My gripe with theDVLA is as follows, if you have a medical condition and you have a 3 year or 1 year licence, you get a letter about a month before it's due to expire, and providing you send the forms back and your doctor ot consultant has no concerns about you driving then you are covered by a section 88, which is a substantive driving licence, but the wisdom of the DVLA is to put you on the system has driving with a expired licence, which causes the driver to get a court summons, if you reply with a not guilty plea but not show up even though you may have submitted proof of a section 88 notice or letter, you are given a second court summons, which if you don't show up to that one, a third summons goes out, but this time, a police arrest warrant goes out, and if they catch you, you will be banged up until the court date, I hear you say, how do I know, because it happened to me quite a few years ago in Guildford, I contacted Guildford police and spoke to the person dealing with the case, who just happened to have been a traffic cop for 10 years, I gave him the details, he read my section 88, he then contacted DVLA as to why they don't put the correct details regarding people's licences for medical conditions etc, they simply replied "because we dont", the copper phoned me back, subsequently closing the case and stopped the warrant for my arrest, he then spoke to his chief whoever, who also rang DVLA and was told the same thing. It's bad enough having a illness, then to have to reapply for your licence every 3 years or if you're unlucky every year, but to have to go through the problems of court attendances or arrest warrants etc, but DVLA are so slow in responding to your application, many times I've been told that they have received my paperwork and it's in a pile to be sorted which could take up to 12 weeks to complete, which I suggest pick a few unemployed people who can do the job, because clearly you can't, they then unprofessionally hang up. |
