Hi, anyone have info on working on class 2 trade plate deliveries?
What kind of hours are you likely to end up working?
Can you make it pay?
Cheers
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=128966&p=2015170&hilit=Trade+plating#p2015125
Plenty of tales on this thread regarding plating.
Not for everyone… I done trade plating years ago when I fancied a change from regular HGV work, so I contacted a company called Uniloads, who were based in Warrington and got offered an interview to be a commercial trade plater
Here’s my experience:
I arranged a one way hire car ( I lived near Gatwick at the time! ) and drove up to Warrington for the interview
which lasted a few hours if I remember correctly.
Basically, they just wanted to know I was aware of drivers hours, tachograph, and some health and safety. Next a few of
us were given a PDA each and various other bits together with some shiny new trade plates and bundled into a minibus
and dropped off at a client ( can’t remember where! ) to collect some used tractor units to deliver down near Swindon
and then into MAN @ Swindon to collect more trucks to go somewhere else!
You may need a backpack, as we were tramping and out all week, and expected to get around between between jobs
and we usually hitchhiked as they paid minimal expenses for public transport. Also arrange your own B&B’s each evening.
I didn’t mind the hitch-hiking aspect as I’d hitched all over Europe in my youth, so it wasn’t a big deal… of my memorable
experiences though were the following:
Drive a new transit from Ford factory at Southampton to London… then public transport to a London bus garage ( near teddington! ) to collect a double decker, drive that up to Bradford, ( spent the night sleeping on the back seat! ) as I ran
out of hours ( I think! )… then collect another truck from somewhere nearby drive it to Aberdeen, then collect a skip
lorry to deliver to Swindon, then back into the MAN dealer for another tractor unit! and so it went on!
Spent the night sleeping in a RO-RO skip lorry one night in a landfill depot when I couldn’t find any digs! Too late arriving!
I drove all manner of weird and wonderful vehicles… for example, I collected an aircraft de-icing vehicle from Gatwick to deliver to Edinburgh airport, then another one from Stansted to Edinburgh airport again! vans, tankers, buses, cement trailers, LHD fire engines from Birmingham down to Tilbury docks… you name it, I probably drove it!
So, really if you just want experience of driving different new ( and knackered old! ) vehicles you’ll be amazed at the variety, but as a long term career I doubt you’ll enjoy it as it was a bit rough!
I got about £500 pw and minimal assistance for all this nonsense… I eventually defected to Inchcape delivering new cars on trade plates, which then led to me being offered training to driving car transporters when they found out I had a class one with 20+ years experience!
So after initally trying to get away from HGV driving, for something different I ended up back driving a transporter and tramping up and down the country again!.. funny old life, Eh? Hope this helps you decide one way or another! 
PS. The thing that caused people to leave most was the Hitch-hiking ( One guy left our B&B during the night, after his first job! ) aspect, but because of my past hitching experience that never bothered me at all strangely enough!
PPS. This was back in the days of mainly analog tachos and I probably rarely ran legal… not sure you’d get away with it now!
Lennoxtown:
Not for everyone… I done trade plating years ago when I fancied a change from regular HGV work, so I contacted a company called Uniloads, who were based in Warrington and got offered an interview to be a commercial trade platerHere’s my experience:
I arranged a one way hire car ( I lived near Gatwick at the time! ) and drove up to Warrington for the interview
which lasted a few hours if I remember correctly.Basically, they just wanted to know I was aware of drivers hours, tachograph, and some health and safety. Next a few of
us were given a PDA each and various other bits together with some shiny new trade plates and bundled into a minibus
and dropped off at a client ( can’t remember where! ) to collect some used tractor units to deliver down near Swindon
and then into MAN @ Swindon to collect more trucks to go somewhere else!You may need a backpack, as we were tramping and out all week, and expected to get around between between jobs
and we usually hitchhiked as they paid minimal expenses for public transport. Also arrange your own B&B’s each evening.I didn’t mind the hitch-hiking aspect as I’d hitched all over Europe in my youth, so it wasn’t a big deal… of my memorable
experiences though were the following:Drive a new transit from Ford factory at Southampton to London… then public transport to a London bus garage ( near teddington! ) to collect a double decker, drive that up to Bradford, ( spent the night sleeping on the back seat! ) as I ran
out of hours ( I think! )… then collect another truck from somewhere nearby drive it to Aberdeen, then collect a skip
lorry to deliver to Swindon, then back into the MAN dealer for another tractor unit! and so it went on!Spent the night sleeping in a RO-RO skip lorry one night in a landfill depot when I couldn’t find any digs! Too late arriving!
