Does the ADR Licence make us more professional? Does it enhance our image with the general public? Does it help encourage fresh blood into our industry? Or is it the 2nd most useless piece of plastic in our wallets beaten only by the Driver CPC Card?
I have just recieved my renewed ADR Licence, all exams passed, couldn’t knock the Instructor who I have been to before for the weeks course, really nice chap who makes it as interesting as he can & keeps it as light-hearted as possible while making sure you know what you need to know to tick the right boxes on the Friday, lots of Classes covering lots of very dangerous stuff, in my case both in Tanks & Packages, am I impressed? Sorry but no, & I never have been since the ADR Licence was first introduced. When it first came in I was a Tanker Driver for Air Products, as I am now, I had been employed by Air Products, Trained by their own Training Dept in the classroom everything I needed to know about the Company/Production Plants/Dangers etc etc, then trained on the Tankers by long serving experienced Company drivers, when they decided I was competent I was Tested by the Company Driving assessor & considered safe to be released into the community with my 38 Ton Seddon Atkinson, so I was issued with my Company Training Certificate & away I went. This was the same as the procedure when I worked for Flitwick Oil (Esso) & Watson Fuels (Texaco) on fuel tankers, all perfectly acceptable.
Now this is my main point about the ADR Licence, all the Training I had recieved before the introduction of the ADR was excellent, on all the different types of Tankers, Air Products being the most thorough as we had different types of trailers & types of load discharge, Roto-select (Power supplied by the Tractor)/ Donkey Engine Trailers/ Pressure delivery/ on-site power (plug in power cable at customer site), my point is that all this training was ‘Product/Vehicle specific’ I was trained what I needed to know to carry out my duties safely & competently, & what to do in the case of an Emergency. Would or does the ADR help me be a better Tanker Driver than before it’s introduction? I say No! Because you go on your ADR Course, you get your head filled with a load of stuff that to do your own job you don’t need to know & if you don’t ever leave your present employment you are never going to need to know.
My Father spent his whole working life driving Wagons, his last 25 years on Mobil Oil/Fuel Tankers, now thanks to Granny rights Dad never even took a driving test, but regarding the ADR LIcence which was never about then, does my ADR make me a better Tanker driver than him? Of course not, I may know a lot of stuff about other Classes/tankers that he didn’t know, but so what, if you don’t drive these Tankers or carry these products then why do you want to know it? We’ve got enough Rules/regulations/laws etc to bother about nowadays without stuff you don’t need!
I believe that Company on the job, vehicle & product specific training with an in-house Company test by a qualified experienced person is all that is required, & to me the ADR Licence is a total waste of plastic purely designed to extract more money from Companies. Regards Chris
Forgot to include this copy of my new licence, all very clever, but as some of you on here will know, it’s not a cheap course to go on no matter where you go! Chris
I haven’t had a current ADR for a few years now after it expired before I got into driving for a job. I do remember speaking to a few tanker drivers back then at the pumps when I first thought about the work. They were impressed I had my ADR and class 1 (I was only 20) and I bit jealous when they saw I had classes 3 and 7 which I’m told are quite rare (not sure if that’s true). Can you guess where I got my license and ADR? [emoji28]
As for your main point. Despite being in a very different position to you (don’t currently hold or need ADR) I have to agree. The training on the job, specific to the equipment used and materials carried has to be far more relevant. I imagine the problem from the government perspective is one of controlling standards. Whilst it is obviously in every companies interest to train their drivers to a standard where risk (and potential monetary loss through various means) are minimised, unfortunately there are always cowboys in the industry with little care for anything other than their short term gain.
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kscoombs:
I haven’t had a current ADR for a few years now after it expired before I got into driving for a job. I do remember speaking to a few tanker drivers back then at the pumps when I first thought about the work. They were impressed I had my ADR and class 1 (I was only 20) and I bit jealous when they saw I had classes 3 and 7 which I’m told are quite rare (not sure if that’s true). Can you guess where I got my license and ADR? [emoji28]As for your main point. Despite being in a very different position to you (don’t currently hold or need ADR) I have to agree. The training on the job, specific to the equipment used and materials carried has to be far more relevant. I imagine the problem from the government perspective is one of controlling standards. Whilst it is obviously in every companies interest to train their drivers to a standard where risk (and potential monetary loss through various means) are minimised, unfortunately there are always cowboys in the industry with little care for anything other than their short term gain.
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In the Army, as you say it is rare for people to have both class 1 and 7, explosives and radioactive.
I still keep my ADR up to date as I get 28 hours towards my DCPC card so only have to do another 1 module to get my 35 hours, company pays for it so cannot really complain! Think the course for packages and tankers is around £480, Cheer’s Pete
Yes 1 & 7 are mainly only used by the Military. That is the one bonus Pete of the ADR that you get the points towards that other worthless piece of plastic the CPC, we get put through groups/classes we don’t need just for that. I just can’t see that any of these things benefit us, I had a manager once say it makes us more qualified & valued 
Mmmmm 
I’d like to know who by? We have a shortage of drivers in the UK, does it really attract fresh blood into the Industry when they see how much it costs to get your HGV…sorry LGV Licence, then they got to pay out again for all these other bits of plastic before they can actually get behind the wheel 
Chris
No longer have an ADR. Very rare for me to drive a wagon on the roads these days.
Still put trailers on bays occasionally if no drivers in the yard.
When I did have I had tanks and packages, all bar explosives and radioactive (the rare ones).
The rule on Shell was that the Company would pay (they arranged a course and you still got paid your salary) for your five yearly renewal. Bonus was you would get all groups that you held renewed, even though for petroleum spirit we only needed class 3 (flammable liquids) in tanks.
ADR not worth spending your money on unless needed for your job (or a job you fancy).
Whilst my ADR was still valid I did some hazardous waste work on a rigid through an agency, but the work was awful and the pay was poor (less than a £1 an hour more than non-ADR), so I soon gave that up, and when my certificate expired never bothered to renew.
Hi all,mine was renewed before Christmas our firm puts us through but only packages ,I had to pay £150 for my tanks out of my own pocket to add onto my card ,I have always had t&p on my adr ,if you want to add class 1&7 you have to go to London to a specialist training company which cost a packet ,we do multi drop carrying all sorts ,the only downside is we got to pay back the money if we finish with them cheers John
adr:
Yes 1 & 7 are mainly only used by the Military. That is the one bonus Pete of the ADR that you get the points towards that other worthless piece of plastic the CPC, we get put through groups/classes we don’t need just for that. I just can’t see that any of these things benefit us, I had a manager once say it makes us more qualified & valued
Hi Chris,
I only use class 9 and the main reason for renewing was to get the 28 hours and then I only had to endure 7 hours on tacho course, all signed up till 2024 now, it is nothing to do with a training in my opinion, just a tax and vat money spinner for the treasury.