Photocard Driving Licence Explained

FRONT OF THE PHOTOCARD DRIVING LICENCE EXPLAINED

• Your licence personal details (1, 2 and 3): Fields 1, 2 and 3 of your photocard driving licence display your surname, first names, date and place of birth.
• Date of driving licence issue, photo expiry, issuing authority (4): The date displayed in 4a is the date the photocard licence was issued. 4b displays the date the photocard must be renewed and 4cdisplays the authority that issued the licence (DVLA).
• Driver number (5): Driving licence number format explained.
  • JONES – Displaying the first five letters of your surname. If a surname is less than five characters in length, the remaining spaces will comprise of the digit 9.
  • 849339 – First and last numbers are the year of birth. The second and third numbers are the month of birth. (Note: in the case of female driving licence holders, ‘5’ is added to the second digit, this means that the second digit will be 5 or 6). The fourth and fifth digits are the day of the month of your birth.
  • TS – The first two initials of your forenames. If you have only one initial then the second character will be a ‘9’.
  • 8AD – Computer check digits.
  • ** – Licence numbers
• Licence holder’s signature (6): This is digitally reproduced and burned into the photocard from the signature you provided on the application form.
• Ghost photograph (7): This ghosted image of the licence holder’s photograph is a security feature.
• Issuing authority roundel (8): This shows the stamp of the EC authority that issued the driving licence.
• Holder’s address (9): This shows the licence holder’s permanent address in Great Britain.
• Holder’s photograph (10): This is digitally reproduced from the photograph provided by the licence applicant.
• Entitlement categories (11): The letters in capitals show the categories of entitlement covered by the European Community Directive. National categories are shown in smaller letters.

BACK OF THE PHOTOCARD DRIVING LICENCE EXPLAINED

• Production barcode (12): Used to link a photocard licence with its counterpart licence ready for dispatch.
• Not used (13 / 14)
• Pictograms (15): These illustrations are representations to easily explain the types of vehicles in those categories shown.

PROVISIONAL DRIVING LICENCE

A GB provisional driving licence contains the same information as a full licence. The letter ‘L’ displayed on the provisional driving licence has been placed by the DVLA since September 1999 on all GB provisional licences and confirms the holder is a learner driver.

DRIVING LICENCE CHECKING

As a business, it’s essential that you are aware of your employee’s driving licence status if they are required to drive a vehicle within working hours. Driver Check provides an online portal service to instantly check your employee’s driver licence, ensuring that you are aware of any compliance issues and be confident that they are road legal, protecting both the business and members of your team.

At the same time, if you run a business wherein employees drive their own vehicle in company time, it’s essential to check that they are abiding by the legal requirements – this is known as a ‘grey fleet’ vehicle check.