Hi folks,
Looking for a bit of info here as I’m looking into moving from bus and coach driving to HGV. I have been driving busses for about 2 years and range from driving these …
to these…
and everything in between.
What I would like to know is will my experience on these busses and coaches help when it comes to HGV driving ? Also does anybody know if my time driving these will help when it comes to looking for work if/when I pass my tests as a lot of job are looking for driving experience.?
Employers tend to look on the licence and see how long you have held the category they are looking to employ you with
As you may be up against others with no large vehicle driving experience then the PCV will give you an edge
Unless you have a pre 1997 car licence you will need to do initial mods 2 and 4 on top of all the usual tests and on passing those your LGV dcpc entitlement gets added to the currect PCV DQC expiry date IF you have completed 35 hours periodic dcpc
If got current PCV DQC by doing PCV mods 2 & 4 and not yet done 35 hours dcpc then you will end up after doing LGV initial with a DQC with 2 different expiry dates which will then be the same after doing the 35 hours and at the LGV date + 5 years - not the PCV date + 5 years
Thanks for the reply mate. I didn’t pass my car test until 2007 so I know I will have to do the initial CPC modules again. As for my current CPC I done the initial mods for PCV and have done 3 more days cpc since passing my test.
cp91:
Thanks for the reply mate. I didn’t pass my car test until 2007 so I know I will have to do the initial CPC modules again. As for my current CPC I done the initial mods for PCV and have done 3 more days cpc since passing my test.
I would leave the last 7 hours periodic dcpc until after you pass LGV initial modules so you get the benefit of the system
cp91:
What I would like to know is will my experience on these busses and coaches help when it comes to HGV driving ? Also does anybody know if my time driving these will help when it comes to looking for work if/when I pass my tests as a lot of job are looking for driving experience.?
Thanks in advance.
It didn’t help me one bit, I had to learn everything from new, finding jobs was tricky too as I’d only driven service buses with no tacho so no experience on that & no agency was interested. Don’t be put off though, a lot of things are a struggle for me so really you should be fine.
I was driving buses and coaches for two years up until February. You will have no problem at all driving Cat C - in fact, I’m pretty sure its the same test !! Look at the dimensions of some of the buses and coaches you drive. Having had that experience is definitely an advantage both on test but also when you’re looking for work… After I passed my Cat C , I emailed a few local hauliers ( I chose to do this first rather than phoning because it meant I could put in the fact that I had been driving buses and other relevant experience rather than saying “Ive just passed by Cat C, any work going” )
I passed my test on a Thursday and was in full time employment by the following Monday. Yesterday I passed my C+E and, because I’ve not caused any problems for the company I work with, I’m out on Monday in a C+E
Good luck, having driven buses, you definitely got the edge over others
That was my thinking mate, some of the coaches that I have driven are quite a bit bigger than some of the class c stuff out there so thought surely it should help with road positioning and stuff.
I spoke to a company the other day who said that they would view the busses as valid experience and wouldn’t have a problem taking me on.
Just need to wait on my licence coming back from DVLA and I will get booked into Ritchie’s for an assessment drive to see how I get on. How many days training did you do before your cat c test mate ?
