OK, I haven’t missed the number of threads on this forum slagging off 3663, but i’m a newbie and desperate so when they phoned up and asked me for interview I just thought beggars can’t be choosers and all that… I could be waiting months for somebody else to offer me an opportunity.
Anyway, I passed the interview and they have invited me for a driving assessment next week. Must admit I am a tad nervous, and I was wondering whether anybody on here has any experience of the 3663 driving assessments and any tips?
hey, youll be fine, just keep your vehicle save, show that you are a professional driver, thats it simple. don’t be put off by clowns having a go at who you work for a job is a job, hey i work for stobarts and everyone loves to have a go simply because of the size of the company. good luck on your driving assessment.
i had an interview with 3663 down at paddock wood today i thought they looked pretty good and the wages was good aswell as myself i only passed my liceanse last month so iam the same as u its a job and it experiance good luck with ur essement
Whilst these jobs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, they often will take new starters and will let you gain valuable experience. It was the last sort of job I ever wanted, but having left a job to start my driving career and then getting screwed at the last minute by someone else a job at DBC was the only option. Multi dropping round Essex & Kent schools helped with vehicle confidence and skill no end, doing London with an 18 tonner gave me a really useful knowledge of the place. It was bloody hard work, early starts but a year later and switching jobs for something else was much easier.
If nothing else they can be used as a stepping stone. You’ll learn more in a couple of days than you would a month of trunking.
8wheels:
Whilst these jobs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, they often will take new starters and will let you gain valuable experience. It was the last sort of job I ever wanted, but having left a job to start my driving career and then getting screwed at the last minute by someone else a job at DBC was the only option. Multi dropping round Essex & Kent schools helped with vehicle confidence and skill no end, doing London with an 18 tonner gave me a really useful knowledge of the place. It was bloody hard work, early starts but a year later and switching jobs for something else was much easier.
If nothing else they can be used as a stepping stone. You’ll learn more in a couple of days than you would a month of trunking.
I was going to mention Danish Bacon. When I started driving 3663 had never been heard of in the UK but in Selby there was a DBC depot and stories abound that it was the best job in the area for class 3 drivers, it was hard work apparently but gave the best experience. I couldn’t argue with that, but never got the chance to do it as I didn’t have enough experience even though I had been at United Carriers doing 50 or 60 drops per day for about 18 months. How times change
I always thought the grey DBC Bedford TK looked real smart
hi i currently work for 3663 never had an assesment for them they just took me on, no experience i had only just passed 2 months before i worked in scarisbrick by liverpool for a year an half. then they moved all the frozen an chilled into the ambient depot and moved us to salford,manchester last year, heres the catch in scari it was the best place ive ever worked had me route 20+ drops a day loved home by half 2 everyday job an knock ur see, depot was run proffesionally then got moved to salford absolute nightmare hate the place been there year now tho run like ■■■■■ get bak to early they send u out with more ok its overtime but wen u need to be home for 5pm to luk afta ur kids it takes the ■■■■ wen ur still out at half 8. the money you can earn if u wrk for it is unbelivable but u will work for every penny wouldt worry abt the assesment just drive like ur doin ur test , get ur experience with them then luk for suttin better unless you like it ive got a decent route now tho so im dun for 12 phone up go an help sum else ovatime like bank holidays full week pay plus double for the the hours you work on that day easily can be pickin up ova 500 some weeks if u put the hours in .
. Welcome mateddy41 .
Took me a little time to decipher some of your post due to texting type writing - some of us older bods have a little trouble with it
If you are thinking of adding CE then all the LGV TRAINING TIPS for CE, including the Recommended LGV training schools that have been recommended by members, can be accessed by clicking on the link in my signature at the bottom of this post
rob22888:
Just out of interest, does anybody have any knowledge of the full time salary/hourly rate for a 3663 Class 2 driver is?
having worked on the multi drop side of them for to many years that i care to remember but having been on the artics for the last 3 at one of the RDC’s, it is a very physical job,95% handball up/down stairs etc etc and the wages do vary depot to depot by quite a bit…our driver at 7Bridge takes home under £200 for 40hrs but where i am,the w/hse ops are on 24.5k for 40 hrs. The assessment should be a breeze,just as long as u can show that u have some road sence n can drive a truck (90% swedish rubbish) the rest is learning the products but dont be afraid to ask anybody anything,most of our drivers aren’t a bad bunch. 3663 used to be part of Bookers but the retail side was sold of from cash n carry n 3663 was the new name. Once u are in,yr in…they dont normally get shot of drivers that quick…best of luck.
