Last week, we detailed the struggle that many young drivers have contending with the increasing cost of car insurance. Because premiums are becoming so high, some experts now recommend you delay taking your test until you’re in your twenties to drive costs down.
However, data released earlier this year by the RAC Foundation reveals that delaying isn’t practical for some as over one in six jobs advertised now require you to have a driving licence.
Crunching numbers
The boffins at the RAC Foundation examined ads on job market website Adzuna during the first week of October 2023 – all 1,092,172 of them. It discovered that 189.608 – over 17% – ’explicitly or implicitly required those applying to have at least a standard driving licence’ for three key reasons:
- Jobs for drivers (self-explanatory…)
- Jobs that need you to drive as part of your work
- Jobs that require you to commute via car every day because of location or poor public transport options.
What’s changed?
The number of jobs requiring a drive licence have also grown in recent years as the RAC Foundation discovered when it compared the need for a licence between 2016 up to 2023.
“Whilst the highest proportion of jobs requiring the ability to drive was seen in 2020 at the height of the pandemic (120,190 out of 611,702, or 19.6%), the proportion for 2023 was still higher than in any of the four years pre-Covid,” explains Steve Gooding, director of the Foundation.
“It is unsurprising that the proportion of employers looking for people to be able to drive reached a peak during the pandemic, when we came to fully appreciate how key our truckers and delivery drivers are to daily life.”
• Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation.
Which roles?
Inevitably, some jobs will obviously require you to, well, drive – for instance, if you’re a lorry driver. However, there are plenty of non-driving jobs that need a driving licence according to advert data. For instance:
- 67.5% of plumber and heating and ventilating installer and repairer ads
- 64.4% of vehicle technician, mechanic and electrician ads
- 58.5% of estate agent and auctioneer jobs ads
- 51% of vehicle and parts salesperson and adviser job ads
- 41.7% of metal working production and maintenance fitter jobs ads
- 37.8% of carpenter and joiner job ads.
Exceptions to the rule
However, there are roles where being able to drive is not a key consideration. For instance, if you are or are going to be working in:
- Teaching and education
- Culture, media and sport
- Secretarial and administrative.
Finally, if you’re training or are a chef, then having great cooking skills is far more important than having a driving licence as only 7.3% of job ads require one.
Bottom line? If you’re in one of these groups (or a chef), the experts’ advice still stands. Consider holding off on that driving test for a couple of years to bring down the cost of your premium.
No, I need my licence asap!
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