During the many, many, many…(you get the point) hours that Armstrongs instructors get to spend with their clients during a heavy vehicle training course, they inevitably get around to asking their clients what they intend to do once they get their license. “Drive a bus” our instructors are regularly told.

What some of our clients are a little surprised to hear though is that driving a truck is nothing like driving a bus. Not surprisingly and somewhat confused, some clients at this stage ask “why didn’t I get a bus licence then?” Well, because there isn’t one. More confusion.

So if you’re new to driving heavy vehicles and you plan on becoming a bus driver here’s some very important information to keep in mind to ensure you get the right training the first time:

• Buses and coaches are a type of heavy vehicle, not a licence category.
• There are five categories of heavy vehicle licence: light rigid, medium rigid, heavy rigid, heavy combination, and multi-combination. Most buses and coaches either fall under the medium or heavy rigid license categories.
• Given there is no specific bus or coach licence, you will need to pick the heavy vehicle license category that best represents the type of bus or coach you want to drive. No point getting your medium rigid licence if you plan on driving coaches one day.
• If you already have your eye on a couple of bus and coach companies that are advertising for drivers, we recommend you have another look at the job description, or even better, give them a call and find out what type of licence they would ‘prefer’ you hold (here’s a tip: we know from our contacts, that applicants might only ‘need’ a medium rigid to apply for a position, but they actually ‘prefer’ applicants to have a heavy rigid).
• Even if you only want to drive a suburban route bus (which means you would only require a medium rigid licence) Armstrongs recommends that you get your heavy rigid licence instead as this will better prepare you for driving long route buses.
• Remember that no matter what category of licence you finally decide upon, you’ll be taking your training in a truck and not a bus. This is because to take your training and assessment in a bus would require you to obtain prior approval from VicRoads – which they only give out in very limited circumstances and this is generally not an option for new drivers.
• After you obtain your heavy vehicle licence you’re going to need to do additional training in an actual bus, so you’ll need to factor this into the cost of getting your dream bus driving job – because as we said at the start “driving a truck is nothing like driving a bus.”

If you’re looking at becoming a route bus driver, or are thinking about moving from road freight transport into the public transport sector, then give Armstrongs a call. We have our own route bus and highly experienced trainers with years of public transport experience (… we also know exactly what the bus companies are looking for when they take you out on a driving assessment too).