in cooperation with Independer.nl
If you are planning to stay long term in the Netherlands, it’s useful to know beforehand if your driving licence is valid here as well. Independer now released a free online tool to check the validity of your driving licences in the Netherlands. They noticed that often, foreigners in the Netherlands like expats, don’t know for sure if their license is valid abroad. This is a result of a great variety in rules depending on the country of origin. For example: the validity period of the licence can vary between 6 months and 15 years. Consequently, many people experience problems when applying for a car insurance.
Misunderstandings about licence validity
The Independer customer service has noticed a remarkably high failure of car insurance applications among foreign customers. Car Expert Rianne Veerman: “It turned out that many of these failures were a result of not knowing the licence validity. Besides the application failures, foreigners regularly call us with questions regarding this topic. Many of them ask for help with checking the validity or ask to explain the rules. When we tested the ‘validity driving licence tool’ the responses were great; it takes away a lot of the uncertainty caused by the unclarity of legislation for foreign customers.“
Clarity by answering three simple questions
By answering a maximum of three simple ‘yes or no’ questions in the tool, anyone can check whether or not they are allowed to drive and insure a car in the Netherlands. This unique tool takes away the trouble of reading or possibly misreading the applied legislation.
More info on this topic can be found on the website of the RDW, Independer and Europa.eu.