The European Union Third Directive on driving licences comes into effect on Saturday 19 January 2013. All new driving licences from this date will have to meet the terms of the Directive. The changes will affect motorcyclists, lorry, bus and minibus drivers and anyone towing a trailer. The new style licence will look different to the existing one. All vechicle categories will be listed on the back of the licence with the dates against the relevant entitlements. So what is different? Below are the main changes that will come into effect on the new new licence:

• all dates will be shown as DD.MM.YYYY
• categories shown will be separated by a slash
• the date in 4b will show the licence expiry date
• all vehicle categories will be listed on the back of a licence
• the expiry date of entitlements will be shown against the category

For more information see here.