New DVLA Procedure being launched from June 8th 2015
The paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence will not be valid and will no longer be issued by DVLA. The counterpart was introduced to display driving licence details that could not be included on the photocard. These details include some vehicle categories you are entitled to drive and any endorsement/penalty points. Please note, this does not affect photocard licences issued by DVA in Northern Ireland.
Paper driving licences issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998 will remain valid and should not be destroyed. If you need to update your name, address or renew your licence, you will be issued with a photocard only.
How This Affects You
If you are renting a car you will have to log on to the DVLA website and input your licence and National Insurance number. The system will then generate a one-time passcode, valid for 72 hours, which you can then give to the car hire company, so their staff can access your driving entitlements and endorsements (if you have any!).
Or, you can download a PDF from the DVLA before departing the UK, which will again detail entitlements and endorsements.
In the absence of clear guidelines from each car hire company, it would be sensible to generate the code and/or print off the PDF, before you go on holiday. Our information is, currently, the paper counterpart is not being asked for in most of EU Europe, but is being asked for in USA, and Ireland. This is a generalisation though, so better to be safe than sorry and do one of the above!
You, or the car hire company, will not be able to call the DVLA out of business hours, so if you plan to not generate a code, or print out the PDF, at the very least take your National Insurance number with you on holiday as with this and your driving licence number, you should be able to generate the code, and the PDF, from a computer at the check-in desk.