You probably get a lot of those posts but I will post it anyway since I see you are a bunch of very friendly fellas (unlike some other forums).
My name is Ben. 35 years old London based. British now, although not born here (almost 12 years in the UK now)
Like all other newbies I consider a career change, well I already have Medical, Provisional and booked Theory and Hazard Perception which will happen in two weeks so it is like emmm…happening.
I was always impressed by guys driving huge ■■■tankers, mobile cranes and especially those blingy Sovereign recovery trucks (I mean pulling a double decker bus ) and finally decided to give it a go. Driving is a huge part of my current job - doing around 6 hours a night (mostly Central London and areas within M25) a car (SUV at most) for the last 7 years on a 4on 2off rota basis. I like driving alone, got used to night shifts so the choice was between - black cab, bus/coach or a lorry. I will go with the last one since as my trucker friend said “the cargo won’t spit at you, yell at you or run without paying”.
As soon as I pass my Theory, I decided to go with Wallace School in Park Royal. They have very good reviews, distance is reasonable and although being a little pricey they seem to be a proper, professional body (not like some dodgy schools around which borrow trucks from one another and have 2 on 1 training. I plan to do C first, get some experience then move to C+E when ready (hopefully within months of passing C)
I have a B licence for 12 years with no claims, A licence for 2 years (like that matters ) and hopefully my age will make the potential employers look kindly on my CV. I am a bit scared of this whole idea of mine but hey, everything is for people (got the same thinking on doing my motorbike licence in here, now swinging for a year without problems).
This forum is a vast mine of useful information and I am glad I found it. Have a few questions on the way if you lot don’t mind answering.
Is anybody London based? I see you are everywhere BUT not London . If so, has anybody used Wallace School and may say few words about it?
school has a different packages - 3 (1100 quids), 4(1300), 5(1500) days of training. Do you think I should bite the bullet and take the longest course or would 4 days be enough for a car driver with my experience to get it?
I don’t get that tacho thingy (yet). Is this something they teach you on the course or do you have to rely on YT videos or some separate courses to get over this?
Hello and welcome! Enjoyed reading your post. I think that may be because I’m still feeling the effects of this morning’s alcohol (very early hours, Last night was a good night haha)
Anyway, i am not based in London but im close by and tend to deliver to areas of London regularly.
I didn’t train at Wallace but a few of the instructors at the place I did get my class 2 at had worked for Wallace; they’re quite a big and well established company with some new trucks. I believe they train class 2 on 8 tonner or something tiny like that and because it’s just above 7.5t it still counts as cat C! That makes it quite easy compared to learning in the conventially 18 tonner.
I’d recommend having a driving assessment with them just to get a feel for the instructors, vehicles and to measure your current level of ability. That way you can make a judgement on how many days training you need. Your instructor will give you some advice too. I took 5 days training for my class 2 as I took the advice from the instructor; it turned out I didn’t need 5 and I was ready by day 4. So, don’t just listen to the instructor, you need to make a decision based on how confident you are that you’ll be able to learn within a set amount of days training.
I wish you the best
I have class 1 assessment on Monday woop!
Seen by Jordon Green at 11:14
No the tacho isn’t taught as part of any of the training theory or practical. I think some trainers offer it as a separate thing or part of a package.
YouTube videos are good. There is a free simulator you can download and use and tbh asking the experienced folks you end up working with.
Good luck, mate.
And when you get to hear drivers talking about hours regulations, and we do, all the time, go here to check on the facts: gov.uk/drivers-hours
Confusing ? I`m sure Muckles has written a simplified version somewhere.
IronEddie:
No the tacho isn’t taught as part of any of the training theory or practical. I think some trainers offer it as a separate thing or part of a package.
YouTube videos are good. There is a free simulator you can download and use and tbh asking the experienced folks you end up working with.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I contacted my training company to see if they did Tacho training, they advised me to do it as a CPC module because it was half the price that they would charge me! The trucks I am in now are this years trucks, and have all the handbooks in them! I shall have to borrow one.
ATB,
Tommy.
IronEddie:
No the tacho isn’t taught as part of any of the training theory or practical. I think some trainers offer it as a separate thing or part of a package.
YouTube videos are good. There is a free simulator you can download and use and tbh asking the experienced folks you end up working with.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I contacted my training company to see if they did Tacho training, they advised me to do it as a CPC module because it was half the price that they would charge me! The trucks I am in now are this years trucks, and have all the handbooks in them! I shall have to borrow one.
ATB,
Tommy.
That’s a good way of doing it if you can. I dunno why it can’t be a part of practical training. Since you can have your digi card any time they could maybe allow it’s use during practical training. That way your instructor could teach it and you’d get actuall experience using it.
I’m in the South East and looked at Wallace training a couple years back before I done my Class 2.
From memory they weren’t cheap and the CPC Module 4 + Test was an addition to their training. (Don’t forget you need CPC as well as the licence + Tachocard)
I also looked at EP Training near Guildford, Surrey and a company out of Essex but in the end, decided to go with PSTT up in Nottinghamshire. Better prices than Wallace and I passed first time.
When I did my Class 1, I went back to PSTT - The trip is worth it.
There’s companies at Gatwick and Heathrow airport that will take on new Class 2 drivers - it’s mostly done via Agency but the agency I got work through is PAYE
Finding Class 1 work for a new pass is a different story
IronEddie:
No the tacho isn’t taught as part of any of the training theory or practical. I think some trainers offer it as a separate thing or part of a package.
YouTube videos are good. There is a free simulator you can download and use and tbh asking the experienced folks you end up working with.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I contacted my training company to see if they did Tacho training, they advised me to do it as a CPC module because it was half the price that they would charge me! The trucks I am in now are this years trucks, and have all the handbooks in them! I shall have to borrow one.
ATB,
Tommy.
That’s a good way of doing it if you can. I dunno why it can’t be a part of practical training. Since you can have your digi card any time they could maybe allow it’s use during practical training. That way your instructor could teach it and you’d get actuall experience using it.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I have learned from the fellas who I work with, I just stick it in, keep to my hours and take it out again, take a print out if I suspect an issue, like when I left my card in overnight or the tacho head read driving without card all bloody shift!
Tommy.
IronEddie:
No the tacho isn’t taught as part of any of the training theory or practical. I think some trainers offer it as a separate thing or part of a package.
YouTube videos are good. There is a free simulator you can download and use and tbh asking the experienced folks you end up working with.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I contacted my training company to see if they did Tacho training, they advised me to do it as a CPC module because it was half the price that they would charge me! The trucks I am in now are this years trucks, and have all the handbooks in them! I shall have to borrow one.
ATB,
Tommy.
That’s a good way of doing it if you can. I dunno why it can’t be a part of practical training. Since you can have your digi card any time they could maybe allow it’s use during practical training. That way your instructor could teach it and you’d get actuall experience using it.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I have learned from the fellas who I work with, I just stick it in, keep to my hours and take it out again, take a print out if I suspect an issue, like when I left my card in overnight or the tacho head read driving without card all bloody shift!
Tommy.
Normally (assuming your card was in) the 'driving without card warning will be because the truck was moved overnight, say for it to be loaded or something. This warning won’t dissappear until you acknowledge it by pressing ok when the display is showing the warning so even though your card is in it will still show the warning until it is cancelled.
For the OP learning tacho rules to a basic level is easy and the more you deal with them the more you get to understand them but the bigger learning curve is taking these textbook rules and applying them into real life work scenarios.
My advice is always keep a written log of your hours. I buy a diary with a page a day. On each day I write down start/finish times, breaks, vehicles driven and anything else that I may feel relevant such as where I’ve been etc
IronEddie:
Think I might appropriate the diary idea myself. Sounds useful especially whilst new and unconfident.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I too keep a diary. Start and finish times. Drive and duty times. Overnight parking places. Notes on tips and collections.
Plus notes on “events” in the day. I do a printout of any day with an infraction and staple it to the relevant page.
When I had a tug from the DREL about going over hours, I showed them the diary, with the explanation and they were happy with it all. (Ferry diverted).
Not just for newbies.
IronEddie:
Think I might appropriate the diary idea myself. Sounds useful especially whilst new and unconfident.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I too keep a diary. Start and finish times. Drive and duty times. Overnight parking places. Notes on tips and collections.
Plus notes on “events” in the day. I do a printout of any day with an infraction and staple it to the relevant page.
When I had a tug from the DREL about going over hours, I showed them the diary, with the explanation and they were happy with it all. (Ferry diverted).
Not just for newbies.
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
Bang on Franglais!
I ALWAYS keep a record of everything in a large page a day diary.
Its all about covering your backside really.
I do exactly the same as above, I also photograph EVERY job ticket and backup to cloud.
Notes on fuel and mileage etc so I can monitor the mpg.
It may be overkill, but if I get asked where I was at 2pm last Tuesday, without this I have no chance of remembering (especially as I am getting older )
TommyTanker:
I contacted my training company to see if they did Tacho training, they advised me to do it as a CPC module because it was half the price that they would charge me! The trucks I am in now are this years trucks, and have all the handbooks in them! I shall have to borrow one.
ATB,
Tommy.
IronEddie:
That’s a good way of doing it if you can. I dunno why it can’t be a part of practical training. Since you can have your digi card any time they could maybe allow it’s use during practical training. That way your instructor could teach it and you’d get actuall experience using it.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
TommyTanker:
I have learned from the fellas who I work with, I just stick it in, keep to my hours and take it out again, take a print out if I suspect an issue, like when I left my card in overnight or the tacho head read driving without card all bloody shift!
Tommy.
toonsy:
Normally (assuming your card was in) the 'driving without card warning will be because the truck was moved overnight, say for it to be loaded or something. This warning won’t dissappear until you acknowledge it by pressing ok when the display is showing the warning so even though your card is in it will still show the warning until it is cancelled.
For the OP learning tacho rules to a basic level is easy and the more you deal with them the more you get to understand them but the bigger learning curve is taking these textbook rules and applying them into real life work scenarios.
My advice is always keep a written log of your hours. I buy a diary with a page a day. On each day I write down start/finish times, breaks, vehicles driven and anything else that I may feel relevant such as where I’ve been etc
Every day is a school day, yes it was moved during the night for loading! I will bear that in mind, cheers mate. I also have a diary (more to keep my eye on money than anything) but I record the info there, my drop list for the day also requests the start times, breaks etc.
Tommy.
Hyh:
I’m in the South East and looked at Wallace training a couple years back before I done my Class 2.
From memory they weren’t cheap and the CPC Module 4 + Test was an addition to their training. (Don’t forget you need CPC as well as the licence + Tachocard)
I also looked at EP Training near Guildford, Surrey and a company out of Essex but in the end, decided to go with PSTT up in Nottinghamshire. Better prices than Wallace and I passed first time.
When I did my Class 1, I went back to PSTT - The trip is worth it.
There’s companies at Gatwick and Heathrow airport that will take on new Class 2 drivers - it’s mostly done via Agency but the agency I got work through is PAYE
Finding Class 1 work for a new pass is a different story
yeah I checked PSTT and Class 2 + CPC would be a bit cheaper, however travelling to Nottingham will mean I will be off my usual job for those few days, whereas Wallace is literally four tube stops away from my place and I can still go to work every day (I do nights). With Wallace - 5 day Class 2 + CPC would cost me around 1600.
I just realised you have to do a CPC theory as well. Can you book that along with your theory and hazard perception or do you have to pass the practical Class 2 test?
TatteredPrince:
(…)I just realised you have to do a CPC theory as well. Can you book that along with your theory and hazard perception or do you have to pass the practical Class 2 test?
You can book all 3 together and it can be done on the same day (provided there are slots available).
(unlike some other forums).
) and finally decided to give it a go. Driving is a huge part of my current job - doing around 6 hours a night (mostly Central London and areas within M25) a car (SUV at most) for the last 7 years on a 4on 2off rota basis. I like driving alone, got used to night shifts so the choice was between - black cab, bus/coach or a lorry. I will go with the last one since as my trucker friend said “the cargo won’t spit at you, yell at you or run without paying”.
) and hopefully my age will make the potential employers look kindly on my CV. I am a bit scared of this whole idea of mine but hey, everything is for people (got the same thinking on doing my motorbike licence in here, now swinging for a year without problems).
)