Understanding Essential HGV Driver Responsibilities
Understanding Essential HGV Driver Responsibilities

For the purpose of ensuring that you are in compliance with your responsibilities, you, as a professional driver, ought to be familiar with the fundamental facts concerning drivers' hours, the condition of the vehicle, and driver responsibilities.

Infractions of the rules governing drivers' hours and driving limitations may result in a set penalty, a graded deposit, or a court summons, depending on the severity of the infraction.

  • Setting boundaries for driving and taking regular breaks from it
  • You are permitted to drive for a total of 9 hours each day with a break of 1 hour and 45 minutes.
  • After every 4.5 hours of driving, stop for a break for 45 minutes.
  • You have the option of breaking up your 45-minute break into two 15-minute breaks.
  • You are permitted to double your normal weekly driving allotment to a total of 10 hours.

Driving Shift Patterns

You are allowed to drive for up to 56 hours during a shift that lasts one week. You are not permitted to work more than 90 hours in a period of two weeks.
If you drive for 56 hours during the first week, you will only be allowed to drive for 34 hours during the second week.
Daily Relaxation In addition to the half-hour break that you are allotted, you are required to have a total of 11 hours of regular daily rest.
Your daily rest can be broken up into two parts unless you choose to take your entire 11-hour break in a single chunk each day. The first one must go without interruption for a minimum of three hours, and the second one must go without interruption for a minimum of nine hours.
You have the option to cut your daily rest time to a minimum of nine hours of uninterrupted time three times each week. You will go into more detail about this before getting your DVLA lapsed HGV license.

Driver medical requirements

Each and every HGV In order to legally operate commercial vehicles on public roads, drivers are required by law to be in an acceptable state of health. As a consequence of this, every new heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver and every heavy good vehicle (LGV) driver who is renewing their license is required to undergo a medical exam that is performed by a qualified medical practitioner. This can be a general practitioner working for the National Health Service (NHS) or a private physician, but it is essential that you be aware that the examination may cost you money in any case.

It is not the responsibility of the physician to determine whether or not the driver is qualified to operate a commercial vehicle; rather, they are tasked with filling out a form known as a D4 and submitting it to the DVLA. The physician is only permitted to complete the form based on the medical findings that they have discovered. Based on the information that is submitted on the D4 form, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) will decide whether or not the driver is fit to operate a commercial vehicle.

The following topics will be included in the examination:

Vision – The vision criterion for drivers of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) is a bit more stringent than the standard for drivers of passenger vehicles (cars). You will need to have enough vision even without the use of corrective glasses, and your peripheral vision will also be evaluated.
Diabetes is a disease that does not inherently preclude you from driving professionally; nevertheless, the DVLA will not approve your application unless your diabetes is under control and well-managed.
Diseases Affecting the Cardiac The patient will have an exam to determine whether or not they have any heart conditions, such as murmurs, peripheral artery disease (PAD), or aneurysms.