Given wrong category on license,what to do?
Given wrong category on license,what to do?
Author
Discussion

rumpelstiltskin

Original Poster:

2,805 posts

281 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
Someone i know passed their car driving test but they were given the extra entitlement category to drive Hgv,s!What does he have to do in this situation,and what hapoens if he does nothing?

Lord Flathead

1,288 posts

201 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
Nothing will happen wink

Thebest

7 posts

192 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
That's dishonest.

gsfrontera

516 posts

222 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
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Contact the DVLA, and tell your mate not to even think about driving a HGV for a living... He will crash, and thats if he does manage to get moving!

spectra1976

34 posts

192 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
DVLA will have the entitlements that this person is meant to have and what was printed on the license is obviously a mistake which will be checked and become apparent whenever he is involved in something when driving what they should not be driving. I would personally contact the DVLA and get the matter sorted.

TheEnd

15,370 posts

210 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
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I'd be tempted to do nothing, and just avoid becoming a Lorry driver.

BliarOut

72,863 posts

261 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
spectra1976 said:
DVLA will have the entitlements that this person is meant to have and what was printed on the license is obviously a mistake which will be checked and become apparent whenever he is involved in something when driving what they should not be driving. I would personally contact the DVLA and get the matter sorted.
You'd be surprised, but they don't. The DVLA quite often lose entitlements!

XG332

3,927 posts

210 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
The DVLA can be pretty useless from time to time. I have a friend whos drivers license picture is just the top left hand side of his head, Basically his hair and an eye.

I believe the DVLA wanted to charge him to change it. (dont quote me on this though)

Gareth79

8,698 posts

268 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
spectra1976 said:
DVLA will have the entitlements that this person is meant to have and what was printed on the license is obviously a mistake which will be checked and become apparent whenever he is involved in something when driving what they should not be driving. I would personally contact the DVLA and get the matter sorted.
I doubt the licence was printed incorrectly, the master database was updated incorrectly and they have issued him with a licence to drive those vehicles.

IMO *technically* it means he can drive them legally.

As mentioned when people have LOST categories the DVLA refuse to do anything unless they are given the ORIGINAL test pass certificate, nothing less, a photocopy of the old licence is not enough, even if signed off by sombody reputable. The person is told they must immediately stop driving those vehicles until they have retaken the test.


Rubin215

2,084 posts

218 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
DVLA are also pretty good at losing categories off a licence when you change it.

There have been several media reports of motorcyclists losing entitlement, including one who was a Plod biker.

He still had to resit his test, even though his employer could pretty much guarantee they had trained and tested him in the first place.

Flintstone

8,644 posts

269 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
gsfrontera said:
Contact the DVLA, and tell your mate not to even think about driving a HGV for a living... He will crash, and thats if he does manage to get moving!
rolleyes Because driving a lorry is really, really difficult? I'm not saying any potential employer wouldn't ping him but it wouldn't necessarily end in a ball of flame at the first corner.

shuvitupya

3,309 posts

239 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
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All lorry drivers seem incapable anyway, judging by number of motorway related accidents, so who would notice?

jondude

2,429 posts

239 months

Wednesday 29th December 2010
quotequote all
Rubin215 said:
DVLA are also pretty good at losing categories off a licence when you change it.

There have been several media reports of motorcyclists losing entitlement, including one who was a Plod biker.

He still had to resit his test, even though his employer could pretty much guarantee they had trained and tested him in the first place.
This is very true and it was a major scandal as the DVLA were hopeless and would not compromise, even though the mistake was theirs. I think that unless they have (or you can get) the driving test pass certificate (the one you send as proof of passing the test)then you are 100% stuffed.

Naturally, for many bikers here they had sent the papers decades ago. The DVLA printed loads of licenses with errors, but refused to rectify the mistakes as they could not find the pass papers.

So your friend should be very, very sure he will be able to prove he passed the test before even speaking to someone at the DVLA. If they have the pass certificate on file, all is well... (should be).

Gareth79

8,698 posts

268 months

Thursday 30th December 2010
quotequote all
jondude said:
This is very true and it was a major scandal as the DVLA were hopeless and would not compromise, even though the mistake was theirs. I think that unless they have (or you can get) the driving test pass certificate (the one you send as proof of passing the test)then you are 100% stuffed.

Naturally, for many bikers here they had sent the papers decades ago. The DVLA printed loads of licenses with errors, but refused to rectify the mistakes as they could not find the pass papers.

So your friend should be very, very sure he will be able to prove he passed the test before even speaking to someone at the DVLA. If they have the pass certificate on file, all is well... (should be).
I think you missed the question - the OP's friend has HGV on their licence when they never even took the test.

Also, the reason why the DVLA can't find pass papers is that they don't keep any paper records at all, hence the problem. The computer is the entirety of the records they have. They kept the old paper licences for something like 28 days before shredding them, so the only official record of the categories had been destroyed by them, and the driver was f**ked.



hidetheelephants

33,363 posts

215 months

Thursday 30th December 2010
quotequote all
Gareth79 said:
spectra1976 said:
DVLA will have the entitlements that this person is meant to have and what was printed on the license is obviously a mistake which will be checked and become apparent whenever he is involved in something when driving what they should not be driving. I would personally contact the DVLA and get the matter sorted.
I doubt the licence was printed incorrectly, the master database was updated incorrectly and they have issued him with a licence to drive those vehicles.

