Hi

My husband and I went along to exchange our UK driver's licences for Swiss ones. We thought we had it all sorted out - pretty straightforward. However, we have just received forms for a Medical.

Is this part of the process, as we were not aware of this?

By the way, we are not over 50!

Any ideas?

I think the medical is because standard UK licences allow holders to drive 'big' vehicles. Some people get around it by asking for that category to be taken off the licence.

There's a huge thread in the forum somewhere covering all kinds of licensing questions. Will link it if I can find it.

Aha, found it! It's [Drivers licence] Conversion and questions

To exchange your licence, you need to present your UK licence, an eye test certificate, which you can do at any optician, and a few Francs. You do not need to present an up to date medical certificate, however I would advise you to shell out for the medical test.
This is a bit of a crafty one on the part of the Swiss authorities. In the UK, and across most of Europe, a standard driving licence allows you to drive a car, a small motorbike, and a small truck / box van. This is not the case in Switzerland. The size of van you can drive with a standard car licence is much smaller, (and yes, the coppers are red-hot on this one, I had my trailer weighed at a customs crossing.) The guys at the Strassenvekhersamt will only include the small truck / box van category on your licence if you show them an up to date medical certificate from an authorised GP. It's a bit of a scam getting you to shell out for the medical test, but once they've issued you with a Swiss licence without the small truck / box van category, the only way to get this category added is to go through a long and complicated series of road tests. Needless to say, I have been stung by this one.

The choice, as they say, is yours...

Cheers

Jim

Are you talking about categories D1 and D1E on the Swiss license..? Mine takes note on the D1 at 3.5t; 106 (no idea what the 106 represents).

Found out what the 106 limit means on my license:

Berechtigt zum Führen von Kleinbussen mit mehr als 17 Plätzen im Binnenverkehr für nicht berufsmässige Personentransporte (Kat. D1)

Entitled to drive minibuses with more than 17 places in the inland transport of non-professional persons transports (Cat D1)

source: http://www.stva.zh.ch/internet/ds/st..._auflagen.html

According to the DVLA website [1] (am assuming that all the codes are now some kind of international standard) 106 would mean: "restricted to vehicles with automatic transmission".


[1] http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring...ns/DG_10022623

That's a number 78 in Switzerland:

see chart: http://www.stva.zh.ch/internet/ds/st..._auflagen.html