Understanding the European Driving Licence: Structure, Fields, and Codes
A comprehensive guide to the European driving licence, its data fields, and the complex restriction codes used across the EEA.
The European driving licence is a harmonized document issued by the member states of the European Economic Area (EEA). This includes all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Introduced to replace over 110 different licence models, its primary goal is to reduce fraud and ensure mutual recognition across borders.
Understanding the Document Structure
To ensure clarity across different languages, the European driving licence uses a standardized numbering system for its data fields. Each number corresponds to a specific piece of information, making it easy for authorities (and OCR systems) to parse the data regardless of the issuing country.
| Field # | Description | Example / Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Surname | DOE |
| 2 | Given names | John Jane |
| 3 | Date and place of birth | 01.01.1980 London |
| 4a | Date of issue | 19.01.2023 |
| 4b | Date of expiry | 19.01.2033 |
| 4c | Issuing authority | DVLA, Prefecture, etc. |
| 5 | Licence number | Unique alphanumeric string |
| 7 | Signature of holder | Digital or ink signature |
| 9 | Categories | AM, A, B, C, D, etc. |
| 10 | Valid from | Date category was first issued |
| 11 | Valid until | Expiry date for the specific category |
| 12 | Restrictions (Codes) | See codes table below |
| 13 | Other names | Space for national administrative data |
| 14 | Surname | Alternative field for surname/family name |
| 4d | Personal number | Optional national administrative number |
The European Driving Licence Codes
Field 12 contains numeric codes that convey additional information about the driver's permissions or restrictions. Codes 01-99 are harmonized across the EU/EEA, while codes 100 and above are national codes.
Medical and Health Codes
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 01 | Eyesight correction, for example glasses or contact lenses |
| 02 | Hearing/communication aid |
| 03 | Prosthesis/orthosis for the limbs |
| 05 | Limited use (for example, daytime only, no motorways) |
Vehicle Modifications
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 10 | Modified transmission |
| 15 | Modified clutch |
| 20 | Modified braking systems |
| 25 | Modified accelerator systems |
| 31 | Pedal adaptations and pedal safeguards |
| 32 | Combined service brake and accelerator systems |
| 33 | Combined service brake, accelerator and steering systems |
| 35 | Modified control layouts |
| 40 | Modified steering |
| 42 | Modified rear-view mirror(s) |
| 43 | Modified driving seats |
| 44 | Modifications to motorbikes |
| 45 | Motorbikes only with sidecar |
Administrative and Restriction Codes
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 70 | Exchange of licence |
| 71 | Duplicate of licence |
| 78 | Restricted to vehicles with automatic transmission |
| 79 | Restricted to vehicles in conformity with the specifications stated in brackets |
| 95 | Professional driver holding CPC (valid for 5 years) |
| 96 | Allowed to drive a vehicle and trailer (3,500kg - 4,250kg combined) |
| 97 | Not allowed to drive category C1 vehicles required to have a tachograph |
National and Professional Codes (100+)
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 101 | Not for hire or reward (not for profit) |
| 102 | Drawbar trailers only |
| 103 | Subject to certificate of competence |
| 105 | Vehicle not more than 5.5 metres long |
| 106 | Restricted to vehicles with automatic transmissions |
| 107 | Not more than 8,250 kilograms |
| 108 | Subject to minimum age requirements |
| 110 | Limited to transporting persons with restricted mobility |
| 111 | Limited to 16 passenger seats |
| 113 | Limited to 16 passenger seats except for automatics |
| 114 | With any special controls required for safe driving |
| 115 | Organ donor |
| 118 | Start date is for earliest entitlement |
| 119 | Weight limit for vehicle does not apply |
| 121 | Restricted to conditions specified in the Secretary of State's notice |
| 122 | Valid on successful completion: Basic Moped Training Course |
| 125 | Tricycles only (for licences issued before 29 June 2014) |
Tiny IDP offers a specialized European Driving Licence OCR. Extract all fields and codes automatically with +95% accuracy.
Check it out here →Does the European Driving Licence Have an MRZ?
The Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) is a standardized strip of text found on travel documents like passports and national ID cards. It uses the ICAO 9303 standard and encodes key data — name, document number, nationality, date of birth, expiry date — in a fixed-width format that machines can read instantly and reliably.
Documents that typically carry an MRZ include:
- Passports (TD3 format — 2 lines of 44 characters)
- National ID cards (TD1 format — 3 lines of 30 characters)
- Residence permits and visas
- Some refugee travel documents
The European driving licence, however, does not contain an MRZ. It was not designed as a travel document and is not governed by ICAO standards. Its data is encoded in the numbered field system described above, not in a machine-readable strip. This makes it structurally different from a passport or ID card and is one of the key reasons why driving licence OCR requires a different approach than standard MRZ readers.
Some countries print a secondary barcode or PDF417 code on the back of their licence that encodes some data — but this is not standardized across the EEA and cannot be relied upon. For consistent, cross-country data extraction, OCR of the printed fields (1 through 12) is still the primary method.
How to Extract Data from Driving Licences
Processing driving licences at scale presents several challenges, from varying layouts across countries to complex restriction codes. There are three main approaches to solving this:
Manual Entry
Slow, error-prone, and expensive. Not suitable for modern digital onboarding.
Google OCR + LLM
Good for general text, but often struggles with the specific layout and code parsing of driving licences.
Specialized Extractors
Tiny IDP offers a dedicated OCR engine trained specifically on identity documents, ensuring perfect field mapping and code extraction.
Whether you are building a car rental platform or a fintech app, understanding the structure of the European driving licence is essential. By leveraging specialized tools like Tiny IDP, you can automate this process, reducing friction for your users and improving data quality for your business.