I drove all manner of weird and wonderful vehicles… for example, I collected an aircraft de-icing vehicle from Gatwick to deliver to Edinburgh airport, then another one from Stansted to Edinburgh airport again! vans, tankers, buses, cement trailers, LHD fire engines from Birmingham down to Tilbury docks… you name it, I probably drove it!
So, really if you just want experience of driving different new ( and knackered old! ) vehicles you’ll be amazed at the variety, but as a long term career I doubt you’ll enjoy it as it was a bit rough!
I got about £500 pw and minimal assistance for all this nonsense… I eventually defected to Inchcape delivering new cars on trade plates, which then led to me being offered training to driving car transporters when they found out I had a class one with 20+ years experience!
So after initally trying to get away from HGV driving, for something different I ended up back driving a transporter and tramping up and down the country again!.. funny old life, Eh? Hope this helps you decide one way or another!
PS. The thing that caused people to leave most was the Hitch-hiking ( One guy left our B&B during the night, after his first job! ) aspect, but because of my past hitching experience that never bothered me at all strangely enough!
PPS. This was back in the days of mainly analog tachos and I probably rarely ran legal… not sure you’d get away with it now!
A very piquant pastiche you outline there my good man.I always copped for more than my share of bin wagons,often dossing within the fragrant cabs,freezing mi cods off and wondering where i’m heading when dawn breaks after the drop.I took one bizarre hybrid sweeper- machine once from Charlton,London up to Elgin…13 hours (a slow un) then thumbed to Peterhead for a Petrol tanker down to Tyneside.Then thumbed down to Forton msa,if that’s the one before Liverpool?..I’m waiting over an hour there before around a half- dozen, volvo funeral- hearses stop and give me an extremely high-speed lift to the Port of Liverpool,they were fellow platers.All told,an interesting few days.
Thanks lennoxtown, very interesting read bud.
Definitely sounds like something for when I was younger, couldn’t put up with all that drama nowadays.
The advert I saw said no hitching involved, hire cars are provided??
But off the idea now anyway, too many nights away for me.
Just got fixed up part time with an events company, 18t, one drop per day, wait and return. Occasional night out in hotel, paid hourly all the way till home!!
Shame it’s only 2 days a week plus a few local hours.
It will do whilst I crack on with my Class 1 and ADR…
Thanks for the info guys
I was lucky enough to only do it as part of my factory driver job which involved chassis collections and finished vehicle deliveries and sometimes rectification/modification returns to/from docks like Southampton and Tilbury etc.All travel money and expenses paid and sometimes made a few bob out of using cheaper coach and bus services instead of trains.
Treated like proverbial. A lot of running without working tachos and the we did a lot of “chasing” in minibuses and people carriers crammed in and driven by idiots.
Not a lot of thanks and paid by the driven mile. Final trip was a tipper from Peyerborough to Perth on a Saturday and then drive back in a hire car on the Sunday with another driver. Only got paid for the upward journey so spent a Sunday driving back for joy of it. Plates were duly handed in and we parted company.
Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk
Carryfast:
I was lucky enough to only do it as part of my factory driver job which involved chassis collections and finished vehicle deliveries and sometimes rectification/modification returns to/from docks like Southampton and Tilbury etc.All travel money and expenses paid and sometimes made a few bob out of using cheaper coach and bus services instead of trains.
Wow were you kitted out in those Baron von Richtofen style duds? goggles etc?How well i remember those chaps ferrying those chassis,presumably buses up to Leyland,whenever me and sister were heading for day trips to Blackpool with gramps and gran,circa 1970s.
