This week I got the renewal forms for my HGV and Bus licence. However being nearly 67 I have decided not to renew them but it is a hell of a thing tying to let go of your past. I have no intention of driving lorries again and I have not driven for over 10 years now but when I think of all the blood sweat and tears and all the good times and all the old boys involved with driving for a living the past stronger than gravity.
Cliff
well if your not gonna use it why spend the dosh, you’ve just saved a fair few quid … feet up cuppa tea and a nice bit of cake.
nick2008:
well if your not gonna use it why spend the dosh, you’ve just saved a fair few quid … feet up cuppa tea and a nice bit of cake.
Letting go of a big thing like your vocational licence is serious stuff. A driver is almost unique in that his licence is also his qualification. When a teacher retires he doesn’t have to keep paying to renew his teaching certificate, nor must he relinquish it when his ticker get iffy. So it’s unfair that drivers are placed in this position. I know because I am approaching retirement age and I hold both qualifications. However, if you know you are past that point where you are ever likely to drive again, even part-time, then it might feel very theraputic to ‘let go’. I am not ready to let go because when I retire (from teaching) I may well rely on my HGV 1 for pocket money until I get frailer. It’s horses for courses really, because I’ve met hearty old sods on TIR-work driving well into their 'seventies on Eastern European and North Africa work. My intention is to let go of my licence, not when it is financially expedient to do so, but when I feel emotionally READY to let go of it. That’ll do me nicely, and if I’m 80 when that happens: fine. Hope I haven’t bored you! Robert 
Yes I can sympathise with you there Cliff, I haven’t driven a HGV for eleven years but I still renew my licence ‘just in case’ anyone still wants me! I wont bother again though, I will be 66 in three years, so that will be the final nail in the coffin of a job that I enjoyed more than anything and (as one of my former workmates stated) would now do the job for nothing just to relive the enjoyment from doing it. However it isn’t going to happen so I/we just have our memories to fall back on, until we go gaga and even those will be taken from us! 
Pete.
Hi, gave my class one up 18months ago, what with medical charges and the CPC fiasco, when I got the licence back without the class one on it I was gutted, felt like I’d had my arms cut off, even though I’d no intention of working again, if you could turn back the clock to the 60-70-80s, when the job was at its best in my opinion, I would still be driving today, happy days, when we used to help each other not like todays [Truckers] 
Les.
Im in a similar situation having held my licence for 32 years.
Do I fork out X amount to take the driver CPC or just hang up my HGV licence. Im not using it (at the moment) and I hope I wont have to again in the future but it is nice to have as a fall back option “just in case”. However, if I don’t take the driver CPC then it wont be any use anyway!! 
So either I let it go, or I pay out and take the ■■■■ DCPC but hope I wont need to use it!! 
I really feel for you guys…ive just renewed my licence for the second time due to heart disease & im only 44 ! My licence only lasts for 3 years at a time , but lucky enough I get my cpc , medical expenses etc paid for…
To give up my hgv would kill me ! But each renewal I have to 9 mins on the treadmill for the DVLA, worries me that one day I may not pass … but till that day “I’ll keep on trucking”
I’ve just renewed mine for the second time in a year. I’m 66 and retired for the second time last July. I’ve got the DCPC and ADR, I did this in 2012 when I wound my business up. I would only have paid the money over in tax anyway. I had the idea that I might do a bit of holiday relief work in the summer, (to help pay for my own holiday) but at the moment I’m still getting used to turning over in bed and staying put on these cold and dark mornings. 
We shall see what happens later in the year when the DCPC is needed by everyone. I also get to play with this ERF now and again so I need to keep it going. Regards Kev.
lespullan:
Hi, gave my class one up 18months ago, what with medical charges and the CPC fiasco, when I got the licence back without the class one on it I was gutted, felt like I’d had my arms cut off, even though I’d no intention of working again, if you could turn back the clock to the 60-70-80s, when the job was at its best in my opinion, I would still be driving today, happy days, when we used to help each other not like todays [Truckers]
Les.
yes those years where my era and could not agree with you more,remember unsheeting your load there was always some driver who would help you folding them up along with many other assists you could count on.Wish i was 25 again in the 60s 70s.
