So, you want to be an LGV / HGV driver?
Step 1) You need a medical assessment before you can get behind the wheel
You need to have a medical and the doctor needs to fill in a D4 medical form. You can go to any doctor for this but be aware that many GP’s charges can be quite high, with long waiting times for appointments. If Nottingham is convenient for you, I recommend that you contact Dr. Adam Connor at AC Medical Group in Colwick (www.acmedical.co.uk) , who specialises in vocational medicals and charges very sympathetically for this. Tel: 01156 488985 or 07802 850084 The Corner house, Rectory Road, Colwick, Nottingham. NG4 2DU
If Colwick isn’t convenient, you might want to try Cotswold Medicals (www.driversmedicals.com), who also specialise in vocational medicals and have locations up and down the country.
You can apply for a hard copy of the licence application forms from the DVLA (regrettably, they are not available to be downloaded) however, it can take a few weeks for the DVLA to post them out. I have a supply of licence application packs and I will gladly put one in the very next post to you if you complete your details here.
Send your completed medical form, together with your plastic driving license, to the DVLA at Swansea (it takes between 4 days - 4 weeks for your license to be processed – depending on how busy the DVLA are).
Would you like me to post you out a licence application pack? Just leave me your details below:
Adding higher provisional categories to driving licences
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) have announced that from 1st of March 2024, they will no longer accept email applications for additional provisional vocational entitlements.
What is changing
The DVLA introduced a temporary automated email process to accept applications for additional provisional driving entitlements in November 2021, when changes were made to driving licence rules. This was one of a number of measures introduced by the government to help tackle the lorry driver shortage.
In short, it allowed you to upgrade a provisional entitlement for a rigid vehicle (category C, C1, D, or D1) to a provisional entitlement for vehicle and trailer (category C+E, C1+E, D+E or D1+E) by sending the DVLA an email, and not having to have another medical and sending your licence off to them for the extra provisional entitlement to be added. The email application process provided drivers with an automated response which they could present at the start of their vocational driving test with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
As from 1st of March 2024, applicants will need to apply for any new provisional vocational driving entitlement by using a D2 application form. You may also need to have a D4 medical examination report completed by a doctor if your last medical was over four months ago.
All of the details about adding higher categories to a driving licence can be found on GOV.UK.
Transition period
To help candidates who may have an automated email from DVLA that was received before 1st of March, driving examiners will continue to accept this evidence at vocational driving tests up to and including 31 March 2024.
From 1 April, candidates and training schools will not be able to book tests through the booking system unless the correct category is shown on the driving licence record.
If a candidate wishes to use an email provided historically by DVLA, they will need to phone the DVSA customer service centre to book the test and provide:
Evidence of the DVLA email
Their driver number
Use the D2 application process
The DVSA recommend that candidates and training schools use the D2 application process from 1 March 2024, even if they have an email from the DVLA.
Moving on
As already mentioned, we have a supply of the D2 and D4 application forms (the D2 has to be a hard copy, as it is not available to download) that we can send out to you – just contact us, giving your name and postal address and we will put them in the post to you.
The D4 medical form has to be filled in by a doctor after your medical. Again, we recommend Dr. Adam Connor of A C Medical Services for this medical. He’s good, he’s based in Colwick, he specialises in vocational medicals and he charges sympathetically too!
Now let's get you started on the road to success!
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