A fine and eccentric site to behold 
manalishi:
Lennoxtown:
Not for everyone… I done trade plating years ago when I fancied a change from regular HGV work, so I contacted a company called Uniloads, who were based in Warrington and got offered an interview to be a commercial trade platerHere’s my experience:
I arranged a one way hire car ( I lived near Gatwick at the time! ) and drove up to Warrington for the interview
which lasted a few hours if I remember correctly.Basically, they just wanted to know I was aware of drivers hours, tachograph, and some health and safety. Next a few of
us were given a PDA each and various other bits together with some shiny new trade plates and bundled into a minibus
and dropped off at a client ( can’t remember where! ) to collect some used tractor units to deliver down near Swindon
and then into MAN @ Swindon to collect more trucks to go somewhere else!You may need a backpack, as we were tramping and out all week, and expected to get around between between jobs
and we usually hitchhiked as they paid minimal expenses for public transport. Also arrange your own B&B’s each evening.I didn’t mind the hitch-hiking aspect as I’d hitched all over Europe in my youth, so it wasn’t a big deal… of my memorable
experiences though were the following:Drive a new transit from Ford factory at Southampton to London… then public transport to a London bus garage ( near teddington! ) to collect a double decker, drive that up to Bradford, ( spent the night sleeping on the back seat! ) as I ran
out of hours ( I think! )… then collect another truck from somewhere nearby drive it to Aberdeen, then collect a skip
lorry to deliver to Swindon, then back into the MAN dealer for another tractor unit! and so it went on!Spent the night sleeping in a RO-RO skip lorry one night in a landfill depot when I couldn’t find any digs! Too late arriving!
I drove all manner of weird and wonderful vehicles… for example, I collected an aircraft de-icing vehicle from Gatwick to deliver to Edinburgh airport, then another one from Stansted to Edinburgh airport again! vans, tankers, buses, cement trailers, LHD fire engines from Birmingham down to Tilbury docks… you name it, I probably drove it!
So, really if you just want experience of driving different new ( and knackered old! ) vehicles you’ll be amazed at the variety, but as a long term career I doubt you’ll enjoy it as it was a bit rough!
I got about £500 pw and minimal assistance for all this nonsense… I eventually defected to Inchcape delivering new cars on trade plates, which then led to me being offered training to driving car transporters when they found out I had a class one with 20+ years experience!
So after initally trying to get away from HGV driving, for something different I ended up back driving a transporter and tramping up and down the country again!.. funny old life, Eh? Hope this helps you decide one way or another!
PS. The thing that caused people to leave most was the Hitch-hiking ( One guy left our B&B during the night, after his first job! ) aspect, but because of my past hitching experience that never bothered me at all strangely enough!
PPS. This was back in the days of mainly analog tachos and I probably rarely ran legal… not sure you’d get away with it now!
A very piquant pastiche you outline there my good man.I always copped for more than my share of bin wagons,often dossing within the fragrant cabs,freezing mi cods off and wondering where i’m heading when dawn breaks after the drop.I took one bizarre hybrid sweeper- machine once from Charlton,London up to Elgin…13 hours (a slow un) then thumbed to Peterhead for a Petrol tanker down to Tyneside.Then thumbed down to Forton msa,if that’s the one before Liverpool?..I’m waiting over an hour there before around a half- dozen, volvo funeral- hearses stop and give me an extremely high-speed lift to the Port of Liverpool,they were fellow platers.All told,an interesting few days.
