Q356: What does a green P plate on a car mean?

Supervisors
Supervisors must:

• Be at least 21 years of age.
• Hold a full UK or Community (EC) licence covering the class of vehicle.
• Have held that valid licence for a minimum of 3 years – periods of disqualification don't count. Therefore, if you've held your licence for 3 years but were disqualified for 6 months, you have only held your licence for 2½ years and cannot act as a supervisor.
• Comply with the minimum eyesight requirements.
• Check that the car is registered, taxed, insured, has a valid MoT and that it complies with the law in relation to vehicle condition e.g. tyres, lights etc.
• Make sure the car displays L-plates (D-plates in Wales) if the learner is driving.
• Ensure they are not over the drink/drug-drive limits or are unfit to drive through drugs.
• Not use a handheld mobile phone or handheld device whilst the provisional licence holder is driving on a road - see Q955. 
• Wear glasses/contact lenses if they need them when driving themselves.
• Not receive any payment for supervising the learner unless they are an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI).

Learners
Learner drivers must:

• Have reached the minimum age – 17 for a car.
• Hold a valid provisional licence for the type of vehicle.
• Comply with the minimum eyesight requirements.
• Check that the car is registered, taxed, insured, has a valid MoT and that it complies with the law in relation to vehicle condition e.g. tyres, lights etc.
• Make sure the car displays L-plates (D-plates in Wales) when they are driving.
• Ensure they are not over the drink/drug-drive limits or are unfit to drive through drugs.
• Not use a handheld mobile phone or handheld device whilst driving on a road - see Q955. 
• Wear glasses/contact lenses if required.

You can start driving as soon as you pass your driving test but you must have an insurance policy that allows you to drive without supervision. If you are in any doubt about this contact your insurer and clarify the matter with them before you drive. Nonetheless, it's not a good idea to drive straight away after your test, as you'll probably be very excited and this could affect your judgement.

Providing you have a photocard provisional licence that shows your correct name, your driving test examiner will send your test pass certificate to the DVLA, you should then receive your full licence within 3 weeks.

If the name on your provisional licence is not correct or if you have a paper provisional licence, you will need to:

• Complete the declaration on your test pass certificate.
• Get a driving licence application form (D1) from the Post Office and complete it.
• Provide documents that confirm your identity.
• If you have a paper provisional licence, include a passport photo.

Send your provisional licence and the above documents to the following address:

DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1BN

Note that:

• Your test pass certificate is only valid for 2 years after passing your driving test. If you don't send it to the DVLA and obtain you full licence within this time, you'll have to retake your driving test.
• Whilst you can drive on your own you cannot supervise a learner driver, see question on requirements for supervising a learner driver for further information.

The DVLA maintains a register of vehicles and their keepers. This register is kept for a variety of reasons; road safety, revenue collection and law enforcement. It is important, therefore, that the person listed as the registered keeper is the person who is responsible for the day to day running of the car.

The registered keeper should be the person who is using the vehicle and keeping it, which can sometimes be different to the owner of the vehicle or the person who is responsible for paying for it – see Q743 for the difference between the owner and registered keeper of a vehicle.