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Is it a legal requirement that you carry your driving licence and insurance certificate in your car?
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No, you just have to be able to present them at a police station within certain number of days (they give you a document called a "producer" I believe, instructing you to present your documents at the station).
I think it is generally considered inadvisable to keep documentation in the car, in case it is stolen, and that documentation making it easier for the stolen car to be sold.
Last edited by: SteelSpark on Fri 31 Dec 10 at 12:45
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Depends where you are driving. In the UK, no.
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Legal? Well here is a reply given by those who enforce the law:
www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q648.htm
"It is an offence ... "
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I can see the wisdom of not carrying documents in the car but what if you're not able to produce them (on holiday a long way from home, hospitalised etc) within the allowed seven days?
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"but what if you're not able to produce them"
Immediate incarceration for life without appeal I should think. Why not keep your license in your wallet?
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>> Why not keep your license in your wallet?
My licence won't fit in my wallet. I'm one of the few people who still has a paper one (on pink coloured paper) with the plastic pouch that DVLA used to supply with them.
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>> >> Why not keep your license in your wallet?
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>> My licence won't fit in my wallet. I'm one of the few people who still
>> has a paper one (on pink coloured paper) with the plastic pouch that DVLA used
>> to supply with them.
I've got one of them, too - in a box of stuff, somewhere. I hope I don't ever have to find it quickly!
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All the information is computerised nowadays...so any police officer can check the computerised system.
In a number of decades of policing I have never known anyone be prosecuted for failing to produce when they do in fact have the required items...e.g. delay due to holiday.
In the old days there used to be a somewhat bureaucratic system for dealing with 'producers', even then a late production would get a letter of caution or something equally meaningless. Nowadays 'producers' are not issued unless there's a specific difficulty e.g. no insurance showing on the computer, but the driver has a reasonable answer, that's believed.
The answer on the 'Ask the Police' column above, is IMO ambiguous. You have always been required to produce your documents to police on demand, but equally so have always been given the option of producing them in 7 days at a police station specified by you if you do not have them with you (driving licence in person, to check the signature; insurance or MOT by anyone). I have never known anyone be told they'd be prosecuted for the original non compliance, then have the matter dropped when they've produced within 7 days. You'd be prosecuted if you didn't comply with either (i.e. produce at the time or within 7 days).
So, to answer the OP's question you do NOT have to carry your docs with you..and never have done.
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my brother was stopped in dover last year on the way to a holiday.
he was asked to produce docs but told them he would be away for 3weeks and the policeman said it wouldnt be a problem.
i think going into mainland europe withoit his documents was very foolhardy
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>> i think going into mainland europe withoit his documents was very foolhardy
Yup, may not be an offence here but carriage of license, insurance and V5 equivalent is mandatory in many european countries.
Even in France, where I have a basic grasp of the language, I'd be chary of tangling with authority. Mind you, the odd time I've seen the Gendarmes or whatever force does these things at the roadside they've waved UK cars straight through.
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I take my car out of the country fairly often and even in the UK am often far away from home. I keep an envelope with photocopies ( rather than originals ) of my relevant documents hidden in the car at all times.
Not of course in any way legal proof of anything but on the odd occasions I've needed them they have been accepted by police in this country and abroad and also by car hire firms when I've had to unexpectedly hire a vehicle.
I also keep a spare credit card and about £10 in loose change hidden in a cunning place in the car and an old, spare, "pay as you go" phone with an in car charger.
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I keep important documents scans in my Dropbox (Passport, insurance, license, visa, bank statements, credit cards) on my computer, and these sync to Dropbox on my other computers and best of all, to my iPhone, so I can access any important document when on the road or at work.
It's the future man.
www.dropbox.com
Last edited by: sooty tailpipes on Sat 1 Jan 11 at 17:21
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I use dropbox too. Used for all my travel docs in the states. I also scanned them or emailed them to a googlemail account.
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I don't use DropBox but have encrypted copies of documents on my web-based email account.
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Yes I do as well. All my travel based stuff is on there as well as scans of driving licences and passports. Very useful.
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>
>> So, to answer the OP's question you do NOT have to carry your docs with
>> you..and never have done.
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Would you be kind enough to point this out to VOSA, please?
According to them, vocational drivers (ie HGV and PSV) should at all times carry BOTH parts of their driving licence with them.
I always carry the plastic part, but the paper bit stays in my strongbox at home.
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I've only been VOSA'd once, about 8 or 9 years ago.
Didn't have my licence with me, and I don't recall it being a problem. The only issue they had with me was the lack of any previous tachograph discs, but at the time I was running the office and had only gone out in the truck for a one-off job.
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Sat 1 Jan 11 at 21:33
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Carrying documents in your car - Clk Sec
