Banning drivers of MH's and minibuses at 70 y.o.
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Caz
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Ignoring for the minute the current possible increases to allow for heavier electric vehicles to be driven on a standard B driving licence - this "news" from the Birmingham Mail is ancient history, not news! They are 25 years behind the times. Must be desperate for something to fill their ancient history - oops sorry I meant news papers.
The New Driver Act which came into force in 1997 restricted the standard B licence to 3,500 Kgs. Those of us who had already passed our car driving test retained, under "grandfather" rights, the higher 7,500 Kgs limit. However, our licences were only ever valid until our 70th birthday, at which point we had to reapply to keep them - and at that point, unless you specifically requested that you kept all the categories shown on your expiring licence, DVLA only issued folk with a standard B licence, as if they were new drivers.
Many drivers didn't realise this, and carried on driving the larger vehicles and/or towing over the weights and/or whatever else they'd been driving before. There was a bit of an uproar amongst motorcyclists because DVLA weren't even carrying over Category A automatically.
It's quite simple to retain the extra driving rights on renewal at age 70 - just fill in the form correctly to keep motorcycle licence as it is; for larger vehicles and/or minibuses you do need to have a medical and send the application form in by post, but it's pretty straightforward.
The possible increases in weight limit haven't been decided yet for the UK and are a totally different issue.
The New Driver Act which came into force in 1997 restricted the standard B licence to 3,500 Kgs. Those of us who had already passed our car driving test retained, under "grandfather" rights, the higher 7,500 Kgs limit. However, our licences were only ever valid until our 70th birthday, at which point we had to reapply to keep them - and at that point, unless you specifically requested that you kept all the categories shown on your expiring licence, DVLA only issued folk with a standard B licence, as if they were new drivers.
Many drivers didn't realise this, and carried on driving the larger vehicles and/or towing over the weights and/or whatever else they'd been driving before. There was a bit of an uproar amongst motorcyclists because DVLA weren't even carrying over Category A automatically.
It's quite simple to retain the extra driving rights on renewal at age 70 - just fill in the form correctly to keep motorcycle licence as it is; for larger vehicles and/or minibuses you do need to have a medical and send the application form in by post, but it's pretty straightforward.
The possible increases in weight limit haven't been decided yet for the UK and are a totally different issue.
izwozral
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Remember, it is incumbent upon you to inform the DVLA of any change in your circumstances, regarding any deterioration of your medical condition, if it presents a risk to you and other road users.
SimonM
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It’s done to scare you into what the possibility could be if you can’t retain your C1 and need to set your sights extremely low.So, we are discussing weights of motorhomes and the required license to drive vehicles over 3.5, also mini buses....
All prompted by the picture of a car towing a caravan
Robmac
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So, we are discussing weights of motorhomes and the required license to drive vehicles over 3.5, also mini buses....
All prompted by the picture of a car towing a caravan
No that's a 3 wheel motorhome tailgating the car in front Tim.
