Mine expired on a Thursday. Found out at 05:20 at the yard gate when the tacho head flashed an error and wouldn't accept the card. The TM rang at half five in the morning and, credit to him, he knew the procedure off the top of his head. Not everyone's that lucky.
The tachograph driver card is a piece of kit most drivers take for granted until it stops working. It goes in the slot, the tacho reads it, and you get on with the job. But it has an expiry date. And if that date comes and goes without you noticing, you're grounded until a new one arrives — which under the rules can take up to a month.
This post is about the renewal process, what to do if the card expires before the new one arrives, and how to make sure this doesn't sneak up on you at 05:20 on a Thursday.
How long does a driver card last?
Five years. That's the maximum validity period under Regulation (EU) 165/2014, Article 26 — retained in UK law post-Brexit. The exact expiry date is printed on the card itself, field number 4b if you're looking at it. The card also shows it on the tacho display when you insert it.
Five years feels like a long time. It isn't. Pass your Class 1 at 25, get your first card, blink, and it's your 30th birthday and the card's about to give up. Agency drivers especially — I've met lads who've carried the same card through three different operators and genuinely can't remember when they got it.
Check it now. Seriously. Take it out of your wallet and look at it. Write the expiry in your phone calendar with a six-week reminder.
Applying for a renewal — the DVLA timeline
Applications go through GOV.UK — search for 'tachograph driver card' and it takes you to the DVLA application portal. You'll need your driving licence number, a photo, proof of UK residence if it's your first application, and the fee (check GOV.UK for current amounts — they update these).
Under the regulations, the DVLA must issue the new card within one month of receiving your complete application and all the required documentation. One month. That's the legal maximum. In practice it can be quicker, but don't count on it.
So the maths is simple: apply at least six weeks before your card expires. That gives you a buffer. Apply the week before it runs out and you're gambling on processing speed.
You also need to hold normal UK residence to apply for a UK driver card — that means at least 185 days a year in the UK. If you're working cross-border with residency elsewhere, that changes the picture, but for the vast majority of drivers reading this it's a non-issue.
What the card actually does — and doesn't — store
Worth knowing, because operators and drivers get this wrong all the time. The driver card stores approximately your last 28 days of activity data — drive, rest, work, availability. That's why the 28-day download window exists: operators must pull the data off your card at least every 28 days, or older data gets overwritten and is gone.
The card does NOT store GPS positions for every event. It does NOT hold months of data. A first-generation digital tachograph card — and plenty of those are still out there — records your activity periods and faults. That's it. Speed data and detailed event logs live in the vehicle unit, not on your card.
Why does this matter for renewal? Because some drivers think they can leave applying until the card's nearly out and then coast through the gap without consequence. The consequence is missing data. If your card isn't in the slot and recording, you have a gap in your tacho record. DVSA can ask for 28 days of continuous data at any roadside check. Gaps need explaining.
Card expired. You're at the gate at 05:20. Now what?
Same procedure as a forgotten card. The regulations require you to create printouts at the start and end of every period of work, and to write on them manually why the card isn't in use — in this case, expired. The tacho must still record the vehicle's activity via its internal records, but your driver activity needs to be documented on paper.
Here's the routine:
- Before you drive: produce a printout from the vehicle unit. Write on it your name, driving licence number, the reason the card is absent or expired, and your signature.
- After your shift: produce another printout. Same annotation.
- Keep these printouts. Hand copies to the operator. The operator must retain them.
You cannot legally drive on an expired card without this procedure in place. And you cannot drive as if the card simply doesn't exist — the vehicle unit will record an event showing no card was present. DVSA will see it.
Look, I know the temptation at five in the morning is to just stick the card in and hope the tacho doesn't care. It does care. And the examiner looking at the downloaded data later will care more.
The download obligation during a gap
Operators, pay attention here. If a driver is running without a card — expired or otherwise — the vehicle unit is still recording. The 90-day vehicle unit download window still applies. Your obligation to download and store that data doesn't go away just because there's no card to pull data from.
In fact, it's more important. If DVSA ever questions the gap in the driver's record, you want the vehicle unit data to corroborate the printouts. If the VU download is also missing, you've got a problem on both sides.
Lost card vs expired card — same procedure, different application
If the card is lost or stolen, you apply for a replacement rather than a renewal. Same GOV.UK portal, different option. You'll need to report the loss — DVLA will want to know. The one-month issuance timeline is the same.
A damaged card — cracked, chip not reading — falls into the replacement category too. Don't try to drive on a card the tacho won't read. The system will log it as a fault and it'll show up on analysis.
How this affects your OCRS if you get stopped
For drivers working at operators under the OCRS scheme: a roadside check where you're found driving on an expired card without the printout procedure in place is a finding. It feeds into the operator's risk score — and their OCRS isn't something most TMs want to see move in the wrong direction.
If you're agency, the infringement lands on the operator you're working for at the time. Doesn't mean you're in the clear — your own record and the agency's can both be affected — but the primary O-licence impact sits with whoever's vehicle it is.
Practical habits that stop this happening
First: check the expiry date on your card today and set a reminder six weeks out.
Second: if you're an operator or TM, add driver card expiry dates to your compliance calendar. Some tacho analysis software flags upcoming card expiries automatically. If yours doesn't, a simple spreadsheet with expiry dates and a reminder column will do it.
Third: if you're running on agency across multiple operators, no single TM is checking your card expiry. That's on you. The card is yours. The expiry is yours. The infringement if you get stopped is also yours.
Took me getting caught out at the gate that Thursday to start taking the calendar reminder seriously. Three infringements-worth of tacho analysis nonsense later, I now check card expiry as part of the monthly self-audit I do anyway. It's a two-second job.
The renewal application in practice
Go to GOV.UK, search tachograph driver card, and follow the current process. Have your driving licence to hand. You'll need a digital photo that meets DVLA's photo standards — same as a passport photo but uploaded online.
The DVLA issues the card to your address. Make sure your address on your driving licence is current — cards go to the address on the licence, not wherever you're living if you haven't updated it. An outdated address means the card goes to the wrong place and then you've got to sort that out on top of the wait. Not fun.
Current fees are on GOV.UK — I'm not going to quote a number here because they change and I don't want to be the reason someone underpays and has their application bounced back to them.
A note for new drivers getting their first card
If you've just passed your Cat C or C+E and you're waiting on your driver card — you cannot legally drive a vehicle that requires a digital tachograph without one. Some new drivers try to use the analogue exemption argument. It doesn't work. If the vehicle is fitted with a digital tachograph, you need a digital tachograph driver card.
Apply as soon as your licence is confirmed. Don't wait until you've got a start date with an operator. The one-month processing time is the one-month processing time whether you're in a hurry or not.
If you're tired of writing tacho gaps and missed downloads into a compliance notebook, ShiftOwt tracks 561/WTD compliance automatically — £5.99/mo for drivers, agency pricing on request.
The short version
Driver card: valid for up to five years. Check the expiry date now. Apply at least six weeks before it runs out. The DVLA can take up to a month to issue the new card.
If it expires before the new one arrives: printout at start and end of every shift, annotate with your name, licence number, reason, and signature. Hand copies to the operator. Keep your own set.
Don't try to wing it. The vehicle unit records whether a card was present. DVSA will see it. Six weeks' notice costs you nothing. A printout audit at roadside costs you considerably more.