A government consultation into granting the automatic right to drive lorries up to 7.5 tonnes for car drivers is set to come to a decision by the end of October 2022. While this move is designed to increase the recruitment pool of available drivers for mid-sized vehicles, at HGVC, we believe that taking this drastic step does not represent a wise move.

Allowing effectively untrained people behind the wheel of C1 vehicles (that range between 3.5 & 7 tonnes) would decrease safety on the UK’s roads. From a safety perspective, such a change would lead to a greater number of accidents – something that the statistics absolutely bear out. The industry needs more drivers, but they must be fully qualified.

Accident Statistics Show a Clear Picture

When looking at UK accident statistics, the figures show that C1 vehicles are involved in 23% of goods vehicle road traffic accidents (RTAs). That said, they only make up 7% of the total distance that is covered by goods vehicles with a weight of more than 3.5 tonnes. As such, it would seem that allowing unqualified to legally drive them would be dangerous. 

Relaxing C1 and D1 rules should be seen as unwise on this point alone, although former transport minister, Karl McCartney, had this to say prior to the consultation…

“It is clear that, prior to 1997, new drivers of any age had the freedom to drive a wider variety of vehicles, including cars with trailers. I, the department for transport and government are seeking opinions on reverting to these ‘grandfather rights”.

The Consultation Must Return a ‘No’ Vote, 

However, given that the data shows that C1 vehicle drivers have an increased likelihood of being involved in accidents, simply giving out these rights arbitrarily is an approach that’s fraught with problems. Instead, retesting these drivers can be the only sensible way to tap into this potential resource of new drivers. 

The deadline for the DVSA’s call for evidence is the 28th of October 2022, and we hope that sense prevails, leading to a no vote on the matter. With this in mind, we encourage any operator with drivers of these vehicles to continue to provide them with C1 & D1 training in the interests of maintaining road safety. 

Committed to Improving Safety On Britain’s Roads 

What must be said is that we’re fully behind moves to increase the number of available HGV drivers in the UK, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of people’s lives. That’s what approving this plan would do – something that goes against everything we teach every day to our student drivers learning across our national network of training centres.

As such, we will continue to support the industry by providing new HGV drivers through our industry-leading, scalable training programs that can meet the needs of even the biggest organisations. To find out more about how we work, take a few moments to browse through our website. 

Alternatively, to get in touch to talk about your precise needs with us, either click on ‘contact us’ or call our friendly team on 0330 818 8888.