Get your first provisional driving licence for a car, motorbike, moped or other vehicle from DVLA online. To apply you must:
Be at least 15 years and 9 months old
Be able to read a number plate from 20 metres away
Have been given permission to live in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) for at least 185 days
It costs £34 when you apply online. You can pay by MasterCard, Visa, Electron or Delta debit or credit card.
You can do this by using the following link
https://www.gov.uk/apply-first-provisional-driving-licence
If you applied for a provisional licence before 1 March 1973 you’ll need to use this service to get a new licence.
Before you start
You’ll need:
An identity document, such as your passport. See other forms of ID that are permissible
Addresses where you’ve lived for up to the last 3 years
You might be asked for additional information, such as your National Insurance number if you know it.
You’ll get a confirmation email from DVLA after you’ve applied.
Your licence should arrive within one week if you apply online. It may take longer if DVLA need to make additional checks.
When you can drive with a provisional licence?
There are different rules depending on your age and the type of vehicle.
Check what vehicles you can drive and when before you start to learn.
If you already have a provisional licence.
If you already have a provisional licence you can:
Renew your provisional licence
Replace your provisional licence if it’s lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed
Reapply for your provisional licence if you’ve been disqualified
Change the address on your provisional licence
Apply by post
Complete form D1 ‘Application for a driving licence’, available from the DVLA form ordering service or most Post Offices.
Send your application to the address on the form, along with a cheque or postal order for £43.
You can apply for a provisional licence at 15 years and 9 months old.
You can learn to drive a car and take a test at 17.
If you already have a provisional licence to ride a moped, you do not need to reapply.
If you have a disability or long-term health condition
In England and Wales
You can learn to drive a car and take a test when you’re 16 if you get any of the following:
the ‘mobility part’ of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) at the higher rate
the ‘mobility component’ at the higher rate of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for children and have applied for PIP - you must be receiving DLA before you turn 16 to be eligible
In Scotland
the ‘mobility component’ of Child Disability Payment (CDP) at the higher rate - you must be receiving CDP before you turn 16 to be eligible
the ‘mobility component’ at the higher rate of DLA for children and are waiting to be transferred to get CDP
the ‘mobility part’ of Adult Disability Payment (ADP) at the enhanced rate
the ‘mobility part’ of PIP at the higher rate and are waiting to be transferred to get ADP
You must do several things before you drive a car or ride a motorcycle. These include getting a driving licence, registering, insuring and taxing your vehicle, and getting an MOT.
Before you drive or ride
You must:
have the correct driving licence
be the minimum driving or riding age
meet the minimum eyesight rules
Learner drivers
You must:
be supervised by a qualified driver (except if riding a motorcycle)
display L plates (L plates or D plates in Wales)
Vehicle requirements
The vehicle must:
Be registered with DVLA
Have up to date vehicle tax (check if your vehicle is taxed online)
Have a current MOT certificate (if your vehicle needs one)
Be roadworthy
You must also have a minimum of third party insurance that covers your use of the vehicle.
Changes to personal or vehicle details
You must tell DVLA if you:
Change your name or gender
Change your address
Make any alterations to your vehicle
Sell your vehicle
Have or develop a medical condition
You’ll need to change your name on both your driving licence and your vehicle log book (V5C).
Driving larger vehicles or buses
There are higher medical and eyesight standards for driving larger vehicles.
You must tell DVLA if you have any driving convictions.
If you’re applying for a passenger-carrying vehicle (PCV) licence then you must also tell DVLA if you have any other convictions.
Showing your driving documents
If a police officer asks you to, you must be able to show:
your driving licence
A valid insurance certificate
A valid MOT certificate (if your vehicle needs one)
If you don’t have the documents with you at the time, you may be asked to take them to a police station within 7 days.
You can drive a car when you are 16 if you get, or have applied for, the enhanced rate of the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Rules for learning to drive.
You must have a provisional driving licence for Great Britain or Northern Ireland when you’re learning to drive or ride.
