How the licence-card lookup works — and what it never does

What it reads

It queries the government's public licence-verification page — the same page that returns a licence's holder name, validity dates, address and vehicle classes to anyone who supplies a valid licence number and the matching date of birth. For a Learner's Licence it uses the equivalent LL services page. No credentials, OTP or login are used or bypassed.

What it does not do

• It does not store the fetched record in a database. The details are held in your browser to build the preview, and are gone when you close the tab.
• It does not retrieve anything beyond the single record for the number you enter.
• It does not share your licence number or details with any third party.
• A card image is kept only if you tick 'save a copy', and it is deleted automatically after 30 days.

The agreement you confirm before each lookup asks you to confirm the licence is your own or that you have the holder's permission. That is a real requirement, not a formality.

Why a lookup at all

The alternative is typing a dozen fields by hand and getting the vehicle-class table wrong. The lookup fills the same information the portal already shows you, laid out on a card. You can still edit any field, and you can skip the lookup entirely and enter everything yourself.

The output is not official

Whatever the source, the card is an informational personal copy with no legal standing. The RTO Smart Card and the digital licence are the only valid documents.