Hey
notnek56, sorry to hear about your situation. I had something similar in that I got a 12 month cancellation issued AFTER I had quit drinks. Such injustice is unbearable!
I presume you meant
2020 when you said "In the interim I had undergone detox and rehab in July/ August
2021 and have been alcohol free since"
?
As for how the DVLA operates,
grice96 is right that they do everything possible to minimize "liability". At worst its plain "Cover Your Ass" behaviour. And during the 6 years I've been dealing with them to get a full license reinstated I have found them entirely inflexible.
So to me here's what it looks like from the DVLA's point of view (which is who's rules you are, unfortunately, playing by)
You're been pinged. Result: Immediate 12 month cancellation. That ends Feb 2022. They do not think. They do not have a nice decision tree to work out what's appropriate. They don't "assess risks" at any level of detail. What they do is "Medical cancellation? --> 12 month cancellation applies"
The DVLA will countenance nothing between now and that date. Yes, you could send a new application in August when you've been 12 months free, but that arrives, they pair that up with your current 12 month cancellation and they say "Nope, this guys's still got 6 months cancellation to run, refuse the application" You receive a letter stating this.
Dec/Jan/Feb Cancellation is approaching end. You receive a letter from the DVLA offering you to reapply for a medically-cancelled licence, or if you want, you can start the process yourself, if you don't hear from them, but they will send the forms. They're pretty good with forms.
At this point, all going well, you are now 18 months clear of alcohol. The evidence of such is a) your statement of this on the application that the last drink was Aug 2020, and b) the record in your medical files as supplied by your doctor also showing the detox date Aug 2020.
So at this point you have "evidence" of 18 months clean. The last thing they will want then is a Medical Examination. They want actual proof that both you and your doctor are telling the truth. They'll send a letter asking you to attend a Medical Examination at a doctor of their choosing. For an alcohol "CDT" test you will have blood drawn and sent off. If you have indeed not been drinking that comes back clean, they have all the evidence they can reasonably acquire. By now its, say, May 2022 and they will issue you a
Full License again - but with a 12 month expiry date: May 2023.
Now, this is the really shitty part: On your Driver's Licence Application, one of the questions is "Have you had a Dependency or Abuse of Alcohol in the last
6 years?
In Feb 2022 as you are applying to renew that 12 month license, you need to answer Yes. They already have your detox date etc from the 2021 application. During 2021 you have told you doctor "no drinks this year", so he too says Aug 2020 was last drink. They don't trust just your application and doctor so in Feb 22 you go do another Medical Examination. That's clean and again they issue a 12 month license.
Unless something changes, I believe this will continue each year until Feb 2027 when on your application you can answer "Any Alcohol dependency/abuse issues in last 6 years? and you can honestly answer "No"
They might then send you for one last medical exam / blood test. But assuming that comes back clean, they then issue you a Full License with no limit again.
If anyone else thinks I'm wrong, please let me know what? This is what has happened to me (with 2 additional complications)
I had my licence cancelled in 2015 (after I stopped drinking because a nosey bullshit corporate doctor I was too honest with!) I had dependency issues with both Alcohol and Codeine(Opioids)
At that time, the "In the last x years?" was 3 years for both Alcohol (Form DR1) and Drugs (DG1) Since then its extended and extended for Alcohol to where it is 6 years. While the has remained 3 years for drugs. I failed a drugs test one year, which "reset" my "In the last 3 years" which expired last year. This years is finally the "In the last 6 years for Alcohol" going back to Aug 2015.
