The 3 ton ULW Bedford TK

albion1938:
My “coming of age” happened during the changeover period from old to new rules. I think my memory serves me right. Until the 1968 Transport act, (when O licences, HGV licences, MOTs for HGVs etc.) were introduced, driver and vehicle licensing were based on unladen weight. There was no separate HGV licence, a car licence covered everything, except until the age of 21 you could only drive up to 3 tons unladen, referred to on the driving licence as “light locomotives”. At 21 you could also drive “heavy locomotives”, that’s what became known as HGV after the change. Under the new rules then based on plated gross weight you could drive up to 7.5 tons gross on a car licence from 17 years old, anything over that needed an HGV for which you had to be over 21. I believe there had been a form of HGV licence before WW2 but the requirement was dropped during the war due to a shortage of drivers and not reintroduced after the war. In my case, I turned 21 at the start of 1969 and got a new 3 year licence with heavy locomotives on while you could still drive HGVs on a car licence. By “grandfather rights” if you’d been in the habit of driving HGVs during a certain qualifying period you were able to get an HGV licence without taking a test, which is how all the existing drivers got their licences. Due to that, I was able to apply for an HGV, had to get my employer (my brother) to sign a declaration that I’d been in the habit of driving a vehicle of the appropriate class during the qualifying period, so no test needed. You only got a licence for the type of vehicle you’d been driving in the qualifying period, so if for instance you’d been driving a four-wheeler, you only got a class 3 and still had to take a test to drive anything bigger.
Bernard

It seems like we’ve also confirmed a 3 t UW rule carried on regarding the HGV licence requirement,which then changed to 7.5 t gross as I started in the job.Unsurprisingly if we had car licences being used to drive 10t gross around on a 3 t UW wagon.If you could stop that thing without taking something out or ending up with the wheels facing up you could probably drive anything after that :open_mouth: .An 8 wheeler must have seemed like driving a race car to handle and stop after that.:laughing: