Odd symbol beside HGV entitlements on licence

Total nerdy point, but I’m curious as to what it means.

I’m used to the licence codes and what they mean, eg 01, 101, 107 etc but here’s something which I’ve rarely seen, a “less than” symbol beside the start date for both C and CE entitlements, like this: <01.04.91
I’m guessing this means his entitlement predates this date and some rule change was brought in at some point which led to the use of this symbol. There’s nothing I can find on gov.uk about it, anyone have any ideas?

It also means before, the dates shown.

Sapper

Zac_A:
Total nerdy point, but I’m curious as to what it means.

I’m used to the licence codes and what they mean, eg 01, 101, 107 etc but here’s something which I’ve rarely seen, a “less than” symbol beside the start date for both C and CE entitlements, like this: <01.04.91
I’m guessing this means his entitlement predates this date and some rule change was brought in at some point which led to the use of this symbol. There’s nothing I can find on gov.uk about it, anyone have any ideas?

Yep means he/she had the old (classy) hgv licence book, a brown hardback cover originally issued by the local traffic area offices.

They later amalgamated it onto your bog standard driving liccence when the cards were produced.

Sand Fisher:

Zac_A:
Total nerdy point, but I’m curious as to what it means.

I’m used to the licence codes and what they mean, eg 01, 101, 107 etc but here’s something which I’ve rarely seen, a “less than” symbol beside the start date for both C and CE entitlements, like this: <01.04.91
I’m guessing this means his entitlement predates this date and some rule change was brought in at some point which led to the use of this symbol. There’s nothing I can find on gov.uk about it, anyone have any ideas?

Yep means he/she had the old (classy) hgv licence book, a brown hardback cover originally issued by the local traffic area offices.

They later amalgamated it onto your bog standard driving liccence when the cards were produced.

I had a wee brown book.
I also had a smaller red one.
.
No CF. Not anything political.