windrush:
Yes I can sympathise with you there Cliff, I haven’t driven a HGV for eleven years but I still renew my licence ‘just in case’ anyone still wants me! I wont bother again though, I will be 66 in three years, so that will be the final nail in the coffin of a job that I enjoyed more than anything and (as one of my former workmates stated) would now do the job for nothing just to relive the enjoyment from doing it. However it isn’t going to happen so I/we just have our memories to fall back on, until we go gaga and even those will be taken from us!You know what happens then Pete, if you let your licence go you will have to sit in a field under an umbrella with members of the public walking past watching your stationary engines pump water or generate electricity, no doubt see you around somewhere later this year mate, till then keep to the left hand side & pull them mirrors in, Big Daddy may be coming towards you on Hazard Bend, racing back because Boss Hog has a “Special Load” he kept just for him.
1970commer:
You know what happens then Pete, if you let your licence go you will have to sit in a field under an umbrella with members of the public walking past watching your stationary engines pump water or generate electricity, no doubt see you around somewhere later this year mate, till then keep to the left hand side & pull them mirrors in, Big Daddy may be coming towards you on Hazard Bend, racing back because Boss Hog has a “Special Load” he kept just for him.
Hazard Bend is nowt to what it used to be Rob, that whole road is pretty tame nowadays. Mind you, it got widened daily by trucks carving lumps out of the bankside, especially when you met a Peak Waste skip lorry on it travelling at warp factor nine!
Well if someone came up with a nice classic truck Rob I would ditch the umbrella etc! Hope to see you around but the missus isn’t too good at present (back in Hospital yet again) so things are on hold, filled a few forms in so might get to see your Commer and that Trader somewhere.
Pete.
I was really annoyed as I lost my British license when I turned 50. I got my mum to send me the medical certificates and I even found a British doctor in Hobart that did the examination and filled out the form. He was on an exchange visit at the time. I sent of the form and the check and they refused me saying it could only be excepted if it was done by British doctor practicing in Britain.
I thought long and hard about it and given that now to quality for it you have to do regular CPC’s and on site training it didn’t seem practical to keep it going so I very reluctantly relinquished it.
Guess I’m stuck driving Road Trains down here.
Jeff…
lespullan:
Hi, gave my class one up 18months ago, what with medical charges and the CPC fiasco, when I got the licence back without the class one on it I was gutted, felt like I’d had my arms cut off, even though I’d no intention of working again, if you could turn back the clock to the 60-70-80s, when the job was at its best in my opinion, I would still be driving today, happy days, when we used to help each other not like todays [Truckers]
Les.
I know what you mean Les, kept mine going till I was 70 with the intention of doing a couple of trunks a week just to keep my hand in, well this
retirement job aint too bad so I never bothered, anyway when the license came back minus the class 1 I was gutted, phoned up about it and this
guy informed me that my entitlements are still in place, I just need to re-apply if I want them on my license which I cant see me doing with all
the nonsense it now entails. Pity we cant have something on our license to say what we were.
Jakdaw:
lespullan:
Hi, gave my class one up 18months ago, what with medical charges and the CPC fiasco, when I got the licence back without the class one on it I was gutted, felt like I’d had my arms cut off, even though I’d no intention of working again, if you could turn back the clock to the 60-70-80s, when the job was at its best in my opinion, I would still be driving today, happy days, when we used to help each other not like todays [Truckers]
Les.I know what you mean Les, kept mine going till I was 70 with the intention of doing a couple of trunks a week just to keep my hand in, well this
retirement job aint too bad so I never bothered, anyway when the license came back minus the class 1 I was gutted, phoned up about it and this
guy informed me that my entitlements are still in place, I just need to re-apply if I want them on my license which I cant see me doing with all
the nonsense it now entails. Pity we cant have something on our license to say what we were.
Hi, I think it would be abbreviated, but I would say ,genuine hard working guys making a living for there families, not just for the glory of a big new truck.
Les.
Jakdaw:
I know what you mean Les, kept mine going till I was 70 with the intention of doing a couple of trunks a week just to keep my hand in, well this
retirement job aint too bad so I never bothered, anyway when the license came back minus the class 1 I was gutted, phoned up about it and this
guy informed me that my entitlements are still in place, I just need to re-apply if I want them on my license which I cant see me doing with all
the nonsense it now entails. Pity we cant have something on our license to say what we were.
