are you seriously asking this question? if you are driving UNINSURED you lose any and all protection as you were NEVER supposed to be on the road in a vehicle in the FIRST PLACE!

bringing this thread back up.

im a bit confused now. manic says that if hes not handed it in, hes not yet suspended and will still be insured until hes caught by a cop and will then have to forfeit his license.

but Zulus saying theres a letter of suspension (which I believe he did say he got a letter in the mail saying to turn it in, but he has still yet to do so...) and his suspension starts ticking from that day.

so just to clear this up for me, even though hes received the letter, but yet to hand his license in, hes currently uninsured and his 3 months has already started. but if he doesn't hand his license in at all and goes 3 months unnoticed, does he continue driving as normal??

sorry im lost here...were trying to get him to give it up, and hes stubborn, yet hes asking to borrow some of our trucks to move stuff...and were less than willing to let him get behind the wheel lol..

He is prohibited as soon as he receives the letter. He may still have his physical licence card in his wallet, but his licence status is Prohibited. When he gets stopped, he'll be charged with Driving While Prohibited, the physical licence will be seized and the vehicle (no matter who owns it) will be impounded for a minimum of 7 days.

kk, so if he passes the 3 months without being pulled over or caught, then he just resumes driving as normal?

we've been trying to get him to stop driving...but sadly it looks like hes going to need a wake up call to make him realize what hes doing...

After the prohibition period is over, his licence status is still not valid. It would be cancelled. He would have to attend driver services to reapply or reinstate his licence.

There is a possibility that when he received the letter he was automatically prohibited, and the OSMV will not start counting the three months until the driver hands in the licence... What I mean is that its possible he is prohibited now and will continue to be prohibited until three months after the time he hands his licence in. He could potentially drive and drive for the next year or two without getting caught and still not have his prohibition end because he didn't hand in his licence to begin the 3 month countdown.

I see it all the time when driver's have received the letter but still hold their licence and are in denial about them being prohibited.

^ this!

i was in this situation unintentionally.

I lost my licence after an officer had lied to me, he told me the fine for what i had done was like 2-300$ and i would receive 3 points, he specifically stated that because i had a clean driving record and as long as i didnt get another 3 i would be fine with my licence, i was fine with that. ps, i got a driving without consideration ticket when i was like 17

couple months later i get a letter in the mail saying it was 6 points.. that i could immediately turn in my licence, wait till the giving date (2 weeks) to send it in and that i could dispute it by sending in $100 and a letter that would be reviewed...

so i kept the licence, and disputed... went about driving for the next month because i assumed while it was in dispute that i still could until a final decision has been made.

anyways, i got a new job shortly after and i had to get a drivers abstract for work... sure enough they told me my licence was prohibited.. even though i had the physical copy in my hand.

i called ICBC, and they said that they recognize that i already havnt been driving for a month, recognize my dispute and they lowered the term from 3 months - 2.. so i had to stop driving for a couple more weeks.

i am very lucky i was not in an accident or had been pulled over.

getting my licence back was a pain!

ticket was $200-$300
points over 3 are $100 each... so $300
and a re installment fee of $300 if i remember...
then a licence that was $80

IF i got caught doing this.. car gets impounded for a month and i get a bill for the fees (tow truck + 27$ a day impound)

a fine starting at $500-$2000 if i remember correctly

and prohibition for driving for a much much longer time.

Zulu is a retired cop with many years doing traffic enforcement and training (see bio here).

Manic is not.

You decide who to believe.

Your friend has to turn in the license. ICBC will then ask him to acknowledge his suspension. Without this acknowledgement, ICBC record will shows that the suspension is on-going and it is assumed that he has been driving while prohibited regardless of the length of the suspension. That means his insurance is invalid, his license is invalid. He is essentially driving without license or insurance.
Posted via RS Mobile

He has to acknowledge the letter. His DL may be invalid, but he will not be charged for Driving while Prohibited as he could argue he never received the letter (for whatever reason). People who try to "dodge" ICBC by not surrendering their DL and not acknowledging the Prohibtion but are actually making it worse for themselves. If you do not surrender your DL, there is an action placed on your DL that reads "serve prohibition". So you may think you are clear and continue driving for x amount of time, but once you are caught the x amount of months you are prohibited will start from the day you are officially served the prohibition, which means you could have started serving the prohibition a lot sooner, and got it over with. Once the Prohibition is served, and you are caught driving after that, then you can be charged for Driving while prohibited. Hope that wasn't too confusing.

^^^This^^^

Receiving the letter in the mail /= acknowledgment of suspension. That only takes place when:

-driver surrenders license at MVB or via mail
-he's pulled over and PO confiscates license
-he's served, personally