Romanian HGV qualified driver working in UK

We have a very good Romanian HGV driver (EU) who has been with us 4 months, at about the same time he moved into a permanent UK address. He had stayed in temporary accomodation for 2 years before this. His Romanian Licence, Tacho and DCPC cards all valid and show his Romanian address. I have read on the GOV.UK site that EU visitors become a UK Resident after spending 185 days at a permanent UK address. GOV.UK tells me that he ‘can drive in Great Britain on your full, valid licence until you’re 45, or for 5 years after you become resident in Great Britain, whichever is longer’…My question is at what point do we change his address to his UK address? Is there anything else i need to be looking at?

I looked into this for a Spanish driver the company I worked for employed, while he can keep his national licence for a period of time If he is a vocational licence holder he must register with DVLA after 1 year.

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q416.htm

I also believe if he has a licence from another European country he will have to do their version of the DCPC, to do the UK DCPC he will need to exchange it for a UK licence. But don’t hold me to that.

Lorry licences need changing within 1 year. I always made it a condition of a job offer that they swap to a UK licence so it can be checked easily.
If his digicard goes wrong you will have problems as it will be sent to the Romanian address. He can apply to have a UK digicard but beware when he tries to swap his licence for a UK one later as this generates a second driver number for the same person which causes all sorts of confusion.

Very interesting and Informative, Thank You. My initial thought is to have a chat with him to find out his plans, look at his DCPC due dates and work out a time to convert everything over to a UK licence and arrange for DCPC, Tachcograph graph to have same number.

I was told by DVLA i needed a key code and that the driver in question has to write to DVLA to obtain. When i followed it up a few days later to see when we could expect the key code, we were told the driver has to go to the Romanian Consulate in Edinburgh with his Licences etc and they will print out a report for him to return to me. Seems very drawn out affair to check if a EU resident has a clean driving record. He has been pulled before by VOSA who put his card into their ‘machine’ and they had nothing to say but really need to get official confirmation for our records, so a day trip to Edinburgh for him.

We won’t start a driver unless they have uk licence cpc and tacho card after a nasty experience with more than one driver from the east

muckles:
I looked into this for a Spanish driver the company I worked for employed, while he can keep his national licence for a period of time If he is a vocational licence holder he must register with DVLA after 1 year.

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q416.htm

I also believe if he has a licence from another European country he will have to do their version of the DCPC, to do the UK DCPC he will need to exchange it for a UK licence. But don’t hold me to that.

I know of holders of French driving licences who have UK DCPC cards. They have been like that for several years and dont seem to have any problems. I cant quote any regs on it but it seems to work.

Franglais:

muckles:
I looked into this for a Spanish driver the company I worked for employed, while he can keep his national licence for a period of time If he is a vocational licence holder he must register with DVLA after 1 year.

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q416.htm

I also believe if he has a licence from another European country he will have to do their version of the DCPC, to do the UK DCPC he will need to exchange it for a UK licence. But don’t hold me to that.

I know of holders of French driving licences who have UK DCPC cards. They have been like that for several years and dont seem to have any problems. I cant quote any regs on it but it seems to work.

Might just be initial DCPC, as our Spanish lad had got a licence, but hadn’t done the DCPC and we found out it was far easier and cheaper to do it in the UK than it was in Spain, but were told he’d need a UK licence, or maybe just had to register with DVLA, which I understand means you don’t change you licence over to UK, until it expires.

We didn’t get any further as he wasn’t overly interested in driving, he was employed as a racecar mechanic, and I prefer not to have the mechanics driving the trucks because of keeping track of the hours they work.

We had issues with EU drivers; we had a Portuguese driver who would not change his licence to a UK one. He was under the impression that points could not be added to his Portuguese licence. He slung his hook before we had issues, but we had many issues… Parking Violations/tickets, bridge strikes, accidents. Not a pleasant experience…

We received a letter from DVLA confirming ‘No endorsements’ on his GB registered licence. Told him to fill out the D2 and get the UK licence to make things simple, his UK licence turned up 11 days after applying so all good.