has anyone got any tips for changing to french driving licence. where do you go for medical to renew hgv . is it similar to uk ? or is it better to renew in england ? any help welcome
You should be able to use your UK license in France as its still in the EU shouldnt you??
pjs welcome to Trucknetuk.
The first thing you will need is an “official” translation of your UK licence.Addresses can be found in “Les Pages Jaune”. The application form is available at your Prefecture in the Bureau de la circulation. The medical used to be at the prefecture,but I believe it can now be obtained at certain “agreed” doctors.
If you intend to stay in France it would be an advantage to have a French licence,smaller fines if you commit an offence, courses to get any points lost back. Plus if you wanted to work for a French firm you would have THEIR licence.
I have heard of people getting an English replacement Licence and handing that into the Prefecture and getting a French licence,not that I would dream of doing such a thing !.
kerbut.
That’s just not cricket old boy. The very idea!
Welcome to TN PJS, if you want to drive a UK reg motor in France your UK HGV is OK, but if you drive a French reg truck you must have a French licence with the appropriate groups on it. Although you never can generalise in France my experience was that it was a straight swop as soon as a medical had been passed, for which the sub prefecture will give you a list of approved doctors in the area. The fee last year was € 24 including the licence and paid to the doctor. You would need 3 copies of a photo as well and last year I saw that only approved booth photos were acceptable.
As I said, different French Departements do their own thing so DaveL’s point above about translations is not necessarily wrong, depends where you are.
When I went for my FCOS (like the proposed UK cpc) some years ago there was a Portuguese driver who, to the surprise of all of us including the instructor, was still using a Portuguese licence with the the full approval of his local officials after 15 years! I wasn’t allowed to drive one day without the change.
If you want to know about FCOS and FIMO I suggest you do a search on here, they have been discussed before. Basically the FCOS course is 3 days long and for drivers with, I think, more than 10 years experience. FIMO is for the newer fellas and lasts for 3 weeks (PM Caveman) and is correspondingly more expensive and detailed.
thank you for your replys. 
will let you know how i get on . :
kerbut:
I have heard of people getting an English replacement Licence and handing that into the Prefecture and getting a French licence,not that I would dream of doing such a thing !.
Nice idea but tried and tested and it doesn’t work, or at least it doesn’t work for what I think you’re suggesting !!! 
When you’re issued with your Frog licence they send your UK one back to the DVLA at Swansea and they cancel it, so still having your “real” UK licence would be pointless as it would no longer exist on DVLA database. 
It’s a fraud prevention measure to stop people using fake UK licences, otherwise you’d be able to use a fake licence to get a real Frog licence, then back in the UK exchange the real Frog licence for a real UK licence .
Until the DVLA send you a reminder 3 years after the “change” your class 1 entitlement has run out !
Rob K.
You may be correct now,I dont know.
But when my old female dog returned to the UK in 1994,she reported her UK licence “lost” & Swansea renewed it. As far as I know (not care) she still has her French licence. I was asked questions by the gendarmerie for a few years, but I explained I had no contact with the old female warlock. They’ve left me alone since.
DaveL:
Rob K.
You may be correct now,I dont know.
But when my old female dog returned to the UK in 1994,she reported her UK licence “lost” & Swansea renewed it. As far as I know (not care) she still has her French licence. I was asked questions by the gendarmerie for a few years, but I explained I had no contact with the old female warlock. They’ve left me alone since.
Yeah I think things have changed significantly since the good old days when you could get away with stuff! It wouldn’t work now, I can tell you that. Once DVLA have received the “I’ve lost my licence and want a new one” letter and looked up the details on the system, it would be a simple case of “sorry madam but that licence was cancelled on x date when you exchanged it for a French one. Thank you and good day.” 
Rob K:
kerbut:
I
When you’re issued with your Frog licence they send your UK one back to the DVLA at Swansea and they cancel it, so still having your “real” UK licence would be pointless as it would no longer exist on DVLA database..
Exactly.
I can confirm some of the above info having just done 'doing) the exchange stuff, although mine is "slightly different due to it being an addition of categories and not just a straightforward exchange.
Medical - list of approved docs from prefecture, €24 something (non reclaimable from your medical caisse)
Take form received from doc, your english licence (take several copies beforehand!) exchange request form and photos to the prefecture who will either a) officialify the med certificate which then counts as a driving licence for two months and/or b) give you a temporary attestation which has the same effect and the same duration.
Take note they will not neccessarily write down the correct categories so its wise to check! also it can take bloody ages, I’m still waiting for mine after 2 and a half months! Went back to the prefecture and easily got the temp thing extended but in the process lost my cat D entitlement and gained full motorbike cat C and cat EC !! so beware…
Like everything here, dont expect it to be easy and then if it is you will be pleasantly surprised.
The FCOS or FIMO you will have to organise seperately - easy if you can fund it yourself otherwise find either a co who will put you through it or seek help from the ANPE.
HTH
Melanie
Err why do you need a doctors cert to change a license.and spardo I have been driving a spanish reg`d truck all over europe but not on a spanish license…
You need a med cert because it is a licence category that obliges you to undertake one…doesnt matter if you already had one in the uk…
Sorry I misunderstood I thought you were already trucker,I just filled in the form did the fcos and thought the wages they wanted me to work for were crap and still are.
no not already a trucker but already cat D and informed that the medical requirement would be identical even if i was just swapping my cat D for a french one. or indeed a C for a C. As always however procedures in different areas can be and usually are, different.
froggy:
Err why do you need a doctors cert to change a license.and spardo I have been driving a spanish reg`d truck all over europe but not on a spanish license…
Errr, what has driving a Spanish truck got to do with French regulations for driving a French one? 
As to the doctor’s certificate, that is what is required in my sub-prefecture in the Dordogne. If I could have done it without, I would have done. 
cool spardo thats two places in france that do it the same!!! theres hope yet
Dunno about you but I was surprised at the thoroughness of the medical here, a hell of a lot more in depth than the one I had for my PCV licence in the UK…
Does it really hurt to get a (sort of ) clean bill of health even if you’re under time for it by UK regs? I was well chuffed!
ur-2-small-2-drive-that:
cool spardo thats two places in france that do it the same!!! theres hope yet
Not quite the same
Dunno about you but I was surprised at the thoroughness of the medical here, a hell of a lot more in depth than the one I had for my PCV licence in the UK…
My medicals were all different and all a bit of a joke really. From standing on one leg with my eyes closed for a minute (failed, overbalanced, blamed it jokingly on the bunch of keys on my belt. Doc. failed to see the joke, nodded gravely and said ‘ok then’ ) to being told ‘you’re blind’ because I failed the eye test with one eye but then passed when I put my reading glasses on.
Finally the ear test. The doc stands next to me facing the opposite way, tells me to put my finger in the ear nearest to him and whispers a word. Couldn’t hear a bloody thing. , but fortunately there was another doctor in the room facing me who made wild steering wheel movements with his hands while miming ‘camion’. I said ‘camion’ and passed.
More recently they have become more sensible. A quick blood pressure check, stethoscope check, eye chart (with my now obligatory driving glasses ) and that’s it.