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Truck Licences TMR Driver Licence · HR Class

Heavy Rigid (HR) Licence Brisbane

HR truck licence training in Brisbane. Auto or Road Ranger packages, both TMR tests booked for you, from $1,069 at our Mansfield depot.

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  • Training since 2014
  • Both TMR tests booked for you
  • Mansfield depot training
  • Open 7 days, 7am–5pm

An HR licence covers rigid trucks and buses over 8 tonnes with three or more axles, which takes in most tippers, agitators, waste trucks, crane trucks and articulated buses working around Brisbane. It’s the class most transport employers ask for, and it’s the last step before a semi-trailer.

Great Heavy Driving School trains and tests you for it in Brisbane in either an automatic truck or a Road Ranger, and books your Transport and Main Roads tests on your behalf. Which of those two you choose changes what you’re allowed to drive afterwards, so it’s worth reading the gearbox section below before you book.

Licence Data

Licence data

HR Class

Heavy Rigid Licence: Spec Plate

Licence class HR Heavy Rigid, issued by Transport and Main Roads
What you get An upgrade to your existing Queensland driver licence. This is not a certificate or a ticket.
Prerequisite A car (class C) licence held for 2 years, or an LR or MR licence held for 12 months
Auto Truck package 3 hours behind the wheel, $1,069 including TMR booking fees
Road Ranger package 5 hours behind the wheel, $1,569 including TMR booking fees
Additional training $140 per hour auto, $150 per hour Road Ranger
Tests required TMR practical driving test, plus the road rules knowledge test if you don’t already hold an LR or MR
Where Mansfield depot, 359 Wecker Road, Mansfield QLD 4122
See course cost
Afterpay Zip
Vehicle Classes

What an HR licence lets you drive

An HR licence covers a truck or bus over 8 tonnes GVM with more than two axles, including a prime mover or a mobile crane, plus articulated buses — the bendy ones. You can also tow a trailer up to 9 tonnes GVM. Everything MR, LR and a car licence already allowed stays included.

Where the line actually sits

The difference between MR and HR is the axle count, not the weight. There’s no upper weight limit on either class. A two-axle truck at 20 tonnes is still an MR vehicle; a three-axle truck at 12 tonnes is an HR. Count the axles on the truck you’ll be driving at work, because that single number decides which licence you need.

The trailer is the other limit. An HR lets you tow up to 9 tonnes GVM behind the truck. The moment the trailer goes over 9 tonnes you’re in HC territory, which is why a rigid truck with a dog trailer usually needs more than an HR.

Typical HR vehicles

  • Three-axle tippers, tilt trays and crane trucks
  • Concrete agitators
  • Waste collection and compactor trucks
  • Articulated buses and larger route buses
  • Three-axle rigid freight and delivery trucks
Before You Book

Are you eligible?

There are two ways in, and the faster one depends on what you already hold.

Two ways in

  • From a car licence: you must have held a valid Australian car (class C) licence for 2 years.
  • From an LR or MR licence: you only need to have held it for 12 months.

You’ll also need

  • Secondary identification
  • Fully enclosed footwear for training, boots or runners
  • A functional level of English, since all training and assessment is conducted in English
  • To declare you’re medically fit to drive the higher class. If you have a medical condition that could affect your driving, TMR will require a medical certificate from your doctor before you can upgrade.
The knowledge test waiver

One thing worth knowing if you already hold a truck licence: if you hold an LR or MR, you don’t have to sit the written knowledge test again. You go straight to the practical.

The five-year rule

The qualifying period has to fall within the last five years, and it doesn’t have to be continuous. TMR will add up separate periods. What it won’t count is any time your licence was suspended, surrendered, cancelled or expired.

If you’ve had a break in your licence history, check with us before you book so you’re not paying for a test you can’t sit.

The $500 Question

Auto or Road Ranger: what the $500 actually buys

This is the most important decision on the page, and it isn’t really about the extra two hours of training.

