Licence cards’ days likely numbered

Dudley Ashford, head of corporate and digital services at DVLA, told delegates at the Logistics UK Transport Manager conference that the vehicle and driver licensing authority was increasingly moving away from physical documentation.

“Five million people now have a digital DVLA account and can access vehicle taxation and driving licences from a single log-on,” he reported.

He added that there was considerable demand from the public for their driving licence to be issued as a digital document that could be stored on their smartphone rather than carried as a plastic card.

“The driving licence as a physical item is likely to disappear, to be replaced by a digital document,” he said.