Well I shall be 71 at my next medical,and have been doing two night trunks a week since I retired from engineering when I was 60.
I’ve got my CPC,(Done in house with the firm), so as long as I keep passing the medical,I intend to keep going,I look on the job as a paying hobby.
The job gives me the discipline to get my arse out of bed and I’m aware that when I do pack this in that it will be the end of a major part of my life,I will never work again,and that’s a big loss to contemplate.
My wife calls me Peter Pan,but if I have to park up,I think it will be downhill very quick!.
Interesting Thread.
I’m 66 and I’ve had my license for since 1968. My current Class 1 expires next year and it is not my intention to renew it. 2 reasons; firstly I will not be able to recuperate the cost of doing this stupid CPC but secondly, and perhaps most important, is that I don’t want the job anymore. When I began we were valued for independence and for being able to solve our own problems but now nothing could be further from the truth - what they actually want is a driving machine open to harassment and prosecution from the idiot army at VOSA but incapable of deviating from instruction and watched 24 hours via satellite and open to being insulted and demeaned by some security bloke at some RDC. Never mind the Elf and the Safety because that is not just for drivers
Here’s an example: A driver I know of was on a day trip to Maidstone and was stopped by the Police at the VOSA checkpoint at Leatherhead on the 25 because he had a nearside headlight bulb out. VOSA gave him a fixed penalty for having the light out and 20 minutes to get it changed. When he went to change it himself, as any proper driver would, he was informed that unless he had a certificate entitling him to change the bulb he would be stopped from doing so. His boss tried to get someone out to him but it could not be done in the time allowed so VOSA informed him that he was going to be clamped and not allowed to continue until daylight the following day. Because he was on a day trip in a vehicle that he did not normally drive he had so washing or sleeping gear with him and when VOSA went home they switched off the lights and locked the toilet facilities. Is this normal? Would you treat a dog like this? They could have let him go on to the services but they refused. Do I want to be treated like this simply because of the job I do. No, thank you.
It will be like loosing a part of me when that license goes but it’s time. Simples.
David
In your situation Cliff only you can decide. Some of us didn’t get that chance to make the decision, the doctor filling the forms in made the decision for us. When he said “sorry, no can do” to me I thought the bottom had fallen out of my world. I’d been a driver all my working life and I had got an immense amout of job satisfaction from driving lots of different machines. Sure, there had been bad days and good days but overall it had been a great working life.
Now I’ve got over my licences (it was many years ago) I’m retired and I’m enjoying every minute of it. I look back on my memories and think “been there, seen it, done it, driven it”. I’ve no desire to go back.
Live for the day, I gave 49 years of a working life, what’s left is mine.
Love your sentiments and I agree 100%. I also have my memories to fall back on.
Regards Cliff
grumpy old man:
In your situation Cliff only you can decide. Some of us didn’t get that chance to make the decision, the doctor filling the forms in made the decision for us. When he said “sorry, no can do” to me I thought the bottom had fallen out of my world. I’d been a driver all my working life and I had got an immense amout of job satisfaction from driving lots of different machines. Sure, there had been bad days and good days but overall it had been a great working life.
Now I’ve got over my licences (it was many years ago) I’m retired and I’m enjoying every minute of it. I look back on my memories and think “been there, seen it, done it, driven it”. I’ve no desire to go back.
Live for the day, I gave 49 years of a working life, what’s left is mine.
you gotta give it up mate ,i do cranes and trucks test after test after test the thing with driver cpc is you dont have to answer any qeustions
ha ha
Couldn’t agree more with g.o.m. I gave fifty years of my life in assisting the British economy, mostly for wages that would be laughed at by the people I was delivering to and from, often in weather and working conditions that most people would not consider getting out of bed for and mostly getting out of any problems on my own using my own initiative and experience. My father did almost exactly the same thing for one firm for almost all his working life- he was awarded a teasmade for all his hard work. When I retired, none of the managers or directors took the trouble to even say goodbye.
This retirement job may not be the best paid, but I’ve got the best boss in the world!