Explaining The Provisional Driving Licence

So you are all ready to start your driving lessons. You have a driving instructor lined up and you are excited about getting behind the wheel and learning skills that will give you more freedom and offer enhanced career opportunities.

However, before you get started, you need to get your hands on a provisional driving licence. Here we will examine how to go about doing that and, as importantly, what you can do once you have it.

Getting The Licence

To get your hands on your first provisional driving licence, you need to head to the gov.uk website and create an account, if you don’t already have one. This is important, as you need a Government Gateway ID before you can start the process.

You are able to apply for the licence when you are 15 years and 9 months old. However, when learning to drive a car, you won’t actually be able to use the licence until you are 17 unless you have applied or have the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) enhanced rate of mobility component. If you do, you can start driving a car at age 16, which is also the age when you can start driving mopeds and quad bikes.

Further, you need to be able to read licence plates from a minimum distances of 20 metres, plus you will need to provide some form of identifying document during your application, along with passport photos, unless you have a biometric UK passport, in which case the details from that passport will be used in creating the licence.

Having your national insurance number helps, but is not essential to the process. However, you will need to provide your addresses over the three years prior to application.

Finally, a payment of £34 must be made, which can be done online using a debit or credit card while applying.

Best of all, your provisional licence only expires on your 70^th birthday, meaning you have plenty of time to get your driving lessons sorted.

What it Enables You to do

The most important thing that your provisional licence enables you to do is drive a car while under supervision. For most of us, that will mean driving with the help of a driving instructor, however, many may wish to continue their tuition with a friend or family member.

If that is the case, there are a number of restrictions to keep in mind. You must be accompanied at all times by somebody who is over the age of 21 and has held a full driving licence for at least three years. Further, this person must be sat in the front seat of the car whenever you drive and must also be capable of driving during your sessions. That means no form of intoxication, so do not drive alongside somebody who has consumed alcohol.

Further, the person accompanying you must be qualified to drive the vehicle you are learning in, so somebody with an automatic-only licence cannot accompany somebody in a manual vehicle, or vice-versa.

Finally, ‘L’ plates must be displayed at all times when you are behind the wheel and you are not allowed to drive on the motorway with your accompanying driver.