It was certainly intersting and varied if now’t else! Lol 
manalishi:
Lennoxtown:
Not for everyone… I done trade plating years ago when I fancied a change from regular HGV work, so I contacted a company called Uniloads, who were based in Warrington and got offered an interview to be a commercial trade platerHere’s my experience:
I arranged a one way hire car ( I lived near Gatwick at the time! ) and drove up to Warrington for the interview
which lasted a few hours if I remember correctly.Basically, they just wanted to know I was aware of drivers hours, tachograph, and some health and safety. Next a few of
us were given a PDA each and various other bits together with some shiny new trade plates and bundled into a minibus
and dropped off at a client ( can’t remember where! ) to collect some used tractor units to deliver down near Swindon
and then into MAN @ Swindon to collect more trucks to go somewhere else!You may need a backpack, as we were tramping and out all week, and expected to get around between between jobs
and we usually hitchhiked as they paid minimal expenses for public transport. Also arrange your own B&B’s each evening.I didn’t mind the hitch-hiking aspect as I’d hitched all over Europe in my youth, so it wasn’t a big deal… of my memorable
experiences though were the following:Drive a new transit from Ford factory at Southampton to London… then public transport to a London bus garage ( near teddington! ) to collect a double decker, drive that up to Bradford, ( spent the night sleeping on the back seat! ) as I ran
out of hours ( I think! )… then collect another truck from somewhere nearby drive it to Aberdeen, then collect a skip
lorry to deliver to Swindon, then back into the MAN dealer for another tractor unit! and so it went on!Spent the night sleeping in a RO-RO skip lorry one night in a landfill depot when I couldn’t find any digs! Too late arriving!
I drove all manner of weird and wonderful vehicles… for example, I collected an aircraft de-icing vehicle from Gatwick to deliver to Edinburgh airport, then another one from Stansted to Edinburgh airport again! vans, tankers, buses, cement trailers, LHD fire engines from Birmingham down to Tilbury docks… you name it, I probably drove it!
So, really if you just want experience of driving different new ( and knackered old! ) vehicles you’ll be amazed at the variety, but as a long term career I doubt you’ll enjoy it as it was a bit rough!
I got about £500 pw and minimal assistance for all this nonsense… I eventually defected to Inchcape delivering new cars on trade plates, which then led to me being offered training to driving car transporters when they found out I had a class one with 20+ years experience!
So after initally trying to get away from HGV driving, for something different I ended up back driving a transporter and tramping up and down the country again!.. funny old life, Eh? Hope this helps you decide one way or another!
PS. The thing that caused people to leave most was the Hitch-hiking ( One guy left our B&B during the night, after his first job! ) aspect, but because of my past hitching experience that never bothered me at all strangely enough!
PPS. This was back in the days of mainly analog tachos and I probably rarely ran legal… not sure you’d get away with it now!
A very piquant pastiche you outline there my good man.I always copped for more than my share of bin wagons,often dossing within the fragrant cabs,freezing mi cods off and wondering where i’m heading when dawn breaks after the drop.I took one bizarre hybrid sweeper- machine once from Charlton,London up to Elgin…13 hours (a slow un) then thumbed to Peterhead for a Petrol tanker down to Tyneside.Then thumbed down to Forton msa,if that’s the one before Liverpool?..I’m waiting over an hour there before around a half- dozen, volvo funeral- hearses stop and give me an extremely high-speed lift to the Port of Liverpool,they were fellow platers.All told,an interesting few days.
Strangely enough, I enjoyed it at the time… but I jumped at the chance of getting on the car transporters as I’d always
fancied those when I first got my HGV ( I couldn’t I had no experience yet! ) then I kinda stumbled into the job 20 odd years
later as a result of being a trade plater! Funny old World! Lol
Lennoxtown:
manalishi:
Lennoxtown:
Not for everyone… I done trade plating years ago when I fancied a change from regular HGV work, so I contacted a company called Uniloads, who were based in Warrington and got offered an interview to be a commercial trade platerHere’s my experience:
I arranged a one way hire car ( I lived near Gatwick at the time! ) and drove up to Warrington for the interview
which lasted a few hours if I remember correctly.Basically, they just wanted to know I was aware of drivers hours, tachograph, and some health and safety. Next a few of
us were given a PDA each and various other bits together with some shiny new trade plates and bundled into a minibus
and dropped off at a client ( can’t remember where! ) to collect some used tractor units to deliver down near Swindon
and then into MAN @ Swindon to collect more trucks to go somewhere else!You may need a backpack, as we were tramping and out all week, and expected to get around between between jobs
and we usually hitchhiked as they paid minimal expenses for public transport. Also arrange your own B&B’s each evening.I didn’t mind the hitch-hiking aspect as I’d hitched all over Europe in my youth, so it wasn’t a big deal… of my memorable
experiences though were the following:Drive a new transit from Ford factory at Southampton to London… then public transport to a London bus garage ( near teddington! ) to collect a double decker, drive that up to Bradford, ( spent the night sleeping on the back seat! ) as I ran
out of hours ( I think! )… then collect another truck from somewhere nearby drive it to Aberdeen, then collect a skip
lorry to deliver to Swindon, then back into the MAN dealer for another tractor unit! and so it went on!Spent the night sleeping in a RO-RO skip lorry one night in a landfill depot when I couldn’t find any digs! Too late arriving!