The transmission you sit your practical test in determines what you’re allowed to drive for the rest of your working life:

What each test result means

  • Test in an automatic and TMR adds an automatic (A) condition to your HR class. You can then only drive automatic heavy vehicles. Driving a manual one puts you outside your licence.
  • Test in a synchromesh manual and you may carry a synchromesh (B) condition, which permits synchromesh gearboxes but not a constant-mesh Road Ranger box.
  • Test in a Road Ranger — a constant-mesh, non-synchromesh box — and there’s no gearbox condition on your licence at all. You can drive any HR vehicle regardless of transmission.

That’s what the price difference buys: not just five hours instead of three, but an unrestricted licence.

Which one is right depends on the work

  • Auto is fine if you’re heading into waste, council, bus or metro distribution work, where fleets are increasingly automatic, and you know your employer’s trucks.
  • Road Ranger is the safer buy if you want to be employable across any yard, if you’re looking at linehaul or older fleets, or if HC and beyond are in your plans. Most of the trucks you’d progress into are manual.

You can remove a condition later, but it means going back and passing another full practical driving test in an unrestricted vehicle. That costs more than the $500 difference. If you’re genuinely unsure, call us and tell us what work you’re chasing. See TMR’s page on licence classes and conditions for the full detail on conditions like this one.

The Process

How it works

  1. Confirm you’re eligible and book. Give us a call or book online, and choose the auto or Road Ranger package. We’ll check your licence history and current class against the requirements before you pay for anything.

  2. Pass the TMR road rules knowledge test. If you’re coming from a car licence, you’ll sit a written road rules test with Transport and Main Roads. We book this on your behalf as part of the Full Package. There’s a free practice test you can work through beforehand and we’d recommend doing it more than once. If you already hold an LR or MR, skip this step.

  3. Complete your driving lessons. Three hours in an automatic, or five in a Road Ranger, with an instructor at our Mansfield depot in our truck. We cover vehicle checks, controls, road positioning, turning and clearances, reversing, mirror use and managing the length of the vehicle, plus the observation habits the testing officer is actually watching for. The Road Ranger course spends a good share of that extra time on gear selection and range changes. If you need more time, additional hours are available and there’s no pressure to sit the test before you’re ready.

  4. Sit the practical driving test. We book this for you and you sit it in a vehicle you’ve already trained in, which removes a lot of the guesswork. Pass and TMR reissues your licence with the HR class added. The new card arrives in the post within about 21 days, and heavy vehicle licences are issued as a magenta card showing the highest class you’re authorised to drive.

You don’t receive a certificate, a Statement of Attainment or an industry wallet card from us for this. An HR licence is a driver licence class, and TMR issues it.

Cost

HR licence cost

From $1,069

Auto Truck or Road Ranger Full Package, both including TMR booking fees.

Afterpay and Zip payment options accepted.

Item Price
Auto Truck Full Package (3 hours training plus TMR booking fees) $1,069
Auto Truck additional training $140 per hour
Road Ranger Full Package (5 hours training plus TMR booking fees) $1,569
Road Ranger additional training $150 per hour

Afterpay and Zip are accepted. Plenty of employers pay for staff licence upgrades, particularly for HR, so it’s worth asking before you book it yourself.

Book Auto Truck Book Road Ranger Enquire
Afterpay Zip
Between Lessons

Practising between lessons

Caution — the penalty is real

If you’re planning to get extra practice in someone else’s truck between lessons, there are rules and the penalty is real.

While learning to drive a class above your current licence, you must:

  • Be accompanied by a supervisor who holds an open licence in that class and has held it for at least a year
  • Display L plates on the front and rear of the vehicle
  • Stay on a zero alcohol limit
  • Not be under the influence of any drugs, illegal or prescription
  • Obey any conditions already on your own licence

Driving unaccompanied while learning a higher class carries 4 demerit points and a $267 fine, with a maximum court penalty over $3,300.

Worth noting: if your current licence is automatic only, you’re still permitted to learn to drive a manual vehicle of the same or a higher class under supervision.

