As the last century went on, owning a car in the UK became more and more affordable for the masses. But with rising insurance and car tax, fuel at over £1 a litre, and the increasing chance of getting caught by speed cameras, cars are an expensive convenience.
However, if the freedom of owning a car is worth the expense for you, or you need transport for your job, getting yourself on the road as a new resident is quite simple.
Most cars in the UK are manual gearshift so if you have learned to drive in an automatic vehicle, you may need to retake your driving test, learning to drive a manual vehicle. Look through our "Find a..." section for British driving schools that can arrange this for you.
Is your driving license valid in the UK?
EC/EEA* license-holders
If you hold an EC/EEA driving license, you’ll be glad to hear that you can drive in the UK without any worries. You don’t need to take any new tests, do any training or even exchange your license, although the majority of you will have to get used to driving on the left-hand side of the road.
While you are in the UK, your current license will allow you to drive a car until the age of 70, as long as you are at least 17.
Once you are insured on a car, you can start driving straight away (unless you have any illnesses which might affect your driving - when you should inform the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) immediately).
However, you also have the option to register with the DVLA as a car driver with an EC license. If you do this you will receive a British license counterpart. A modern UK driving license consists of a photo-card and the counterpart - this is the paper part of our driving license. This means if you receive any fines for traffic offences, you will get fixed penalty points (see below) rather than having to go to court, which you would if you have only an EC license.
If you don’t really need to keep your original license, you can simply exchange it for a British one by contacting the DVLA.
Holders of non-EC/EEA licenses
If you hold a driving license from a non-EU/EEA country, the rules are different. You can drive legally in the UK under your current license for up to 12 months. But you must pass a British driving test if you want to carry on driving after this period. This means if you don’t want to have a period of time where you can not drive, you must obtain a provisional license from the DVLA and pass the test within twelve months of moving to the UK.
To apply for a provisional license, you need to complete a D1 form, which you can get from any Post Office or order on the internet. You need to complete this form and send it to DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1AD together with a fee (£50.00 in Summer 2010), a passport-size photograph and some documentation proving your identity. You should expect it to take about three weeks for the DVLA to send your license.
If you do not want to keep your original license, you can choose to exchange your foreign license for a British one if you are from Gibraltar or one of the fifteen designated countries listed, below:
Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands***, Hong Kong, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea***, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Zimbabwe.
Car tax
In the UK we don’t have many toll roads. You will find you only have to pay to use a small number of privately-run roads such as the M6 toll road, and to cross some bridges, such as the Dartford crossing.
This is because we pay for the upkeep of the British roads by paying a car tax for each car we own. For this we receive a tax-disc which must be displayed in the front window of the car.
This could cost you anywhere between £35 and £300 a year! If your car was registered before 01/03/2001, then the amount you pay depends on the engine size. But if your car was registered after that, you will be charged according to how low your car’s exhaust emissions are – i.e. how bad it is for the environment! That means the car tax can cost you up to £435 due to the amount of CO2-emission.
If you buy a car which has no current tax disc then you must fill in a V10 form which you can get from a Post Office. You can also pay your car tax at the Post Office, but you must take your other car documents with you: Vehicle Registration Document, Car Insurance and MOT certificate.
If you just need to renew your car tax, you will get a reminder through the post when it is due to expire. You can then take this to the Post Office, or much easier, pay online or over the phone on 0870 850 4444.
Speed cameras and penalty points
There are now 6,000 speed cameras, catching nearly 2 million people a year across the UK. Much to the annoyance of most British motorists, you can’t go far these days without passing one.
Even the most careful of drivers can get caught out by these machines, and every time you get ‘flashed’ by one, you’ll get a £60 fine and three points on your license - once you collect more than 12 points, you will be banned from driving in the UK. (If you don’t have a British license, or haven’t registered with the DVLA as a foreign driver, you will have to go to court to receive your penalty.)
But if you keep your eyes open, you can usually see where the cameras are, and avoid some nasty fines! The speed cameras are always signposted – with a picture of a camera and a sign saying something like ‘police speed check area’ - and are often accompanied by white lines on the road.
Now you have all you need to know, you should be raring to get on the road, and into the Great British traffic jams - good luck!
*EC (European Community) and EEA (European Economic Area) countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Republic of Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
***Motorcycle entitlement from the Republic of Korea and Faroe Islands is not exchangeable.
If you have any need for services related to this article, have a look in our "Find a..." section.
By John Hillman
Transport 
