Anyone else thinking about getting their HGV licence now?
Discussion
Not to drive commercially but purely so I have it incase I ever have a desire to drive something requiring it. Lets me uprate my pickup for the full 5.5 ton capacity as well.
Basically changing the rules so one test means you can drive rigid and articulated.
From what I gather its just medical, send off for provisional, do theory and then just the actual test. The test being made shorter too so basically just go for a quick drive round your town and be done!
"Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party."
Basically changing the rules so one test means you can drive rigid and articulated.
From what I gather its just medical, send off for provisional, do theory and then just the actual test. The test being made shorter too so basically just go for a quick drive round your town and be done!
"Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party."
normalbloke said:
You still have to do the reversing and uncouple exercises, it’ll just be tested by the driving school not DVSA.
Doesnt sound like it? You do not have to use any form of driving school. You can buy your own HGV and insure it and roll in for a test if you fancied according to what vehicles are suitable for the tests."Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party. This part of the test is carried out off the road on a manoeuvring area and takes a significant amount of time. "
Slow said:
Doesnt sound like it? You do not have to use any form of driving school. You can buy your own HGV and insure it and roll in for a test if you fancied according to what vehicles are suitable for the tests.
"Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party. This part of the test is carried out off the road on a manoeuvring area and takes a significant amount of time. "
You misunderstand."Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party. This part of the test is carried out off the road on a manoeuvring area and takes a significant amount of time. "
The test will be in two separate parts.
The driving around bit will be done by the normal driving examiner.
The reversing exercise and the uncoupling/coupling will be tested by 'a third party' whoever that might be so you can still fail.
Without the training - or unless you have had plenty of practice - you are likely to find the reversing part a problem as you need to know where to position the vehicle in the first coned area before starting the reverse.
When I did my Class 2 in the early noughties we spent a considerable amount of time on the driving school's offroad area practicing that part!
Edited by paintman on Saturday 11th September 01:09
paintman said:
Slow said:
Doesnt sound like it? You do not have to use any form of driving school. You can buy your own HGV and insure it and roll in for a test if you fancied according to what vehicles are suitable for the tests.
"Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party. This part of the test is carried out off the road on a manoeuvring area and takes a significant amount of time. "
You misunderstand."Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party. This part of the test is carried out off the road on a manoeuvring area and takes a significant amount of time. "
The test will be in two separate parts.
The driving around bit will be done by the normal driving examiner.
The reversing exercise and the uncoupling/coupling will be tested by 'a third party' whoever that might be so you can still fail.
Without the training - or unless you have had plenty of practice - you are likely to find the reversing part a problem as you need to know where to position the vehicle in the first coned area before starting the reverse.
When I did my Class 2 we spent a considerable amount of time practicing that part!
If its like my trailer test you basically have to get inside a bay and close enough to the back without hitting the cones? Seems the sort of thing third partys would happily let you f
k up till you "pass" that day.Not to sound cocky but I am fairly comfortable jumping into anything and driving it pretty quickly. 20 ton road rollers/jcb/360 excavators, 7.5 ton trucks (offroad as post 97 test) luton vans with trailers etc. I would expect to pick up the reversing in a shortish amount of time.
I'm not sure about these changes. To me, they're potentially dumbing down the standards needed to drive a HGV. As with many other government knee jerk reactions, they often don't turn out very well.
At least with an examiner conducting the tests, including the coupling/ uncoupling and reversing, standards are very similar, as we all know, there are some crap training centres who will happily charge more for the training but not do anymore with their students. I'm sure there's many truck companies who aren't going to spend time making sure their drivers can do that competently either, before sending them out on the roads with the public in a 44 tonne vehicle.
I hope not, but I can see many more RTC's involving HGV's coming in the coming years.
