Should I bother with CE?

Evening fellow Driver’s / Helmet’s / Instructor’s / Shiny Newbie’s. (Delete as applicable)

As some of you on here know, the Beaver, (after some ludicrous rookie moment’s), has been driving artics for a few months now.
There have been many memorable moment’s thus far, and I have been reflecting on my progress (or painful lack of, if you listen to my bitter and twisted boss), and thought it may be beneficial for some of the new or wannabe driver’s to hear about.

2 years ago I was driving FLT’s, and decided I wanted to drive truck’s rather than load them. The money seemed a lot better and it looked far better to be in some respect, my own boss. I passed my C in Feb last year and got a start immediately with an agency,working for a food/drink company. I remember thinking to myself after a few month’s of hard graft and handballing, " Is it worth doing class 1? ". I weighed it up in my mind and thought that there was a lot more responsibility with an artic, and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck somewhere.

After discussing it with ’ er indoors ', I came to the conclusion that the wages for class1 did not seem a huge amount more than rigid’s, but the job would be kinder to my body as I am the wrong side of forty, and I would not be as under pressure driving artic’s ,like I felt doing multi-drop. And if I didn’t go for it, I would never know.

I took the plunge and passed my CE the first week of March this year. Luckily within 48 hours I had managed to get a driving assessment with a large logistics company who have a depot 15 mins from my house. Did fine with that, and started the following day. I had the inevitable few dodgy reverse’s at first, and a couple of blindside’s that exposed the sheer poor quality of my Primark underwear. You would never think a turtle’s head could do so much damage to a pair of pants.

I have enjoyed it so far enormously. I have found other driver’s to be helpful, knowledgeable and funny as [zb]!
A lot of time is wasted, hanging around waiting to be tipped, or in the case of Lidl and Aldi, waiting for a bay and key for the pallet mover. So the boredom side of thing’s is in my opinion, a bit grim. Regarding driving the wagon, I rarely get myself in trouble with it, and if I do, I am capable and confident of getting it sorted. Wind is an enemy that I had underestimated ( I drive curtain sider’s ), and filling up with diesel can be frustrating as my last job had their own fuel on site, and you never really had to queue up. Paperwork is a bit of a faff. Coupling/uncoupling becomes a doddle after a few times and remembering your trailer number plate gradually ’ sunk in ’ with me after a fortnight!

Overall though, I am really chuffed that I tried class 1. I have found it to be head and shoulder’s above rigid work, but saying that, you have to earn your stripes, and my experience with rigid’s over 12 months has served me well. The trucks seem huge at first, but now I honestly feel right at home in mine and would recommend to anyone thinking about class 1, to have a go.

They are much easier to drive than you would expect!

Good post beaver.

I’m on my 3rd day doing trunking in a double decker. Loving it so far and glad I didn’t go near the class 2 mobiles as I’d probably have stayed in them longer than I should.

Anyway let’s see what tonight and tomorrow morning brings, couple of tight reverses I’m taking on for the first time. My schitter will be touching cloth by 1am I’d imagine.

Good on you H4L.

I’m glad you are enjoying it mate. My first few reverse’s, I was in and out of the cab like a fiddler’s elbow.

If you are not quite sure where your trailer’s at, go and have a look. Apart from actually seeing how far away you are, I found that after doing this a number of times, it helped me build up a fairly accurate picture on the ground in relation to what you see in the mirror.

No hero’s in this game mate.

Cheers buddy yeh it’s great experience. They couldn’t make it easy for me and give me an auto. It had to be an auto with clutch. Ah well thems the breaks haha.

I’m going to be one of those thick skinned ■■■■■■■■■ shunters hate for a while I think. Our home base is tight so end of shift is the one I’m really not looking forward to. Hopefully hub will be fine.

Hope everything continues well for you bud.

eagerbeaver:
Evening fellow Driver’s / Helmet’s / Instructor’s / Shiny Newbie’s. (Delete as applicable)

As some of you on here know, the Beaver, (after some ludicrous rookie moment’s), has been driving artics for a few months now.
There have been many memorable moment’s thus far, and I have been reflecting on my progress (or painful lack of, if you listen to my bitter and twisted boss), and thought it may be beneficial for some of the new or wannabe driver’s to hear about.

2 years ago I was driving FLT’s, and decided I wanted to drive truck’s rather than load them. The money seemed a lot better and it looked far better to be in some respect, my own boss. I passed my C in Feb last year and got a start immediately with an agency,working for a food/drink company. I remember thinking to myself after a few month’s of hard graft and handballing, " Is it worth doing class 1? ". I weighed it up in my mind and thought that there was a lot more responsibility with an artic, and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck somewhere.

After discussing it with ’ er indoors ', I came to the conclusion that the wages for class1 did not seem a huge amount more than rigid’s, but the job would be kinder to my body as I am the wrong side of forty, and I would not be as under pressure driving artic’s ,like I felt doing multi-drop. And if I didn’t go for it, I would never know.

I took the plunge and passed my CE the first week of March this year. Luckily within 48 hours I had managed to get a driving assessment with a large logistics company who have a depot 15 mins from my house. Did fine with that, and started the following day. I had the inevitable few dodgy reverse’s at first, and a couple of blindside’s that exposed the sheer poor quality of my Primark underwear. You would never think a turtle’s head could do so much damage to a pair of pants.

I have enjoyed it so far enormously. I have found other driver’s to be helpful, knowledgeable and funny as [zb]!
A lot of time is wasted, hanging around waiting to be tipped, or in the case of Lidl and Aldi, waiting for a bay and key for the pallet mover. So the boredom side of thing’s is in my opinion, a bit grim. Regarding driving the wagon, I rarely get myself in trouble with it, and if I do, I am capable and confident of getting it sorted. Wind is an enemy that I had underestimated ( I drive curtain sider’s ), and filling up with diesel can be frustrating as my last job had their own fuel on site, and you never really had to queue up. Paperwork is a bit of a faff. Coupling/uncoupling becomes a doddle after a few times and remembering your trailer number plate gradually ’ sunk in ’ with me after a fortnight!

Overall though, I am really chuffed that I tried class 1. I have found it to be head and shoulder’s above rigid work, but saying that, you have to earn your stripes, and my experience with rigid’s over 12 months has served me well. The trucks seem huge at first, but now I honestly feel right at home in mine and would recommend to anyone thinking about class 1, to have a go.

They are much easier to drive than you would expect!

You should have stuck to fork lifts. Driving two minutes and already an expert advising others jeeezzzz that’s all we needed more knobheads in the industry.

alder:

eagerbeaver:
Evening fellow Driver’s / Helmet’s / Instructor’s / Shiny Newbie’s. (Delete as applicable)

As some of you on here know, the Beaver, (after some ludicrous rookie moment’s), has been driving artics for a few months now.
There have been many memorable moment’s thus far, and I have been reflecting on my progress (or painful lack of, if you listen to my bitter and twisted boss), and thought it may be beneficial for some of the new or wannabe driver’s to hear about.

2 years ago I was driving FLT’s, and decided I wanted to drive truck’s rather than load them. The money seemed a lot better and it looked far better to be in some respect, my own boss. I passed my C in Feb last year and got a start immediately with an agency,working for a food/drink company. I remember thinking to myself after a few month’s of hard graft and handballing, " Is it worth doing class 1? ". I weighed it up in my mind and thought that there was a lot more responsibility with an artic, and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck somewhere.

After discussing it with ’ er indoors ', I came to the conclusion that the wages for class1 did not seem a huge amount more than rigid’s, but the job would be kinder to my body as I am the wrong side of forty, and I would not be as under pressure driving artic’s ,like I felt doing multi-drop. And if I didn’t go for it, I would never know.

I took the plunge and passed my CE the first week of March this year. Luckily within 48 hours I had managed to get a driving assessment with a large logistics company who have a depot 15 mins from my house. Did fine with that, and started the following day. I had the inevitable few dodgy reverse’s at first, and a couple of blindside’s that exposed the sheer poor quality of my Primark underwear. You would never think a turtle’s head could do so much damage to a pair of pants.

I have enjoyed it so far enormously. I have found other driver’s to be helpful, knowledgeable and funny as [zb]!
A lot of time is wasted, hanging around waiting to be tipped, or in the case of Lidl and Aldi, waiting for a bay and key for the pallet mover. So the boredom side of thing’s is in my opinion, a bit grim. Regarding driving the wagon, I rarely get myself in trouble with it, and if I do, I am capable and confident of getting it sorted. Wind is an enemy that I had underestimated ( I drive curtain sider’s ), and filling up with diesel can be frustrating as my last job had their own fuel on site, and you never really had to queue up. Paperwork is a bit of a faff. Coupling/uncoupling becomes a doddle after a few times and remembering your trailer number plate gradually ’ sunk in ’ with me after a fortnight!

Overall though, I am really chuffed that I tried class 1. I have found it to be head and shoulder’s above rigid work, but saying that, you have to earn your stripes, and my experience with rigid’s over 12 months has served me well. The trucks seem huge at first, but now I honestly feel right at home in mine and would recommend to anyone thinking about class 1, to have a go.

They are much easier to drive than you would expect!

You should have stuck to fork lifts. Driving two minutes and already an expert advising others jeeezzzz that’s all we needed more knobheads in the industry.

What’s wrong with him sharing his experiences so far? He’s still new himself and sharing those experiences with everyone else? Are you flt trained as well Alder?

He’s qualified to expert level in being a bellend.

alder:

eagerbeaver:
Evening fellow Driver’s / Helmet’s / Instructor’s / Shiny Newbie’s. (Delete as applicable)

As some of you on here know, the Beaver, (after some ludicrous rookie moment’s), has been driving artics for a few months now.
There have been many memorable moment’s thus far, and I have been reflecting on my progress (or painful lack of, if you listen to my bitter and twisted boss), and thought it may be beneficial for some of the new or wannabe driver’s to hear about.

2 years ago I was driving FLT’s, and decided I wanted to drive truck’s rather than load them. The money seemed a lot better and it looked far better to be in some respect, my own boss. I passed my C in Feb last year and got a start immediately with an agency,working for a food/drink company. I remember thinking to myself after a few month’s of hard graft and handballing, " Is it worth doing class 1? ". I weighed it up in my mind and thought that there was a lot more responsibility with an artic, and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck somewhere.

After discussing it with ’ er indoors ', I came to the conclusion that the wages for class1 did not seem a huge amount more than rigid’s, but the job would be kinder to my body as I am the wrong side of forty, and I would not be as under pressure driving artic’s ,like I felt doing multi-drop. And if I didn’t go for it, I would never know.

I took the plunge and passed my CE the first week of March this year. Luckily within 48 hours I had managed to get a driving assessment with a large logistics company who have a depot 15 mins from my house. Did fine with that, and started the following day. I had the inevitable few dodgy reverse’s at first, and a couple of blindside’s that exposed the sheer poor quality of my Primark underwear. You would never think a turtle’s head could do so much damage to a pair of pants.

I have enjoyed it so far enormously. I have found other driver’s to be helpful, knowledgeable and funny as [zb]!
A lot of time is wasted, hanging around waiting to be tipped, or in the case of Lidl and Aldi, waiting for a bay and key for the pallet mover. So the boredom side of thing’s is in my opinion, a bit grim. Regarding driving the wagon, I rarely get myself in trouble with it, and if I do, I am capable and confident of getting it sorted. Wind is an enemy that I had underestimated ( I drive curtain sider’s ), and filling up with diesel can be frustrating as my last job had their own fuel on site, and you never really had to queue up. Paperwork is a bit of a faff. Coupling/uncoupling becomes a doddle after a few times and remembering your trailer number plate gradually ’ sunk in ’ with me after a fortnight!

Overall though, I am really chuffed that I tried class 1. I have found it to be head and shoulder’s above rigid work, but saying that, you have to earn your stripes, and my experience with rigid’s over 12 months has served me well. The trucks seem huge at first, but now I honestly feel right at home in mine and would recommend to anyone thinking about class 1, to have a go.

They are much easier to drive than you would expect!

You should have stuck to fork lifts. Driving two minutes and already an expert advising others jeeezzzz that’s all we needed more knobheads in the industry.

Said by a man who only works sat sun on agency ,lowest form of driver

Haha. Get him Seth.

PMSL…I am actually starting to like this guy. The way he continually makes a knob of himself saves me the bother.

A bit like watching a dog chasing it’s tail. It’s moronic behaviour but strangely compelling at the same time.

I see your boyfriend has lept to your defence again. I bet you are both always parked together if you know what I mean hey hey?

I think Alder is just a bitter, balding diabetic with a permanent limp. Probably has fertility problems, too.

Poor ■■■■■■■■

I’ve read Beavers post a few times now and really can’t see why what he’s said can get anyone all hot and bothered.

The Story Of A Recently Qualified C+E driver. Surely open discussion and experiences are good for the forum overall?

Thanks fella’s! The problem with this chap is that as Endgame has correctly identified, he is very bitter. This came across when he savaged a young lady on here for wishing to follow her dream of driving truck’s.

Rather than merely point out some pro’s and con’s of the job, he decided to brand her ’ pathetic ’ amongst other insults. I pointed out to him in plain English what I thought of this rather sad behaviour. So he now follows me round the forum like a fly round [zb].

The purpose of this post is to potentially put any fear’s that a new driver may have about driving artic’s, to bed.
If any driver has any questions about my experience/■■■■-up’s to this point, feel free to PM me if you would rather not post on the forum.

Thats good to hear beaver. I’ll hopefully go straight for CE when doing my tests rather than trying class 2 jobs.

alder:

eagerbeaver:
Evening fellow Driver’s / Helmet’s / Instructor’s / Shiny Newbie’s. (Delete as applicable)

As some of you on here know, the Beaver, (after some ludicrous rookie moment’s), has been driving artics for a few months now.
There have been many memorable moment’s thus far, and I have been reflecting on my progress (or painful lack of, if you listen to my bitter and twisted boss), and thought it may be beneficial for some of the new or wannabe driver’s to hear about.

2 years ago I was driving FLT’s, and decided I wanted to drive truck’s rather than load them. The money seemed a lot better and it looked far better to be in some respect, my own boss. I passed my C in Feb last year and got a start immediately with an agency,working for a food/drink company. I remember thinking to myself after a few month’s of hard graft and handballing, " Is it worth doing class 1? ". I weighed it up in my mind and thought that there was a lot more responsibility with an artic, and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck somewhere.

After discussing it with ’ er indoors ', I came to the conclusion that the wages for class1 did not seem a huge amount more than rigid’s, but the job would be kinder to my body as I am the wrong side of forty, and I would not be as under pressure driving artic’s ,like I felt doing multi-drop. And if I didn’t go for it, I would never know.

I took the plunge and passed my CE the first week of March this year. Luckily within 48 hours I had managed to get a driving assessment with a large logistics company who have a depot 15 mins from my house. Did fine with that, and started the following day. I had the inevitable few dodgy reverse’s at first, and a couple of blindside’s that exposed the sheer poor quality of my Primark underwear. You would never think a turtle’s head could do so much damage to a pair of pants.

I have enjoyed it so far enormously. I have found other driver’s to be helpful, knowledgeable and funny as [zb]!
A lot of time is wasted, hanging around waiting to be tipped, or in the case of Lidl and Aldi, waiting for a bay and key for the pallet mover. So the boredom side of thing’s is in my opinion, a bit grim. Regarding driving the wagon, I rarely get myself in trouble with it, and if I do, I am capable and confident of getting it sorted. Wind is an enemy that I had underestimated ( I drive curtain sider’s ), and filling up with diesel can be frustrating as my last job had their own fuel on site, and you never really had to queue up. Paperwork is a bit of a faff. Coupling/uncoupling becomes a doddle after a few times and remembering your trailer number plate gradually ’ sunk in ’ with me after a fortnight!

