Since passing my class 2 and getting my CPC and Digital Tachograph I’m ready for work when I leave my current employer on Christmas Eve. Got a another full pay from my current employer due on 18/01.17 so I’ll be ok money wise until February. I have enough savings to go up to March if work is to hard to come by.
Looking to get any work for experience as soon as possible.
I have registered with a couple agencies
Driverhire
Workforce
Capital Recruitment
Bluestone Logistics
So I’m also bricking it about starting work, I have a few questions if some of you with experience can answer for me
Does anyone have experience with the agencies I’ve registered with, what are they like ?
I’m registered with several agencies, how does this affect tax, would it be seen I have several jobs ? emergency tax ?
How should I request to be paid, they said they can pay by PAYE, or umbrella and a few options I didn’t understand
On a first job with agency, do you just turn and figure the job out ? do they place a second man with you for a day ?
How many different types of gearboxes am I likely to comer across in class 2, should I swat up on them via you tube ?
I’m in the Liverpool area, can anyone recommend any transport companies who might be open to new pass drivers, I’ve applied for Brakes, Greylaw, Wincanton & Brooks Brothers out of the bigger non agency companies.
thehig:
Since passing my class 2 and getting my CPC and Digital Tachograph I’m ready for work when I leave my current employer on Christmas Eve. Got a another full pay from my current employer due on 18/01.17 so I’ll be ok money wise until February. I have enough savings to go up to March if work is to hard to come by.
Looking to get any work for experience as soon as possible.
I have registered with a couple agencies
Driverhire
Workforce
Capital Recruitment
Bluestone Logistics
So I’m also bricking it about starting work, I have a few questions if some of you with experience can answer for me
Does anyone have experience with the agencies I’ve registered with, what are they like ?
I’m registered with several agencies, how does this affect tax, would it be seen I have several jobs ? emergency tax ?
How should I request to be paid, they said they can pay by PAYE, or umbrella and a few options I didn’t understand
On a first job with agency, do you just turn and figure the job out ? do they place a second man with you for a day ?
How many different types of gearboxes am I likely to comer across in class 2, should I swat up on them via you tube ?
I’m in the Liverpool area, can anyone recommend any transport companies who might be open to new pass drivers, I’ve applied for Brakes, Greylaw, Wincanton & Brooks Brothers out of the bigger non agency companies.
Any advice from anyone would be appreciated
1st nope I don’t have any experience with those particular agency’s. 99% of them are rubbish and give some questionable jobs. There are some good ones though.
2 tax should remain unaffected, you might be emergency taxed but you can claim that back.
3 unless you like headache going down the self employed/Ltd company line is generally not advised as it’s more headache, paye is all sorted for you so I would insist on that.
4 this depends on the company, a decent company knowing you are a newbie would put you with someone else, they also might just stick you in a truck and give you a manifest and tell you trot on. Once again this is dependant. Make sure you say your new.
5 once again dependant most new trucks are auto, so that’s simple. Some like renault midlums have a standard 6 speed, occasionally you will see the 4 over 4 split shift especially on older dafs. You might get the odd slapover but I have personally never used one. More then likely you will get a auto.
I renewed my class 1 in July after not using it for over 20 years and I registered with Driver Hire, haven’t had any work through them yet though… this may be area dependent though, I guess in my area they have more of a pool of more experienced drivers to choose from.
The agency I’ve finally got work through use an umbrella company for my paye pay (I didn’t want self employed). I think a few agencies do this. Check if this is the case with the ones you are registered with. As for tax, they should be able to process this based on you getting a P45 from your current employer when you leave.
I get paid straight in to my bank, as I said, it’s paye so any tax due should be deducted at source.
My fist call was turn up, here’s the paperwork and keys… Done my checks and left to it. You might get to sit in the passenger seat and watch for a few hours but don’t expect it.
Wagons can have auto’s, manuals or semi auto gear boxes. Worth checking youtube out on them. I’ve been using merc telligent boxes as well as manuals with split shift and range change boxes.
Also, if you haven’t had any curtain sider experience… here’s a vid I watched before I got work and was glad I watched it as all my work has been curtainsider
Got to agree with most of what’s been said, from my agency experience at least, but I might as well add a few bytes to the Internet data.
No idea, but avoid Transline like the plague as they have an “interesting” reputation even amongst agencies. They also use NOVA for the pay (think it might be owned by same lot) and they also have an even more interesting rep. so avoid anyone who’s using them.
Not heard of any problems registering with multiples. HMRC seem to be fairly clued up on this stuff, although exactly how each calculates your tax I’m not 100% sure. It all seems to be computerised these days anyway, so probably fairly simple.
PAYE only as you know it’s straight and it’s on your payslip as to how much tax you’ve been deducted. Umbrella is a scheme which will likely die off as it’s lost any real advantages even those which were legal for the majority of people. LTD is risky as HMRC can reinterpret the rules as you get hit by the bill if they decide you’re scamming it, and self-employed can be iffy depending on HMRC’s wim.
As suggested, they might give you someone to go out with, but highly unlikely unless you’re job is specifically double manned. If the agency have been honest and said you’re new, they might show you the ropes or give you an easy job. It’s surprising how fast you’ll figure stuff out when you need to. Youtube videos are useful for the basics I must admit, but don’t get too caught up in the complexities of every system for curtains and fridges under the sun - they’re all basically the same.
