From 8 June 2015 the paper counterpart of the photo card licence will be officially withdrawn.
At the same time paper driving licences will no longer be updated with endorsements so from then on the records held by the DVLA will be the only way of checking motoring convictions.
This will affect anyone that is planning to hire a car in the UK or abroad because hire car companies won’t be able to easily see any convictions that a driver has.
The new procedure is that drivers will need to download a special code from DVLA’s website and give this to the hire car company, enabling them to check your details. HOWEVER, this code will only be valid for 72 hours so you may need to get the code while you’re away if you’re hiring a car during your trip.
That’s progress!