Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a flourish of demand for HGV drivers. Because many may have been made redundant, or those who wished to seek a new career while the whole country was in lockdown, there was a surge of individuals who were training to become a licensed HGV driver.
There are many benefits of becoming an HGV driver, which you can read about here.
As the wave continued for the pursuit of becoming a logistics driver, there was still a backlog of driving tests (evidently due to the national lockdowns in 2020/2021). The more the backlog was building, the more pressure the training schools and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) was under.
With as much as a 10-month wait for driving test for the DVSA and up to an 16 week wait with training schools in certain areas, this evidently lead to a shortage of examiners and instructors, with many learners travelling up to eight hours for a driving test. The DVSA also recalled on recently retired examiners to aid in the backlog.
The BBC cited that “About 1.6 million UK learners had their tests every year before the pandemic, but that dropped to 436,000 in 2020-21.”
Although this was the case, there were still many eager to take driving lessons as soon as possible, including those who were looking at obtaining their HGV license.
Given that the pandemic halted the progression for these learners, there was nothing that could be done for these students themselves.
The Demand for HGV Drivers
The only compromise there was for HGV learners, was certain aspects of the driving course that were deemed unnecessary were removed from the training. Additionally, BBC also stated in their 2021 article on “How serious is the shortage of lorry drivers?” that “…Ministry of Defence examiners will be brought in to increase the number of HGV driving tests.” As well as offering “… free intensive ‘boot camps’ to train 5,000 people to become HGV drivers, with another 1,000 to be trained through courses funded by the adult education budget.”
On top of this dilemmas, the BBC also reiterated in 2021 that “Up to 50,000 more HGV driving tests will be made available each year…”
With all of these anomalies building up: the lack of HGV drivers; lack of examiners and lack of available tests, it was paramount that a solution must be inevitable. That is why it is vital for more centres to be approved for testing, such as 2 Start’s Portsmouth DVSA approved test centre.
What Does This Mean For You?
Subsequently, this means that you can now undergo all your training and practical test at the same location, in this case our newly approved Otterbourne DVSA-Approved testing site, as well as our Portsmouth DVSA-Approved testing site. This could be deemed handy for those who dread driving to the test centre.
With the extra testing capability now available, it’s never been a better time to look at becoming a fully qualified Class 1, Class 2 or even ADR certified HGV driver.
You can find our Otterbourne test centre at:
Unit 2 Four Dells Farm,
Poles Lane,
Otterbourne
Winchester,
SO21 2DY
To see what courses are available with 2 Start, head over to our courses, which provides the full range available to help increase your earning potential in 2023.
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