Just a quick question for the collective 
Am i correct in thinking that after taking the practical driving test( and passing) you DONT have to have to hand in your license to the examiner . I.E .you can send it off yourself at a later date to have full entitlement added.
You see i have a holiday booked and i want to try and get my training done before i go , i need the liscence for the hire car whilst away ,so dont want to risk not getting it back from dvla in time .
cheers mike
Yes you are allowed to send it off yourself
You have two years from the date of test pass to send off your pass certificate with either your provisional or full entitlement which acts as your provisional for LGV/PCV categories to have it added to your licence. If you dont then you have to contact DVLA to inform them of what /why you took so long at exchanging.
The examiner sends in his half and it goes onto your driving licence document trail,as a test passed in X category then after two years it changes to an unclaimed test pass on the trail,so,to answer your question you dont have to give the examiner your licence.
Stefluc
Yes you are allowed to send your licence off you self
IIRC when I sent mine off it only took a few day for it to come back ( less than a week )
Thanks guys 
Hi,
That is correct you can send your test pass certificate to DVLA yourself.
I must admit I thought you have to do this within 12 months and (as stated above) not 2 years.
If you do not send these docs of to DVLA with 12 months you would have to pass the test again.
Good luck!
hgvlgv training
I must admit I thought you have to do this within 12 months and (as stated above) not 2 years.
It is 2 years - but any right minded person would get it sorted asap.
Good luck, Pete 
i was also under the impression you could send your licence off yourself after passing a test, i passed my CAT C in dec 09 and was given the option by the examiner to send it off myself or he would keep it and send it for me, i left it with the examiner and got it back in a week. I then passed my C+E in dec 10 and was not given the option to send it away myself, i did want to do that this time as i was moving the next week and didnt want any confusion in where i wanted the licence sent too, i asked the examiner if i could do it myself and she said there had been a recent change of rules where they kept the licence and returned it to you by post from the DVLA.
in regards to the last post this is what i was told by my training provider also as i want to do my cpc at the same time so would of sent them together s been told do cpc during my training then do test and send together by givingto examiner so knowing if this is totally true would be great
It’s absolutely your choice whether to get the new licence issued direct from DVLA or if you want to send it in.
The most important thing is to note that if you pass your CAT C before your Mod 4 you need to hold onto your licence as it has to be presented for the Mod 4.
Once everything is passed, simply send in the pass cert for the CAT C with both parts of the provisional licence. You do not send in anything for the driver cpc. This will register automatically and a card will be generated and sent to you. You do not send the pass cert for Mod 4 to Swansea.
Hope this helps, Pete