Your Next Step

Where an HR licence leads

HR is a destination for plenty of drivers, but it’s also the gateway to combination work.

  • HR to HC after holding your HR for 12 months. That’s prime movers with a trailer over 9 tonnes, which is most semi-trailer work.
  • HR to MC after 12 months, for B-doubles and road trains.

The MC step is worth understanding before you plan your route, because it isn’t a driving test. TMR doesn’t conduct practical tests for MC. Instead you complete the competency unit Drive Multi-combination Vehicle (TLIC4006) with an approved multi-combination training provider and present the statement of attainment.

The detail that matters: coming from HR, that unit takes a minimum of 16 hours. Coming from HC, it’s 8. So if MC is the end goal, going HR to HC to MC generally works out easier than jumping HR straight to MC, even though both require the same 12 months. Talk to us about which route suits your timeline before you commit.

From The Yard

What HR licence holders say

“Did the HR license, 3 hours training and an hour test at Wynnum I can’t recommend them enough. Their patience and explaining of truck operations are incredible. passed my test with flying colours with minimal truck experience. Also, epic beard to boot. Thanks Nav and family, you guys are amazing. I’ll see you for my MC, forklift, skid and BFM tickets. Cheers.”

Adam, Google review

“After 15 years of early retirement from the Defence Force my resume didn’t look so impeccable so an opportunity arose to earn some money driving a truck but there was a catch, I had to get my HR license and that’s where Great Heavy became the Key to unlock my new future, when every other Truck school said we are booked for months Great Heavy said pick a day next week, I paid and they delivered, it was almost that simple ! I had time to learn the test required by Queensland Transport and after a couple of hours getting to know the truck and my assigned instructor I passed the practical driving test and then the written test with ease, since then I have been rebuilding my life financially and socially. Looking back over the last 2 years and seeing everything I have accomplished it’s truly been worth every penny”

Shane Marshall, Google review
HR Licence FAQs

Frequently asked questions

No. Plenty of people book an HR having never driven a truck. Training starts with vehicle familiarisation and basic control before moving to road driving and the manoeuvres required for the assessment.

No. If you already hold an LR or MR licence you go straight to the practical driving test. The written road rules test is only required if you’re upgrading from a car licence.

Yes. You can go straight from a car licence to an HR once you’ve held the car licence for 2 years. If you already hold an LR or MR, the wait is only 12 months, which is why some drivers pick up an MR first rather than waiting out the second year.

If there’s any chance you’ll drive a manual heavy vehicle, do the Road Ranger. Testing in an automatic puts an A condition on your licence and limits you to automatic trucks, and removing it later means sitting another full practical test. Auto suits drivers who know their employer’s fleet is automatic.

That depends mostly on test availability rather than training. Three or five hours of driving can usually be done across one or two sessions. Both tests are booked with TMR, so the timeline is set by their schedule. Call us and we’ll give you a realistic date.

You rebook it. Additional training is available if you want more time first, and your instructor will tell you honestly what went wrong. Failing a test is common and it isn’t the end of anything.

No, and it’s worth being clear about it because it’s a common mix-up. An HR is a driver licence class that TMR adds to your existing licence. There’s no Statement of Attainment and no wallet card. Our plant courses like forklift and excavator work differently.

You need to have held your HR for 12 months, then complete the competency unit TLIC4006 with an approved multi-combination training provider — a minimum of 16 hours coming from an HR, or 8 hours if you hold an HC. TMR does not conduct practical driving tests for the MC class.

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HR Licence Training in Brisbane

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Auto or Road Ranger, your TMR tests booked for you, and an instructor who’ll tell you straight when you’re ready.

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Mansfield depot · 359 Wecker Road, Mansfield QLD 4122 · Open Mon–Sun 7:00am–5:00pm
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(07) 3067 5556 info@greatheavy.com.au 359 Wecker Rd, Mansfield 4122

For urgent enquiries, contact us on 0450 673 385