Considering Changing Careers Any Truck Drivers About?

[theduke]

After successfully pottering through life with pretty low gcse's (Best was a C in maths) and no college or university qualifications and a hand full of city and guilds qualifications, I'm thinking about training for my C+E licence can anyone on here offer any advice on how to go about it?

Im employed currently and earn an ok wage but what can i expect to earn and what sort of hours and is it true that without 2 years experience its going to be difficult?

[mintalkin]

there are plenty of training courses for the lgv licence, you will have to do the cat c licence first and then go for the c+e,but a lot of training places combine this into one course, you will also need a cpc licence as this becomes law very shortly, its a 40hr training course repeated every 5 years,also do not forget the digical taco card as charts are a thing of the past on all new trucks.at one time two years experiance was needed for driving jobs but with a shortage of drivers this usually goes out the window.earnings depend on what work is done wheather its multi-drop,trunking or tramper ect.as a career its a marmite moment you either love it or hate it but this all comes down to the work required.

[simcor]

Depending on your age and when you passed your test you may have to take a 7.5 ton licence first. Bear in mind I had grandfather rights to 7.5 ton as I passed my car test before 1997 and took my class 2 in 2003 so some things may have changed.

This page will tell you what you can learn to drive after answering a few questions chances are you would need to take your class 2 © first then Class 1 (C+E). https://www.gov.uk/vehicles-you-can-drive

You will need a medical as well to apply for your provisional this can cost anything from around £35 to whatever a doctor wants to charge for it there is no set price for this, usually around £90.

You will need to once you have had the medical done apply for your C provisional licence.

You will need to do a theory test and hazard perception test as well, this used to be before you could take your test but not sure on whether this has to be done before lessons now.

You will need to also complete 35 hours of CPC training again this might be before you can take your test, once you have a Driver Qualification card this lasts 5 years and you have to complete 35 hours training in every 5 year period to keep this up to date. Without a CPC card you can't drive a truck as of the 1st Sept this year even if you have a licence.

You would also be advised to download a copy of the GV262 which is the bible of tacho rules and regulations and learn what you can and can't do in regards to driving hours etc.

You would also need to apply for a digital tachograph card, any trucks newer than 2006 have to be fitted with a digital tacho, older trucks can have analogue charts still so it would be advised to learn how to fill in a chart as well should you get a job with old trucks. Similarly you would want to try and learn how to use a digital tacho including how to do manual entries even if you just watch youtube videos to learn.

You also generally need a cleanish licence most companies will only accept minor points up to a maximum of 6. Most will not touch anyone with serious offences like drink driving or dangerous driving so if you have any of those it would be a lot harder to get a job.

You are responsible for the load of the truck and the safety of the truck and the safety of you as the driver, this is an aspect that people often overlook, if you get stopped by Vosa and anything is amiss you can go to court and be fined along with the director, transport manager and o licence holder if neither of the former are the o licence holder, and in severe cases even be sent to prison, fines for tacho infringements can range from a few hundred to thousands and you will have to pay your fines the company will not pay them if you get done by Vosa. The company will also be fined and you will very probably lose your job depending on the severity of the offences.

Pay is anyone's guess really it will depend on many factors, for class 2 expect around £8-8.50 an hour on an agency. Bear in mind you limited as to how many hours you can work a week, you also can't legally work a second job to earn more money as you have to inform your employer of any other work and this counts towards your working time if you have a second job, not that you will have enough time to have a second job.

As for hours you will probably do 10-15 days regularly.

Brief tacho and working time rules.

15 hours is the maximum daily duty time from starting work to finishing with a maximum of 10 hours driving but only twice a week the other days it is 13 hours with 9 hours driving, although you can do a 3rd 15 hour day with 9 hours driving.

You must have 11 hours daily rest between shifts but this can be reduced to 9 hours 3 times a week

You must have 45 hours weekly rest but again this can be reduced to a minimum of 24 hours but any reduction has to be repaid by the 3rd following week added onto the end of that weekly rest.

You can drive for 4.5 hours before you need a 45 min break, this can split into two breaks first must be 15 mins and second break must be 30 mins, once you have had 45 mins or accumulated 45 mins rest you can drive for a further 4.5 hours, then you would need a further 45 mins break if you wanted to drive for an extra hour if on an extended driving day.

You also need to be aware of the many other rules, for example the WTD (working time directive) as in you can't drive and or do other work for more than 5 hours without a rest break, this can usually be coincided with tacho reg breaks in a lot of jobs.

You must average 48 working hours a week over a rolling reference period usually 17 or 26 weeks.

You can only drive for 56 hours a week maximum or 90 hours a fortnight, each week plus the previous or next weeks hours can't total more than 90 hours when added together.

Cost for a class 2 licence these days will be expensive, probably up to around £1500 fro lessons and theory and test fee I would imagine nowadays, plus £38 for tacho card, £90 for medical plus CPC course cost usually around £70 or so per day for 7 hours.

Generally you day will consist of:

Being messed around by the planning office.

Waiting for warehouse staff to load unload truck.

Getting annoyed by car drivers who have no idea what it is like to drive a truck and don't give you the room you need to manoeuvre.

Getting stuck in traffic.

Having loads refused by the place your taking it to and the planning office telling you it can't come back and needs to be delivered.

Being told by planners to break the law even though they will deny all knowledge.

Being hassled all day with phone calls with some companies, "where are you" "what time will you be there" etc etc

Being asked to pick up a return load even though you were hoping to finish early.

Possible nights out sleeping in a truck on a bunk narrower than single bed by a large margin and getting next to no sleep.

So the question is:

Do you still want to be a truck driver??

This is not to put you off it is just to give a realistic expectation of what being truck driver entails, some jobs will be a doddle and good money others wont be good money and will be long hours but most companies are pretty much the same in most respects.

Most people often think it is simple as just driving, anyone can drive, being a good truck driver is a lot harder. A lot you will learn as you go depending on the type of job you take.

If you have any other questions I will gladly try and help. This is not all 100% fact as I don't know the exact cost to gain a class 2 or class 1 these days, I did recently look at taking my class 1 and the cheapest I could find was around £1350.

Multidrop is hard and stressful beyond belief, i'm talking up to 100 drops a day like TNT etc.

General multidrop could be up to 15 deliveries a day.

Trunking is an easy life going from warehouse to warehouse and you will be unloaded but sitting around for hours most days.

Tramping can be easy but you could be away for one night up to a whole week depending on where you are going and how many deliveries you have to make.

Multidrop with handball will be physically demanding and tiring then you have to drive home.

Most trucks these days are automatics too so gears are generally not an issue anymore.

Sorry kind of got carried away.

Simon