i had my medical on thursday filled my D2 out and sent everything off… couple of questions
how likely is it that the dvla reject an application and what sort of things will they fail you for ?
i am 6 ft 5 and 21 stone - by standard measurements i am overweight! but i weight train and i am very healthy but obviously the driving standards will only see an application of an overweight 25 year old. how much of a factor will my weight have on things ■■
also my blood pressure was 121/90 is this normal ■■ i put this down to having to wait over 2 n half hours for the doctor to turn up in a tiny red hot room with 20 other people whilst i told my work i would be 10 minutes and this obviously made me a bit stressed. the doctor said BP was normal but i have no idea
i really really want my provisional so obviousl a little anxious as its something i want to do
Only had one medical myself, and I made the assumption that the doctor would have told me if there was anything that would cause an issue as they filled out the form. The main things I think they are looking for, are physical conditions or illnesses that may impair your abilities. i.e. Poor eyesight, Heart issues etc. I really don’t think your weight will be an issue if you’re a heavily built man that takes regular exercise! You’re probably stressing over nothing as a result of this being important to you! So sit back and chill, it should be fine!
My provisional licence took over 6 weeks to arrive (including an Xmas period). I chased them after 4 weeks, and was told that because I needed glasses to drive , it was taking a bit longer… But it arrived, and I’m sure you’rs will if you put down that plate of tuna and rice! LOL
P.S. You must be a big lad, as I’m your height but only a wimpy 15.5 stone!
Evil8Beezle:
Only had one medical myself, and I made the assumption that the doctor would have told me if there was anything that would cause an issue as they filled out the form. The main things I think they are looking for, are physical conditions or illnesses that may impair your abilities. i.e. Poor eyesight, Heart issues etc. I really don’t think your weight will be an issue if you’re a heavily built man that takes regular exercise! You’re probably stressing over nothing as a result of this being important to you! So sit back and chill, it should be fine!
My provisional licence took over 6 weeks to arrive (including an Xmas period). I chased them after 4 weeks, and was told that because I needed glasses to drive , it was taking a bit longer… But it arrived, and I’m sure you’rs will if you put down that plate of tuna and rice! LOL
P.S. You must be a big lad, as I’m your height but only a wimpy 15.5 stone!
feeling a lot better after these replies haha… i do think im stressing over nothing but like ya say its important so your gonna be. mine may take a while aswell then. i dont need glasses to drive but i did need glasses to pass the hgv medical as i have astigmatism in my right eye which makes long distance reading quite hard still achieved 6/12 uncorrected though… but 6/6 in both eyes with glasses.
and yes im quite a big lad…although im half fat half muscle atm
Let me calm you down a little more…
Evil has it summed up really anyway.
I’m a bigger lad than you - not taller, but shorter and rounder
Let’s say more the prop type than the flying winger getting all the glory.
DVLA is not interested in your BMI (which is a garbage measurement anyways as I’m sure you know if you train/do sports - and that’s another discussion for another time).
They only want to know if you have any of the ‘likely bunch’ if you are a wee bit porkier than the average fella - so; diabeties, heart probs, sleep apnea, high blood pressure.
Speaking of your blood pressure, yours is fine, but you don’t want it to be getting too much higher.
The docs like a figure of 120/80, but most ppl in the country are between that and 140/90.
Your eyes are of much more interest to them and you seem to have that part sorted (I too have astigmatism and am a little short sighted but nothing that cannot be corrected perfectly well with glasses).
What it comes down to is, if on that Medical form you had to tick any of the boxes where they ask about specific problems, then you might have issues.
General health, as long as you can waddle in to the surgery, isn’t an issue as such, unless it’s ‘developed’ into one of the more specific problems I’ve mentioned, if you see what I mean.
From what you have said though, and if all boxes on the form were negatory, then you’re golden.
Too late now for you, but I now recommend to everyone that they check and double check that form in case an ‘x’ crept into the wrong box. Once your form heads DVLA Medical way, even if accidental, you’re in for a world of wait and telephone calls.
Got that T-shirt due to my optician (and me not double checking).
I’m in a similar position, waiting for provisional. I rang DVLA after the three weeks and they said it was in the pipeline and hadnt been processed yet: it was taking longer due to backlog of work rather than any real problem with my app. They did say they would highlight my app as a first provisional, thus giving it a higher priority. So don’t worry if its late, and worth giving them a ring to see if you can jump the queue. I suspect if the doc said you were ok to drive then you are 95% there.
Thanks for all the replies guys definitely feeling more confident !! Although it seems i should be ancticipating a long wait to get it back. Im holding back on getting the theory disks just incase i get rejected
Something really ■■■■■■ me off the other day. Looking through a well know careers book and idiot who wrote it said that you need normal colour vision for LGV driver. I wonder how many young people will be put off a career as a driver if they think this nonsense is true without checking it out properly.
First post on here lads (and lasses) so hello everyone ! Be gentle with me
I must admit that I thought I had “passed” the medical when the Doc signed it, I didn’t realise that the DVLA looked into it , if that makes sense?
I got mine back after 2 weeks, and my blood pressure was high and still passed. The doctor who did the medical told me to go to the doctors to get it checked out so I did. Had to have one of those bp monitors over 24 hours. Turns out when I enter a doctors room my bp shoots up. As when I’m not there it goes back to normal.
