17 or 18 ?
Author
Discussion

mel

Original Poster:

10,168 posts

298 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
One of my colleagues is adam ant that the age for a provisinal license for a car has been raised to 18. He backs this up by sighting that his daughter has been told at school that because she was born in 1988 she has to wait till she is 18 although her friends in the same school year but born in 1987 can apply at 17. I just thought it was odd that this had crept by unnoticed or have I been asleep ?

pmanson

13,388 posts

276 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
As far as I know they talked about raising the age a few years ago but they never did.

IIRC you can apply for your provisional at 16 and 3/4 or something similar ready for your 17th birthday.

TDTH1975

631 posts

273 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
17 years old you can

motorbike up to 125cc, power motor tricycle, car with up to 8 passenger seats, vans and lorries up to 3500kgs laden large agricultural tractor, small road roller

18 years old you can

vans and lorries up to 7500kgs laden. In England, Wales and Scotland vans and lorries if you are a member of the young driver’s scheme (see below). In Northern Ireland, minibuses with between nine and 16 passenger seats towing a trailer up to 750kg if you are a member of the armed forces Medium lorries (in N. Ireland, medium lorries of between 3,500kg and 7,500kg towing a trailer up to 750kg.

fat chap

22 posts

280 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
Daughter, 17 in July received her provisional licence on her birthday.

Fat Chap

docevi1

10,430 posts

271 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
pmanson said:
IIRC you can apply for your provisional at 16 and 3/4 or something similar ready for your 17th birthday.


I did that albeit 4 years ago now.

xxplod

2,269 posts

267 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
TDTH1975 - law has changed. At 18 the maximum you can now drive is 3.5t. Anything bigger requires a further test. Law changed in circa 1997/98 I think, possibly a little later.

It's caused a lot of problems in my force, the young Officers can't frive the Ford Transit Multi-role van, which has a MGW of 3580 kg or similar. Real pain when a scrote is kicking off and you need the van!

WD*

4,045 posts

274 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
xxplod said:
TDTH1975 - law has changed. At 18 the maximum you can now drive is 3.5t. Anything bigger requires a further test. Law changed in circa 1997/98 I think, possibly a little later.

It's caused a lot of problems in my force, the young Officers can't frive the Ford Transit Multi-role van, which has a MGW of 3580 kg or similar. Real pain when a scrote is kicking off and you need the van!



I heard they had brought in some smaller vans of some description to combat this, as hasn't one of the categories on the licence changed, meaning anyone with a licence after a certain date can't drive something that older licences can?

pmanson

13,388 posts

276 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
docevi1 said:

pmanson said:
IIRC you can apply for your provisional at 16 and 3/4 or something similar ready for your 17th birthday.



I did that albeit 4 years ago now.



That makes 2 of us! I'm 22 in 4 months! Ouch!

How did you get on with your red light problem?

chris1roll

1,884 posts

267 months

Wednesday 11th August 2004
quotequote all
I passed in Nov 99 and I can't tow a trailer larger than 750 Kgs, or a combination of more than 3500kgs without taking another test (B+E)

Didn't realise this for a year!

Now having my father towing my stock cars about for me.

This winter i intend to save up and learn for my B+E test, which will cover me for (basically, witha few other conditions) combinations up to 7500 kilos MGW

>> Edited by chris1roll on Wednesday 11th August 22:57

docevi1

10,430 posts

271 months

Thursday 12th August 2004
quotequote all
pmanson said:
That makes 2 of us! I'm 22 in 4 months! Ouch!

How did you get on with your red light problem?

Just turned 21

Not so good, won't clutter this up, but posted what the end result was in the thread here

nonegreen

7,803 posts

293 months

Thursday 12th August 2004
quotequote all
Think u can still drive a 3 wheeler at 16 with reverse removed and no passeger carrying capacity (on a provisional license)as per motor cycle combination.

Dibble

13,257 posts

263 months

Thursday 12th August 2004
quotequote all
mel said:
One of my colleagues is adam ant

[eighties_Tipp-ex_across_the_nose_mode]Prince Charming, Prince Charming, ridicule is nothing to be scared of...[/eighties_Tipp-ex_across_the_nose_mode]

xxplod

2,269 posts

267 months

Thursday 12th August 2004
quotequote all
Our force has brought in some smaller vans to help solve the problem. It is the 3.5t MGW that is the issue. Having said that, we've also brought in new Mercedes Sprinters, which are even bigger and heavier than the LWB Transits they replace, and they require a separate driving course, assuming you're licensed to drive it in the first place!