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Original poster

Is having a driving licence essential to your job?

46 replies

BigJanette · 18/03/2025 10:13

Could you do your job, or even get to work without one?

OP posts:
madaffodil · 18/03/2025 10:15

No. We live in the countryside, my work is 12 miles away and the public transport around here is shit.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 18/03/2025 10:16

Yes it is essential. Cannot get to work without a car. No public transport, along narrow, dark country track type lanes. Unsafe for cycling and too far to walk.

Peacepleaselouise · 18/03/2025 10:17

It’s not essential and I don’t have one. I work in London, hybrid within walking distance of my office. Sometimes I need to do visits to other people or organisations but it’s almost always walkable. The only time it makes any difference is (rarely, as in every few years) for training that isn’t in central London. I either make my way by public transport entirely or use a taxi part way which I fund. It’s never been an issue and I couldn’t tell you which colleagues drive and which don’t.

biscuitsandbooks · 18/03/2025 10:18

Yes, totally essential. I’m a dog walker and live rurally, I’d have to close my business if I couldn’t drive.

gamerchick · 18/03/2025 10:18

If the public transport was reliable then I wouldnt need a car to get to work. But it isn't. Plus it's cheaper to drive the prices they charge

Owlteapot · 18/03/2025 10:19

Essential for me, I travel to various locations none of which would be easily doable with public transport

Lungwort · 18/03/2025 10:19

Not in any way essential, no, which is good as I can’t drive. I’m an academic.

Comefromaway · 18/03/2025 10:20

I could get to work without one as I work close to a train station but it would be a heck of a walk up a country road to get to my local station which runs one train per hour.

Dh surrendered his licence for 2 years due to a medical condition and it was very difficult. He had to get taxis each day and it prevented him applying for a job he really wanted.

yeesh · 18/03/2025 10:20

I don’t have one, live in a city. My husband works nearby so we usually travel together but I can use public transport if he’s not around.

Original poster
BigJanette · 18/03/2025 10:20

Question inspired by conversation with a friend yesterday. I asked her how she used to get to work before she (relatively recently) got her licence. She said the turning point was walking on icy pavements to work at 3.30am one day, 7 months pregnant,
as her partner was away, he usually drives her in.
Before that, she was very happy to walk everywhere necessary as she grew up in a household where neither parent drove.

Edited - this does not mean her getting a licence is essential to her job, it isn’t. She just realised how much easier things would be, going forward, with a baby involved, by having a car.

For my role, it is essential.

OP posts:
BarnacleBeasley · 18/03/2025 10:22

I could get to work without one but it would take longer and the buses are not at very convenient times. Before I passed my test I lived somewhere with better public transport links, though, so I didn't choose to live where I do without being able to drive.

Acc0untant · 18/03/2025 10:22

Not for me. I work from home full time. My partner doesn't but we share a car, no sense having two.

ConnieHeart · 18/03/2025 10:22

Yes it is as I do pick ups & drop offs amongst other things in my car

TickingAlongNicely · 18/03/2025 10:24

Re public transport...

If you can't drive, you chose to live somewhere where the public transport is sufficient for your needs, or things are walkable. For example in a city.

I don't my car to get to work or for my job. I do need it for everything else in life though!

MinionKevin · 18/03/2025 10:25

Not working at the moment, but not last few jobs. Live in the north where PT is shocking. Also if you need to be in before 8 there’s zero chance as hardly anything runs early anyway.

I’ve just put it into Google maps. 18 minute drive. 1hour 25 by public transport (if it runs on time).

GufferyWooWoo · 18/03/2025 10:26

No need for me to drive. I used to work for a big 4 Accountancy firm and nearly all my clients were in the City or abroad/somewhere that necessitated a hotel stay (in which case I would either stay locally or use taxis/trains to/from airports).
I did have fairly niche specialisms, though.

We currently live 5 minutes walk from a SW city centre and train station, so rarely use DH's car. When he goes to an office it is either in central London or close to another train station.

DD can walk nearly everywhere or take a bus/train, but is learning to drive. Her rural friends' parents clock up thousands of miles ferrying them around.

