Changes to motorcycle, lorry and bus driving test rules in 2014

Later in 2014 there will be some changes made to some driving test rules for motorcyclists, and drivers of lorries, buses and coaches. The following changes were originally due to start in January but DSA will now introduce them before the end of March.

Lorry, bus and coach drivers

The main changes affecting lorry, bus and coach drivers will be:

• removing the need to use a vehicle with 8-forward gear ratios for large test vehicles (category C)
• allowing people who take a lorry or bus test (category C and D) in an automatic vehicle to get manual entitlement for those vehicles, if they already have a manual entitlement for cars, lorries or buses, with or without trailers (category B, B+E, C, C+E, C1, C1+E, D, D+E, D1+E)

If you are a driving instructor or trainer you will need to be familiar with these changes.

Existing drivers

You can also get this manual entitlement when you pay the fee and exchange or upgrade your licence if you’re already a lorry, bus or coach driver and have a manual licence in any of those categories.

Motorcycle riders

DSA will reduce the minimum engine power requirement for medium motorcycles (category A2) from 25kW to 20kW.

There will be more changes from 2019. DSA will:

• raise the minimum engine power requirement for large motorcycles (category A) from 40kW to 50kW
• introduce a minimum mass weight requirement for large motorcycles (category A) of 180kg

Driving Standards Agency and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency ran public consultation on the changes. Of the 339 responses received to the consultation, most agreed with the proposed changes. You can read the full response here.