Hi guys,
I currently work for a-plant lux doing the traffic management, yes that is me that does the lane closures on the dual carriageways and traffic lights on the single carriageways. i apologise in advance.
Anyway I am thinking of going to a-plant as a heavy plant driver, anybody any experience of doing this full time?
It will be class 2 but might have the potential of getting a low loader as I have my class 1.
cheers
Don’t know anything about the job but its got to be better than potentially getting flattened every time you go to work.
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I’ve been doing heavy plant for 13 years, the last 12 for a small plant firm driving a 8w beavertail hiab and occasional stints with a low loader.
It’s not an easy job but it gets easier with time and experience, it’s also dirty and you are usually always the last person that the site wants to see as the red carpet is being rolled out for concrete or tarmac lorries or just about anyone else! It’ll never stop trying to kill or injure you so it’s basically get better or die trying.
The positive for me is that it is quite varied as I do own account work delivering excavators plus third party haulage of anything and everything. Over the years I’ve moved just about every type of mechanical and non mechanical plant, building supplies, containers, boats, tanks, fire engines, dustcarts, bits of aircraft, Christmas trees…
The hiab work brings the more unusual items like the Christmas trees, MIg 23 fuselage and anti aircraft gun and also gives some of the bigger challenges with awkward locations and containers that are too heavy because they are only full of light stuff.
For me it’s hard to beat, the job is local I’m a day driver M-F and know the job well enough to make it easy. I get fed up and look around but nothing ever comes close on money unless I want to go tramping or 60 odd hours week for the same sort of money. National plant hire firms don’t pay as well but it’s a foot in the door, getting an experienced driver who can do the job safely and properly is not easy so once you’ve got experience it should be fairly easy to switch to something better.
I started off with a plant delivering small tools then they paid for both licences. It is a dirty job and there is much easier jobs to get your experience, especially with the artic work. I did my 3 years then moved on. The pay wasn’t great at the time (2010)and you worked every other saturday on salary. If your thinking long term though just to gain your licence I think it’s worth a fews years of getting covered in crap.
8wheels:
I’ve been doing heavy plant for 13 years, the last 12 for a small plant firm driving a 8w beavertail hiab and occasional stints with a low loader.It’s not an easy job but it gets easier with time and experience, it’s also dirty and you are usually always the last person that the site wants to see as the red carpet is being rolled out for concrete or tarmac lorries or just about anyone else! It’ll never stop trying to kill or injure you so it’s basically get better or die trying.
The positive for me is that it is quite varied as I do own account work delivering excavators plus third party haulage of anything and everything. Over the years I’ve moved just about every type of mechanical and non mechanical plant, building supplies, containers, boats, tanks, fire engines, dustcarts, bits of aircraft, Christmas trees…
The hiab work brings the more unusual items like the Christmas trees, MIg 23 fuselage and anti aircraft gun and also gives some of the bigger challenges with awkward locations and containers that are too heavy because they are only full of light stuff.
For me it’s hard to beat, the job is local I’m a day driver M-F and know the job well enough to make it easy. I get fed up and look around but nothing ever comes close on money unless I want to go tramping or 60 odd hours week for the same sort of money. National plant hire firms don’t pay as well but it’s a foot in the door, getting an experienced driver who can do the job safely and properly is not easy so once you’ve got experience it should be fairly easy to switch to something better.
Thanks for the advice, much appreciated
astanka:
I started off with a plant delivering small tools then they paid for both licences. It is a dirty job and there is much easier jobs to get your experience, especially with the artic work. I did my 3 years then moved on. The pay wasn’t great at the time (2010)and you worked every other saturday on salary. If your thinking long term though just to gain your licence I think it’s worth a fews years of getting covered in crap.
It’s the thought of going to tight muddy sites that I’m not too sure about lol
Well there will certain be plenty of them, even the big ones are jammed full of crap making getting around them difficult. In the summer when it’s dusty you start dreaming of mud, in the winter when you’re wading through it you are dreaming of dust!
Although with mechanical plant you can pick a cleanish spot out of the way to load or unload and then bring the machine to the truck.
One other thing to mention is that you need to be quite thick skinned, you’ll get treated like ■■■■■ most of the time and if you don’t fight your corner you’ll never get anything done. If your quick and efficient and can sort odd problems out for people then most of that aggravation will disappear. Then you get sent somewhere new and you have to start all over.