The Government has announced a number of ‘progressive’ changes to driving test rules for lorry, bus and coach drivers, as well as motorcyclists.
The first series of changes are set to be implemented in January 2014, following a public consultation by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) that took place earlier in 2013. www.gov.uk has issued a comprehensive document outlining the changes. However, a summary of the key changes affecting lorry, bus and coach drivers include:
* Removing the need to use a vehicle with 8-forward gear ratios for large test vehicles (category C)
* Allowing people who take a lorry or bus test (category C and D) in an automatic vehicle to get manual entitlement for those vehicles, if they already have a manual entitlement for cars, lorries or buses, with or without trailers (category B, B+E, C, C+E, C1, C1+E, D, D+E, D1+E)
For existing lorry, bus or coach drivers this manual entitlement will be granted when exchanging, or upgrading, a licence provided that your licence is within one of the above categories.
For motorcycle drivers the DSA plans to reduce the minimum power requirement for medium motorcycles (category A2) from 25kW to 20kW. This change will be implemented from January 2014.
The DSA will also enforce more driving test rule changes for motorcyclists in 2019, with plans to:
* Raise the minimum engine power requirement for large motorcycles (category A) from 40kW to 50kW
* Introduce a minimum mass weight requirement for large motorcycles (category A) of 180kg
The initial DSA consultation received 339 responses and based on those responses the DSA completed a full analysis, taking the decision to implement the changes referred to above.
The consultation period ran from the 15 July 2013 to 26 August 2013. The DSA hopes that the changes will improve the standard of vehicle used for motorcycle, lorry, bus and coach driving tests.
The DSA also expressed that one of the key benefits of the changes will be the opportunity to buy potentially cheaper, more readily available vehicles to be used for driving and riding tests.
The DSA recognised the need for change given that the minimum standards for vehicles used for current driving tests were first set out in 2000. Since then though, vehicle manufacturers have steadily phased out production of the types of vehicles that were frequently used then and now manufacture much safer, more energy efficient vehicles.
Tags: Driving License, Driving Test, Practical Driving Test, UK Driving License, UK Full Driving Test