In my experience, most 18 tonners are either 6 speed manual box just like your car or sometimes autos. Virtually all 26 tonners are autos even back to 2008 trucks which is about as old as most seem to get. There are manuals with exotic boxes out there, but rarely come across them myself and that’s across quite a lot of companies. Manuals can be fun if they’ve got more than 500,000KM on the clock, although did drive one with over a million miles for a while.
Not sure as I used to hail from ■■■■■■■■ but been in Nottinghamshire a while now and those are the kinds of companies who are good for a start. Hard work some of them, but good for the CV. Don’t know if there is one near there, but Creed seem a good lot too.
Best advice I can personally give is send out a lot of CV’s highlighting anything which might be related to driving and try to get in with the companies like Brakes / 3663, P&H etc. then sometimes you’ll get a break with one of the smaller hauliers when they have a vacancy…oh and you’ll have gotten some of your crash potential out the way too.
trevHCS:
Got to agree with most of what’s been said, from my agency experience at least, but I might as well add a few bytes to the Internet data.
No idea, but avoid Transline like the plague as they have an “interesting” reputation even amongst agencies. They also use NOVA for the pay (think it might be owned by same lot) and they also have an even more interesting rep. so avoid anyone who’s using them.
Not heard of any problems registering with multiples. HMRC seem to be fairly clued up on this stuff, although exactly how each calculates your tax I’m not 100% sure. It all seems to be computerised these days anyway, so probably fairly simple.
PAYE only as you know it’s straight and it’s on your payslip as to how much tax you’ve been deducted. Umbrella is a scheme which will likely die off as it’s lost any real advantages even those which were legal for the majority of people. LTD is risky as HMRC can reinterpret the rules as you get hit by the bill if they decide you’re scamming it, and self-employed can be iffy depending on HMRC’s wim.
As suggested, they might give you someone to go out with, but highly unlikely unless you’re job is specifically double manned. If the agency have been honest and said you’re new, they might show you the ropes or give you an easy job. It’s surprising how fast you’ll figure stuff out when you need to. Youtube videos are useful for the basics I must admit, but don’t get too caught up in the complexities of every system for curtains and fridges under the sun - they’re all basically the same.
In my experience, most 18 tonners are either 6 speed manual box just like your car or sometimes autos. Virtually all 26 tonners are autos even back to 2008 trucks which is about as old as most seem to get. There are manuals with exotic boxes out there, but rarely come across them myself and that’s across quite a lot of companies. Manuals can be fun if they’ve got more than 500,000KM on the clock, although did drive one with over a million miles for a while.
Not sure as I used to hail from ■■■■■■■■ but been in Nottinghamshire a while now and those are the kinds of companies who are good for a start. Hard work some of them, but good for the CV. Don’t know if there is one near there, but Creed seem a good lot too.
Best advice I can personally give is send out a lot of CV’s highlighting anything which might be related to driving and try to get in with the companies like Brakes / 3663, P&H etc. then sometimes you’ll get a break with one of the smaller hauliers when they have a vacancy…oh and you’ll have gotten some of your crash potential out the way too.
When I initially signed up with the local Driver Hire mob, the main man tried to push me onto going the NOVA route and I said I didn’t want to do that… maybe that’s why I haven’t had any work out of them.
stick to paye otherwise you will get your pants pulled down…and best to pick a list of companies,and go round on the nock…if your in scouseland,go down the docks,or lymm and check for local hauilers then stick your nose in.nobodys going to bother much with emails unless there stuck for someone.
Radar19:
Not all 26t’ers are autos. I drove a 12 plate MAN back in 2014 that was a 4 over 4 16 speed.
I’ve driven a 3 over 3!
I liked it, engine had plenty of grunt and far nicer than an under powered 4 over 4.
As for agencies, they are all scum and will abuse you as they need to for their clients (the firms!). So don’t trust a word they say, and get them to send you the pay rates via email or text before you do the work. Apparently it’s amazing how many times they seem to get the rates wrong!
Heard nothing but good things about Wincanton if you can get in. Might be area dependant mind and this was in Midlands.
Any place like Palmer and Harveys/Bidvest/Brakes would be a good place to get experience up and skill level due to the location of some shops you deliver to but it’s graft.
JaxDemon:
Heard nothing but good things about Wincanton if you can get in. Might be area dependant mind and this was in Midlands.
Any place like Palmer and Harveys/Bidvest/Brakes would be a good place to get experience up and skill level due to the location of some shops you deliver to but it’s graft.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
I’ve applied for all those companies, apart from bidvest which I intend to put an application in for too.
I went with driverhire as they were recomended by a freind. I drove sprinters for the last month. I eased myself into roadcraft with the occasional c1 or class 2.
after that I went full ■■■■■■ and followed Beezles advice.
The rest is (a short) history.
Personally, I’d say ease yourself in and try to stay out of trouble. when you’re ready to move up, move agents and haggle your position up to your class. Frankly, I bit the sharp end of a howitzer shell but I’m on my way where I want to be.
To quote my ‘mentor’: take your time and if in doubt, ask. If that fails, pull over, stop, assess the situation, look at your options and take the one of least resistance.