So all I’m saying is I don’t think there overly concerned about your bp as long as it’s under the limit that they require which is scarcely high 180/100 I believe.
120/80 is ideal, you’re only a tad high so it will be fine. my brother in law was a fat ■■■■ 30 stone and 6ft, they passed him! things that may cause a problem are high cholesterol (heart attack, stroke risk etc) or high blood sugar (diabetes etc) if you need a blood test it is best to fast as it drops your blood sugar, other than that you should be fine
Max-Cady:
Something really ■■■■■■ me off the other day. Looking through a well know careers book and idiot who wrote it said that you need normal colour vision for LGV driver. I wonder how many young people will be put off a career as a driver if they think this nonsense is true without checking it out properly.
Was it Alder?
But seriously, you apparently don’t even need to have proper colour vision to hold an ADR licence either. I’m not colour blind, but was intrigued because of the different hazard classes colours, so asked the instructor. He said it was a good question (code for he didn’t know ) but came back to me later and said no, being colour blind wasn’t an issue.
Hopefully someone can advise here, i currently wear contacts and the PWR of them is -8.00 (BC 8.6 DIA 14.2) and im worried my sight is too bad to pass a medical. With my contacts or glasses on i can see PERFECTLY, but without either i can hardly make out anything more than a couple inches away. Should I consult my doctor or does anyone know if i should give up my dream of being an hgv driver before it even begins?
TruckerRob316:
Hopefully someone can advise here, i currently wear contacts and the PWR of them is -8.00 (BC 8.6 DIA 14.2) and im worried my sight is too bad to pass a medical. With my contacts or glasses on i can see PERFECTLY, but without either i can hardly make out anything more than a couple inches away. Should I consult my doctor or does anyone know if i should give up my dream of being an hgv driver before it even begins?
Welcome to the forum pal!
2 things:
The first is that I know didly about the correction factors, but I do know it’s based on what your corrective vision is. i.e. You MUST drive in lenses/glasses!
The second is that the Driver’s medical, is the first thing you have to do to get a provisional licence. So it’s a case of falling at the first hurdle!
(Not that you would want that, just that you’re going to know straight away if your eyesight is a problem)
When, or if you do the medical, and get a doctor to fill out the form, it would be handy if you have your lens prescription.
(Or get your optician to fill in that page of the form - They may charge £10-20 for this)
P.S. Your opticians can probably tell you up front if you meet the HGV criteria!
P.P.S. Find a cheap doctor online in your area, cost about £50 (Your own GP will probably want more than double that…)
TruckerRob316:
Hopefully someone can advise here, i currently wear contacts and the PWR of them is -8.00 (BC 8.6 DIA 14.2) and im worried my sight is too bad to pass a medical. With my contacts or glasses on i can see PERFECTLY, but without either i can hardly make out anything more than a couple inches away. Should I consult my doctor or does anyone know if i should give up my dream of being an hgv driver before it even begins?
As far as I remember +/- 8.00 is right on the limit and also you need to be able to read the top line of the snellen chart without corrective lenses. I’m -2.75 and could only read the top two without glasses making me 6/48, limit being 6/60…Think this is correct.
I called my optition yesterday about it and he said the test is carried out while wearing your lenses or glasses, so as long as i can see the board while wearing corrections i’ll be fine. Apparently they dont do any tests without the help of lenses/glasses if you wear them, which i guess i found odd but hey, thats what he told me!
Likewise what evil has said medical is basically a tick box exercise, all they want to know about is health/ medical conditions your weight and height is not a factor that decides whether they give you a licence or not. So you will have no problem obtaining your provisional as long as you have no under lying medical issues. As for the question regarding eye sight best to speak to your optician as they should know what they are talking about and advise you otherwise
Hi, I’ve done my medical and found out that my BP is 190/100, the doctor( found great deal on Trucknet) advised my to see my own Doctor which I obviously did, he put me on tablets and took 3 more B/P checks, 2 where 180/90, and one was 170/82, he has advised me this will still fail, he’s given me 2 weeks of charts to fill in at home and re-see him, does the doctors say influence The DVLA, he says I’ve probably got “White Coat Sydrome” and nervous of a doctor, anybody got any advice?
The doctor who’s doing your actual medical simply fills in the values at the time on the form and then the DVLA take care of the rest. There’s nothing on the form for the doc to say “In my opinion this person is safe / unsafe to drive” or similar. In my experience that and the eyesight check is the only bit the doc actually checks properly.
TMAN I would personally recommend waiting a little while to see if your doc can get the blood pressure down, otherwise if it goes to the DVLA and is flagged up their end, it’ll end up with the DVLA medical team which will add a load of delays and complications from what the doc who did my medical said.
Finally, check and double check the form is fully completed. You don’t want it to go to DVLA with anything missing else it gets sent back.
Hi Trev,
My medical form already got sent off to DVLA, they sent me the letter telling me to go get some tests at my own doctors, he’s advised me two do the 2 weeks of home readings and then see him again, did it this morning after a night shift and it was 148/82! The question now is do I contact DVLA to tell them what’s happening or just wait the 2 weeks and se what happens, cheers
) but came back to me later and said no, being colour blind wasn’t an issue.