IMO *technically* it means he can drive them legally.

As mentioned when people have LOST categories the DVLA refuse to do anything unless they are given the ORIGINAL test pass certificate, nothing less, a photocopy of the old licence is not enough, even if signed off by sombody reputable. The person is told they must immediately stop driving those vehicles until they have retaken the test.
My bold, how can that be even remotely defensible(never mind legal), as it constitutes a record of your entitlement?

streaky

19,311 posts

271 months

Thursday 30th December 2010
quotequote all
hidetheelephants said:
Gareth79 said:
spectra1976 said:
DVLA will have the entitlements that this person is meant to have and what was printed on the license is obviously a mistake which will be checked and become apparent whenever he is involved in something when driving what they should not be driving. I would personally contact the DVLA and get the matter sorted.
I doubt the licence was printed incorrectly, the master database was updated incorrectly and they have issued him with a licence to drive those vehicles.

IMO *technically* it means he can drive them legally.

As mentioned when people have LOST categories the DVLA refuse to do anything unless they are given the ORIGINAL test pass certificate, nothing less, a photocopy of the old licence is not enough, even if signed off by sombody reputable. The person is told they must immediately stop driving those vehicles until they have retaken the test.
My bold, how can that be even remotely defensible(never mind legal), as it constitutes a record of your entitlement?
A photocopy is not (necessarily) a definitive document - Streaky

tvradict

3,829 posts

296 months

Thursday 30th December 2010
quotequote all
I believe DVLA have come up with a compromise wrt the category losing business, JUST IN CASE, if you send them a SAE together with your licence for whatever change you are having done, they will punch a hole through the photo and return your old licence to you so you then have a record.

It did seem a bit strange that with all those people losing entitlements, they were insisting on seeing ORIGINAL test pass certificates, the very document you send to the DVLA in the first place to have the entitlement added to your licence. Morons.

I didn't trust them when it came to photo renewal last year, just said I lost my licence, paid my £20, which is the fee to change the photo anyway, and kept my old one safe incase they made a rip roaring ccensoredt of it. I've got Motorcycle and HGV on mine, the 2 entitlements people kept losing.

Engineer1

10,486 posts

231 months

Thursday 30th December 2010
quotequote all
Gareth79 said:
spectra1976 said:
DVLA will have the entitlements that this person is meant to have and what was printed on the license is obviously a mistake which will be checked and become apparent whenever he is involved in something when driving what they should not be driving. I would personally contact the DVLA and get the matter sorted.
I doubt the licence was printed incorrectly, the master database was updated incorrectly and they have issued him with a licence to drive those vehicles.

IMO *technically* it means he can drive them legally.

As mentioned when people have LOST categories the DVLA refuse to do anything unless they are given the ORIGINAL test pass certificate, nothing less, a photocopy of the old licence is not enough, even if signed off by sombody reputable. The person is told they must immediately stop driving those vehicles until they have retaken the test.
Now correct me if I'm wrong but don't you send your test pass certificate to the DVLA, who don't send it back. But either way you would have to be massively organised and psychic to realise you needed to keep the form, especially those of us who received the old paper licence initially.

gsfrontera

516 posts

222 months

Thursday 30th December 2010
quotequote all
Flintstone said:
gsfrontera said:
Contact the DVLA, and tell your mate not to even think about driving a HGV for a living... He will crash, and thats if he does manage to get moving!
rolleyes Because driving a lorry is really, really difficult? I'm not saying any potential employer wouldn't ping him but it wouldn't necessarily end in a ball of flame at the first corner.
Give an artic to someone who has never driven anything bigger than a transit van, and you think it wont end in disaster... Oh, and yes, driving a lorry is really really difficult, especially if you have only got your car entitlement on your license!

Anyway, bet your one of those who has drove for a few years and believe you can drive "anything with wheels" because youve got a bit of experience on the school run...

BliarOut

72,863 posts

261 months

Thursday 30th December 2010
quotequote all
streaky said:
hidetheelephants said:
Gareth79 said:
spectra1976 said:
DVLA will have the entitlements that this person is meant to have and what was printed on the license is obviously a mistake which will be checked and become apparent whenever he is involved in something when driving what they should not be driving. I would personally contact the DVLA and get the matter sorted.
I doubt the licence was printed incorrectly, the master database was updated incorrectly and they have issued him with a licence to drive those vehicles.

IMO *technically* it means he can drive them legally.

As mentioned when people have LOST categories the DVLA refuse to do anything unless they are given the ORIGINAL test pass certificate, nothing less, a photocopy of the old licence is not enough, even if signed off by sombody reputable. The person is told they must immediately stop driving those vehicles until they have retaken the test.
My bold, how can that be even remotely defensible(never mind legal), as it constitutes a record of your entitlement?
A photocopy is not (necessarily) a definitive document - Streaky
I had mine photocopied and witness signed at the police station when I handed it in. The police seemed to understand my reasoning completely and were happy to help.