Our O.P. if its not a wind up could try the buses. A large firm would train him and claw back the fees over a set period of time. The haulage game is full up.
Open to suggestions, the general feeling Is it’s big hours for low pay yet I am seeing lots of adverts with £30k headlines, brakes, hermes list goes on all class 2
Col81:
I would be prepared to do 45 hours per week.
On a Monday - Friday week, after 45hrs what are you gonna do after Wednesday afternoon/Thursday morning when you have completed 45hrs and you’re still got the rest of the week to go ?
Col81:
I am seeing lots of adverts with £30k headlines, brakes, hermes list goes on all class 2
IMO you’d be a fool to believe that
Brilliant advice. Looking at it I forgot to mention i have a 50 mile commute to work and i spend a good aamount on fuel and car repairs etc. This commute takes me 3 hours a day so in actual fact I am working 60 hours a week now!!! I can drop to £30k if it meant £25k for first 2 years so be it. Where is the best place to find out the steps. I can always do lessons and the test etc. I then have another string to my bow. I will do the hours I just hate sales one month £3000 after tax the next £1400 I want a steady wage month in month out
These pay figures that feature on lorry job adverts have been misleading for years, it’s a scandal.
Ring them up, and ask them for the basic pay for basic hours, they won’t discuss pay until you reach interview stage, and then it’s often the case they produce a couple of pay slips from a typical bod, of course its nothing of the sort, the slips chosen are from the blue eyed or max hours crew, or they state a wage based on maximum everything, very seldom is it there broken down in black and white at interview stage.
Lorry wages for basic normal hours 8 to 5 are usually grim, the better pay for shortish hours usually revolves around shift patterns with early starts and at least some weekend and bank holiday working as part of your normal week.
You can get 7 till 4 or similar hours, on building supplies and such, the pay on these outfits is generally poor.
Pin them down to breaking down the pay so you know exactly where you stand and that’s when the glaring downside shows itself, where for basic hours the pay is rubbish.
Yes some jobs involving multi drop and ■■■■■■■ stuff into shops/hotels/restaurants will be better paid, but when that takes off again and how busy that side of things will be is anyone’s guess.
The worse liars are agencies, pluck attractive figures from their arse and state them in adverts as the soprt of pay you might expect, its all ■■■■■■■■, there agency drivers on this very forum who’ve had literally the odd day or two and sometimes nothing for weeks on end.
The industry can be good, but you need a good helping of luck and determination to navigate your way onto the best jobs, my own case i did but it took over a decade of poncing about on all sorts of general artic jobs before my lucky break came out of the blue, the only reason i got that recommend in the first place was because i’d got a decent reputation.
The biggest enemy of drivers is drivers themselves, if lucky enough to land a plum job they then don’t look after it and before you know where you are one of the logistics crews have taken it over and there goes another good job round the U bend.
Col81:
Open to suggestions, the general feeling Is it’s big hours for low pay yet I am seeing lots of adverts with £30k headlines, brakes, hermes list goes on all class 2
As mentioned above, Brakes is on paper decent money for class 2. But are you aware of the type of work it is? Early starts, weekend working, delivering chilled and frozen produce to airports, hotels, restaurants and pubs primarily, often in town centres with nowhere to park, or small towns with single lane high streets so you can’t get the wagon anywhere near. Cages loaded to the rafters, all the heavy stuff on top and lighter stuff all crushed at the bottom so it all falls out as soon as you move them. You’re lucky if you can even move them as many have broken wheels. You then have to move all your chilled drops out of the way to access the frozen compartment at the front to get the stuff out for the first drop you’re at. Then you have to wrangle them onto the tail lift without them falling off, and this is asssuming you’ve managed to find somewhere to unload that’s on the level because if it’s uphill all your cages roll out of the back when you take your retaining bar off, if it’s downhill you’ve no chance of pulling the cages uphill with the weight in them.
Once you get them off you then have the ordeal of pushing/pulling them across broken pavements, ruts, potholes, cobblestones, up and down kerbs to where they want them and in some cases you’re even expected to unload it into their fridges and freezer cabinets too. Once you’ve completed that you have to take back all the empties from the previous delivery and somehow fit them on your truck which then get in the way of all your later drops.
It’s a ball-ache of a job and very very few stick it. Brakes and the other food service groups like 3663/Bidvest/Bidfood (or whatever they’re called these days) are all much of a muchness. They both have a constantly revolving door of drivers coming and going. I can safely say that you will be doing more than 9 hours a day on that type of work.
As for your other “30k headline” jobs, post the links so we can see.
Col81:
Brakes at warrington 5 mile from me got hgv2 jobs mon fri with 1 saturday in for £30k! They are out there
Forget HGV work mate. Have a look at the railway.
55k for 35 hour week.
Looked at the railways you need experience for all these jobs. I am 39 in a few weeks time is not on my side. I would be happy in a truck I feel
Hermes…agency work only. Harsh braking monitored, come and have a training chat. You were spotted also on the in-cab camera with your hands not at the ten to two position, and to make matters worse you were not wearing your hi vis. " What’s that you say, you want Mon-Fri day work? Lol, you funny man, have a job shunting instead.
Brakes. 4am start. 5am lugging sacks of spuds up fire escapes. 6am knackered roller cages piled up high with everything you can imagine. 7am just about finished picking contents of cage up off A47 whilst kids on e-scooters circle around you giving you the coffee shaker.
Langdon’s. Complete and utter gash (Done it on agency).
For the low down on just about every other firm within 15 miles of Warrington, contact the illustrious Beaver for an honest appraisal.
