DVLA: Abolition of paper counterpart. Consequences for Hiring a vehicle at home or abroad

[stephenXL]

I have booked my summer holidays in Spain, also made a reservation to hire a car for the duration.

 

Just discovered that as of 8th June 2015 the DVLA are scrapping the paper counterpart of the UK drivers licence. This will have an enormous impact on everyone who wants to hire a car either at home or abroad. ............This is the first I have heard of this:

 

Check it out;

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driving-licence-changes

 

If this goes ahead...............you will have to get all this information before hiring any vehicle.

 

Any Thoughts?

[Raykay]

Most hire companies already have the ability to check licences on line or by phone, so it won't make any difference to them, and the rest will have the ability when the counterpart is abolished.

[stephenXL]

Most hire companies are, according to an article in todays Guardian, completely unaware of these changes, particularly those abroad.

[2ltr16valve]

You can check your licence online now.

 

https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence

 

I'm sure companies can also check the same way

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

Yes, hire companies are aware of this and just phone to check if they are unable to check online. No big deal. One less thing for us to carry and lose.

[topcat1802]

There are two things you can do

1. Keep hold of the paper counterpart - since these will no longer be issued after 8 June, if you change address the you will no longer have one anyway.

2. Take a printout of the information from the website with you - remember that when you print a web page the page is usually date stamped so presumably you should do this just before departing on holiday

 

 

Presumably other countries don't have problems with driver records when hiring cars!

[king12345]

No other eu countries apart from uk issues counterparts, so the hire companies don't even know that they exist.

My best friend travels abroad every month and rents cars.

He's right next to me and he hasn't seen his counterpart in 10 years.

You don't need it, all information required are on the plastic license

[DragonFly1967]

You don't need it, all information required are on the plastic license

 

Not exactly correct. Details of endorsements for example are not on the plastic licence, some hire companies (in the UK or overseas) might quite like to know that the potential hirer is a habitual speeder, or that they've been done for drink driving etc.

[king12345]

I've personally never been asked for a counterpart and I don't have one.

I have an Italian license and any points would be stored in the Italian dvla equivalent database.

Nothing on my license.