Have C1 entitlement, toying with career change

Hi,
First time posting on here and hoping to get some advice and recommendations. First of all, i am 46, passed my driving test in 1990 and have C1 entitlement.

At the moment i work as a technician covering Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire. I’ll be honest i do enjoy the job but money could be better (couldn’t it always).

The thing i enjoy the most is the driving, and occasionally that involves hiring a larger vehicle (7.5 tonne) when equipment that will not fit into the transit needs to be delivered/collected.

I was having a conversation with a 7.5 tonne delivery driver i see frequently at one of the sites i visit regularly and i casually asked him about his job as it’s something that has always had my interest since i was young (i was saving when was in my early 20’s to do a HGV training course and become a driver but ended up meeting a girl, fell in love, marriage, kid etc.).
He basically collects his vehicle loaded from the depot at 6am and his day is done once everything is delivered (between 4 - 7 drops every day), some days he is done by 2pm, other days could be out until 7pm.
Anyway, it sounded like something i would not mind giving a try since am not getting any younger, plus more money would be nice (am on around £9.50/hr in current job).

From my understanding i will need to complete 35 hours of driver CPC as well as getting a tacho card (currently longest i spend driving is around 1 - 1.5 hours between jobs then am at least an hour on site).

Firstly, if i do decide to give it a try and sign up with agencies since i do not know anyone in the trade, would it be a good idea to stick with 7.5 tonne and below for now rather than paying for training to get C+E entitlement ? The plan being, save some money from driving smaller vehicles while finding out if i want to persue it further and then if i do enjoy it, go for the C+E license once i have some experience under my belt with a 7.5 tonne vehicle?

Also, get a load of mixed signals regarding the job with some people saying the best thing they done was get their HGV license and are loving it while others are saying the long hours, crappy pay and being away from home for so long have them not bothering to renew their CPC when it expires.

Ideally i would prefer to be home every night (the less money for less hours is not that huge a deal as the hourly rate, even at the lower end of the scale is more than what i currently earn so if even if i was just doing 45 - 50 hours a week would still be better off.
Have watched a couple of vlogs (Luke C in a HGV, KevTee and Trucker Jay in the UK), how accurate are their portrayals, i mean are they editing out the crap parts of the job or is that a pretty accurate representation of life as a HGV driver ?

The guy i chatted with recently recommended picking up a book called The DVSA guide to driver CPC to get an idea of that side of things but i was also wondering, are there any books available, kinda like a diary/journal of a HGV driver, giving an accurate representation that would be worth reading.

Sorry for the long winded post and daft questions, am just trying to do a little research rather than rush in only to realize it’s not for me.

The other thing is, i have this philosophy that i work to live, not live to work so would rather not be doing 15 hour days 6 days a week, would prefer hours to get a proper work/life balance.
Does such a thing exist in the trucking industry ?

Many thanks for taking the time to read and (hopefully) giving some advice/answers.

Money is decent if you get the right company. I’m on £11 per hour which does me fine + overtime.
Contracted to 10hours a day but I’d say I do like 3x 13/14hr days quite often.

Generally a lot of 7.5 Ton and even the majority of Class work is generally physically demanding, generally loading/unloading - Obviously excluding tippers and tankers.

Class 1 work is generally easier in regards to physically demanding work but some are still hard graft.

From my knowledge, some of the the better paid 7.5 Ton drivers are at Royal Mail working on nights, loading and unloading up to 15 yorks/cages at a time where it can be £15+ an hour - But you do have to do things their way etc if you can cope with that.

Firstly, welcome to the forum. Reading the OP, it’s clear that there is a measure of doubt around whether he would enjoy the job as much as he hopes. I suggest getting cpc and getting work driving a C1. This is the least expensive way to enter the industry and will give a bit of a taste of the job. Having said that, some C1 jobs are nothing remotely like some C and CE jobs. As pointed out already, some C1 and C jobs are physically demanding and this is often less so on CE.

So the cheapest way of making some sort of a start is to complete driver cpc. This will stand in good stead if the OP then chooses to progress through C and CE.

But remember that the transport industry is extremely varied and it’s a matter of finding the right place that suits you.

All the best, Pete

I would defo look at C1 jobs before jumping into class C and then class CE training.

Not watched most of those videos, but there will be a lot between the bits they show and of course theres a lot they can’t video due to privacy.

Its not always a bad job once you get experience and the right company. Just like any other job really.

If you want something fairly std, pallet work on class 2 is usually fairly standard hours albeit maybe not the best pay. Think our lot are around 10.50 / hour for class 2 and 11 quid for class 1.

Thank you for the replies so far (please keep them coming).

Feels like i have taken the red pill browsing through some of the posts in this forum, it’s incredible the variety of work that falls under the ‘lgv/hgv driver’ envelope.

Have seen ‘pallet work’ mentioned a couple of times and, this is embarrassing, i literally thought it was delivering stacks of wooden pallets to places as see a few of those vehicles loaded with wooden pallets when i am driving in my current job.
Hope i got this right, is it items loaded onto wooden pallets (mostly large/bulky items, anything from stacks of cans of drinks to bricks) that are to be delivered to an assortment of locations, ranging from residental houses to building yards ?
On paper i cannot say that sounds appealing but i imagine, same as if you started working in an office, you’d be making the coffee and doing the sandwich runs to ‘earn your stripes’ so to speak before being given jobs that are more appealing.

I have barely scratched the surface with regards to research but one of the things i like the sounds of is, i think it’s called trunking (have a loaded vehicle at your base, say Oxford for example, have to deliver it to Manchester, then collect something else while up Manchester way to be delivered in Newcastle before heading back to your base in Oxford) ?

It’s a shame that companies do not offer an opportunity to basically spend a day on the road with a driver, just so one can get a brief taste of the job.
I know there is a diverse number of jobs under the lorry driver umbrella but say for example, like in my case i like the idea of trunking, to be able to spend a day doing a trunking shift with a driver to get a first hand view of the job.
Same with container work etc. Personally, if such a thing existed i would not expect a penny for the opportunity and would even take time out of my annual holidays from work to do such a thing.

Some companies send you out with a driver on your first shift so you get the idea of the job. Can be a good experience or a bad experience depending on the person they pick you with. Pallet work generally means you are delivering or collecting stuff on pallets. Usually that means opening up your curtainsides. Of course, it could be a job whereby you are moving strapped down pallets.

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