Overall though, I am really chuffed that I tried class 1. I have found it to be head and shoulder’s above rigid work, but saying that, you have to earn your stripes, and my experience with rigid’s over 12 months has served me well. The trucks seem huge at first, but now I honestly feel right at home in mine and would recommend to anyone thinking about class 1, to have a go.

They are much easier to drive than you would expect!

You should have stuck to fork lifts. Driving two minutes and already an expert advising others jeeezzzz that’s all we needed more knobheads in the industry.

What is the problem Alder? U seem to be aggressively and repeatedly trying to put people off becoming a Driver! So is that because you hate the job with a passion, are trying to keep out the competition, or both?

Also I can’t see where EB states he’s some sort of expert? Just words of encouragement about things that newbies might find daunting, although your term for newbies seems to be “knobheads”, which couldn’t really be more condescending considering the forum this post is in.

Me and the beaver have crossed swords a few times on these here message boards…

But credit where it’s due;that’s a cracking post and I’m sure it’ll help those who are thinking of going from
rigids to bendy’s & give them encouragement,which can only be a good thing.

That’s the niceties over and done with,you’re still shrouded in helmetry,you complete and utter ar$e apple !

I also give credit to people who are big enough to acknowledge someone else’s contribution. Respect given.

Anyway, let normal service resume. Your tag sound’s much better as Moron123. You raging ■■■.

Thanks for sharing your experiance beaver. I read a lot of negative posts that sometimes make me think “is it worth getting into the industry at all!”
But I know it’s what I was meant to do and reading positive posts like yours gives me more drive (pardon the pun)
I start class 1 training in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait tbh.

On a positive note for other people thinking about changing career I sat the other night and carefully composed a very short email and sent it to a local haulage company. I explained I would be a newly qualified class 1 driver with no experiance in transport. I did however explain all the positive reasons I thought would serve me well in a driving job and indeed the benefits of me working for them.

They replied the next morning telling me to pop in once I have passed my class 1 test.

eagerbeaver:
Evening fellow Driver’s / Helmet’s / Instructor’s / Shiny Newbie’s. (Delete as applicable)

As some of you on here know, the Beaver, (after some ludicrous rookie moment’s), has been driving artics for a few months now.
There have been many memorable moment’s thus far, and I have been reflecting on my progress (or painful lack of, if you listen to my bitter and twisted boss), and thought it may be beneficial for some of the new or wannabe driver’s to hear about.

2 years ago I was driving FLT’s, and decided I wanted to drive truck’s rather than load them. The money seemed a lot better and it looked far better to be in some respect, my own boss. I passed my C in Feb last year and got a start immediately with an agency,working for a food/drink company. I remember thinking to myself after a few month’s of hard graft and handballing, " Is it worth doing class 1? ". I weighed it up in my mind and thought that there was a lot more responsibility with an artic, and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck somewhere.

After discussing it with ’ er indoors ', I came to the conclusion that the wages for class1 did not seem a huge amount more than rigid’s, but the job would be kinder to my body as I am the wrong side of forty, and I would not be as under pressure driving artic’s ,like I felt doing multi-drop. And if I didn’t go for it, I would never know.

I took the plunge and passed my CE the first week of March this year. Luckily within 48 hours I had managed to get a driving assessment with a large logistics company who have a depot 15 mins from my house. Did fine with that, and started the following day. I had the inevitable few dodgy reverse’s at first, and a couple of blindside’s that exposed the sheer poor quality of my Primark underwear. You would never think a turtle’s head could do so much damage to a pair of pants.

I have enjoyed it so far enormously. I have found other driver’s to be helpful, knowledgeable and funny as [zb]!
A lot of time is wasted, hanging around waiting to be tipped, or in the case of Lidl and Aldi, waiting for a bay and key for the pallet mover. So the boredom side of thing’s is in my opinion, a bit grim. Regarding driving the wagon, I rarely get myself in trouble with it, and if I do, I am capable and confident of getting it sorted. Wind is an enemy that I had underestimated ( I drive curtain sider’s ), and filling up with diesel can be frustrating as my last job had their own fuel on site, and you never really had to queue up. Paperwork is a bit of a faff. Coupling/uncoupling becomes a doddle after a few times and remembering your trailer number plate gradually ’ sunk in ’ with me after a fortnight!

Overall though, I am really chuffed that I tried class 1. I have found it to be head and shoulder’s above rigid work, but saying that, you have to earn your stripes, and my experience with rigid’s over 12 months has served me well. The trucks seem huge at first, but now I honestly feel right at home in mine and would recommend to anyone thinking about class 1, to have a go.

They are much easier to drive than you would expect!

Good post E/B
Like you I quit a decent job and took a gamble on lorry driving. I passed my class 2 before the cpc came into force and had real difficulty getting work, let alone decent work. Was tempted to chuck it, but stuck with and did the class 1, again before the cpc deadline. I posted my cv online, went round companies amd registered with agencies whilst I completed my cpc. Was really tempted to go back to my old job at this point as i was getting nowhere. then the phone rang! Somebody saw my cv online and invited me for a chat. On the way there, my phone rang, and somewhere I’d left my cv wanted me to pop and have a chat. In the end I actually decided to go with an agency , that way I could get a feel for all the different types of jobs out there. I’ve been in constant work ever since.
To any newbies having difficulty finding work, don’t give up.

eagerbeaver:
Evening fellow Driver’s / Helmet’s / Instructor’s / Shiny Newbie’s. (Delete as applicable)

As some of you on here know, the Beaver, (after some ludicrous rookie moment’s), has been driving artics for a few months now.
There have been many memorable moment’s thus far, and I have been reflecting on my progress (or painful lack of, if you listen to my bitter and twisted boss), and thought it may be beneficial for some of the new or wannabe driver’s to hear about.

2 years ago I was driving FLT’s, and decided I wanted to drive truck’s rather than load them. The money seemed a lot better and it looked far better to be in some respect, my own boss. I passed my C in Feb last year and got a start immediately with an agency,working for a food/drink company. I remember thinking to myself after a few month’s of hard graft and handballing, " Is it worth doing class 1? ". I weighed it up in my mind and thought that there was a lot more responsibility with an artic, and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck somewhere.

After discussing it with ’ er indoors ', I came to the conclusion that the wages for class1 did not seem a huge amount more than rigid’s, but the job would be kinder to my body as I am the wrong side of forty, and I would not be as under pressure driving artic’s ,like I felt doing multi-drop. And if I didn’t go for it, I would never know.

I took the plunge and passed my CE the first week of March this year. Luckily within 48 hours I had managed to get a driving assessment with a large logistics company who have a depot 15 mins from my house. Did fine with that, and started the following day. I had the inevitable few dodgy reverse’s at first, and a couple of blindside’s that exposed the sheer poor quality of my Primark underwear. You would never think a turtle’s head could do so much damage to a pair of pants.

I have enjoyed it so far enormously. I have found other driver’s to be helpful, knowledgeable and funny as [zb]!
A lot of time is wasted, hanging around waiting to be tipped, or in the case of Lidl and Aldi, waiting for a bay and key for the pallet mover. So the boredom side of thing’s is in my opinion, a bit grim. Regarding driving the wagon, I rarely get myself in trouble with it, and if I do, I am capable and confident of getting it sorted. Wind is an enemy that I had underestimated ( I drive curtain sider’s ), and filling up with diesel can be frustrating as my last job had their own fuel on site, and you never really had to queue up. Paperwork is a bit of a faff. Coupling/uncoupling becomes a doddle after a few times and remembering your trailer number plate gradually ’ sunk in ’ with me after a fortnight!

Overall though, I am really chuffed that I tried class 1. I have found it to be head and shoulder’s above rigid work, but saying that, you have to earn your stripes, and my experience with rigid’s over 12 months has served me well. The trucks seem huge at first, but now I honestly feel right at home in mine and would recommend to anyone thinking about class 1, to have a go.

They are much easier to drive than you would expect!

Will people stop quoting the OP ffs