Red Tape - Polish drivers licenses

I was just looking at a typical standard Polish drivers license. It was the standard car drivers license, it states that the holder can drive a class B vehicle only.

I compared it to my drivers license which too is standard, however im eligable to drive a B, BE, C1, C1E, D1 and D1E.

Translated that means:
B = Car
BE = Car with trailor
C1 = van
C1E = van with trailor
D1 = mini bus
D1E = mini bus with trailor

Now i havent researched this properly, merely deducing information from the two licenses.

So the question is: does a Polish person have to take further driving tests to qualify for driving a car with a trailor for starters and other tests to gain a similar grade to what i have being a UK national?

It's the same deal in the UK now - it'll be just that you had the grandfathered right to drive certain classes. What they did was after bringing in the new licence categories such as BE (car plus trailer above 750kg) was give the right automatically to those that had the parent category - so BE was given automatically to B holders at the point of introduction.

C1 is the right to drive a 7.5 tonne truck for instance - before what, 1997 or so, everyone that passed had the right to drive up to that limit. Now of course, anything above 3.5 tonnes needs a separate licence.

I think the only advantage a new British licence gives now is the right to ride a motorbike between 50cc and 125cc with L plates and no passengers.

Thats always been the case

According to the new EU-classification this means just B.

B includes old C(1) and D(1) up to only 3.5 ton.

C and D are for "unlimited" weight (Eg. TIR).

So what you actually have is the new B-licence.You can drive cars, vans and (mini)buses up to 3.5 ton.

Dont forget A - which is motorcycle. If you get a mc-licence you will get a new licence where is only written "A, B".

Thanks, to be honest i never really thought about it, i do remember being pulled here a few years ago and the Police officer said that i was entitled to drive lots of different vehicles, i was like what the hell is he talking about.

Nah it just struck a cord yesterday when i saw a Polish drivers licences it wouldnt have surprised me if a standard Polish driver has to take a bloody test and pay money for every single thing other than just driving a car.

Im happy that its not.

No, not quite - the UK has quite a lot of grandfather exceptions for B category holders who passed before 1997. I'm not sure how it evolved in Europe, but the UK took the approach that they couldn't remove the right to drive something - hence why when the EU categories were harmonised, existing licence holders kept the right to drive what they could drive on the old UK "car" licence. That's why it seems that WB can drive quite a lot - because he would have had always the right to drive those things.

For instance - C1 never existed as a category in the UK. So you had the car licence, which allowed you to drive rigid trucks up to 7.5 tonnes, then (as I recall) class 2 (rigid trucks up to 44 tonnes) and class 1 (articulated trucks up to 44 tonnes). When it changed to the EU system, C1 was brought in - and thus anyone who had a B licence at that point was automatically given C1.


Count yourself lucky :P

Well well well, it looks like you can drive vans up to 7.5 t. And minibuses with up to 16 seats (with a maximum length not exceeding 8 m). Since C1 and D1 has been accepted in the whole EU now.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_driving_licence#Categories_valid_in_all_EU_countries.5B2.5D


However, it's very cheap to get different driving licenses in PL compared to Western Europe.