Which Truck Licence Do You Need for Civil and Plant Hire Work in Victoria

There is more building work happening across Victoria. iseekplant's own data shows building project opportunities across the state jumped 52% in the past financial year. Hume went up 91%. Melbourne's west went up 62%.

More building work means more trucks on the road. Tippers, water carts and floats all need drivers. And every driver needs the right licence.

Getting this wrong costs money. If a driver takes a truck their licence doesn't cover, the business can be fined. The insurer may not pay out. The business can also get in trouble under truck safety laws. This guide shows which licence goes with which truck, and the rules people trip over most. If your drivers need to move up a licence, TDT Training runs truck driving courses in Melbourne for every class from LR to MC.

Start with the truck's plate, not its load

Every truck has a metal plate with a number called the GVM. GVM stands for gross vehicle mass. It is the most the truck is allowed to weigh when it is fully loaded. The company that built the truck sets it.

The GVM decides which licence you need. It doesn't matter if the truck is empty or full on the day. The number on the plate is what counts.

Here are the two main rules:

• Over 4.5 tonnes GVM: you need a heavy vehicle licence, not just a car licence.
• Over 8 tonnes GVM: count the axles. An axle is the bar that joins a pair of wheels. Two axles means medium rigid. Three or more means heavy rigid.

Trailers have their own GVM too. That is where lots of businesses get caught out.

Victorian licence classes at a glance

There are five heavy vehicle licences in Victoria. You need to hold some licences for a while before you can get the next one.

Transport Victoria lists the full rules for each heavy vehicle licence class.

Which licence for which truck

A few words first. A prime mover is the front part of a semi-trailer truck. A float is a trailer that carries machines. A truck and dog is a tipper pulling a tipper trailer.

Use this table as a guide only. Always check the plate. For example, a two-axle water cart with a GVM of 7.5 tonnes needs an LR licence. Put the same water tank on a bigger 11 tonne truck and the driver needs MR.

Machines that only work on site are different. A dump truck that never goes on a public road doesn't need a road licence. Instead, the driver must be trained and assessed on that machine.

The 9 tonne trailer rule

LR, MR and HR licences let you tow one trailer. But the trailer's GVM must be 9 tonnes or less. If the trailer is heavier, the driver needs an HC licence. It doesn't matter which truck is pulling it.

This catches people out on building jobs. Tag trailers are often used to carry small excavators, rollers and skid steers behind a tipper. Say an HR driver hooks a tag trailer with a GVM over 9 tonnes onto an eight-wheeler. That driver now needs an HC licence. It's also why truck and dog work needs HC. Dog trailers on tippers are rated well over 9 tonnes.

The fix is easy:

• Check the plate on every trailer.
• Write down each trailer's GVM in your list of trucks and trailers.
• Make sure whoever books the drivers can see it.

If you hire tipper trucks with trailers, ask for the trailer's GVM, not just the truck's.

A faster way to a heavy combination licence

Many people think you must get every licence in order: LR, then MR, then HR, then HC. You don't.

To get HC, you need to have held MR or HR for one year. MR only needs one year on a car licence. HR needs two years. So a driver can go:

1. Car licence for one year.
2. MR licence for one year.
3. HC licence.

That takes about two years. Going through HR takes at least three. A labourer who wants to drive truck and dog saves a whole year. And an HC licence lets you drive everything an HR licence covers.

There is one catch. A new HC driver may never have driven a three-axle truck. They still need practice before you trust them with a loaded truck and dog.

Other rules to know:

• Training: For HC or MC, you must do a formal training course. For LR, MR and HR, training isn't a must, but the tests are hard to pass without it.
• HR to MC: If you hold HR and want MC, you must pass the HC test first.
• Skipping the wait: You can ask the Department of Transport and Planning to let you skip the waiting time. You need a good reason. Either waiting would cause real hardship because of your job, or you already have lots of driving experience. Experience from other states counts. You also need a current Victorian car licence and a clean driving record.
• Tests: Everyone needs an eye test and a written heavy vehicle knowledge test. They also need a driving test on the road and a skills test off the road. Drivers must meet the health standards for truck drivers too.

The rules are changing as well. A new national plan for training truck drivers starts rolling out in 2026. It begins with new training and testing materials. Later, it will let experienced drivers move up licences sooner. Check the latest rules before you plan a driver's next step.

Synchro, auto or Road Ranger? Watch for the B condition

Trucks have different kinds of gearboxes. Some are automatic. Some are "synchro" manuals, which make changing gears easier. Others are "non-synchro" manuals, such as a Road Ranger. These are harder to drive.

