Foreign driving license exchange

Andreas van heerden made this Freedom of Information request to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was refused by Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Andreas van heerden
Delivered

Dear Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency,

I moved to the UK about 2 years ago from South Africa to join the royal marines. For the first year I was allowed to drive motorcycles and cars in the UK. I held a South African motorcycle license and Truck License. After my first year (when my allowed period ended) I converted my Truck License to a UK one but could not be given a car license even though I had been driving for 7 years. The policy is that you can change a car license for a car one. And motorcycle for motorcycle. But not truck licenses. This much I understand. With a truck license in South Africa you are allowed to drive any vehicle smaller than that. Thus it should be possible to exchange a truck license for a car license here. I will be deploying with the military within the next couple weeks so I wont receive feedback, but will this be fixed in the future?

Yours faithfully,

Van Heerden

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FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Thank you for your email unfortunately this is not a request for recorded information, as this is a personal enquiry regarding your own driving licence, information released by DVLA under the FOIA is considered to be information disclosed into the public domain. By releasing the personal data of an individual into the public domain, DVLA would be in breach of Data Protection Law.

I have forwarded your email to our Customer Relation team if you have any further enquiries please use following link:
https://www.gov.uk/contact-the-dvla or call 0300 790 6801 for Driving Licence enquires

regards

Freedom of Information Team
Strategy, Policy and Communications Directorate | C2E |  DVLA | Swansea | SA6 7JL

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Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Dear Van Heerden

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

We appreciate you have taken the time to contact us in relation to this
matter.

 

We can only exchange small vehicles, such as cars, with a South African
licence. 

 

If you have passed a car test in South Africa, we can exchange the car
entitlements, but nothing higher such as lorries.

 

If this is not displayed on the truck licence, you can send a certificate
of entitlement from the South African authorities with your application.
The certificate must confirm that you held full car entitlement after
passing a test. 

 

I trust this information is of assistance to you and answers your entire
enquiry.

 

If you require further assistance, please contact DVLA via the following
link: https://www.gov.uk/contact-the-dvla

 

 

Best Regards

Ben

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