought advice from the senior management at South Eastern Trains.
  • cabblescabbles
    MrLargo said:

    Well I certainly hadn't heard that, so thanks for posting. Sounds like a ridiculous system thought up by total halfwits - I can therefore only presume that the DVLA sought advice from the senior management at South Eastern Trains.

    As I was reading your response to this I was thinking of putting up a witty retort linking this shambles to South Eastern, but you actually got their before me by the end of your sentence.
  • HastingsaddickHastingsaddick
    So does this effect anyone who just takes their own car to France.
  • PragueAddickPragueAddick
    brogib said:

    There are 100's if not 1000's of expats driving around on the old paper licences without the photo cards over here, god knows whats gonna happen after 8th of June. I keep getting told by the ob here that my photocard (Wirh EU badge on and what we were told was meant to be valid across Europe when we paid 80 quid for it) ain't worth toffee here and that I need to get a French licence

    Apparently if you live in another EU country for more than six months, you are supposed to get a national licence of that country. I've been here since 1993, and stopped loads of times by Czech plod, and none of them said anything. However we were discussing this on Friday in the pub and my Serbian buddy said he got into trouble because the same policeman stopped him twice in a few months and he'd told him a porky the first time. Of course he hasn't got the clout of an EU flag on his licence. I can't though understand why they have this requirement within the EU, we have pan- EU health cards.

    On R4 just now they said that within new DVLC shambles, the code is only valid for 72 hours. So if you are already abroad (they gave the example of San Francisco) and then decide to hire to get out of the city, you'll have to go on line there and try to get some printout from DVLC.

    This shambles will surely fall apart before it starts.
  • cafcfancafcfan
    brogib said:

    There are 100's if not 1000's of expats driving around on the old paper licences without the photo cards over here, god knows whats gonna happen after 8th of June. I keep getting told by the ob here that my photocard (Wirh EU badge on and what we were told was meant to be valid across Europe when we paid 80 quid for it) ain't worth toffee here and that I need to get a French licence

    It seems the old style paper licences carry on regardless. It's only the paper counterpart to the new photocard licence that's redundant - the bit that records all your endorsements. Wish I'd kept my old licence now - only switched over because it was falling to pieces.
  • brogibbrogib
    We've asked at the local Prefecture a couple of times and they said we gotta wait until we either get points (For speeding) or we're involved in an accident.

    lol Sums French bureaucracy up, love it!
  • PragueAddickPragueAddick
    brogib said:

    We've asked at the local Prefecture a couple of times and they said we gotta wait until we either get points (For speeding) or we're involved in an accident.

    lol Sums French bureaucracy up, love it!

    You mean wait to get a French licence? Did they also tell you whether you have to take French driving test? That's what really bothers me. To pass a Czech driving test I'd have to learn to drive like a complete nutter.
  • brogibbrogib
    Yes to get a French licence; I don't think we have to take a French test to get one though.
  • Dansk_RedDansk_Red
    This is the present UK rules if you have a foreign (EU) driving licence.

    You can drive in Great Britain on your full, valid driving licence until you’re 70, or for 3 years after becoming resident in Great Britain, whichever is longer

    You can drive in Great Britain for only 12 months if you got your EU licence by exchanging your non-EU licence.
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