At least with an examiner conducting the tests, including the coupling/ uncoupling and reversing, standards are very similar, as we all know, there are some crap training centres who will happily charge more for the training but not do anymore with their students. I'm sure there's many truck companies who aren't going to spend time making sure their drivers can do that competently either, before sending them out on the roads with the public in a 44 tonne vehicle.
I hope not, but I can see many more RTC's involving HGV's coming in the coming years.
I’ve seriously thought about this as a backup plan for when I retire (around 50), just use it as something to top up my pension maybe work for an agency as and when I feel like it.
Only thing that puts me off is having talked to my wife’s uncle who was a hub lorry driver (mainly long distance continental stuff) who says it’s a stty job poorly paid, having to deal with jobsworths at receiving places.
His final straw was when returning from France and 30 odd immigrants basically just wouldn’t get off the truck after they blocked the road. He got back to the U.K. and said fk this. He retired to the south of France. From talking to him and my farther in law it doesn’t sound a particularly stress free job which is what I would be looking to do once I finish my current job.
Only thing that puts me off is having talked to my wife’s uncle who was a hub lorry driver (mainly long distance continental stuff) who says it’s a s
tty job poorly paid, having to deal with jobsworths at receiving places. His final straw was when returning from France and 30 odd immigrants basically just wouldn’t get off the truck after they blocked the road. He got back to the U.K. and said f
k this. He retired to the south of France. From talking to him and my farther in law it doesn’t sound a particularly stress free job which is what I would be looking to do once I finish my current job. Slow said:
Ah so we dont know who these third partys are yet? I had a look and theres no mention of who they are or expected costs for things now.
If its like my trailer test you basically have to get inside a bay and close enough to the back without hitting the cones? Seems the sort of thing third partys would happily let you fk up till you "pass" that day.
Not to sound cocky but I am fairly comfortable jumping into anything and driving it pretty quickly. 20 ton road rollers/jcb/360 excavators, 7.5 ton trucks (offroad as post 97 test) luton vans with trailers etc. I would expect to pick up the reversing in a shortish amount of time.
Start nose first in a bay of cones on one side of the test area then reverse out of the bay across the test area without hitting a cone in the middle of the area and into another cone bay on the other side of the test area. If its like my trailer test you basically have to get inside a bay and close enough to the back without hitting the cones? Seems the sort of thing third partys would happily let you f
k up till you "pass" that day.Not to sound cocky but I am fairly comfortable jumping into anything and driving it pretty quickly. 20 ton road rollers/jcb/360 excavators, 7.5 ton trucks (offroad as post 97 test) luton vans with trailers etc. I would expect to pick up the reversing in a shortish amount of time.
Rearmost part of the vehicle must finish within a 1 metre box marked in the cone bay.
When you reverse out of the start bay the cone in the middle of the area is on your left and your reverse must pass this cone so you pass it with the right hand side of the complete vehicle. Easy enough with a flat bed as you can see it. Not so with a box body and that's where the practice comes in.
Slow said:
Ah so we dont know who these third partys are yet? I had a look and theres no mention of who they are or expected costs for things now.
They will likely be approved training facilities with adequate areas for the off-road reverse exercise. Over the last 10 years, DVSA have been approving 'customer sites' as test centres and basing examiners from there. MB140 said:
I’ve seriously thought about this as a backup plan for when I retire (around 50), just use it as something to top up my pension maybe work for an agency as and when I feel like it.
Only thing that puts me off is having talked to my wife’s uncle who was a hub lorry driver (mainly long distance continental stuff) who says it’s a stty job poorly paid, having to deal with jobsworths at receiving places.
His final straw was when returning from France and 30 odd immigrants basically just wouldn’t get off the truck after they blocked the road. He got back to the U.K. and said fk this. He retired to the south of France. From talking to him and my farther in law it doesn’t sound a particularly stress free job which is what I would be looking to do once I finish my current job.
