Consultation outcome

Summary of public feedback on proposals to change HGV and bus driving tests and allow car drivers to tow trailers without a test

Updated 25 April 2022

Overview

The Department for Transport (DfT) in conjunction with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) sought views on the department’s proposals to:

• remove the current staging requirements for licence acquisition
• consider alternative arrangements for the conduct of the reversing manoeuvres
• allow car drivers to tow a trailer without the need for an additional test

9,541 responses were received in total.

This document is a summary of some of the feedback to the consultation. The full response will be published at a later date.

Response summary

About the respondent

Question 1: Please tell us in what capacity you are responding to the consultation

Answer	Response total
A professional driver	2,586
A member of the public	4,772
A HGV or bus operator	909
An industry representative organisation	144
One of the LGV voluntary registers	36
An insurance provider	6
A road safety organisation	60
A leisure interest organisation	90
A training organisation or trainer	877

9,480 respondents answered this question.

Question 3: Have you encountered any problems in driver recruitment in the past 24 months?

Answer	Response
Yes	3,158
No	2,604
Don’t know	1,680

7,442 respondents answered this question.

Amendment 1: removing the current staging requirements for licence acquisition

Question 5: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposal to remove the staging requirements for vocational driving licences?

Answer	Response
Strongly agree	4,432
Agree	1,958
Disagree	545
Strongly disagree	1,719
Don’t know	402

70.5% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with this proposal.

9,076 respondents answered this question. Comments included:

Due to current shortage of delivery drivers this would open up fixed term opportunities for the short term unemployed. Provide an opening for the long term unemployed, as it is expensive to train and honestly right now most working class families like mine are struggling to meet the weekly bills and seeking opportunities in new areas of work.

Would save time and money, a fast and easy solution.

I am currently trying to gain my Cat C licence with a view to doing C+E as soon as possible. Removing the staging requirements would mean that I could enter the profession where drivers are most needed sooner.

Each of these vehicle categories takes a completely different set of skills to operate. If you remove the staging requirements you’re going to end up with a lot of crashes, deaths and incidents from drivers who cannot operate their vehicle properly.

This will make a huge difference to driver availability, it will take a while to trickle through the industry but will be effective.

There should still be a system of driver and vehicle familiarisation when a newly acquired CE licenced driver is asked to drive Cat C. The rigid vehicle responds different to turning circles without the fifth wheel and manoeuvring and reversing is not easy just because it is smaller than a CE.

Question 6: To what extent do you agree or disagree that a driver who successfully passes a category C+E or D+E test should also be granted entitlement to drive a vehicle in categories C1, C1+E and C or D1, D1+E and D respectively?

Answer	Response
Strongly agree	4,910
Agree	2,144
Disagree	496
Strongly disagree	1,052
Don’t know	474

9,075 respondents answered this question.

Question 10: As a prospective employer, do you agree or disagree that drivers should continue to demonstrate competence by taking a category C or D test before a C+E or D+E tests?

Answer	Response
Strongly agree	1,893
Agree	1,299
Disagree	1,746
Strongly disagree	1,529
Don’t know	1,687

8,154 respondents answered this question.

Question 11: Do you consider there to be any concerns for road safety should the government implement this measure?

Answer	Response
Yes	2,812
No	4,832
Don’t Know	1,109

8,753 respondents answered this question.

Question 12: Do you think this would impact trainers, in terms of their existing fleet of training vehicles and costs?

Answer	Response
Yes	3,504
No	3,016
Don’t Know	2,077

8,597 respondents answered this question

Amendment 2: considering alternative arrangements for the conduct of the reversing manoeuvres

Question 15: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposal to enable the reversing manoeuvres and the coupling exercise to be conducted by an authorised third party?

Answer	Response
Strongly agree	2,845
Agree	2,790
Disagree	890
Strongly disagree	1,205
Don’t know	1,038

64.2% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with this proposal.

.

8,768 respondents answered this question. Comments included:

This would allow more driving tests to be completed and many yards already have in place this facility

Manoeuvring is the time when most accidents happen. It is important that this is independently tested to ensure safety, particularly of pedestrians and cyclists, and other vulnerable road users.

This would make the test confusing and muddled. It could potentially extend the period of time to simply train for LGV.

Most trainers are fantastic in their job with plenty of experience in the field

It’s no different to taking something like the CBT for motorcycles. This would reduce the test time.

If this helps to relieve the pressure of the testing stations (as and when needed) it should be considered $CTA

​​Makes sense if it allows more DVSA driving tests

Question 17: Who do you think is best qualified to be authorised to assess the manoeuvres?

Answer	Response
Existing or new HGV trainers being authorised	3,229
Only those trainers who are members of either of the two voluntary HGV training registers	1,114
Trainers who hold specific professional qualifications	3,700

8,043 respondents answered this question.

Question 18: What sort of scheme do you think would best support this arrangement?

Answer	Response
A scheme that is as light touch as possible for authorisation and ongoing assurance, with minimal involvement from DVSA	3,797
A fully regulated scheme with provision for formal quality assurance checks, removal of authorisation and an appeal mechanism	4,276

8,073 respondents answered this question.

Amendment 3: allow car drivers to tow a trailer without the need for an additional test

Question 20: To what extent do you agree with the proposal that car drivers should be allowed to tow a trailer without the need for passing a B+E test?

Answer	Response
Strongly agree	5216
Agree	932
Disagree	702
Strongly disagree	2437
Don’t know	188

64.9% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with this proposal.

9,475 respondents answered this question. Comments included:

Obviously there would be a limit similar to now but it would improve the camping and Caravanning industry therefore promoting British business.

This is a safety issue and was introduced to prevent accidents. This would be a step backwards

Anyone wishing to tow a trailer should have training similar to the CBT that motorbike riders have to take.

This would allow me to support my volunteering groups, my work place and personal activities without having to take significant time off work

The test is currently prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain a slot. Older people have been towing without any training for years. It is ridiculous and unfair

It is vital for training in towing trailers. If DVSA are to abolish testing then compulsory training by an approved instructor must be adopted

Car drivers never used to have to do this and there was never any problems

As long as you have held a licence for over 3 years

No need for a test. But signed off by regulated body

My 80 year old father in law can tow a trailer that I can’t. I am struggling to recruit staff because of this rule as it is.

Question 24: Do you think drivers would continue to want to take some training, even if a test is not required?

Answer	Response
Yes	5,126
No	2,992
Don’t know	1,223

9,341 respondents answered this question