HGV / LGV Driver careers guide and job description

Getting Into LGV Driver Careers

Similar jobs: Large goods vehicle driver, HGV (heavy goods vehicle) driver, lorry driver

Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) drivers rule the roads, distributing goods all over the UK as well as to Europe and back.

Transport and logistics is all about shifting stuff from A to B in the smartest and smoothest way possible. What would giant retailers do without LGV drivers to move anything from T-shirts to bananas across the country to where they’re needed in stores and warehouses?

LGV drivers keep the wheels of industry turning, and they’re regularly in high demand. If you love driving and the open road, want a job involving travel, and you’re ready to command a seriously large vehicle, this could be a good career route for you.

What Does An LGV Driver Do?

You’ll have to love travel and driving with only the radio for company because you’ll spend a lot of time on the road in your lorry, and sometimes you’ll even eat and sleep there. However, there’s a big sense of freedom involved with the job, and you’ll get to see so much of Britain and the Continent.

Some day-to-day job responsibilities include:

• Driving all kinds of big vehicles (like articulated lorries, tankers, transporters or trailer wagons)
• Working between depots, distribution centres and warehouse to transport goods across the country and overseas
• Working with a transport manager to map out your route and plan your schedule
• Supervising or helping to load and unload lorries with anything from retail goods to livestock
• Carrying out delivery paperwork and filling in log books to show when and where you got somewhere
• Carrying out basic mechanical maintenance before and after journeys (like checking the oil, brakes and tyres)

Useful Skills To Put On Your CV:

• Great driving skills and a clean driving record to prove it
• Ability to work on your own and concentrate for long periods, like when you’re on the road for hours at a time
• Good customer skills – after all, when you are driving a company lorry you are the face of the company
• Ability to fill in record sheets and paperwork in a way that people can read and understand clearly

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

How Do You Get These Skills?

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

Build Your Skills With the FREE Young Professional Programme

School, College And Training

Driving large goods vehicles and lorries doesn’t require you to have any set academic qualifications, but there are some other things to bear in mind.

To become an LGV driver you need to:

• Be over 21 (this is the usual case)
• Hold a clean driving record
• Pass a medical examination to show you’ll be unlikely to be suddenly taken ill while driving
• Hold an LGV licence (these come in different categories so you can have a C1, C or C and E).

Depending on which regulations are in place you may also need to train for a Driver CPC, or Certificate of Professional Competence, at the same time as you’re training for your LGV licence.

You can do LGV training courses which last one to three weeks and cover driving skills, basic mechanics, and how to load a lorry safely and secure its contents. Skillcert offers HGV driving traineeships.

LGV Driving Apprenticeships

Depending on which regulations are in place you may also need to train for a Driver CPC, or Certificate of Professional Competence, at the same time as you’re training for your LGV licence.

You can do LGV training courses which last one to three weeks and cover driving skills, basic mechanics, and how to load a lorry safely and secure its contents.

Apprenticeships

You can get into this job through completing an apprenticeship in driving goods vehicles. This gives you the opportunity to earn a salary working in digital technology while getting structured learning that leads to an industry-recognised qualification.

If you’re aged 16-21 you may be able to join the Skills for Logistics Young LGV Driver training scheme, which is a fast-track route to getting a full LGV licence and industry-recognised qualification. This route can give you the opportunity to get a licence when you’re 18.

LGV apprenticeships in driving goods vehicles are available with resulting qualifications at levels 2 and 3.

You can be given more responsibilities over time, as you get to know the ins and outs of the world of driving long distances to help keep goods moving.

You can often boost your salary through shift allowances and bonuses. Your skills are really in demand right now, so some employers might give you a golden handshake or bonus sum just for joining their organisation.

You could take further training and get yourself an ADR (Advisory Dangerous Goods by Road) Certificate. This qualification means you can drive hazardous goods like toxic chemicals by tanker.

Your career might start on the road but it doesn’t have to stay there! Once you’ve built experience you can train up to become an LGV instructor, freight transport planner or move into transport and supply chain management roles.

Want to be your own boss? You could also become a self-employed LGV driver and work for different companies. Or you could go the full distance and set up your own transport company, hiring other LGV drivers to do the work.

Work Experience Tips

It can help your application if you have already got driving experience. If you did well on your driving test with only a few (or even no) minor points that is worth telling an employer as it shows you are a conscientious driver.

Any work experience where you have done paperwork or filing is good, because part of your job involves doing paperwork at the start and end of each job/day. You might even have to fill in an Accident Report Form one day (although hopefully that will never happen). However, it’s not all driving – your employer will be pleased that you have handwriting other people can read, and you can write in a way that is easily understood.

Any work experience in some other field of transport and logistics, like a summer job in a warehouse, will also be useful. It means you will have some experience of working with loading and unloading, and will already have an understanding of how important health and safety is.

Volunteering Tips

If you can get volunteer work where other people are driving HGV lorries – like warehouses and depots – it can give you a taste for the working environment and what kind of work you might be expected to do. You can also get to know the HGV drivers and ask them questions about their role and how they got started.

Sometimes charity organisations look for volunteer LGV and HGV drivers. This could be for charitable activities like driving to other countries to help other volunteers install much-needed facilities for vulnerable people – like bathrooms or even schools.

Charity volunteer HGV driving work could also see you getting goods like food and medicine to where it’s needed most.

Volunteer drivers will be expected to already their LGV / HGV licence.

To find jobs for young people in this role, search on jobs boards for early career roles with these words in the title:

• Large goods vehicle driver apprentice
• HGV driving apprenticeships
• LGV traineeships
• Young LGV Driver Training Scheme

You should also explore our youth-friendly employers and training providers below. A number of them offer specific training courses related to supply chain and LGV driving. These are often learn-and-earn opportunities, so that you are paid a salary to learn and train with an employer.

For example, Skillcert offers an HGV (Class 2) Traineeship where you can get your LGV licence for free! You need to be aged 19-24 and unemployed to apply.

These employers all carry our Youth Friendly Employer Mark. We work with them to make sure that they are providing great support and opportunities to young people.

Click on an employer to find out more about them and the youth-friendly opportunities they offer, from work experience and apprenticeships through to graduate schemes.