Something very dodgy, for somebody who appears completely incapable of learning or changing their ways to be allows into a car on a public road seems madness. It just can’t be safe or fair on other road users

I think they were saying this morning that there are 10,000 people with driving licences in the UK who have 12 points or more.

If the genuine hardship that allows them to keep their licence is that genuine, then these people should understand the importance of staying within the limits to keep their licence.
I don’t know why with driving, people are allowed to get away with so much….

R4 this morning there was a lawyer on whose line was
– someone’s insurance could lapse as a complete accident because they failed to update their debit card/direct debit
– that gets 8 points

Hmmm. Well, the Gov.UK website says that’s 6 points not 8. And they need another 6 points on top of that to actually hit 12.

As above and in the BBC piece, you could get multiple penalty points from speed cameras and be completely unaware. Personally I think that needs changing.

You could try not breaking the law in the first place.

I’ve been driving since 1995, I’m not going to claim to be some sort of driving god or make out that I stay totally within the law. I think I am just a normal driver, but I take it seriously and don’t drive like a dick.

I have no points on my license and never have.*

I don’t GAS about peoples hardship. If I can manage to drive for 22 years without getting a single point, speeding ticket or ever being stopped by the police others can, they just don’t care!

*Go on tell me I’m orsumz!!

What a stupid thing to say. 🙄

If they introduced shorter bans for fewer points it would be harder to claim your life was in ruins in front of a gullible magistrate. Six points = six weeks without a licence.

How do you make progress?

If it’s been accumulated over time, I don’t think that’s acceptable- in fact the whole “exceptional hardship” thing strikes me as mostly bullshit, if you desperately need your car to work or live you should drive carefully. But it seems like if you’re a professional driver or you have a special need, it’s almost licence to drive badly.

But if it’s been over a really short time as it could be, it does feel a bit different. They’ve just changed the speed limit near me and I’m sure if there was a speed camera there they’d catch some people doing 29 in a 20 twice a day and they could tot up 60 points before the first NIP arrived… Just to give a silly example.

some points can be awarded without the car being driven.

Tower Bridge was a classic example of that Northwind – they changed it from a 30 to a 20 overnight with no warnings, no signage, etc.
The only place it was noted was on the City of London website which of course you are expected to visit to ensure you knew they’d changed it.
Their excuse for not ammending the signage?
“Listed monument status”
So 29mph at 5:30am the following day got 4 points and a £240 fine with £40 costs and £10 victim surcharge.
For 11 vehicles in a convoy going “somewhere”

Please stop doing that

Please stop doing that too!

As noted yesterday I, briefly, followed an Octavia doing 50mph in the middle lane of the M56 (70mph limit). I imagine it was a speed that was comfortable enough for him to read the emails (or whatever it was that he was reading) on his phone!
He probably hates speeders too.
#SelfAware

No it wouldn’t, they’ll (possibly) be dull and require zero pitchforks.

As someone who’s managed to drive for nearly 30 years and never pick up a speeding ticket I’m not convinced that anyone who even vaguely attempts to drive within the speed limit would manage this. If, on the other hand, you’re someone who habitually speeds and only obeys speed limits when they think theres a camera present maybe – but those are the sort of drivers we should be taking off the roads.

from having sat in court when such cases have been heard it’s gullible and weak magistrates. In practice “Exceptional circumstances” = claiming to need to drive to keep your job. Even if you don’t have a full licence anyway because you never took or passed a test, and your job is a cash-in-hand farm labourer because you’re actually claiming benefits and are registered as unemployed, and you live half a mile from the farm. Here, have another 6 points on the licence you don’t hold.

Magistrates as a rule will believe any old sh1t that’s put in front of them when it comes to mitigation, I’ve lost count of the number of criminals who are ‘carers’ and I’ve never seen or heard of a mag asking for any form of corroboration for any such claim.

It’s not all about speeding.
yep all good reasons not let somebody back on the road….