I drove all manner of weird and wonderful vehicles… for example, I collected an aircraft de-icing vehicle from Gatwick to deliver to Edinburgh airport, then another one from Stansted to Edinburgh airport again! vans, tankers, buses, cement trailers, LHD fire engines from Birmingham down to Tilbury docks… you name it, I probably drove it!
So, really if you just want experience of driving different new ( and knackered old! ) vehicles you’ll be amazed at the variety, but as a long term career I doubt you’ll enjoy it as it was a bit rough!
I got about £500 pw and minimal assistance for all this nonsense… I eventually defected to Inchcape delivering new cars on trade plates, which then led to me being offered training to driving car transporters when they found out I had a class one with 20+ years experience!
So after initally trying to get away from HGV driving, for something different I ended up back driving a transporter and tramping up and down the country again!.. funny old life, Eh? Hope this helps you decide one way or another!
PS. The thing that caused people to leave most was the Hitch-hiking ( One guy left our B&B during the night, after his first job! ) aspect, but because of my past hitching experience that never bothered me at all strangely enough!
PPS. This was back in the days of mainly analog tachos and I probably rarely ran legal… not sure you’d get away with it now!
A very piquant pastiche you outline there my good man.I always copped for more than my share of bin wagons,often dossing within the fragrant cabs,freezing mi cods off and wondering where i’m heading when dawn breaks after the drop.I took one bizarre hybrid sweeper- machine once from Charlton,London up to Elgin…13 hours (a slow un) then thumbed to Peterhead for a Petrol tanker down to Tyneside.Then thumbed down to Forton msa,if that’s the one before Liverpool?..I’m waiting over an hour there before around a half- dozen, volvo funeral- hearses stop and give me an extremely high-speed lift to the Port of Liverpool,they were fellow platers.All told,an interesting few days.
Strangely enough, I enjoyed it at the time… but I jumped at the chance of getting on the car transporters as I’d always
fancied those when I first got my HGV ( I couldn’t I had no experience yet! ) then I kinda stumbled into the job 20 odd years
later as a result of being a trade plater! Funny old World! Lol
Good you found your niche,but the memories you gain from plating sure stay with you,it’s so darn adventurous and challenging.Nothing iv’e done since,aside from a few years on euro-reefers comes close to that stimulation level.Touch of the ‘rose tinteds’ i suspect on deeper reflection. 
manalishi:
Carryfast:
I was lucky enough to only do it as part of my factory driver job which involved chassis collections and finished vehicle deliveries and sometimes rectification/modification returns to/from docks like Southampton and Tilbury etc.All travel money and expenses paid and sometimes made a few bob out of using cheaper coach and bus services instead of trains.Wow were you kitted out in those Baron von Richtofen style duds? goggles etc?How well i remember those chaps ferrying those chassis,presumably buses up to Leyland,whenever me and sister were heading for day trips to Blackpool with gramps and gran,circa 1970s.
A fine and eccentric site to behold
The open chassis types were usually delivered to us,not collected by us,in Feltham by the chassis manufacturers Reynolds Boughton based at Winkleigh in Devon,on exactly those lines.While finished large coachbuilt types were usually delivered to the docks by the packers/shippers we used in Isleworth from memory R and J Park with the things looking like tanks with all the protective kit they put on them for shipping.In my case chassis collections were usually smaller American pick ups used for small fast response types among other commercial chassis cab types like Bedfords and deliveries and collections of finished vehicles which didn’t fit in with the usual packers’/shipping agent’s operations such as returns for modification/rectification work.In many cases involving numerous trips to/from the docks like Southampton and Tilbury involving numerous vehicles.It really is/was a nice job if working directly for a manufacturer.
