Published on 12, July, 2020
Evening,
I have just been diagnosed with ASD at the age of 46 and I’m worried as at the bottom of the diagnosis letter it mentioned my driving and contacting DVLA. I have been driving a car since 1998 and have been an HGV driver since 2012, but I’m now worried that my diagnoses will cost me my job. It’s confusing on the website as it says “You must tell DVLA if your autistic spectrum condition (ASC) affects your ability to drive safely.”. I wasn’t sure what it meant so I contacted DVLA today and he is sending some forms out that I have to fill in and send back within 14 days but it was his comment of you can still drive until we get the forms back which is not helping my anxiety and stress over this. I went for a diagnoses to understand why I didn’t fit in like others and now I’m worried I could lose my job over this. It’s not affected my driving all this time and I have only had 1 minor bump in all this time.
Can anyone help or has anyone else had any experience with this?
Driving is not necessarily effected by autism. Many autistic people drive very well indeed and there is no issue. If you've been driving HGVs this long with no worries you won't loose your licence now, nor your job.
You only need to tell them if it does impact on driving. About 40% of autistic people can't drive. I'm one of them. The spatial/visual co-ordination is too poor and my information processing too slow. I've got a disabled person's bus pass for that reason.
That’s a shame that u can’t drive, I love driving. It suits me as I like to be on my own, I struggled in jobs when there a lots of people around.