A bit of advice needed really.
Just noticed my HGV driving licence expires 3 April next year.
Now with the notoriety and well known incompetence of DVLA when should I start applying to make sure I get it back in time.
I know it’s 6 months away, but how long does it normally take them to sort it,.and what is the maximum application period…or is it minimum.,.anyhow you know what I mean.
I’m maybe being a bit previous here, but last time I seriously ■■■■ ed up, left it too late,.and couldn’t drive for a few weeks until new licence arrived.
Thanks in advance.
According to Gov.uk website DVLA will send you D47P (renewal) and D4 (medical)forms before your licence is due for renewal
As I recall as long as you have submitted your application prior to renewal date you can still drive until such time your renewal has been processed.
It doesn’t seem to be an issue any more, over the past three months two of my drivers have had their renewed licences returned to them in a matter of a few weeks.
I still tick the boxes for Section 88 though: written proof from Doc they’re fit to drive according to the guidance for medical practitioners, copy of application and D4 medical made, sent recorded delivery and receipt of application checked (online) after a few days.
If your renewal needs to be referred to the medical section renewal tends to take a little longer so it might be worth applying for a licence renewal package via the govt website about 4 months before expiry date, also get a doctors appointment fix as soon as you have the form, or before if whoever you use tends to be busy.
Your medical is valid for 4 months from whence carried out.
I recently sent both the V5 for my car and my driver’s license for a change of address. I tried without success to use the DVLA website to change the licence address, but it wouldn’t accept my input for some reason. I sent it registered post to the appropriate address.
Whadya know, both items back in the same week. 5 working days for both.
Mine took 2 weeks and that included a back & forth as I hadn’t noticed my photo had also expired…
This was in Feb this year.
I was paranoid about having the correct form but sent the one I had downloaded anyway , the correct form arrived not long before I got new licence back.
Not that my trust levels in all government departments is next to nothing[emoji16][emoji16]
Just renewed mine, only to change photo & address it only took one week to come back. Obviously if you need a medical because hgv entitlement is expiring i would just apply for it on the earliest date possible.
I recently sent both the V5 for my car and my driver’s license for a change of address. I tried without success to use the DVLA website to change the licence address, but it wouldn’t accept my input for some reason.
You can’t renew the photo or licence online if you have a lorry or bus licence. It may be that the same applies to address changes? That’s just a guess though.
Wouldn’t panic as you can drive under the now (almost as famous as yourself) section 88 while they process it. Pretty sure a huge chunk of the driving population were running under that over past couple of years.
Helps if you send it special delivery just to get the proof of delivery and have copies of licences, but I did that for 7 months without issue.
As for timing, to make themselves look good it seems they are processing new arrivals quickly and slowly working through the backlog. I know people in the same company who’ve sent it recently and got it back within 2 weeks, and others who are waiting months still for non complex renewals. DVLA are still as useless as ever, they are just better at hiding it.
I think you can be too early with your application though. To quote DVLA: “Your new licence will be valid from the date your application is approved, not from the expiry date of your current licence”. Say your licence expires Nov 28, DVLA will in theory be sending your renewal forms tomorrowish (56 days before expiry). If you have your medical organized already and if DVLA are moderately efficient in processing your application your new licence could be issued by end of October but with an expiry date of, say, 28 Oct 2023 (if it’s a 1-year licence) instead of the 28 Nov you might have been thinking. Effectively you’ve lost a month - not a big deal maybe if it’s a 5-year one but a sizeable chunk otherwise.
You can gain by it too. A mate of mine had his first over 65 renewal a few years ago. He sent his forms back a week before the expiry date (recorded delivery of course) notifying them of a recently diagnosed cardiac arrythmia, and got his new licence about 3 months later He’d been driving all that time under section 88 with clearance from the doctor. So he in effect got a 3-month extension on his licence.The following year again he sent the forms back a week before expiry and got his new licence just over 2 weeks later, gaining a 1-week extension. The next year it was the automatic 1-year extension due to covid. Last year once again he posted the forms a week before the mid-September expiry date and got his new licence at the end of February this year with an expiry date of Feb 28 2023 - a 2 and a half month extension. He reckons he’s going to keep doing this till he’s had the equivalent of 1 year’s free extension (not counting the covid one) then he’ll retire. He’s only half-way there, so he might need a helping hand from DVLA strikes/gross inefficiency or another pandemic.
Thats weird Shug, mine has just arrived this very morning, licence was issued on the 27/9, valid until 30/10 next year same anniversary date as usual.
What has always annoyed me is that on the new licence it looks like i’ve had an artic ticket since 1991, yet got the licence and passed my hgv test in '76, sadly like many i didn’t realise the real lorry driver’s licence was being replaced with a credit card instead, had i known that that they would be destroyed i’d have kept the old one for posterity and declared it lost at the time.
Shug:
I think you can be too early with your application though. To quote DVLA: “Your new licence will be valid from the date your application is approved, not from the expiry date of your current licence”.
That bit applies to online renewals of a regular car or motorbike licence (which you cannot do if you have a lorry or bus licence). It applies to renewing the licence itself (ie the expiry shown at 4b on the face of the licence), not to the renewal of your lorry or bus entitlement (shown in the column at 11 on the reverse of your licence).
Shug:
I think you can be too early with your application though. To quote DVLA: “Your new licence will be valid from the date your application is approved, not from the expiry date of your current licence”.
That bit applies to online renewals of a regular car or motorbike licence (which you cannot do if you have a lorry or bus licence). It applies to renewing the licence itself (ie the expiry shown at 4b on the face of the licence), not to the renewal of your lorry or bus entitlement (shown in the column at 11 on the reverse of your licence).
I should have read that more carefully.
However…I’ve now seen three of my mate’s last four licences and these are the expiry dates:
1- 10.09.2019
3- 16.09.2021 (previous licence)
4- 26.02.2023 (current licence)
It must be to do with the renewal application having to go through the medical section then.
(I miscalculated in my previous post. He’s now had just over 9 months of “free extensions”, not 6).
