Hello all.
I am after some advice please.
My driving licence will need renewing March of next year however I plan on going abroad early january for 8 months.
Can I have a medical and renew my licence December so that when I come back to the uk after being overseas I can start work immediately.
Thank you
somtam:
Hello all.
I am after some advice please.
My driving licence will need renewing March of next year however I plan on going abroad early january for 8 months.
Can I have a medical and renew my licence December so that when I come back to the uk after being overseas I can start work immediately.
Thank you
If you have not had a licence issued since october 2012 then change your photo even if not out of date as that will give 5 years for LGV entitlement from the date of the new licence issue
ROG:
somtam:
Hello all.
I am after some advice please.
My driving licence will need renewing March of next year however I plan on going abroad early january for 8 months.
Can I have a medical and renew my licence December so that when I come back to the uk after being overseas I can start work immediately.
Thank youIf you have not had a licence issued since october 2012 then change your photo even if not out of date as that will give 5 years for LGV entitlement from the date of the new licence issue
For anyone else considering this beware of the following
The above as far as i’m aware works fine providing you have several months left to run on your current licence there maybe a cut off point of 3 months or more because as i and at least another driver found out earlier this year if you only have a month left before its due to expire they won’t issue a new licence with your LGV entitlement on it, or will write to you explaining this asking what you want them to do, Ie send out a licence without your lgv or you get a medical they also send out the forms for the doctor to fill in and application form which you need to complete ,but as you have already paid to update your photo/licence there’s no additional fee
You think can have your medical up to 3 months early.
I would go for what ROG has said. My medical was due September 2016, I renewed my photo online last month at £14 and now my medical is due 2021 
Funny thing is the ‘new’ photo from my passport is actually the same photo that was already on my licence so all I did was delay my medical.
shep532:
You think can have your medical up to 3 months early.I would go for what ROG has said. My medical was due September 2016, I renewed my photo online last month at £14 and now my medical is due 2021
No i know that you can’t, but i wasn’t suggesting that you could do a medical 3 mths early if you read what i said
What i said is, I and at least one other driver tried to renew/update our photo’s early 5 yrs early to take advantage of this loophole, but because we had only a short time left before our HGV entitlement expiry date (As medical was due) in less than 2mths time,
And the other driver who applied using the online method got his licence renewed minus his hgv entitlement, I used the post office method, and got a letter explaining that i could continue to drive lorries until my medical was due, but they were not going to issue a new licence and renew my HGV entitlement until i had had a medical , and asked if i wanted my new licence sending out without HGV Cat C, CE on it,
So because of this i think it highly likely that the DVLA have a cut off point if your c, ce entitlement is close to expiry date (medical is due ) possibly if less than 2-3 mths left to run, they will not renew your Bus/lorry categories without you doing a medical as you normally would Hope that explains in enough detail what i was alluding to
tommy t:
No i know that you can’t, but i wasn’t suggesting that you could do a medical 3 mths early if you read what i saidWhat i said is, I and at least one other driver tried to renew/update our photo’s early 5 yrs early to take advantage of this loophole, but because we had only a short time left before our HGV entitlement expiry date (As medical was due) in less than 2mths time,
And the other driver who applied using the online method got his licence renewed minus his hgv entitlement, I used the post office method, and got a letter explaining that i could continue to drive lorries until my medical was due, but they were not going to issue a new licence and renew my HGV entitlement until i had had a medical , and asked if i wanted my new licence sending out without HGV Cat C, CE on it,
So because of this i think it highly likely that the DVLA have a cut off point if your c, ce entitlement is close to expiry date (medical is due ) possibly if less than 2-3 mths left to run, they will not renew your Bus/lorry categories without you doing a medical as you normally would Hope that explains in enough detail what i was alluding to
Sorry - my post was meant to say ‘I’ think you can renew 3 months early … I typed ‘YOU’ instead of ‘I’ and didn’t read it after I posted) so you have taken what I said the wrong way. My fault. I believe a medical can be completed 3 months before expiry … or that’s what I seem to remember.
As for the renew your photo and avoid a medical - I cannot comment on what happened to you but it worked for me and I know plenty of others that have done the same. If the OPs licence was last issued before 2012 he can apply for a new photo now and he will get 5 years added onto his medical due date. Maybe - perhaps - with your application the DVLA had some other reason not to renew yours. I am 52 years old, my last medical was over 4 years ago but they have now given me to 2021 until I next need a medical … so it’ll be 9+ years between medicals for me. The only difference between your application and mine is that mine was done online and I doubt a human had anything to do with it … so maybe the online programming lets it slip through.
It didn’t work for me though…but I believe that was due to the fact I have to have a proper medical for a health condition…and a treadmill test every 2 years.
Well my previous licence was issued before 2012 the medical was due end of Jan16 my application iirc was done in Dec 15 & I’m only 50 and don’t have any medical conditions that would affect my entitlement to drive LGV’s and the reason that DVLA gave was my medical due date was to close , so they refused to renew my LGV without my doing the medical first , So I interpret that they must have a cut off point ,where similar applications will get dealt with in the same way as mine,
If you can have your driver medical upto 3 mths before it’s due , then that maybe its cut off date anything under 3 months left to run , you need to do a medical
So if you have over 3 months before your lgv entitlement is due to expire then you should be able to take advantage of this loophole
As for the online application method when i entered all my details it gave a warning about it would only issue a car licence licence without the lorry cat’s on it, did i wish to proceed , i chose not to do this, I recall another driver also considering doing the same, he ignored the warning and received a new licence with updated photo , minus his LGV categories