Man grizzling about immigrants becomes immigrant.Only thing that puts me off is having talked to my wife’s uncle who was a hub lorry driver (mainly long distance continental stuff) who says it’s a s
tty job poorly paid, having to deal with jobsworths at receiving places. His final straw was when returning from France and 30 odd immigrants basically just wouldn’t get off the truck after they blocked the road. He got back to the U.K. and said f
k this. He retired to the south of France. From talking to him and my farther in law it doesn’t sound a particularly stress free job which is what I would be looking to do once I finish my current job. Slow said:
paintman said:
Slow said:
Doesnt sound like it? You do not have to use any form of driving school. You can buy your own HGV and insure it and roll in for a test if you fancied according to what vehicles are suitable for the tests.
"Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party. This part of the test is carried out off the road on a manoeuvring area and takes a significant amount of time. "
You misunderstand."Tests will also be made shorter by removing the ‘reversing exercise’ element – and for vehicles with trailers, the ‘uncoupling and recoupling’ exercise – and having it tested separately by a third party. This part of the test is carried out off the road on a manoeuvring area and takes a significant amount of time. "
The test will be in two separate parts.
The driving around bit will be done by the normal driving examiner.
The reversing exercise and the uncoupling/coupling will be tested by 'a third party' whoever that might be so you can still fail.
Without the training - or unless you have had plenty of practice - you are likely to find the reversing part a problem as you need to know where to position the vehicle in the first coned area before starting the reverse.
When I did my Class 2 we spent a considerable amount of time practicing that part!
If its like my trailer test you basically have to get inside a bay and close enough to the back without hitting the cones? Seems the sort of thing third partys would happily let you f
k up till you "pass" that day.Not to sound cocky but I am fairly comfortable jumping into anything and driving it pretty quickly. 20 ton road rollers/jcb/360 excavators, 7.5 ton trucks (offroad as post 97 test) luton vans with trailers etc. I would expect to pick up the reversing in a shortish amount of time.
Slow said:
From what I gather its just medical, send off for provisional, do theory and then just the actual test. The test being made shorter too so basically just go for a quick drive round your town and be done!
You aren't serious? Foolish opinions about the ease and duration of a C+E test aside, you are going to need to spend a lot of time and a lot of money getting up to test standard and even if the reversing element if assessed by your instructor: you're still looking at a 90min test and a 50% average pass rate.
944 Man said:
Slow said:
From what I gather its just medical, send off for provisional, do theory and then just the actual test. The test being made shorter too so basically just go for a quick drive round your town and be done!
You aren't serious? Foolish opinions about the ease and duration of a C+E test aside, you are going to need to spend a lot of time and a lot of money getting up to test standard and even if the reversing element if assessed by your instructor: you're still looking at a 90min test and a 50% average pass rate.
Triple Six said:
944 Man said:
Slow said:
From what I gather its just medical, send off for provisional, do theory and then just the actual test. The test being made shorter too so basically just go for a quick drive round your town and be done!
You aren't serious? Foolish opinions about the ease and duration of a C+E test aside, you are going to need to spend a lot of time and a lot of money getting up to test standard and even if the reversing element if assessed by your instructor: you're still looking at a 90min test and a 50% average pass rate.
For the sake of a few £100 it seems a skill worth having for the sake of anything in future while it is at its easiest to pass? Christ I have my PASMA and IPAF just incase and have never used them.
Slow said:
Triple Six said:
944 Man said:
Slow said:
From what I gather its just medical, send off for provisional, do theory and then just the actual test. The test being made shorter too so basically just go for a quick drive round your town and be done!
You aren't serious? Foolish opinions about the ease and duration of a C+E test aside, you are going to need to spend a lot of time and a lot of money getting up to test standard and even if the reversing element if assessed by your instructor: you're still looking at a 90min test and a 50% average pass rate.
For the sake of a few £100 it seems a skill worth having for the sake of anything in future while it is at its easiest to pass? Christ I have my PASMA and IPAF just incase and have never used them.
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