New HGV Operating licences up and HGV drivers pay rises

Feb. 5, 2012 - PRLog -- In encouraging news for the HGV industry, the number of new HGV Operating Licenses (O-licenses) issued rose in 2010-2011, and HGV driver pay also rose by 2.1% on average in the year to the end of September 2011, reports HGV training school HGV Express (http://www.hgvexpress.co.uk/).

The current economic climate around Europe doesn’t make for many success stories when it comes to rising employment or pay levels so any increase in these areas within any industry is heartening. The Road Haulage Association (RHA) reveals that there the figures for the number of new O-licenses issued rose from 5,006 to 5,223 in 2010-2011, ending a long period of decline. The RHA newsletter explained that “The numbers of HGVs specified on O-licences rose to 365,484 from 350,250, slightly ahead of the figure for two years ago and apparently on a reduction of rental trucks.”

On completion of HGV training, all operators of heavy good vehicles within the UK have to have an O-license which is granted by the Traffic Commissioners. Traffic Commissioners quoted in the recent RHA newsletter have highlighted the need for ongoing HGV training: Beverley Bell, deputy senior traffic commissioner and TC for the North-West, says: “Drivers are still not being trained, educated and disciplined properly by their employers.”

In further positive news, HGV driver pay rose by an average of 2.1% in the year to the end of September 2011, according to the RHA Annual Cost Movement Survey. Understandably in the wider economic conditions, not all HGV operators offered pay increases in that period, but not many industries can match an average pay rise of 2.1% in today’s market.

If you would like to enter an industry on the rise, contact the UK’s leading provider of HGV courses at http://www.hgvexpress.co.uk/.