Revealed: LGV Licence Test Pass Rates
The DVSA recently released pass rates for large goods vehicles’ (LGV) licence tests across the country and what the data reveals is surprising. [1]
Here at Crown Oil, we decided to look at recently-released DVSA statistics for 2018, on average, female LGV students pass at a higher rate than their male counterparts – nationwide female pass rates were at 60%, compared to male pass rates for the UK, which were at 57.9%.
However, the research also shows that males take the tests more than ten times than females, so despite their lower pass rates, licenced-male HGV drivers will outnumber their female colleagues by 10 to 1. Still, compared to ten years ago, the number of females taking the LGV licence test has increased threefold, from 2077 tests in the 2007-2008 period.
What is an LGV licence?
Not to be confused with Light Goods Vehicles – which are vans – an LGV licence (Large Goods Vehicle) can refer to an HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle), so large trucks and lorries, as well as vans, box trucks and tippers.
There are four categories of an LGV licence:
Category C+E – The highest LGV category licence that qualifies its holder to operate the largest HGVs – that is trucks with a maximum authorised mass (MAM) of above 7.5 tonnes and trailers heavier than 750kg, such as our articulated tanker.
Category C – This is the most popular LGV licence that qualifies its holder to operate smaller trucks that you see on the roads most often.
Category C1+E – This LGV licence covers vehicles between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes with trailers of 750 kg or more. This licence category includes large cargo vans with a utility trailer or a smaller tipper truck built on a standard truck chassis.
Category C1 – This is the lowest class of LGV licence that qualifies its holder for vans and small box trucks. This licence does not allow holders to tow trailers.
Top 10 towns for male LGV tests
| Town | Sum of Pass rate (%) | Compared with total UK average |
| York | 91% | 33% |
| Hereford | 84% | 26% |
| Newark | 82% | 24% |
| Abergavenny | 80% | 22% |
| Swansea | 80% | 22% |
| Taunton | 79% | 21% |
| Llanelli | 79% | 21% |
| Cheltenham | 78% | 20% |
| Welwyn | 77% | 19% |
| Ipswich | 75% | 17% |
Bottom 10 town for male drivers
| Town | Sum of Pass rate (%) | Sum of Compared to national figure |
| Garretts Green | 42% | -16% |
| Aldridge | 42% | -15% |
| Birmingham | 42% | -15% |
| Tamworth | 42% | -15% |
| West Bromwich | 42% | -15% |
| Wolverhampton | 44% | -14% |
| Featherstone | 44% | -14% |
| Peterborough | 45% | -13% |
| Grimsby | 46% | -12% |
| Leicester | 48% | -10% |
Top 10 towns for female drivers
| Town | Pass rate | Compared with total UK average |
| Newark | 94.7% | 32.7% |
| Hereford | 92.9% | 30.9% |
| Coleshill | 91.7% | 29.7% |
| Wallace | 87.5% | 25.5% |
| Sunderland | 85.7% | 23.7% |
| Glasgow | 85.2% | 23.2% |
| Abergavenny | 84.6% | 22.6% |
| Elgin | 83.3% | 21.3% |
| Flint | 83.3% | 21.3% |
| Widnes | 82.9% | 20.9% |
Bottom 10 town for female drivers
| Town | Pass rate | Compared with national average |
| Peterborough | 35.6% | -26.4% |
| Grimsby | 36.7% | -25.3% |
| Caernafon | 39.3% | -22.7% |
| Aldridge | 40.0% | -22.0% |
| Birmingham | 40.0% | -22.0% |
| Tamworth | 40.0% | -22.0% |
| West Bromwich | 40.0% | -22.0% |
| Handsworth | 45.9% | -16.1% |
| Harlescott | 47.2% | -14.8% |
| Loughborough | 47.8% | -14.2% |
Towns with most tests conducted
| Town | Total Tests Conducted | Pass rate | Compared with total UK average |
| Manchester | 4998 | 49.4% | -8.9% |
| London | 4384 | 57.0% | -1.3% |
| Featherstone | 2770 | 45.1% | -13.2% |
| Leighton Buzzard | 2164 | 51.9% | -6.4% |
| Leicester | 2126 | 48.8% | -9.5% |
| Guildford | 2037 | 54.7% | -3.6% |
| Kingswood | 1970 | 60.5% | 2.2% |
| Glasgow | 1875 | 72.1% | 13.8% |
| Watnall | 1820 | 58.7% | 0.4% |
| Garretts Green | 1745 | 42.4% | -15.9% |
LGV licence points
Over 3,500 large goods vehicle (LGV) drivers have been disqualified for having too many points and 567 lost their licences by having more than 6 points within two years of passing their test, new data can reveal.
Crown Oil conducted a Freedom of Information request to the DVLA about LGV driver penalty points. LGV licences include both vans and lorries alike.
Shockingly, the DVLA’s stats show that 6,747 drivers have 3 or more points on their LGV licence, with half that number – 3,552 – having been disqualified for totting up too many points (this is known as TT99).
The most common reason for points is speeding, with 45% of punished commercial vehicle drivers having points for an SP code. There were 8791 offences due to bad drivers being issued multiple codes.
This was followed by 10% of drivers being given points for insurance offences.
Startlingly, more drivers have 6 points than have 3 points on their licence, indicating being fined is a result of a pattern of behaviour, not an unlucky day!
Driving offences by LGV drivers
| Count | Offences | Code | Percent of total |
| 3,982 | Speeding | SP | 45% |
| 921 | Insurance | IN | 10% |
| 866 | Careless driving | CD | 10% |
| 706 | Miscellaneous | MS | 8% |
| 590 | Traffic signal | TS | 7% |
| 357 | Failed to stop after an accident | AC | 4% |
| 257 | Construction and use | CU | 3% |
| 124 | Pedestrian crossing | PC | 1% |
| 121 | Drinking offences | DR | 1% |
| 118 | Licence offence | LC | 1% |
| 72 | Motorway offences | MW | 1% |
| 71 | Driving while disqualified | BA | 1% |
| 13 | Drug offences | DG | 0.15% |
| 3 | Dangerous drivers | DD | 0.03% |
Penalty points by LGV licence
| Points | No. of licences |
| 3 | 1,269 |
| 4 | 246 |
| 5 | 268 |
| 6 | 1,700 |
| 7 | 297 |
| 8 | 403 |
| 9 | 1,031 |
| 10 | 326 |
| 11 | 285 |
| 12 | 382 |
| 13 | 97 |
| 14 | 86 |
| 15 | 137 |
| 16 | 47 |
| 17 | 28 |
| 18 | 60 |
| 19 | 15 |
| 20 | 9 |
| 21 | 25 |
| 22 | 5 |
| 23 | 7 |
| 24 | 6 |
| 25 | 1 |
| 26 | 1 |
| 27 | 4 |
| 28 | 1 |
| 29 | 1 |
| 30 | 5 |
| 33 | 2 |
| 35 | 1 |
| 60 | 2 |
| Total | 6,747 |
The DVLA also revealed that with 1,231,000 LGV licences awarded since 2016, large vehicle drivers aren’t all that bad, with 99.4% of drivers having no points at all.
This is good news for road safety, because the Department for Transport revealed that there were 1,782 reported road deaths in the year ending June 2018. [2]
Sources:
[1] https://www.gov.uk/…/large-goods-vehicle-driving-test-data-by-test-centre
[2] https://www.gov.uk/…/Reported_road_casualties_-_Main_Results_2018.pdf
