Learning to drive lorries - getting started

This post tells you how to go about learning to drive an LGV. First of all you need to decide which size of vehicle you want to drive. If you passed your test before 1997, you can drive up to 7.5 tonnes on your normal car licence.

If you passed your test more recently than that and you want to drive this size of vehicle you have to do the C1 test. If you are paying for the test yourself and think you may want to drive larger lorries in the future, you may as well just go straight for the Category C licence as the difference in price is small and the test is the same, just in a bigger vehicle.

As the LGV licence is vocational and as a lorry driver you will be spending hours and hours on the road, it is important that your health is up to it. Before you can be given the licence, you have to pass a medical. This is not a very stringent test and anybody in general good health will normally pass it. Anybody with any of these conditions, must inform the DVLA. Once you have your licence, you have to retake the medical at age 45.

Age restrictions:
Basically, the rule for any large vehicle is that you have to be 21 unless you take the CPC. For more detailed information click here.

Useful books:


Useful links:
2pass.co.uk

Glossary of LGV terms

LGV - Large or Laden goods vehicle. This is the term referring to any vehicle used to transport goods from vans up to articulated lorries.

HGV - heavy goods vehicle. This refers to larger goods vehicles, generally those above 7.5 tonnes for which you need a category C licence, previously called an HGV licence.

MGW - maximum gross weight. It refers to the combined weight of your unladen vehicle, the load on it and any people in it. This is usually on weak bridges to show the heaviest weight the bridge can take.

MAM - maximum authorised mass. This refers to the total combined weight of the vehicle and the maximum load it can carry including people. This is defined by the manufacturer.

Payload. This refers to the total capacity in weight of the load and the people.

HGV class 2 and class 1. These are the old names for Category C and Category C+E respectively.