Does the photocard licence has your test pass date on it?

[jondude]

Would appreciate if a photocard licence holder can confirm this as I'm hoping to hire a car in Florida, they won't accept the paper licence I have ( I believe?) AND they insist the photocard includes 'Date test passed' on it. The date of issue of licence is irrelevant to them.

Google and AI says yes, but it would be great to hear from an actual licence holder all is well on this.

[normalbloke]

Yes.

[vaud]

26 years since paper licenses stopped being issued… maybe join the 21st century?

[InitialDave]

jondude said:

they insist the photocard includes 'Date test passed' on it.

Not explicitly on mine.

The front has the date of issue of his licence, line item 4a.

The back has "valid from", line item 10, which is in effect when I passed my test.

[Simpo Two]

vaud said:

26 years since paper licenses stopped being issued maybe join the 21st century?

Why is a bit of plastic better than a bit of paper? I think I prefer the last century.

[vaud]

Simpo Two said:

Why is a bit of plastic better than a bit of paper? I think I prefer the last century.

If you don’t travel outside of the UK then maybe

But if other countries expect a photocard (unless technically possibly maybe they can accept it but it’s a rabbit warren of policy) then just get a photocard.

[Pica-Pica]

Not completely on mine.
Column 10 says
10.03.76 for category A
But
<10.07.75 for categories B1, B, and BE

In other words it just means 'sometime before 10 July 1975' for those categories. It was actually in 1966.

[The Mad Monk]

jondude said:

Would appreciate if a photocard licence holder can confirm this as I'm hoping to hire a car in Florida, they won't accept the paper licence I have ( I believe?) AND they insist the photocard includes 'Date test passed' on it. The date of issue of licence is irrelevant to them.

Google and AI says yes, but it would be great to hear from an actual licence holder all is well on this.

No, it doesn't.

It has a number of dates, but these may be when the photocard licence was issued, which is not the date I passed my test.

[Bigends]

The Mad Monk said:

jondude said:

Would appreciate if a photocard licence holder can confirm this as I'm hoping to hire a car in Florida, they won't accept the paper licence I have ( I believe?) AND they insist the photocard includes 'Date test passed' on it. The date of issue of licence is irrelevant to them.

Google and AI says yes, but it would be great to hear from an actual licence holder all is well on this.

No, it doesn't.

It has a number of dates, but these may be when the photocard licence was issued, which is not the date I passed my test.

Just checked mine..has the correct dates for when I passed my bike test and car test on the valid from column. Only got my photo card this year

[InitialDave]

Pica-Pica said:

Not completely on mine.
Column 10 says
10.03.76 for category A
But
<10.07.75 for categories B1, B, and BE

In other words it just means 'sometime before 10 July 1975' for those categories. It was actually in 1966.

Orright grandad.

[Somewhatfoolish]

The Mad Monk said:

jondude said:

Would appreciate if a photocard licence holder can confirm this as I'm hoping to hire a car in Florida, they won't accept the paper licence I have ( I believe?) AND they insist the photocard includes 'Date test passed' on it. The date of issue of licence is irrelevant to them.

Google and AI says yes, but it would be great to hear from an actual licence holder all is well on this.

No, it doesn't.

It has a number of dates, but these may be when the photocard licence was issued, which is not the date I passed my test.

At some point my bike licence date on it changed, then it changed back again. So I wouldn't find it super reliable. Wouldn't tell the lot in Florida that though!

[Landlubber]

It's ok, if you get stopped you're not driving, you're travelling.

[CanAm]

Mine has 2018 for AM, 2013 for A (I've never taken a motorcycle test, just had them as grandfather rights) and <1974 for all the other categories I'm entitled to. My test was well before then.

[fourthpedal]

That's odd. Most US licences don't show any kind of pass date. Not all states participate in the driver's licence database. So what do they do for the "locals"?

Most UK rental companies require you to have held a licence for at least 1 year, not sure how they'd enforce that for US licences either.

[CanAm]

Most of our members probably don't know that before the "paper licences" the previous licences were actually a small card booklet. I've still got mine 'somewhere' and will try and dig it out.

[vaud]

CanAm said:

Most of our members probably don't know that before the "paper licences" the previous licences were actually a small card booklet. I've still got mine 'somewhere' and will try and dig it out.

Also civilian driving tests were suspended from September 1939 to November 1946, a massive number of people simply walked into a Post Office and bought a driving licence without being examined. In fact, many older drivers in the UK were legally allowed to drive for their entire lives without ever sitting an official test.

My late grandfather being one of them, and boy was he a bad driver.

[Pica-Pica]

CanAm said:

Most of our members probably don't know that before the "paper licences" the previous licences were actually a small card booklet. I've still got mine 'somewhere' and will try and dig it out.

Was that the red one?

[CanAm]

Pica-Pica said:

CanAm said:

Most of our members probably don't know that before the "paper licences" the previous licences were actually a small card booklet. I've still got mine 'somewhere' and will try and dig it out.

Was that the red one?

Yes.

[CanAm]

vaud said:

Also civilian driving tests were suspended from September 1939 to November 1946, a massive number of people simply walked into a Post Office and bought a driving licence without being examined. In fact, many older drivers in the UK were legally allowed to drive for their entire lives without ever sitting an official test.

My late grandfather being one of them, and boy was he a bad driver.

And the test was only introduced in 1935; if you already had a licence you were never required to take a test.

My dad got his licence in WW2, based just on driving the tractors pulling bomb trolleys. Didn't take a test.

[Opapayer]

I’m glad we know the really useful fact the people aged between 98 to 104 might not have that on their driving licences. I’m sure the US hire car companies will be changing all their rules to accommodate these people. I mean it will be a huge chunk of their business every day.