You must be supervised when you’re learning to drive a car. This can be by a driving instructor or someone else who meets the rules, for example family or friends.
The car you learn in must display ‘L’ plates.
You can drive at any time, day and night.
You can only drive on motorways if all of the following apply:
you’re driving in England, Scotland or Wales
you’re with an approved driving instructor
the car is fitted with dual controls
Speed limits
In England, Scotland and Wales the speed limits when driving with ‘L’ plates are the same as when you’ve passed your test.
In Northern Ireland the speed limit is 45 miles per hour when you’re learning to drive a car.
Anyone you pay to teach you to drive must be either:
A qualified and approved driving instructor (ADI)
A trainee driving instructor
You can find your nearest driving instructors.
There are different rules in Northern Ireland for choosing an instructor.
Instructors set their own prices for driving lessons - there’s no minimum or maximum cost.
Check your instructor’s badge
Instructors have to display a badge in their windscreen to prove they’re registered with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). They display:
A green badge if they’re a qualified driving instructor
A pink badge if they’re a trainee
You can report someone to DVSA if they charge for driving lessons and are not a qualified driving instructor or trainee.
Driving lessons
There’s no minimum number of lessons you must have or hours you must practise driving.
How many lessons you need will depend on how quickly you learn. You can download a form to record your progress with your instructor.
You can complain about a driving instructor if you’re not happy with their service or behaviour.
You can practise driving with family or friends. Anyone you practise your driving with (without paying them) must:
Be over 21
Be qualified to drive the type of vehicle you want to learn in, for example they must have a manual car licence if they’re supervising you in a manual car
Have had their full driving licence for 3 years (from the UK, the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein)
You can be fined up to £1,000 and get up to 6 penalty points on your provisional licence if you drive without the right supervision.
It’s illegal for:
your friend or family member to use a mobile phone while supervising you.
you to drive on the motorway when practising with family or friends.
Insurance
You need your own insurance as a learner driver if you’re practising in a car you own. Your family member or friend will usually be covered on this.
If you’re practising in someone else’s car, you need to either:
Make sure you’re covered by the car owner’s insurance policy as a learner driver.
Take out your own insurance policy that covers you driving in the car as a learner driver.
Some insurance companies require the person supervising you to be over 25 years old.
You can get an unlimited fine, be banned from driving and get up to 8 penalty points for driving without insurance.
Recording your practice
You can download a form to record any practice you do without your driving instructor.
So you've decided you want to learn to drive?
Hopefully that decision is purely yours and not your mates or family members getting on at you to do it.
If you are going to start driving lessons. Please ensure you are starting them because YOU WANT TO START THEM.
If the decision is not yours you will find that you are not fully engaged with the process, learning will take longer and you'll possibly not enjoy the process.
If the decision is yours then GREAT!
Things to expect.
Driving is not for everyone!
It's not necessarily going to be easy at the beginning for some.
Every learner learns at a different pace, so the fact you're mate may have completed the process in 10 hours does not mean it won't take you 100 hours.
You'll need to keep up regular lesson to gain structured learning with your instructor and to allow learning to take place giving enough time in between lessons to process the information you've recently been taught.
Having breaks in your learning is seriously not beneficial to you or your instructor.
You are going to need to do homework, especially when it comes to learning the theory. As much as your instructor will assist you as much as they can, the withholding of of information especially things like remembering what road signs mean and road laws, has got to come down to you in the exact same way that you possibly revised for your GCSE exams at school.
If you put in the time you have a much better chance of passing the theory test 1st time.
Theory test apps are great to assist you with the learning process but there's nothing that beats getting your head stuck into some books and learning not only what things mean by rote, but also why they mean what they mean.
On average, the Government guidelines for a learner with excellent learning abilities should take 47 hours of driving tuition with a qualified instructor and at least 22 hours of additional private practice outside of their normal lessons before even considering taking a driving test.
