Any bus drivers in here? DVLA eye sight test
Discussion
If you're a bus driver i'd like to congratulate you on having absolutely incredible eyesight!! :-)
Just by sheer coincidence 2 weeks ago i had a routine eye test checkup,better than 20-20 vision i was told,although i need glasses to slightly sharpen up small print on phones etc.
So i'm at Specsavers rattling off every letter on their eyesight chart right down to the last letter with no glasses on,no problem.
Two weeks pass i decide to go for a bus driver job locally and i failed the bloody eyesight test!!!Wtf??
I was totally shocked!Line of letters i was told to read on their eye chart i got 2 wrong!Medical doctor for bus garage said they need 6 6 vision whatever that is,and feeling miffed i went down to Specsavers and told them about this 6 6 requirement,and they said your sight is better than that,6 5 seemingly.
Just feeling confused and a bit pissed off to be honest.
Just by sheer coincidence 2 weeks ago i had a routine eye test checkup,better than 20-20 vision i was told,although i need glasses to slightly sharpen up small print on phones etc.
So i'm at Specsavers rattling off every letter on their eyesight chart right down to the last letter with no glasses on,no problem.
Two weeks pass i decide to go for a bus driver job locally and i failed the bloody eyesight test!!!Wtf??
I was totally shocked!Line of letters i was told to read on their eye chart i got 2 wrong!Medical doctor for bus garage said they need 6 6 vision whatever that is,and feeling miffed i went down to Specsavers and told them about this 6 6 requirement,and they said your sight is better than that,6 5 seemingly.
Just feeling confused and a bit pissed off to be honest.
Edited by robbocop33 on Wednesday 19th January 22:19
I'm an Optometrist and have seen plenty of people fail HGV medicals when they clearly make the standard. Do both your eyes have good vision as that can sometimes be a problem. Unfortunately dealing with the DVLA is horrendous at the moment but I always try and get my patients to bring DVLA forms in for me to fill in as then at least I know the chart is at the correct distance, the room lighting is correct ant it's not some faded old chart hung on the back of a door.
The regulations say
There are specific requirements for patients who drive a lorry or a bus.
"Lorry and bus drivers must have a visual acuity at least 0.8 (6/7.5) measured on the Snellen scale in their best eye and at least 0.1 (6/60) on the Snellen scale in the other eye. Glasses or contact lenses can be worn to reach this standard but they can’t have a spectacle power greater than plus (+) 8 dioptres (there is no restriction on contact lens power).
Patients must have a horizontal visual field of at least 160 degrees, the extension should be at least 70 degrees left and right and 30 degrees up and down. No defects should be present within a radius of the central 30 degrees. If a group 2 driver has a medical condition which may affect their binocular field of vision, the DVLA can arrange for visual field testing to be carried out."
6/7.5 is slightly worse than 6/6 (20/20)but is often not used on conventional charts so this is where you might have had problems
The regulations say
There are specific requirements for patients who drive a lorry or a bus.
"Lorry and bus drivers must have a visual acuity at least 0.8 (6/7.5) measured on the Snellen scale in their best eye and at least 0.1 (6/60) on the Snellen scale in the other eye. Glasses or contact lenses can be worn to reach this standard but they can’t have a spectacle power greater than plus (+) 8 dioptres (there is no restriction on contact lens power).
Patients must have a horizontal visual field of at least 160 degrees, the extension should be at least 70 degrees left and right and 30 degrees up and down. No defects should be present within a radius of the central 30 degrees. If a group 2 driver has a medical condition which may affect their binocular field of vision, the DVLA can arrange for visual field testing to be carried out."
6/7.5 is slightly worse than 6/6 (20/20)but is often not used on conventional charts so this is where you might have had problems
Edited by HelenT on Wednesday 19th January 21:58
HelenT said:
I'm an Optometrist and have seen plenty of people fail HGV medicals when they clearly make the standard. Do both your eyes have good vision as that can sometimes be a problem. Unfortunately dealing with the DVLA is horrendous at the moment but I always try and get my patients to bring DVLA forms in for me to fill in as then at least I know the chart is at the correct distance, the room lighting is correct ant it's not some faded old chart hung on the back of a door.
