UK driving licence fees fall

Cost of provisional licence will fall from 31^st Oct 2014, to £34 from £50, while cost of renewing licence online will drop to £14

The cost-cutting measure, which will see the price of a provisional licence fall to £34 from £50, was announced by ministers, who estimated it would save all new drivers in the region of £80m over the next decade.

Other cuts coming into effect on 31 October include the costs of renewing a licence online every 10 years, reduced from £20 to £14, and a tachograph card used by businesses to monitor how far staff drive, which will fall from £38 to £32.

Transport minister Claire Perry said: “The cost of driving, especially for young drivers, can be significant and we are committed to cutting costs where we can. Thanks to DVLA making large-scale savings to their running costs, we have been able to cut the cost of the driving licence which will save drivers and businesses £150m over the next 10 years.”

The agency processes 1m “first licence” applications every year and the fees drop is expected to save new drivers £82.2m over 10 years, with more than 77% of these applications made by 17 to 24-year-olds.

In addition 2.1m  photocard licences are renewed every year, meaning motorists already on the road would save £61.3m collectively over a decade.

Businesses make another 85,500 renewals a year and will save £2.44m over 10 years while the cost savings to tachographs will save another £3.58m over the decade.

Read full story at :  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/25/uk-driving-licence-fees-fall

Cost of driving lessons and insurance blamed for drop in young learners

The percentage of 17-20-year-olds with a provisional driving licence has fallen from 43% to 36% in recent years

Getting behind the wheel is no longer such an attraction for young people  in Britain. Applying for a provisional driving licence was once a rite of passage, but since the 1990s boom there has been a big dip in the number of young learners.

While many younger drivers share their parents' car, the costs of learning, and insuring a car for a teenage driver, are blamed for the decline. The percentage of 17-20-year-olds with a provisional licence has fallen from 43% to 36% in recent years – with little more than 30% of girls in the age group now learning to drive. In the 1995-97 peak years more than half of males aged 17-20 were on the road.

According to the most recent National Travel Survey, young people are mainly put off by the prohibitive cost of lessons, followed by soaring insurance premiums and the cost of purchasing a car and keeping it on the road.

Beyond costs, some speculate that the use of mobile phones has made young people more content to travel as passengers on public transport, where they can stay online through the journey.