New driving license plans scrapped

Plans to remove the paper component of the British driver’s license have been put on the back burner over concerns the new system would be too complicated.

The document was due to be retired on at the start of 2015 and replaced by an online system on January 1st, however the Freight Transport Association (FTA) believed that the new system would make checking a driver’s details costly and time consuming.

The scrapped system, which had been proposed by the DVLA, would have seen drivers logging in to an online portal to recover their driver records before printing them out to handover to the interested party. They would then have to verify the details on a spate system within 48 hours.

With Freight and haulage firms having to check the details of their drivers up to three times a year, the new system would have seen far more working hours devoted to the process, not to mention the additional printing costs. The current system is far more straightforward by comparison, with drivers only being required to hand in their paper license counterpart to gain instant verification.

In a statement, FTA Head of Policy for Driver Licensing welcomed the delaying of plans to remove the paper license but reiterated that a new, more sophisticated, electronic system is still needed.

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