The regulations say
There are specific requirements for patients who drive a lorry or a bus.
"Lorry and bus drivers must have a visual acuity at least 0.8 (6/7.5) measured on the Snellen scale in their best eye and at least 0.1 (6/60) on the Snellen scale in the other eye. Glasses or contact lenses can be worn to reach this standard but they can’t have a spectacle power greater than plus (+) 8 dioptres (there is no restriction on contact lens power).
Patients must have a horizontal visual field of at least 160 degrees, the extension should be at least 70 degrees left and right and 30 degrees up and down. No defects should be present within a radius of the central 30 degrees. If a group 2 driver has a medical condition which may affect their binocular field of vision, the DVLA can arrange for visual field testing to be carried out."
6/7.5 is slightly worse than 6/6 (20/20)but is often not used on conventional charts so this is where you might have had problems
Since you're hanging around,and i appreciate you taking the time with such a full answer,can i ask,as i'm a relatively new glasses wearer,does it take a while for your eyes to adjust to wearing glasses?The regulations say
There are specific requirements for patients who drive a lorry or a bus.
"Lorry and bus drivers must have a visual acuity at least 0.8 (6/7.5) measured on the Snellen scale in their best eye and at least 0.1 (6/60) on the Snellen scale in the other eye. Glasses or contact lenses can be worn to reach this standard but they can’t have a spectacle power greater than plus (+) 8 dioptres (there is no restriction on contact lens power).
Patients must have a horizontal visual field of at least 160 degrees, the extension should be at least 70 degrees left and right and 30 degrees up and down. No defects should be present within a radius of the central 30 degrees. If a group 2 driver has a medical condition which may affect their binocular field of vision, the DVLA can arrange for visual field testing to be carried out."
6/7.5 is slightly worse than 6/6 (20/20)but is often not used on conventional charts so this is where you might have had problems
Edited by HelenT on Wednesday 19th January 21:58
What i told the Optometrist was just after i had been wearing my new glasses it seemed to slightly effect my far away vision slightly,like a very,very slight blurring but in no way distracting.
I tried to use this as not so much an excuse,but a reason as to why i failed the sight reading test as i had just seconds before the eye test been using my new glasses,filling in a few forms.
But fair play to him the medical examiner did say my vision should recover quite quickly if that was the case,which made sense.
robbocop33 said:
Since you're hanging around,and i appreciate you taking the time with such a full answer,can i ask,as i'm a relatively new glasses wearer,does it take a while for your eyes to adjust to wearing glasses?
What i told the Optometrist was just after i had been wearing my new glasses it seemed to slightly effect my far away vision slightly,like a very,very slight blurring but in no way distracting.
I tried to use this as not so much an excuse,but a reason as to why i failed the sight reading test as i had just seconds before the eye test been using my new glasses,filling in a few forms.
But fair play to him the medical examiner did say my vision should recover quite quickly if that was the case,which made sense.
Yes it can take a little time to refocus when you take your glasses off, often people are mildly hyperopic (longsighted so a plus before the numbers in the distance part of your glasses prescription) the lens inside the eye can change shape to focus light on the back of the eye so you can see clearly. Throughout life the lens gets thicker and less flexible which is why most people need reading specs eventually, so when you go from wearing the glasses which replace the need to focus on close to looking up into the distance without specs there is a short lag when the eye has to refocus. Hope that helps.What i told the Optometrist was just after i had been wearing my new glasses it seemed to slightly effect my far away vision slightly,like a very,very slight blurring but in no way distracting.
I tried to use this as not so much an excuse,but a reason as to why i failed the sight reading test as i had just seconds before the eye test been using my new glasses,filling in a few forms.
But fair play to him the medical examiner did say my vision should recover quite quickly if that was the case,which made sense.
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