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[Dentman]

Thanks for all your help, I've received a guide to constructing the number by PM
PETER, I'm a hoarder, I kept our six paper counterparts until recently, sadly I now only have the ashes

[w3526602]

Hi,

You Driver Number on a UK licence consists of the first five letters of you surname (family name) followed by 6 numerics which consist of your date of birth, somewhat jumbled. A lady's DoB has an added "twist", cos ladies don't like to disclose how old they are. Then the initials, of your given/Christian/fore name ... up to two names. Then a tie-breaker (usually a 9,)Then two check digits based on a very complicated mathematical formula. Any empty spaces are filled with "nines". (I've sent many a happy hour calculating transcription errors. But you don't need to know that!).

One gentleman claimed to have been born on 29th February when it wasn't a leap year. The Computer say "NO". So he produced his birth certificate to prove it. Never a dull moment at DVLC. The programmers managed to fiddle it through.

The DVLC programmers even managed to fiddle "BODY TYPE - DOG CART" onto the V5 of a 1901 Daimler Benz, but I think that was a rare exception. Some of us had  hearts.

I once asked a lady customer, on the phone, if she "wet herself". She didn't seem to mind. I'm guessing that some of you here will know why I asked.

602

Thanks for all your help, I've received a guide to constructing the number by PM

Hi Dentman,

Surname (5)- DOB (5)- Initials (2)- Tie Breaker (1) -  Check Digits (2). I've done the calculation long-hand ... and still wake up screaming.  I'm not sure how the tie breaker is chosen, but you can't calculate the check digits without knowing the tie breaker. Or maybe that was then?
.

[Chassis Black]

I always take a photo of any licence or documents before sending to DVLA. They are usually ok, but sometimes lose things. A friend sent his licence in for renewal and it came back without his motorbike entitlement. DVLA had no record of him ever having passed the bike test, luckily he had a photo to show them. They soon reinstated his bike licence.

[TimV]

He was lucky, I've heard of lots of bikers losing their entitlements. Plus DVLA losing HGV drivers categories, even with lots of evidence.

[w3526602]

Hi,

Yep! Losing you bike licence was not uncommon in the early days. I never heard an explanation, so I assume it was the human element and doing repetitive editing. Your application would be edited to delete spurious data, and  edited, to change your long-winded data, into single or double characters. Those of you who have microfilm copies of your VE60, may have noticed this editing.

I think the body type code for moped was 11, and fire-engines were 17 (or something like that). How many here have met a V5 for a Honda 50cc Fire Engine. An awful lot of such V5s left DVLC in the early days.

Then there was the Arial 3 ... a 50cc moped with three wheels and pedals. If you are young, try a Google. That confused a lot of the editing staff, who decided that three wheels made it a tricycle, rather than a moped. But the computer knew, didn't it? Us clerical staff had to sort it out the old fashioned way. Luckily, there were not very many Airiel 3s.

One year, they lost October. Several tons of documents crashed  on the 1st October. A programmer had decided that months were numeric 1 thru 9) He didn't realise that Oct, Nov and Dec required two numerics ... or one "special" character.

So he changed "numeric or special" to numeric only. Oops!

One day, one of my team managers got her hair tangled in a golf-ball typewriter, which controlled/monitored each batch of 100 documents as the 70 keying staff logged onto or off a batch. Her face was getting nearer and nearer to the golf-ball. "EVERY BODY STOP! NOW! The poor girl had to sit the and be stared at until the fire brigade arrived. The firemen couldn't take their eyes off the roomful of talent.

The next day, the floor manager (four teams of 70) showed me the panic lever.

"Oh ... I did wonder what that was for!"  I wasn't alone in my ignorance.

602

[w3526602]

Hi Dentman,(PM rejected)

I'm glad you are getting somewhere. All my "clout" at DVLC have grown old and retired. A couple of points of interest ....

A female/woman/ladies date of birth is "mutilated" so it can't/couldn't be read in "clear".

But the correct date of birth was printed in one corner, where it could be easily checked, then cut off.

If the licence holder's surname was less than five characters long, the spaces were filled with nines (9). Similarly, if the driver only has one forename.

The licence holder's gender is also on the licence. Usually, that would be identifiable from their title ... Mr/Mrs/Miss (I'm not sure if men have Mr on their licence)  But Doctor and Reverend, for instance, are bi-sexual ... er, is that the right word?

There were problems, in the 1970s, but fading away as the years passed, with applicants born in the 1890s, as only the last two characters being   noted. The computer rejected these, as the applicant had not been born yet.

One applicant stated that he was born on the 29th of February, but not in a leap year. DVLC requested to see his birth certificate ... and yes, he had quoted the correct DoB. The programmers had to fiddle that one through the computer .... enter a wrong, but acceptable date, then change it  when all the checks had been completed.

I explained the HONDA 50cc FIRE-ENGINE (lots of them, some months ago. I can do so again, if you wish, but hurry.

602

[Dentman]

Thanks for all the legwork guys, this thread has pulled in some VERY well qualified help
It turns out, (DVLA text) that the UK pass date is on the Canuck licence 

[w3526602]

Hi,

Memory (which is fading with age) says that the DoB check digit is calculated using Module 523 (I could be wrong). I've spent many a happy hour calculating (long hand) such check digits, when the clerical staff had incorrectly transcribed the code from their Big Book of Secret Numbers.  The Data Input system was set up to reject any incorrect/impossible dates as they were keyed into the system.  The operator had to then determine if she (usually) had made a mistake, or was it whoever had edited the document? Memory (which again, might be failing), says the operators were expected to hit the keyboard 13,000 times per hour, and allowed one mistake per thousand keystrokes. I had one young lady who was approaching 40,000kph, with zero error rate. She spent so much time walking up to the desk, to get another batch of work, that we allowed her to pick up two batches at a time.

Please think of these ladies next time you fill in a licence application. Black ink, block capitals.

We received a letter one day ... "Dear Sir, Your computer is sick. I hope it dies!"

Happy daze!

602

Er, I am wrong, I think ... Module 523 is to calculate the two check digits on the end of your driver number. I think Module 37 was used when calculating date check digits. Does that make sense to anybody here?

[Old Hywel]

No.

[w3526602]

Hi Old Hywel

No!

Apparently, neither does Google.

It's a long, complicated mathematical formula. You do not want to know! I still wake up screaming.

602