(Oh and by the way, you would be making a huge mistake leaving a cushty £25-£30k Mon-Fri office job to sit on a bogey ridden fatties seat steering a wagon 
but they say a fool and his/her money is easily parted so crack on lining your local LGV trainer’s pockets) 
truckerjimbo:
Col81:
Brakes at warrington 5 mile from me got hgv2 jobs mon fri with 1 saturday in for £30k! They are out thereForget HGV work mate. Have a look at the railway.
55k for 35 hour week.
2 (?) years training for 55k vs 1 week training for half that. Apples and oranges. No question that 55k is good money but I’d be bored to tears within a month of going up and down the same bit of track every day. I think I prefer the mental stimulation from driving around challenging roads on farm work for just over half that. If there’s no job satisfaction then you could be on 100k a year but you’d work yourself into an early grave if you don’t enjoy doing it.
If you want to do a 45 hour week truck driving probably not for you. The closest you’ll get to what your after is something like ALDI which are at Bolton or Neston for your area. If you do nights there you might get about 30k for a 40 hour week although you’ll only get a couple of full weekends off across the rotating pattern. If you want Monday to Friday and only do 45 hours I doubt there’s much around where you’d get that. Certainly not for a new pass. If you’ve got your heart set on 30k for 45 hours I’d save your money. Train in something else.
Col81:
Looked at the railways you need experience for all these jobs. I am 39 in a few weeks time is not on my side. I would be happy in a truck I feel
One of my old mates on the transporters packed a £40k job at the time, and about your age went train driving, yes long training period but he’s probably retired now on a pension likely to be double what most of us are going to receive eventually, if and when the goal posts stand still for a day or two.
Juddian:
Col81:
Looked at the railways you need experience for all these jobs. I am 39 in a few weeks time is not on my side. I would be happy in a truck I feelOne of my old mates on the transporters packed a £40k job at the time, and about your age went train driving, yes long training period but he’s probably retired now on a pension likely to be double what most of us are going to receive eventually, if and when the goal posts stand still for a day or two.
You don’t fancy it Jud ?
R420:
Juddian:
Col81:
Looked at the railways you need experience for all these jobs. I am 39 in a few weeks time is not on my side. I would be happy in a truck I feelOne of my old mates on the transporters packed a £40k job at the time, and about your age went train driving, yes long training period but he’s probably retired now on a pension likely to be double what most of us are going to receive eventually, if and when the goal posts stand still for a day or two.
You don’t fancy it Jud ?
Far too old now and a childhood eye injury took that and several other options away from me anway, i’d have tried for the trains many years ago otherwise, but no complaints my last 30 years have generally (the odd hiccup here and there) been at the better end of the game, and yes i still enjoy it stangely enough 
not too sure now is the best time to change career but there are always driving jobs around if you’ve the right attitude tbh.
eagerbeaver:
Brakes. 4am start. 5am lugging sacks of spuds up fire escapes. 6am knackered roller cages piled up high with everything you can imagine. 7am just about finished picking contents of cage up off A47 whilst kids on e-scooters circle around you giving you the coffee shaker.
He he he, you certinly have a way with words, it sounds very grim indeed when put like that but the fact is, it is the truth.
I’ve done jobs like this myself, am done with class 2 donkey work, 67 trillion drops per day, 13 and 15 hour shifts too.
Like others have said on here you have to start at the bottom & earn yourself a reputation before you will get the better jobs, my current job & my previous job were both earned from reputation & making friends within the industry, my Facebook is full of drivers & office bods I’ve worked with over the years & I know I won’t ever have to job search again.
If you’re serious about getting into trucks & want to earn a decent wage look at doing LPG work on the mini bulkers or gas bottles, you will need an ADR licence but as you will also need your cpc you can combine the 2. Look at Flogas or Calor they won’t recruit at the moment but in the winter they would take you on with a temporary contract even without experience, then it’s down to you to prove yourself. The hours will be long in the winter but you will earn good money & it’s offset by short days in the summer but with a minimum guarantee pay of 45 hours regardless of how little you work.
Also if you decide to upgrade to class one you’re more likely to get given work in-house.
I worked at bookers (Bidvest) 20 years ago & it will kill you they say you’re a Labourer that can also drive!! If only someone had pointed me in the direction of ADR work I could of avoided 4 years of absolutely crap but hey ho.
Good Luck.
Col81:
Looked at the railways you need experience for all these jobs. I am 39 in a few weeks time is not on my side. I would be happy in a truck I feel
I wish you the best of luck with your career change.
Btw I became a train driver at the age of 40 and loving it. 
NEVER give up on your Dream !!! I didn`t.
R420:
truckerjimbo:
Col81:
2 (?) years training for 55k vs 1 week training for half that. Apples and oranges. .
And then earn £9 per hour. WTF and you got to pay £1500 for the 1 week course.
DF40:
In normal times I wouldn’t recommend class 2 work & I only have a class 2 license.
I’d regard myself as a grafter, worked on building sites & roadwork in past.
Majority of class 2 work is multi drop & I will never do another multi drop shift again.
At 42 I’ve came to conclusion it’s defo a young man’s game & the way to an early grave.
There is a big difference between having a good work ethic & working yourself to the bone. As said in previous posts you are talking 60 hr weeks.
You’ll find a lot of driver’s do class 1 to get better driving jobs & less hand balling. I just can’t afford to pay for a class 1.
All the best but seriously think this through.Sent from my moto e5 play using Tapatalk
I used to seriously hammer the work when I was 20 something. Had a day handball pallet sort and forks job in a pallet yard, an evening driving job and mopped the floors at the weekend in the local hospital (£10 an hour 20 years ago). I was the only bloke on the cleaning team.
On the plus side, got to check out the Totty as the other two jobs were sausage only. 44 now, can’t be arsed anymore.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk