Provisional Driving Licence - Your First Step To Driving

Posted: Feb 05, 2011 |Comments: 0 |

It is time for your seventeenth birthday and that can mean only one thing.  It is time to apply for your provisional driving licence!  In the UK the minimum legal driving age is when you are seventeen years old. There are a few different ways you can apply for your licence in the UK, which we will briefly outline here.

You can go to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and fill out an application form there. More conveniently, you can apply at most Post Offices, which means there is somewhere close to where most people live. The other route is to apply online using the official website, which is the system most recently made available.

Whatever route you choose to apply through, you will need a passport photo and some form of identification. A valid passport is ideal, or there are other options you can use, such as your birth certificate, provided that you also use another form of ID along with it. It will cost you fifty pounds to get your provisional driving licence for a car or motorcycle.

The DVLA will return your documents (not your licence) to you in ten working days. It will take approximately three weeks to get your new provisional document back from them.

What Forms Must I Fill Out?

When applying for a provisional driving licence for a car you will fill out the official form D1.  This is for the document that you must have before any other type of driving permit.  If you already have your paper document and wish to apply for a provisional licence for a larger vehicle, minibus or buses you must fill out forms D2 and the medical form D4.  The D4 form must be completed and signed by a doctor.  It is very important that all information is completed correctly and in full.  These forms are all available from the DVLA ordering service.

Minimum Age Requirements for Different Vehicles

You will be able to drive cars and light vans with your provisional permit at the age of 17.  These vehicles can have a maximum authorized mass or total weight of no more than three thousand five hundred kilograms.  That includes the weight of passengers and any trailer that you may also be towing.

You must be at least eighteen years old to drive a vehicle weighing between three thousand five hundred kilograms and seven thousand five hundred kilograms. The trailer can weigh no more than seven hundred and fifty kilos.  If you do have a trailer weighing more than that then you have to be at least twenty one years old.

To drive a minibus or a bus you must be at least twenty one.  These will hold more than eight passengers.

If you are a member of the armed forces you may drive all vehicles at age seventeen.

Finding Car Insurance for 17 Year Olds

If you are 17 and have your provisional driving licence you may have already realized it is going to be difficult to get insurance.  It is illegal to operate a motor vehicle on any UK road without insurance, so what are you supposed to do? You would probably be smart to be added to your parents insurance.  With so many insurance companies refusing to insure 17 year olds, you may have no other choice for a while. Take care to do this properly though, rather than deliberately misleading the insurer about who is the main driver of the car.

You could also take the Pass Plus course.  Insurance companies will look more favorably on you if you have taken this driving course.

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