manalishi:
Lennoxtown:
manalishi:
Lennoxtown:
Not for everyone… I done trade plating years ago when I fancied a change from regular HGV work, so I contacted a company called Uniloads, who were based in Warrington and got offered an interview to be a commercial trade platerHere’s my experience:
I arranged a one way hire car ( I lived near Gatwick at the time! ) and drove up to Warrington for the interview
which lasted a few hours if I remember correctly.Basically, they just wanted to know I was aware of drivers hours, tachograph, and some health and safety. Next a few of
us were given a PDA each and various other bits together with some shiny new trade plates and bundled into a minibus
and dropped off at a client ( can’t remember where! ) to collect some used tractor units to deliver down near Swindon
and then into MAN @ Swindon to collect more trucks to go somewhere else!You may need a backpack, as we were tramping and out all week, and expected to get around between between jobs
and we usually hitchhiked as they paid minimal expenses for public transport. Also arrange your own B&B’s each evening.I didn’t mind the hitch-hiking aspect as I’d hitched all over Europe in my youth, so it wasn’t a big deal… of my memorable
experiences though were the following:Drive a new transit from Ford factory at Southampton to London… then public transport to a London bus garage ( near teddington! ) to collect a double decker, drive that up to Bradford, ( spent the night sleeping on the back seat! ) as I ran
out of hours ( I think! )… then collect another truck from somewhere nearby drive it to Aberdeen, then collect a skip
lorry to deliver to Swindon, then back into the MAN dealer for another tractor unit! and so it went on!Spent the night sleeping in a RO-RO skip lorry one night in a landfill depot when I couldn’t find any digs! Too late arriving!
I drove all manner of weird and wonderful vehicles… for example, I collected an aircraft de-icing vehicle from Gatwick to deliver to Edinburgh airport, then another one from Stansted to Edinburgh airport again! vans, tankers, buses, cement trailers, LHD fire engines from Birmingham down to Tilbury docks… you name it, I probably drove it!
So, really if you just want experience of driving different new ( and knackered old! ) vehicles you’ll be amazed at the variety, but as a long term career I doubt you’ll enjoy it as it was a bit rough!
I got about £500 pw and minimal assistance for all this nonsense… I eventually defected to Inchcape delivering new cars on trade plates, which then led to me being offered training to driving car transporters when they found out I had a class one with 20+ years experience!
So after initally trying to get away from HGV driving, for something different I ended up back driving a transporter and tramping up and down the country again!.. funny old life, Eh? Hope this helps you decide one way or another!
PS. The thing that caused people to leave most was the Hitch-hiking ( One guy left our B&B during the night, after his first job! ) aspect, but because of my past hitching experience that never bothered me at all strangely enough!
PPS. This was back in the days of mainly analog tachos and I probably rarely ran legal… not sure you’d get away with it now!
A very piquant pastiche you outline there my good man.I always copped for more than my share of bin wagons,often dossing within the fragrant cabs,freezing mi cods off and wondering where i’m heading when dawn breaks after the drop.I took one bizarre hybrid sweeper- machine once from Charlton,London up to Elgin…13 hours (a slow un) then thumbed to Peterhead for a Petrol tanker down to Tyneside.Then thumbed down to Forton msa,if that’s the one before Liverpool?..I’m waiting over an hour there before around a half- dozen, volvo funeral- hearses stop and give me an extremely high-speed lift to the Port of Liverpool,they were fellow platers.All told,an interesting few days.
Strangely enough, I enjoyed it at the time… but I jumped at the chance of getting on the car transporters as I’d always
fancied those when I first got my HGV ( I couldn’t I had no experience yet! ) then I kinda stumbled into the job 20 odd years
later as a result of being a trade plater! Funny old World! LolGood you found your niche,but the memories you gain from plating sure stay with you,it’s so darn adventurous and challenging.Nothing iv’e done since,aside from a few years on euro-reefers comes close to that stimulation level.Touch of the ‘rose tinteds’ i suspect on deeper reflection.
Yes, definitely! Lol