Harry Monk:
Rowley010:
Harry Monk:
My agency have offered me two jobs in the last month “subject to passing the assessment” and I’ve turned them both down on the basis that I’ve already been assessed by the Government and passed.“Driver assessments” are in reality simply as extended interview carried out by the company’s most brown-nosing yes-man designed to ascertain how far you are willing to bend over and take it up the back passage without lube, so you should be proud of failing yours and move on to find someone decent to work for.
I wouldn’t say that’s entirely true. I know from my own experience at my current company we’ve got a few very good trainers who aren’t like that at all and are all qualified for the role and are all good blokes who would have cut you slack and helped you for being new. Another company I went to before this one it was one bloke who was also very good. They aren’t all brown nosing yes men.
Maybe I’ve just been unlucky in the past.
My agency offered me an assessment at Hermes in Rugby. I searched on TruckNet and discovered from a previous applicant that this would take five hours, four in the classroom followed by a one hour driving test. And they wouldn’t be paying me for this, despite Hermes being privately owned by a multi-billionaire.
So I phoned the agency back and said “Errr, I won’t be doing that”. There are plenty of places which will give me the keys and the paperwork and I’m driving out of their gate 20 minutes later earning wages.
Harry I reckon me and you have a similar viewpoint when it comes to this. I recently did a shift for Hermes. The induction was more like 2 hours and fully paid before my shift. But was a total joke. It involved you answering questions like ‘how many parcels do we deliver a year?’ and ‘What is our key mission statements?’. After that I did some driving. Got back to their yard, only for them to ask me to tip the truck myself with no forklift (I did it like a fool), then they dropped that they wanted me to help sort the parcels. I was having none of that and told em it wasn’t happening. So they said I couldn’t go back, You dodged a massive bullet there.
That being said… for you (and me a bit now) an induction is annoying and not really needed. We have both pulled different types of trailers, different brands of unit etc. For a brand new driver someone explaining this stuff and how it works can be helpful. Best driving job I’ve ever done was ‘here is the keys, you work out the route and you work out the time you want to start tomorrow’ (driving a flatbed delivering parts for bridges) but that wouldn’t be great for a brand new driver.