hi work in salford 48 hr week 350 pick up only wrks out abt £7.29 an hour but i rarely do 48 hr weeks normally do my week in 40 were probably the best paid for class 2 but u will wrk for it quite physical /handball
I was taking home around the 350/420 mark at Abingdon but that was tops with a bit of o/t,about 55 hrs/wk average n u knew you’d done it by Friday pm After 16 years on that i saw the light n was in the know from another driver about my present job before it had been advertised,which was handy cuz after years of multi drop,my back is shot to bits
Had my assessment today. Bit of a shambles because they were supposed to interview people after the assessment but didn’t have time (5/6 of us and one vehicle), so I am waiting to be phoned with a date (hopefully later this week) to go down to finish this off and find out whether I have made the grade.
Anyway, the assessment itself went pretty well. It was just a quick 15 minute journey with a short motorway stint and a few roundabouts, finishing with a reverse onto a bay. The bloke was pretty understanding of the fact I was a new starter and gave me five minutes or so to settle in before he started proporly assessing me. It was an old 14 tonne MAN we took out, easier to a degree because it was only 6 speed but the gearbox was a bit shot. I surprised myself how easily I settled back into it, the only critisism I got was for being a bit too hesitant with speed at times but that got put down to a bit of newbie nerves.
Didn’t get the job Got back in touch with them to ask why (just out of curiosity) and they said that I hadn’t failed the driving asessment but basically I had more experienced competition so they decided not to short list me for the final round of interviews. I guess I was just too new.
A bit disapointed, but not the end of the world at least they gave me a chance and its all good experience for any future driving assessments etc. Just going to carry on looking for van/7.5T work so that I can get driving and making deliveries onto my CV.
One more thing… the guy who took me out for the assessment told me that “there is no such thing as other work” and that when loading and unloading I should set the tachograph to ‘POA’. Is it just me or is this wrong?
rob22888:
Didn’t get the job Got back in touch with them to ask why (just out of curiosity) and they said that I hadn’t failed the driving asessment but basically I had more experienced competition so they decided not to short list me for the final round of interviews. I guess I was just too new.
A bit disapointed, but not the end of the world at least they gave me a chance and its all good experience for any future driving assessments etc. Just going to carry on looking for van/7.5T work so that I can get driving and making deliveries onto my CV.
One more thing… the guy who took me out for the assessment told me that “there is no such thing as other work” and that when loading and unloading I should set the tachograph to ‘POA’. Is it just me or is this wrong?
POA stands for Period of Availability,a period of time of a known duration when you are available for other work.Whether that was a trick question and he was trying to catch you out ,I don’t know,but one things for sure,if he believed it to be true ,he would’nt put it down on paper,sign it and give it to you.
rob22888:
Didn’t get the job Got back in touch with them to ask why (just out of curiosity) and they said that I hadn’t failed the driving asessment but basically I had more experienced competition so they decided not to short list me for the final round of interviews. I guess I was just too new.
A bit disapointed, but not the end of the world at least they gave me a chance and its all good experience for any future driving assessments etc. Just going to carry on looking for van/7.5T work so that I can get driving and making deliveries onto my CV.
One more thing… the guy who took me out for the assessment told me that “there is no such thing as other work” and that when loading and unloading I should set the tachograph to ‘POA’. Is it just me or is this wrong?
POA stands for Period of Availability,a period of time of a known duration when you are available for other work.Whether that was a trick question and he was trying to catch you out ,I don’t know,but one things for sure,if he believed it to be true ,he would’nt put it down on paper,sign it and give it to you.
I was asking him what the laws are about breaks when doing mult-drop stuff when driving along during the assessment, because you are never going to be driving for 4.5 hours straight and I was unsure whether ‘Other Work’ counted towards the 4.5 hours. Hee said no, “unless you are on a break your mode switch should always be on POA, there is no such thing as Other Work”. I just kept quiet because I didn’t want to rub him up the wrong way.
rob22888:
I was asking him what the laws are about breaks when doing mult-drop stuff when driving along during the assessment, because you are never going to be driving for 4.5 hours straight and I was unsure whether ‘Other Work’ counted towards the 4.5 hours. Hee said no, “unless you are on a break your mode switch should always be on POA, there is no such thing as Other Work”. I just kept quiet because I didn’t want to rub him up the wrong way.
After 16 years on that i saw the light n was in the know from another driver about my present job before it had been advertised,which was handy cuz after years of multi drop,my back is shot to bits
Got back in touch with them to ask why (just out of curiosity) and they said that I hadn’t failed the driving asessment but basically I had more experienced competition so they decided not to short list me for the final round of interviews. I guess I was just too new.
or this - 
