ADR worth it?

Hi I am doing my class 1 next month, I have been looking into doing my ADR course as well to improve my wages once employed.
My question is, is the hourly rate in the northwest worth the extra money for the course or should I just do class 1.
I have been looking around and it only looks about £1 an hour more for all the responsibilities haha

Thank you for your responses
Stephen

More importantly, it increases the opportunity for work.

btw, our ADR is just £450 fully inclusive.

Pete

Having class one experience is more important then having an ADR.
If you have the cash to spare then go for it otherwise I’d hold off a bit until you have passed your test and gained some experience.

adam277:
Having class one experience is more important then having an ADR.
If you have the cash to spare then go for it otherwise I’d hold off a bit until you have passed your test and gained some experience.

Personally I would be surprised if you got an adr job without some experience.

As Adam says if you have the cash then go for it but I would be more concerned about getting a start first

kcrussell25:

adam277:
Having class one experience is more important then having an ADR.
If you have the cash to spare then go for it otherwise I’d hold off a bit until you have passed your test and gained some experience.

Personally I would be surprised if you got an adr job without some experience.

As Adam says if you have the cash then go for it but I would be more concerned about getting a start first

Thanks for the advice fellas

kopkings1:
… for all the responsibilities …

Hi Stephen,

I’m not sure where you got that idea mate, but ADR doesn’t actually give an employed driver many responsibilities.

As you can imagine, there are a whole pile of responsibilities in ADR and some of them are very serious indeed, but those are all shared between the Consignor ( = the sender of the goods) and the Carrier ( = the owner of the vehicle) so there’s not that much left over for the driver to be responsible for.

dieseldave:

kopkings1:
… for all the responsibilities …

Hi Stephen,

I’m not sure where you got that idea mate, but ADR doesn’t actually give an employed driver many responsibilities.

As you can imagine, there are a whole pile of responsibilities in ADR and some of them are very serious indeed, but those are all shared between the Consignor ( = the sender of the goods) and the Carrier ( = the owner of the vehicle) so there’s not that much left over for the driver to be responsible for.

Just shows how little I no about it then haha. So worth doing or waiting for a while in your opinion

I’d be more concerned with getting some experience first rather than paying out more money.
In this industry the person with experience is going to get the job before the person with the qualifications.
As for more responsibility there isn’t much more for the driver. You have to carry a few extra pieces of paper work and some extra safety equipment on your vehicle. That’s about it.

Also you might decide you hate driving artics or some other issue may arise.

Honestly don’t blow money needlessly.
It’s not uncommon for firms to pay for ADR training anyway.

kopkings1:
… So worth doing or waiting for a while in your opinion

Hi Stephen,

There are a number of variables here mate.

As a new pass on C+E, you might find some difficulty in finding/keeping work, but maybe not.

As an experienced Cat C driver, you probably already know what work is on offer in your area and so an ADR licence might add a bit more appeal to employers. However, there might not be much ADR work in your area.

On the other hand; if there’s an ADR load that needs to go, then it’ll certainly need an ADR driver to drive it.
The available staff for this imaginary job are your good self who has an ADR licence and a vastly experienced driver who doesn’t have an ADR licence.

Out of those two available drivers, guess who gets the job, whilst the other gets to go home?

When I took got my ADR cert., the downside was the extra responsibility, the lower speed limits for DG loads in parts of Europe and the DG bans on tunnels in France. Multi-drops round Paris with just one item of DG was a total nightmare because Paris is riddled with tunnels!

The up-side was that I was working for a two-man band at the time and the fact that both of us had ADR meant that the freight-forwarding agent kept us busy - in other words, it meant my work was pretty much guaranteed (and I was in no hurry to leave a good employer). He paid for my ADR too. As Dave says, it enhances your CV if you do go for another job.

It wasn’t until I ran my own transport that I decided to let it go.

Robert

I’d say go for it!

When I passed my class 1 I also went through my ADR the week after, once my card was through I had a full time position with no class 1 experience on class 6 stuff doing collections of medical waste in a double deck trailer.

Within 3 month of getting that job I landed a job on fuel tankers with a smallish company (class 1 still) - that was my foot in the door, you end up hearing of jobs going elsewhere while chatting in the terminal to other guys after loading.

Now, I’m moving onto one of the biggest oil companies in the business (no not Hoyer )

So in my experience, yes definitely worth it.

Good luck…

For the extra hassle, paperwork and having to dress up like the Michelin Man, no it’s not worth it for £1/hr extra and only mugs do it for the glory aspect of telling anyone that’ll listen that they’re better than them because they can drive stuff with an orange square.

I’ve got my current gig because of ADR as we do pallets and virtually everyone in the company needs it. As Dave mentioned, ADR isn’t just things like fuel tankers and ultra haz loads, it’s also simple stuff like fabric conditioner or washing powder needs shifting - if there’s enough it becomes ADR. In pallet land both class 2 and class 1 ADR is very handy.

Don’t worry, they give you a couple of fire extinguishers in the truck, although when you’re carrying Organic Peroxides, along with pallets of paper and a couple of other flammable IBC’s, you probably don’t wanna stick around long enough to actually use it.

Not sure if it still applies, but when I did mine it also gave dCPC credits too so effectively paid for itself.

Peter Smythe:
More importantly, it increases the opportunity for work.

btw, our ADR is just £450 fully inclusive.

Pete

Probably should find it out from your website - but for that price do you get cpc credits?

Cheers Sam

kopkings1:
Hi I am doing my class 1 next month, I have been looking into doing my ADR course as well to improve my wages once employed.
My question is, is the hourly rate in the northwest worth the extra money for the course or should I just do class 1.
I have been looking around and it only looks about £1 an hour more for all the responsibilities haha

Thank you for your responses
Stephen

ADR is around £500 and lasts 5 years…27 pence per day, thats worth it even if you dont use it. Also make sure you use a provider where your ADR training counts towards your cpc hours, some will just charge you the upload fee for this so your basically getting 4 days cpc for 30 odd quid.
pm sent

shullbit:

kopkings1:
Hi I am doing my class 1 next month, I have been looking into doing my ADR course as well to improve my wages once employed.
My question is, is the hourly rate in the northwest worth the extra money for the course or should I just do class 1.
I have been looking around and it only looks about £1 an hour more for all the responsibilities haha

Thank you for your responses
Stephen

ADR is around £500 and lasts 5 years…27 pence per day, thats worth it even if you dont use it. Also make sure you use a provider where your ADR training counts towards your cpc hours, some will just charge you the upload fee for this so your basically getting 4 days cpc for 30 odd quid.
pm sent

This^^^

The only thing I’d mention here is that not all ADR providers offer 28hrs DCPC. In my experience, 21hrs DCPC is a far more common offering.

It isn’t the cost of £500ish that would put me off, or the extra hassle RobK alludes too. It’s the loss of either a weeks income or a weeks holiday.

If they offered it over two weekends with a test on monday I’d be much keener. I can understand this wouldn’t be as attractive for companies putting drivers through it - but I can see why it puts plenty of self-employed agency drivers off. The cost isn’t really £500 it’s well over a grand when you add in the lost income.

Our provider does it over consecutive weekends, though we do Mon-Fri as it should count as other work on your WTD, and so it’s easier for me to keep the hours straight. We pay for the course and pay the drivers to do it. I’ve only once had a driver that already had explosives, which is what we really want.