TruckerVerse / Guide

Renewing your licence C

Your B licence lasts ten years, your C only five. That's not an administrative quirk, it's written into the directive, and there's one condition you have to arrange yourself.

Checked on 26 August 2026 4 minute read
Short answer

Valid for: five years for C, CE, C1 and C1E. Ten years for B and BE.

Condition: at every renewal you have to show again that you meet the medical standards.

Watch for: in some countries your first C licence may only run for three years.

Five years, and why that's different from your B

The periods are set out directly in the directive, and they deliberately differ by category:

As from 19 January 2013, licences issued by Member States for categories AM, A1, A2, A, B, B1 and BE shall have an administrative validity of 10 years. A Member State may choose to issue such licences with an administrative validity of up to 15 years.

Directive 2006/126/EC, Article 7(2)(a). Accessed 26 August 2026.

And for the professional categories:

As from 19 January 2013, licences issued by Member States for categories C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1, D1E shall have an administrative validity of 5 years.

Directive 2006/126/EC, Article 7(2)(b).

The word that matters is administrative validity. It's about the validity of the document, not about your fitness to drive. Your licence expires, you don't.

What gets checked at renewal

Two conditions attach to renewal, and the first is exactly why the period is shorter:

continuing compliance with the minimum standards of physical and mental fitness for driving set out in Annex III for driving licences in categories C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1, D1E; and normal residence in the territory of the Member State issuing the licence, or evidence that applicants have been studying there for at least six months.

Directive 2006/126/EC, Article 7(3)(a) and (b).

For the professional categories that medical check is compulsory at every renewal. For B and the motorcycle categories the directive says something different: Member States may require an examination, but it isn't mandatory. That difference is the whole reason for the five-versus-ten-year gap.

The second condition is about where you live. You renew in the country where you normally reside, not where your employer is based. If you live in one country and drive in another, that's the point to sort out in advance.

The three-year rule for beginners

This is the part that catches people out when their first C licence expires sooner than they expected:

Member States may limit the period of administrative validity of the first licence issued to novice drivers for categories C and D to 3 years in order to be able to apply specific measures to such drivers, so as to improve their road safety.

Directive 2006/126/EC, Article 7(3).

It's a may, not a must, so it varies by country. If you're picking up your first C, check the actual expiry date printed on the document rather than assuming five years.

When you have to renew more often than every five years

The directive also lets Member States shorten the validity of an individual licence if someone's health needs checking more frequently. That's not a penalty and not an exception, it's the standard way of accommodating a medical condition without taking someone off the road entirely.

If your licence has a shorter run than a colleague's, this provision is usually why, and nothing else.

Don't confuse this with your Code 95

Your licence and your driver qualification run on separate tracks. Code 95 has its own five-year, 35-hour cycle, and it can expire on a completely different date from your licence. If your Code 95 lapses but your licence hasn't, the licence stays valid, you just can't drive for hire or reward on it.

What the incoming directive changes here

Directive (EU) 2025/2205 of 22 October 2025 replaces 2006/126/EC and keeps the five years for professional drivers. But it only applies once your country has transposed it into national law, and that has years to run.

Until then, the national transposition of 2006/126/EC decides what's printed on your document. Go by the expiry date on your own licence, not by a news article about the new rules.

Also read

Sources

  • Directive 2006/126/EC on driving licences, Article 7, consolidated version of 1 November 2020. EUR-Lex
  • Directive (EU) 2025/2205 of 22 October 2025, Article 30(1), for the repeal date of Directive 2006/126/EC. EUR-Lex

Legal text quoted verbatim from the consolidated/official English versions on EUR-Lex, accessed 26 August 2026.

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