How to become an HGV driver in the UK

6 minute read · 2026-08-28

Driving a lorry is one of the few UK jobs where you can go from no relevant experience to a qualified trade in a matter of months rather than years. It is also a job plenty of people leave inside the first year, usually because nobody told them what the days are really like. This guide covers both halves: how to get the licence, and what you are signing up for once you have it.

What an HGV driver actually does all day

Class 2 is category C, a rigid vehicle where cab and body are one unit. Class 1 is category C plus E, an articulated unit pulling a trailer. The work behind those labels differs. Class 2 tends to be multi drop: builders merchants, brewery deliveries, skips, refuse, home delivery, with a lot of climbing in and out of the cab and moving stock by hand. Class 1 tends to be trunking between depots, store deliveries into supermarket distribution centres, or tramping, which means nights away sleeping in the bunk.

A shift is far more than steering. You run a walkaround check before you move, plan the day around your tachograph, strap and secure the load, wait your turn at a booking window that has already slipped, and reverse a long trailer onto a bay with very little room either side. Most experienced drivers say the driving is the easy part.

The licence, the CPC and roughly what it costs

The route is fixed and you do it in this order:

1. Hold a full car licence, then apply to DVLA for provisional lorry entitlement using the D2 form and a D4 medical completed by a doctor or an approved medical provider. The medical is commonly £60 to £120.
2. Pass the lorry theory test, which is multiple choice plus hazard perception, along with Driver CPC module 2, the case studies paper.
3. Take practical training and pass module 3, the driving test, in the category you want.
4. Pass module 4, a practical demonstration on load security, safety checks and vehicle systems. That earns you the Driver Qualification Card, which lets you drive professionally.

Training is sold as a block of intensive days on the vehicle. Class 2 packages are commonly quoted at £1,300 to £2,200, and a Class 1 upgrade afterwards at £1,200 to £2,000, with test fees on top. Some employers fund the licence in exchange for a training agreement you repay if you leave early, and Skills Bootcamps and the Large Goods Vehicle Driver apprenticeship are worth checking first. You also need a digital tachograph driver card, and that fee is set centrally, so check GOV.UK rather than an old forum post.

Once qualified you must complete 35 hours of periodic Driver CPC training every five years. Extra tickets pay for themselves: an ADR course for dangerous goods runs about a week and is commonly £550 to £800, and Moffett or lorry loader tickets open up merchant and plant delivery work.

Realistic pay

Class 2 multi drop work is typically advertised at £13 to £15 an hour, or roughly £30,000 to £36,000 a year with overtime. Class 1 day work is commonly advertised at £15 to £18 an hour, with tramping and night trunking packages often quoted between £38,000 and £50,000 once nights out allowances and premium hours are counted. ADR, tanker and tipper work sits at the higher end. Agency rates can look better per hour but come without guaranteed hours.

Shifts, tachographs and the parts nobody mentions

Drivers' hours rules are strict: nine hours driving a day, extendable twice a week, a break after four and a half hours and a compulsory weekly rest. The tachograph records all of it and infringements go to your employer and to DVSA. Starts at three or four in the morning are normal, because that is when the roads are clear and the delivery slots are booked. You will eat in the cab, queue for facilities that are often poor, and sit still for hours, which is why so many drivers have back trouble by their forties.

Getting the first job and where it leads

The catch for new drivers is insurance: many adverts ask for two years of experience. Get round it by starting on Class 2 with a local firm, taking agency shifts to build a record, or applying to own account fleets such as supermarkets and waste operators, which run their own driver academies. Put your licence categories, CPC expiry, tacho card and any endorsements near the top of the page, because that is what a transport manager filters on. Our guide to writing a CV that gets read shows how to lay that out.

From there the ladder is clear: Class 1, then specialist work such as ADR or abnormal loads, then transport planner, driver trainer or a Transport Manager CPC and a move into the office.

Next step: browse current driving vacancies to see which tickets local employers are asking for, and if you are weighing up the depot side of logistics instead, read our guide to warehouse and forklift work.