Carnewb · 18/03/2025 10:27

No, I only passed 2 years ago, I had arranged my life around it because that's what you do when you can't drive, same as anything else, budget, space you need etc.
I am quite happy where I live and have no desire to move to the arse end of beyond where there's one bus a year any more than I did before I passed my test, or to move jobs because I like mine and it suits me.
Has it improved my life? Yes. Is it essential to me living it? No.

Badbadbunny · 18/03/2025 10:31

I don't need a car for my commute as I chose to rent an office close enough to home to be able to walk.

But I do need a car to visit clients which is a very regular occurrence, sometimes an hour or two away by car, which would take a lot longer by public transport and often would necessitate bus and/or taxi at the end of the commute as clients such as farms, industrial units, etc are seldom anywhere near city centre train stations and many aren't on decent/regular bus routes.

Up here in "Northern Rail" land, a journey that can take an hour or two by car can take twice as long by rail because of appalling poor railway routes/services and having to change trains en-route with long waits at intermediate stations, and that's just to get to the town centre station, and then you have bus/taxi at the other end too to add on. The route I'd take most often only has a two hourly train service, so very inconvenient.

At least if I drive I can do, maybe two clients in a day, whereas if I went by train, the whole day would be taken up for just one client.

Just doesn't make any sense. The trains up here only really work for people living/working on the main arterial routes and can get the faster express trains that don't stop anywhere. (But even those are prone to cancellations and delays!).

SJM1988 · 18/03/2025 10:36

I couldn't get to work without driving but I wouldn't have chosen this job if I didn't have a driving licence.
I didn't get my licence until I was 28 and pre kids. The whole point I got my licence was so I could pick my wedding dress up without replying on someone else!! Weird reason but that was my reason. It also formed the basis that we could move out of a city and into a more rural setting.
Pre driving - I chose jobs within walking or public transport distance. I walked to work several years in rain/snow as my DH left earlier than I started work. Shopping was just delivered and trips away took more planning.

Badbadbunny · 18/03/2025 10:38

MinionKevin · 18/03/2025 10:25

Not working at the moment, but not last few jobs. Live in the north where PT is shocking. Also if you need to be in before 8 there’s zero chance as hardly anything runs early anyway.

I’ve just put it into Google maps. 18 minute drive. 1hour 25 by public transport (if it runs on time).

Yup, that's similar to my first job decades ago. It was a straight 25 minute drive from my house in town A to my workplace in the next town, town B.

But no direct rail line, so I'd have to walk/bus to our town's station, then get a train to town C, then get a main line train from town C to Town D, and finally get a train from town D to town B. So three different trains. The quickest I could do that was two and a half hours and the timings were such that it would have been impossible for me to get to work before starting time of 9am as the first train of the day from my town was around 7.30, so the earliest I could get to work would be 10am. Then the journey back was just as bad. Assuming I couldn't leave work before 5pm, it'd be after 8pm when I'd finally get home.

And no, no direct/fast bus service either. There was a service that went from my town to my work town, but it took over 2 hours because it went via just about everywhere else possible en route, i.e. through loads of rural villages in a massive circuit, and the first of the day wasn't until after 9am, so it would have been after 11am when I'd finally get to work.

Completely ridiculous. And no, this isn't a sleepy rural area. Both towns were pretty big (50,000 or so residents), and town A just 5 miles from a small city (100,000 residents). I don't think people realise just how bad public transport is if they live in London or a handful of other larger cities.

Badbadbunny · 18/03/2025 10:41

Forgot to say, all my earlier jobs (before going self employed) had a requirement of a full driving licence and own car. It was a deal breaker for my first four employers because of the need to travel to clients' premises. Not negotiable at all.

WoahThreeAces · 18/03/2025 10:42

A car isn't essential for my job but would make it a lot easier. I use public transport as I can't afford a car.

TroysMammy · 18/03/2025 10:42

No. I live 2.5 miles from my place of work and on a regular main bus route with a short walk each way. But I refuse to wait for a bus in the cold/wet/dark and probably on my own at 7.15am to get into work at 7.45am and then repeat when I finish at 6.30pm when there is a car park outside.

Comefromaway · 18/03/2025 10:43

Ah yes, Northern Rail.

okydokethen · 18/03/2025 10:45

Essential for my job for home visits