As far as I recall the major shake up of licences (car and HGV/LGV) happened in 1997 - therefore Coffeeholic is correct (as I would expect him to be 
)
Hi Coffeholic
I went straight from car licence to HGV class 1 in 1980 at age 21. The firm i worked for sent me on a two week course through a driving school, there was a lad there who did the same but he only had a provisional car licence! The truck had to have ordinary L plates as well as HGV ones on. The training vehicle was a dodge commando with six speed synchro box and 30f trailer.On the afternoon of the day I passed my test I was sent out to load a SedAtki artic with RR265 and fuller box (tipper trailer) both were only six month old.That was a learning experience!
Regards
Mick
gardun:
As far as I recall the major shake up of licences (car and HGV/LGV) happened in 1997 - therefore Coffeeholic is correct (as I would expect him to be
Anything before 97 is classed as grandad rights, and anything after 97 is classed as numpty rights. The license will only entitle you up to 3.5t in weight only until you take the C1 or cat C.
HTH
In the words of truckyboyā¦whatās a test?
Oh! yeah,I went from car to HGV 1 in 1979ā¦passed first time tooā¦unlike my car licence 
I went from car to Class 1
boss said i could use his truck and do Class 3
if i wanted but i declined as no point in taking 2 tests
did 5 days lessons with David Brine from Nuneaton.
Passed first time
It was a black book as i recall
renaultman:
Coffeeholic:
oatcake1967:
Yep I went car to class one also.My memory may be wrong but could you just go straight for class one, as long as you were
21 and had your provisional HGV. Without a car licence.
I think you could.
Iām sure you could, you needed the standard L plates as well as the HGV ones, I seem to remember.
Spot on.
pre 97 you could tow a trailer behind a 2 3 4 rigid
with just class 2 or 3 licence
post 97 you needed to be C+E licenced to pull a trailer whether semi or dragged
If you held Class 2 or 3 and where pulling trailers you could claim
an addition to licence to allow you to pull drags but not drive Artics
I went straight from car to class one back in the days , there was no requirement to take any other test .
Someone said that in the military you have to gi 3-2-1 , wrong . My son is in the marines and he went straight from car license to hgv ce ( class 1 ) . Getting old not quite sure what its called these days .
JQ
renaultman:
Coffeeholic:
oatcake1967:
Yep I went car to class one also.My memory may be wrong but could you just go straight for class one, as long as you were
21 and had your provisional HGV. Without a car licence.
I think you could.
Iām sure you could, you needed the standard L plates as well as the HGV ones, I seem to remember.
You could. The artic I learnt on in '85 had the standard L plates as well, for that very reason. My trainer said that they did very occasionally have people do it. I went from car to HGV1, fortunately my first actual job was on a rigid though.
Prior to 1976 the class 3 was for vehicles over three tons unladen. It then changed to 7.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight (GVW). At that time I was working for a truck rental company and overnight some of the vehicles changed from HGV to non-HGV and vice versa. At that time some Bedfords were 10.5 tons gross but less than 3 tons unladen. To overcome this problem, drivers of these vehicles were issued with class 3 HGV licences with a 12 tonne GVW restriction.
Hay1908:
As and when I have exhausted my research I will of course openly offer my apologies, but Iām still sticking to my guns cos I cant find anything about it at present. You are right cos I was in the army back then but Iām sure everybdy had to go through the 3, 2 1 processā¦ mmmmā ā ?
I think your confusion comes from the army way of doing thingsā¦
It was perfectly legal to go from car licence to HGV1 however the army also had trade training ( driver training plus higher skill sets of mechanics, map reading load securing etc.)
B3= HGV3
B2=HGV2
B1=HGV1
It was not possible in the army to skip a level of trade training and go from B3 to B1 so you had to do the licences individualy and in order
When I first started driving trucks there was no extra licence needed. Once you had a licence to drive it covered you for most things including āheavy motor carsā (motorbikes were the only exception I can remember).
My father drove a truck before the war without ever having taken a test.
Yep, coffeeholic you were correct and I was wrong, for that I am sorry. I am now off to finish that large slice of humble pie
i must be getting old got my hgv grandfather rights 1970,
Passed in 1982 straight from car to class one with Drivesafe in Gateshead cost about Ā£350
Hi All,
First post here on this excellent site for drivers/ex drivers! Hope to join in and post a lot more in future
My Dad comes from a time where you could just jump straight into an artic from your car and away to go! Which is exactly what he did until he retired. No test, nothing, load and get going lol. This is pre 1970 which is the date the HGV test (in itās various forms) became compulsory. He was then āgivenā his HGV licence on Grandfather rights 
Can you imagine that happening today? Even my Dad had the little brown hard-cover book as a separate HGV only Licence.
My own driving history and experiences is for another thread/time, so to keep on topic I will just say that Coffee is 100% correct. I went from car licence to HGV Class 1 in March 1988 and passed first time after a 5 day course, (couldnāt get less 
) and was promptly sent my lovely brown HGV Class 1 hard-cover booklet full licence 
This is what I kept until the rules changed again and did away with the separate booklet which I miss and think was wrong At least the separate licence kind of meant something. It was something those only driving on a car licence couldnāt have without going through the HGV test as we all had and it āseemedā more professional somehow. Anyway, things move on as they surely must 
I will write about myself and my own experiences some other time. Did I say this is a great site BTW?
Andy 
I went from a car to class 1 in 1976.I passed on a Ford D Series with a tiny trailer.
My first job was to drive an Atkinson Borderer with a 40 foot container.Wake up time.
Moose:
Coffeeholic:
The 2 added nothing more than being able to drive heavier vehicles with more than 2 axles, it didnāt add anything else.not quite true, on an old class 2 you could tow a drawbar trailer behind a rigid vehicle, that you now need c+e for
when the licences changed they had to put a restriction on to stop old class 2drivers driving artics whilst still being able to tow trailers!
I pulled an A frame drawbar with a class three licence, perfectly legal and above board, I didnt ever take a class two test but whilst working on the rigids I funded my own class one.
You never had to take class 3, class 2 followed by class 1
waddy640:
Prior to 1976 the class 3 was for vehicles over three tons unladen. It then changed to 7.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight (GVW). At that time I was working for a truck rental company and overnight some of the vehicles changed from HGV to non-HGV and vice versa. At that time some Bedfords were 10.5 tons gross but less than 3 tons unladen. To overcome this problem, drivers of these vehicles were issued with class 3 HGV licences with a 12 tonne GVW restriction.
Absolutely correct, some people used to wrongly call it a Class 4 
We were building caravan transporters at the time and had to keep them under 3 ton, not tonnes
Hay1908:
Yep, coffeeholic you were correct and I was wrong, for that I am sorry. I am now off to finish that large slice of humble pie
And that my friend is what you will normally find when Neil answers a serious question on this forum
Now donāt feel bad about it, you wont be the first, and you certainly wont be the lastā¦
Anyone got the black licence still, can you post a photo?