All,
I haven't posted on this site before but I have searched through it frequently over the past 6 months whilst I have been banned (especially in the early hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep). I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for sharing there experiences and whilst I haven't been active on the site, I thought I would return the favour to others and share my experience.
It's a life changing event for anyone, lucky my misdemeanour didn't result in anyone being hurt but had I known how much losing my driving license would cost me and not just the financial penalties (selling car, increase insurance premium, solicitor costs, medical costs, application costs, fine etc), but the real things that matter commuting to work, being able to take my family places, nursery runs, having to explain to people why I couldn't drive. I would certainly have thought twice before I made that mistake nearly 3 years ago. I won't go into the details behind my story as I don't think that matters, what I will share is my journey to getting my license back. Originally I was banned for 29 months and fined £800. The judge offered the opportunity to reduce my ban by 4 months following completion of the DDR course. Although the reduction was small, my advise to anyone that gets the opportunity to attend this course, please do. After trying to ignore the fact I had to do the course I applied and completed it. I found it informative and eye opening, infact this was where I first heard about the medical requirement for HROs, up to this point I assumed that on completion of my ban I would get my license back.
Initially I was pleased that my ban had been reduced and started to think about having my license back. As advised on the course, I reapplied for my license in Feb 20(3 months before my ban was up). Then Covid-19 hit and my application was held up, I received a letter in April informing me that no DVLA medicals were being undertaken for the next 12 weeks. Post this I didn't hear anything, so once the 12 weeks had passed I called the DVLA and was informed that no doctors in my area were doing DVLA medicals. I then called back a week later to check and the advisor informed me the closest doctor was over 100 miles away. I took that opportunity, a week later my letter arrived, I called the medical practice and took the first available appointment which was 25 days from the day I called. I then abstained from drink apart from one beer when I was out for food, I also had a few non alcoholic beers over the next few weekends when socialising with family. Prior to getting the letter I wouldn't say I was a regular drinker but would enjoy a few pints every weekend.
On the day of my medical the one question that really put the fear into me was the 'how often do you drink 6 units or more units in one sitting?'. My initial response was never, however as I had earlier said to the doctor I would have 2/3 pints the doctor said well 3 pints is 6 units. I then responded by saying that I felt the question was loaded and that as it didn't gauge what the maximum unit count was. I felt that by admitting to this I was being unfairly penalised as a binge drinker even though the NHS recommend a maximum of 8 units for a man. The doctor replied saying it wasn't his job to query the questions but to report what my answers were. Initially the doctor suggested 50 x in a year, then 25, I was flabbergasted at this and then eventually agreed on 10 times. I felt immediately deflated, actually felt like I was being tarred as an alcoholic. I left the medical downbeat, assuming I would be classed as an alcohol abuser and be told I wouldn't get my license back. I looked through the forum for solace and comfort but didn't see any other comments on this. As the weeks went by waiting for my medical results I resorted to calling the DVLA daily and getting nowhere, eventually I stumbled upon some people having success emailing Tim Burton. So I thought I would try it, I sent email last night outling how long my delays had been and that my results and medical report had been with the DVLA now between 14 and 21 days. I'm pleased to say that this morning I got the call I had been hoping for from the DVLA, that my license was now reinstated.
My day then got even better as I had put a deposit down on a new car in advance of getting my license back and got confirmation that it has arrived in the UK today too. So hopefully I'll be back driving by this weekend and will finally be able to repay my partner and parents for all the support they have given me over the last 29 months.
I have recently seen a few other comments over this question in particular and found information on this difficult to coem by, hence why I felt I needed to share my experience.