A HR (Heavy Rigid) licence is an excellent standard licence to have and is used widely throughout many industries. It covers all licence grades underneath (LR and MR) as well as most undefined vehicles (Mobile cranes over 4.5 tonnes). A HR licence is typically required for transportation, mining, council and trade work.
Gaining your HR licence will allow you to drive any motor vehicle that has 3 or more axles and has a gross vehicle mass greater than 8 tonnes.
How long do I have to have my licence for before I can obtain a HR Licence?
In QLD, an applicant must have held either their MR licence for 12 months OR their car licence for 24 months.
Does this have to be consecutive?
No, it doesn't have to be consecutive, however it must be all within a 5 year period. It can be either continuous or made up of different individual lengths of time (excluding any time that your licence was suspended, surrendered, cancelled or expired).
Licence Conditions
The 'condition' on your licence refers to the type of transmission or gearbox you are allowed to drive of that vehicle class. There are three types of conditions for HR:
A condition - Restricts you to only driving a motor vehicle with an automatic transmission.
B Condition - Restricts you to only driving a motor vehicle with a synchromesh gearbox.
C Condition - You may drive all types of HR vehicles including, automatic transmission, synchromesh and non-synchromesh (constant mesh / crashbox / roadrangers etc.).
Training times vary for each individual, with the average being 4-5 two hour lessons, depending on driving skills and experience. We like to make sure you are confident and competent before going for your test.
*AHVDT does not have a HR Synchromesh vehicle, however if a person already has a manual car licence, when they conduct a test in a HR Automatic vehicle, they are permitted to drive HR synchromesh vehicles as well (because a manual car licence covers the manual gearbox in a HR vehicle).