The few, the brave - those of us taking driving lessons right now!

YAY Mrs. R!!!!! Congrats!!! You will have your license soon! When is your deadline? (ie, when are you heading back to the states?) Good luck with the rest of your lessons and practical test! 

Yay I passed!  I got 47 out of 50 on the multiple guess part, and 57 (or something like that) out of 75 on the hazard perception part.

Congratulations!   

it is hard not to feel that sometimes, here, the whole learning-to-drive thing is a bit of a racket/cottage industry - to make money for the DVLA and create the career opportunities for driving instructors...it all seems designed to trip you up at every opportunity, make it as difficult as possible to get your licence, etc - thereby raising more dosh for the DVLA & for driving instructors.   

And that's a feeling shared by many people who grew up here too.  It's certainly changed somewhat from the "old school" tests that those of us over a certain age took here.

Yippee Kai Yay, Mrs R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!   


And that's a feeling shared by many people who grew up here too.  It's certainly changed somewhat from the "old school" tests that those of us over a certain age took here.

So you can probably remember the drivers license being in a red hard covered small book and being good for the rest of your life?

I found my husband's old British passport going through some papers. Holy cow! It was like a tiny red hardback book. That thing was serious.

Congrats, Mrs R! I got as far as looking up the name of a local driving instructor today 

This is a bit off topic (well, not really).  While I was reading the latest posts on this thread I saw an ad (on this site) for a company called idrivinglicence.com.  They claimed that there is a perfectly legal way for US drivers license holders to swap for EU licences...then presumably to swap again for a UK licence!  This looked very fishy to me.  None of the EU countries I've looked at allow such a swap unless you are a resident and only a few will do a swap even then.  They wanted 399 euros and guaranteed the swap without even going to the country.  I'd be very interested to hear someone's thoughts on this who is in a position to properly evaluate the site.
If it's a scam then they really shouldn't be allowed to advertise on this site.

So you can probably remember the drivers license being in a red hard covered small book and being good for the rest of your life?

I'm too young to have had one of those, but I still have one of my mother's.   They were renewed every 3 years though.  It was after DVLC (now DVLA) was created and everything centralized that they introduced the "giant sheet of pink wallpaper" licenses, valid right through to one's 70th birthday.

There's some background (with pictures) on pre-DVLC licenses here:

http://www.metadyne.co.uk/Driving%20Licences.pdf

I found my husband's old British passport going through some papers. Holy cow! It was like a tiny red hardback book. That thing was serious.

Passport?  Or driving license?   

This looked very fishy to me.  None of the EU countries I've looked at allow such a swap unless you are a resident and only a few will do a swap even then. 

It looks rather fishy to me too, or at least very dubious.  They claim that they're exploiting loopholes and that it's supposedly legal, but it seems doubtful to me.  For example:

First way is to exchange your current driving licence, you complete our application form and we print it out and translate some of your driving licence and translate the application form, put it all together and apply for an E.U. licence. This is a way to obtain driving categories that you select on the application form as the foreign issuing authority will look at the translation and not the licence.

So I'd say you're obtaining a license based upon a falsified translation.

And:

The second way is to make a declaration that your licence has been lost/mislaid/stolen in a certain country that we know about. No other proof that you have even passed a test is required, just your sworn declaration. They will issue you with a temporary driving licence which we can then get translated and exchanged for an E.U. licence. SNEAKY? Yes, but Illegal? We have been advised NO.

So even if the license issued is valid and can be swapped legitimately for a U.K. license, it seems to involve a little perjury along the way. 

It looks rather fishy to me too, or at least very dubious.  They claim that they're exploiting loopholes and that it's supposedly legal, but it seems doubtful to me.  For example:

So I'd say you're obtaining a license based upon a falsified translation.

And:

So even if the license issued is valid and can be swapped legitimately for a U.K. license, it seems to involve a little perjury along the way. 

That's what I thought too.  I was really quite amazed to see this site advertised on our forum.  Perhaps noone checked it out.  I hope nobody who's going through preparations for the UK tests will be taken in by this. 

On a more personal note:  I'm still taking lessons with my original DI but am getting a bit frazzled.  I am lacking in confidence and find his style a bit intimidating.  He yells at me a lot...for instance, if I wait for an oncoming car at an intersection and he thinks I should have gone ahead, he'll say 'why did you wait??'  As though I were totally wrong.  If I slow down by tapping the brake a few times (not jerkily) he yells at me for not doing it right, etc, etc, etc...I am getting to really dread my lessons and feel huge relief when they're over.  My hubbie and I are taking some dance lessons from a couple nearby and we discovered that the guy is getting his driving instructor's cert.  He said he was almost fully qualified (can now legally teach but can't yet charge for the lessons).  He said he thought a lot of DI's were really abrasive and not very good at instilling confidence...this really clicked with me...I didn't even mention how my DI was.  But I started thinking about how much my DI's style affects my confidence (in a negative way).  I'm not ready to dump him, but definitely need to discuss how his style is making it more difficult for me to learn.   

Passport?  Or driving license?   

Passport. I just happened to think of it when the old-style driving license was mentioned. Sounds like a similar thing. Serious as a heart attack, it was.

The reason I was a little confused is that the burgundy-red passport introduced in the late 1980s is the current style, more or less. 

The older British passport with very solid covers (and oval cutouts on the front for name and passport number) is a very dark blue-black color.

Licenses are governed by each individual state, not by the central Federal Government. So, if the UK wanted reciprocal agreements they would have to make them with each individual state. I don't see this as a problem on the State end

Aren't the states forbidden by the constitution from entering into agreements with foreign governments?

Aren't the states forbidden by the constitution from entering into agreements with foreign governments?

Good question contrex...that may take of bit of time and research to answer. Unless someone else on the forum has a degree in Constitutional law. Hmm...

The reason I was a little confused is that the burgundy-red passport introduced in the late 1980s is the current style, more or less. 

The older British passport with very solid covers (and oval cutouts on the front for name and passport number) is a very dark blue-black color.

That's what I was going to say - my parents' pre-1990s UK passports were dark blue with hardcovers, then when they renewed them in the early '90s, they got the new soft-covered burgundy ones. Passports issued between 1920 and 1988 looked like this (that one is from 1924!) and since 1988 they have looked like this.

The older British passport with very solid covers (and oval cutouts on the front for name and passport number) is a very dark blue-black color.

Oh. Hm. Maybe it was blue. It didn't have a cutout, though.

Gosh, you'd think a professional illustrator would have a better visual memory! 

Aren't the states forbidden by the constitution from entering into agreements with foreign governments?

OK I think I found what you may have been referring to:

Constitution of the United States Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 (Compact Clause): No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

But I wouldn't think this would have anything to do with an agreement regarding driving licenses or lack thereof.