Renew your licence, warns DVLA, as extension deadline nears
2nd Nov, 2021
You don’t need us to tell you about the lockdowns in 2020, so we’ll spare you the preamble. The important bit is that if your driving licence was due to expire between February and December of that year, it was understandably tricky to get your it renewed. Consequently, the DVLA granted everyone an automatic extension, which is due to run out at the end of this year. Now, that won’t be too much of an issue for you if you’ve already decided: I’m going to scrap my car. But if you’re planning on staying on the roads and you’ve not yet renewed your licence, here’s what you need to know.
What has the DVLA said?
As you might imagine, things are a little busy at the DVLA right now. Hit with the double whammy of Covid restrictions and subsequent industrial action over the course of the last 18 months or so, the agency is now cracking on as best it can with a huge backlog of applications. In August, there were reports that up to 1.4 million applications are apparently caught up in that backlog. Those worst affected are reportedly first-time drivers looking for a new provisional licence, as many have already been dealing with lengthy waits of up to several months.
The DVLA is now making progress through the paper applications submitted in August, but it’s still receiving something like 60,000 items in the mail every day. That effectively means that at any one time, there’s something like 400,000 items on-site. That kind of workload has obviously led to substantial delays, drawing ire from drivers and applicants. Regardless of that though, the message from the DVLA has been clear: backlog or not, drivers need to renew their licences by November 2021 to ensure they get theirs on time.
How can I renew my licence?
Basically, the DVLA says that the best way to do this is online. A spokesperson has said that there are no delays for people looking to renew their licence online, and so the agency is urging customers to renew through this route. As you’ve probably guessed, there are a lot of people still trying to get through to find out exactly when their licences are arriving, too, so the DVLA has requested that you hold your horses for a moment before you begin dialling that number.
“Please allow up to 10 weeks from when you sent your application to receive your driving documents, before you contact us.” That’s not us speaking on the DVLA’s behalf, that’s a quote directly from its website. You can check that link for more detailed information about how they’re progressing on everything, and when to get in touch. If you just need to get cracking on your renewal immediately though, you can follow this next link to renew your driving licence.
We should say that here at Scrap Car Network we’re not directly affiliated with the DVLA, so beyond a certain point your guess is as good as ours! Having said that though, we do know exactly how much of a hassle it can be to sort your paperwork, especially when it comes to scrapping your car. That’s why we always make sure to have your Certificate of Destruction to you promptly when you choose us to recycle your car, and we can even help if you’ve lost your V5C, too.
On the other hand, if you’re already sorted when it comes to everything paperwork related, and you’re ready to start on scrapping your car immediately, all you have to do is enter your car reg and postcode into the fields on our site, and we’ll get you an instant online quote before you can say cash for cars. It only takes a few seconds. Curious to find out how much your car is worth?
