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
The class 4 was as I recall for tractor units under 2 tons unladen and they were mainly National Carriers Scammell Townsmen.
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
Yep, I passed my car test in '98, my pcv (in a manual Leyland Leapord with a ācrash boxā) in 2000 and still couldnāt drive a 7.5t or legally tow my caravan, even though I could drive a bendy bus around London or a double deck manual coach anywhere in Europe, a 7.5t was just too damned heavy I guess
We had a fork lift driver in the warehouse with no licence, he wanted to go on the road and got a provisional hgv and took his only test (2 sets of L plates) on a Sed Atki and 40 footer,passed first time ! that would be about 1977. We had our own driving school at BRS, the instructors reckoned it was easier to learn a non driver to class 1 as they hadnāt developed any bad driving habits !
Not only was it possible to go straight fom a car licence to a Class I HGV, you could quite legally drive an HGV on a provisional licence, having never taken a car test at all.
As and when you passed your HGV, you were then licenced to drive any lorry up to and including an artic and a car.
It was common to see army driving school Bedford TK artics from Leconfield with two sets of L plates, one set for a car and one for the lorry.
The army called it licence acquisition.
I was never in the army, but apparently the policy changed so that the soldier went to the ASMT at Leconfield, acquired his licence and was later retrained on the actual vehicle he was designated to drive.
I stand to be corrected, I was told this by a neighbour at the time, who was a civilian instructor.
I see this has already been covered but its my 10 pennyworth anyway.
I only had a car licence in 1992ā¦and had a go at class one ā¦the flaw in the plan at the time was, I hadent even reversed a trailer on anything vehicle at allā¦so it took a bit of extra effort, oh and two tests.In fact at the school I was at,they were teaching soldiers ,there car licence ,and HGVin one big package.
I went from a provisional car licence to a full licence with all categories on, but that was in Belgium back in the early 70ās, before we entered the EU, swapped my UK provisional for a full Belgium one!
When I came back to UK, I could drive all classes on my belgium licence for one year, then had to take a test for car, and class 1 both of which i passed first time.
Hay1908:
With all the help you like to provide coffeholic I thought you would have been the first to post on the thread I started about HGV licences
Iāve read it but in 1987 I went straight from car licence to a first time pass Class 1 so donāt meet the requirements of your thread.
Hay1908:
if not can I suggest TEA!!! (And probably Green Tea at that!!!)
Not green tea but I had a African Rooibos, Strawberry and Vanilla tea not 20 minutes ago.
I hope this helps.
In 1987!!! are you sure? I dont think you are able to gain an HGV 1 straight from a car licence then!!!
You could, it wasnāt until the nineties it changed to LGV and Cat C or C+E.
Pardon me!!! are you still telling me that you went straight from CAR licence to sitting a test for an HGV 1 in 1987? YES or NO?
YES.
Sorry pal, there is no way that was possible back thenā¦I know you are talking bollox!!! It was possible to pass a driving test in an HGV 3 vehicle and gain a driving licence (I did it) but you would then have to pass an HGV 2 and then an HGV 1. You could NOT jump straight to Class 1ā¦
I was born in '67, class 1 passed in '88ā¦no class 3, no wagon/drag, straight on. Took my weeks course (after assessment) with Big Wheelers of Reading with a guy called Rikki, who used to pull boats around for Interboat before taking up the instructor roll. Some of the ālocal ladsā may kow of him
Hello yāall, thought I would chip in here with my two p. I joined the army in 79, did my class 3 in 80, no car licence. I then passed my class 1 in 96 as a requirement for a QTO course, never took a class 2 but I know it was an army requirement back in 80 as a few of us tried to get it. Only a select few of the RIckshaws Cabs & Taxis were allowed to go for it.
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
Fair play to you.
Although I am slightly disappointed in you because at no point did you claim it was a grey area, which is the normal procedure on here. So, if you could just make a note of that for next time.
Moose:
not to sure of trailer on class 3, my father had a class 2 which changed to c+e with restrictions when the licences changed,
i went straight to c+e from a car in 1995 and i think the changes that put a stop this were a bit later on around the time you could no longer drive a 7.5 tonner on a car licence a 18 years old
now its gone the other way again and you could go from no licence to C+E in 3 tests in 3 days at 18 years of age
When I got mine straight from car to class 1 in 1977 tou could actually do a double L and get a class 1 without having a full car licence.
chuffin nora!! some of you lot are even older than me
car to class 1 in 1981 age 23. Learned with Caroline Clapperton in Galashiels, all those pretty Border villages, well they were til I took an artic through them
good thread ā¦just remembered i worked with a guy that only had an agricultural fam tractor licence (no car)he went on holiday and came back wi his hgv1.was back in the early 80s.
seem to think he did a all inclusive training thingi down around blackpool.
caused a big stir at work as boss couldnt belive it was legalā¦thought he had bought a dodgey ā¦
jimmy.
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
Fair play to you.
Although I am slightly disappointed in you because at no point did you claim it was a grey area, which is the normal procedure on here. So, if you could just make a note of that for next time.
Cheers pal, I have taken note! But Iām a guy that calls a shovel a shovel
I went straight from a motorbike licence to class one in '83, when we were training i wasnāt allowed to drive the motorway section because i only had a provisional licence!
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
Fair play to you.
Although I am slightly disappointed in you because at no point did you claim it was a grey area, which is the normal procedure on here. So, if you could just make a note of that for next time.
Cheers pal, I have taken note! But Iām a guy that calls a shovel a shovel
We were building caravan transporters at the time and had to keep them under 3 ton, not tonnes