That is not to say you won't be ready quicker or take even longer, but the point is, is that you are prepared, confident and have experienced as many different situations, road conditions and weather conditions to prepare you for going it alone once you have passed the test.
It's very easy to find a driving school that may have a good pass rate, but every lesson you do only involves driving test routes around the area you take your driving test.
Brilliant, you may know every last route that you may be asked to drive on test day, and all the little catch out areas where common mistakes are made.
But how is that going to prepare you once you've passed your test?
If you've never driven country roads, dual carriageways, town centres, motorways, never driven in the rain, wind, fog, snow or bright sunny days.
You might cope if all you ever do is drive within your local area, but getting you outside your area is going to make things tricky for you.
You need to experience as much as you possibly can in the time you get with your instructor.
Push your boundary's and go as far and as wide as you possible can to get the broadest amount of experience as you can.
This will prepare you for a lifetime of safe driving. Driving test routes day in day out will definitely not.
Time and time again, when Mum and Dad are paying for the driving lessons, there is this belief that you should be ready for your driving test in 10 hours, because that's all it took them to pass their test.
Let's make a comparison of a test from 20-30 years ago.
The test lasted about 20 minutes
The test now is 38-40 minutes
The theory test involved 4-5 questions from a flip card in the car during the test and hazard perception had never been invented.
The test now requires you to learn and prepare yourself for a database of 736 questions and then be tested on 50 of those, along with hazard perception videos where you will need to score enough in both categories to pass the test before being able to take the practical test.
Driving independently was not part of the driving test for Mum and Dad.
The test now involves driving independently for up to 20 minutes by following a Sat Nav or following road signs.
Show and tell questions were never in the test, whereas now you have to learn about parts of the car and how they work whilst driving.
So learners now HAVE to learn ALL ancillary items within a car and explain basic maintenance procedures such as inflating tyres, checking oil levels etc.
Eco driving was never part of the driving test but is now assessed during it.
Manoeuvres were changed from reversing around a corner and a turn in the road to now include parallel parking,
forward and reverse bay parking and pulling up on the right hand side of the road.
Modern technology has seen many advantages for drivers but cars from 20-30 years ago were very simple in the fact that they didn't have all the extra technology to have to learn how to use them.
Cruise control, speed limiters, lane assist, hill assist, automatic braking, collision assist, stop start technology to name but a few.
Some obviously have made things easier, but the addition of them has made for the need of additional tuition for learners to know how to use them.
In the last decade the UK roads have seen an increase of over 7 million more cars on the road, making the total to now over 33 million cars.
More technical junctions, smart motorways, spiral roundabouts, traffic light controlled roundabouts, narrow residential roads. more parking restrictions, the introduction of the Hierarchy of road users.
The introduction of learners being able to take motorway lessons.
All of this has put additional learning time on to a learners training programme, so 10 hours is just not a practical amount of time to cover all of this additional training.
Your parents have protected you against danger or injury right up to this time.
Now give us the time to encourage and teach safe driving for life to continue to keeping your children safe FOR LIFE!
Once you have reached a standard to be capable of passing the DVSA driving test, ALL good instructors will let you know.
No instructor can stop you booking your driving test, but EVERY instructor can refuse to accompany you to the test, especially in their car.
When you are at the standard, they will advise you, and it is then your choice as to when to book your test.
Arrange a suitable time and day that both you and your instructor are available and everyone remains happy.
Booking a test without your instructors consent might well find you without an instructor to take you.
In summary.
Want to start lessons yourself.
Put in the time and effort to become the best driver you possibly can.
Work with your instructor to get the best out of them and utilise their superior knowledge as road safety experts to benefit your experience.
Ask as many questions as you possibly can.
Get demonstrations from them if you are struggling with particular subject.
But most importantly, ENJOY THE PROCESS!
if you are not enjoying learning with the instructor you are with, then you are possibly with the wrong instructor.
NEVER feel that you cannot change your instructor.
You need to be with one where you can build a mutual rapport where you never feel intimidated to ask questions,
make mistakes, and learn at your own pace.