Free Traffic Legal Advice

I recently received a letter from our diligent and law-abiding friends at the DVLA, concerning my photocard driving licence.
In large letters at the top, it said

Reminder:
Your photocard driving licence is due to expire and you must renew your driving licence now

It went on to say that it expires at midnight on 05/06/2024 - almost 2 months after the date of the letter.

Now, I can be as pedantic as the next man when it comes to immaterial errors from those that ought to know better and have given me reason to wish them ill - but immaterial is immaterial, and there is no real misunderstanding.

Contrary to their false claim, I did not have to renew my licence "now" - I had until early June to surrender it (not that they were asking me to do that). There is no such time as midnight *on" 05/06/2024 - there is one between 04/06/2024 and 05/06/2024, and another 24 hours later between 05/06/2024 and 06/06/2024.

But this is all nit-picking - whilst I could wait until June to renew my licence, I might as well have done so straight away, avoid the risk of forgetting (and the photocard expiring - which is techncially an offence of failing to surrender it, that nobody cares about), and with these things if you renew when you get the reminder, the replacement always runs up to the appropriate anniversary of the expiry of the old licence/MoT/whatever..

Doesn't it??? Apparently not. New photocard expires 10 years less a day from the date of issue.

On the other hand, at least the requirement to renew the photocard every 10 years ensures that the old photo is replaced with a newer one. Doesn't it??

You might say that compared to abdicating their responsibility for ensuring that applicants have reasonable cause when selling keeper data, because it results in higher profit (albeit running at a loss if they include their statutory obligation to maintain the database, etc., and selling data to local authorities for pennies into their dishonest calculations), which results in higher bonuses this is a trivial issue - and it is, but as defences go - "yes, I broke the law, but so what, I usually do far worse" is not the best,

I received the same letter from the DVLA, threatening me with a £1000 fine if I didn't renew my licence.
When I received my first licence, back in 1973, it was supposed to be valid until my 70th birthday.
It's all very well saying I need to renew the photocard but, if I don't, aren't I still licensed until then?
I still have the green paper licence and there was no requirement to have a photocard with that.

I discovered when my wife renewed hers for the first time that they don't renew from the anniversary date, but from the date they process the renewal, so in other words if your licence expired on 1st July and you sent it off today the next expiry date could be 9th May depending on if they processed it as soon as it is received. Needless to say when it was time for mine to be renewed I sent it in a few days before and only lost 2 days. I'd have left it later but I've got a volunteer role where my licence is on auto check and if I let it expire I lose the driving entitlement, even though I rarely drive for them.

So if you renewed as soon as you had the letter over the course of your lifetime you could end up losing almost a year from early renewals.