In-Law and the case of the long expired provisional

Brando_ie

I wonder if anyone can cast any light on the following.

Mother in law originally got a provisional license ages ago (for ease lets say 30 years ago) gave driving a bash for a while and although was okay (husbands opinion) but never pushed on with getting her full license (prob got used to being chauffeured around instead). She recalls getting more than one provisional so at a guess she had at the very least her 1st and 2nd provisional and possibly even her 3rd (assuming that was the system back then?), but never applied for a test and has long since mislaid whatever (albeit long since expired) documentation relating to her previous driving experience.

Fast forward to today. Her husband is becoming increasingly invalid and she sees an imminent requirement to get herself on the road, so the question is, what are her options?

Can she apply for a provisional license now, and how does that work? Is she considered a brand new driver (which is totally reasonable IMO) and subject to the theory test. Clearly she does not have evidence of either her old provisional license which may make the theory test moot and doesn't have any evidence of a previously failed driving test (and even if she did it would be 20-30 years old and irrelevant) and clearly cannot apply for a test with no valid license.

We have been mulling over it and cant seem to come up with anything that makes any sense. A call to the local license authority may well provide an answer but I tend to think that when making a peculiar query like this it is always better to have an idea of how this situation works in case you have to rattle the correct procedure out of whoever happens to answer the query?

Do any boardies have any experience of this and any useful advice would be greatly appreciated.

Deu

I had one provisional and it expired more than 5 years ago last year. I then decided I want to drive again. Had to apply for everything as if I was a new driver. Theory test, Learners Permit and then do the test.

I was in the same boat and this was just when the new permit came in nobody new anything much about what to do.


Thanks

Deu

L1011

She's classed as starting afresh - my father was in the same situation with a lapsed licence - albeit in the 1990s. Time to get the theory test book out...

galwaytt

there's nothing for it I'm afraid, you have to start from scratch.

Theory test, learner's permit, test, full licence (restricted).

I'd advise getting some lessons a.s.a.p. if her husband is to be the passenger, then she'll need him to keep his licence up to date, just to be allowed to chauffeur him around...........

....mmm, unless you do PSV, I guess.........??