If you do your truck test in an automatic or synchro truck, your licence gets a B condition. That means you can't drive a heavy vehicle with a non-synchro gearbox.

Many new tippers have automatic-style gearboxes. But older tippers, water carts and big prime movers often still have Road Rangers. If your business has a mix of trucks, check which drivers can drive which trucks.

To remove the B condition, the driver must pass the test again in a non-synchro truck. This takes more training. One Melbourne training school lists 8 hours for a synchro or auto HR course. The non-synchro course takes 12 to 16 hours, depending on the learner.

Trucks over 12 tonnes have fatigue rules

Fatigue means being too tired to drive safely. Any truck with a GVM over 12 tonnes must follow fatigue rules. So must a truck and trailer that add up to over 12 tonnes. That includes many bigger two-axle trucks, most six- and eight-wheeler tippers, every truck and dog and every float.

These trucks have limits on how long drivers can work and how long they must rest. The limits apply on short trips and long trips.

There is also a newer rule. Since 1 August 2026, anyone driving a truck over 4.5 tonnes must not drive if they are too tired or not fit to drive. This applies even if they haven't reached their work hour limit.

Under the standard hours, the 100 km mark changes the paperwork:

• Within 100 km of base: No work diary is needed. But the driver must still write down their work and rest times and give them to the business.
• 100 km or more from base: The driver must carry a national work diary.
• Recent long trips: If the driver went 100 km or more from base in the last 28 days, they must carry a work diary even on short trips.

iseekplant reports that project opportunities in Bendigo doubled in the past year. So more Melbourne tippers will drive past the 100 km mark. Make sure drivers have a work diary before they head up the Calder Freeway.

Moving machines on a float

Trucks on the road have size limits:

• Width: 2.5 metres.
• Height: 4.3 metres.
• Length of a rigid truck: 12.5 metres.
• Length of a prime mover and semi-trailer: up to 20 metres since 1 August 2026, if the truck and trailer meet new equipment rules. Otherwise it's 19 metres.

Machines are often wider than people think. A Cat 320 excavator is 2.98 metres wide on 600 mm tracks. On 700 mm tracks it's 3.08 metres. On 790 mm tracks it's 3.17 metres. So most 20 tonne excavators are oversize loads, which means they are wider than the normal limit.

In Victoria, many oversize loads can still travel without a special permit. A government notice allows loads up to 3.5 metres wide, as long as drivers follow its rules. This notice runs until 9 February 2029.

The big number to remember is 3.1 metres.

Loads between 2.5 and 3.1 metres wide can travel at any time, as long as the truck and trailer are no longer than 19 metres. They don't need a pilot car at night. So a Cat 320 on 600 or 700 mm tracks can move at any hour.

Loads wider than 3.1 metres have more rules:

• Melbourne and Geelong on weekdays: No travel from 6am to 9am, 4pm to 6.30pm, or sunset to 10pm.
• Melbourne and Geelong on weekends and public holidays: No travel from sunset to 10pm.
• Country areas: No travel from sunset to sunrise.
• At night: A pilot car must travel with the truck.

These rules also apply to trucks and trailers longer than 22 metres. The city time limits don't apply on Port of Melbourne roads or on parts of the Hume, Princes and Western freeways. Drivers must also contact CityLink or EastLink at least 30 minutes before using those roads. Loads wider than 3.5 metres need a permit from the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR).

If you book float hire, check that the operator knows the machine's width, not just its weight.

Tying down the load

Loading the machine safely matters as much as driving it. Truck safety laws called Chain of Responsibility say everyone in the job must help keep it safe. That includes the person who loads and ties down the machine, and their boss, not just the driver. A business can get in trouble for skipping safety steps, even if nothing goes wrong.

So yard staff and anyone who drives a machine onto a float are part of that chain. The NHVR's Load Restraint Guide shows how to tie loads down properly. A new version came out in June 2025 with only small changes. The NHVR says the 2018 version can still be used, so you don't need to rewrite your safety steps.

Crane trucks need a second licence

Some trucks have a crane on the back for lifting loads on and off. Cranes are rated in metre tonnes, which measures how much they can lift and how far they can reach. If the crane is rated at 10 metre tonnes or more, the operator needs a high risk work licence from WorkSafe Victoria. This is on top of their truck licence.

Using a crane to unload on a building site is also high risk work. That means you need a written safety plan called a safe work method statement (SWMS). Check both before you book crane truck hire.