Licence for a Van

bogmanfan

Hi all, my girlfriend is renting a van this weekend to move furniture out of her apartment. It's a Transit/Hiace type. Does a (full) Cat B licence cover her to drive this? Also, since neither of us has driven a van before, and we'll be driving from Dublin to Kilkenny, is the transition from a car fairly easy?

Wishbone Ash

bogmanfan wrote:

Hi all, my girlfriend is renting a van this weekend to move furniture out of her apartment. It's a Transit/Hiace type. Does a (full) Cat B licence cover her to drive this? Also, since neither of us has driven a van before, and we'll be driving from Dublin to Kilkenny, is the transition from a car fairly easy?

Yes, a B will cover in most cases provided your gross vehicle weight (ie total weight of van, contents and occupants) is less than 3.5 tonnes.

Some of the long Transits with twin rear wheels require a C1 licence but they are not common. If the van has yellow/green reflective stripes at the side and red/orange reflective stripes at the rear then it requires a C1 licence.

Re driving - no problems generally but be careful of the restricted visability when changing lanes. You can't see when if you look over your shoulder (a habit of many car drivers).

Rovi

Another common error car drivers make when they start driving vans is incorrectly positioning the vehicle at T junctions/crossroads when turning right.
When you approach the junction, be sure to position the van at the line so that you can see oncoming traffic from the left through the passenger's side window.
Many car drivers start their right turn before they stop at the line, and this combined with the extra width of the van makes observation of traffic approaching from the left almost impossible.

If you have a passenger you trust as your 'eyes', this is somewhat less critical.

bogmanfan

Great. Thanks for the replies guys.