I’ve been driving 7.5 tonners on and off for a few years now, and doing other things in between, but have finally decided to go for a proper licence Found this site via Alan’s HGVs Driving School in Kent (link from their website) & have been really enjoying browsing - particularly pleased that so many in my situation have the same thoughts/fears/hopes/excitement that I have.
So, aside from saying hello, I have a couple of questions that y’all might be able to help me with. Does anybody have any feedback on Alan’s HGVs as a place to train? I’ve had good words from a local agency who use his new passes, and the contact I’ve had with them has been good (ie no BS & he sent all the forms & info about a local clinic to get the medical done at a reasonable cost), but it’d be useful to hear from anyone who has direct experience.
Second thing is, I don’t want to hang about & I want to go for my Cat C. then on to C&E immediately. Main reasons are; agency tells me they rarely have work for Class 2 only & I can only afford to be not working for a short time. Is this a good idea?
Interested in all and any opinions.
Oh and BTW, the reason why I’m posting at this silly hour of the am is that I’ve just finished a night shift in a coldchain warehouse - every time I’m walking out of there, seeing the artics & w&d’s trundling around the yard I think how good it would be not to be spending 7 hours ■■■■■■■ potatoes & sandwiches around in a giant fridge, but to be delivering them somewhere instead.
I have just passed my class C and am getting the same response from the agency I am with, giving them a week before I start looking around elsewhere. Once I feel confident in the “C” then I want to do my “C&E” straight away, since it is a complete change of career I am reluctant to splash out on my C&E without getting some experience first !!
Got my C last week and having trouble in the Herefordshire area finding any agency work. Keeping my eye in with 7.5 t but can only get about 20 hours a week at a rate that makes me weep.
So saving hard to do C+E.
i did my C and C+E at the same time but i only drove class 2 for 6 years with the odd trunking job here and there in class 1. i have only just retrained to class 1 recently (and i still am learning it again) so this is what i think
you have a choice here. you can gain class 2 and stay with that for a while to get used to the height/width etc before going on to do class 1.
OR
go straight into class 1 training with no experience with bigger vehicles
this way you will have all the textbook driving tuition fresh in your mind
you wont forget what you are driving after a while on rigids (which is causing me a few problems) and turn the wrong way when reversing
its your choice and it all depends on your confidence. if you think you can go straight into the big ones then go for it.
you would be amazed at the number of artic drivers who would be lost with a rigid. most people drive one or the other for a long time and find it very difficult to revert back to whatever they havent driven for a while.
I did mine within 3 months of each other,had no experience in between,then once I passed class 1 I waited 6 months for the right job to come along.
Never driven a rigid,went straight on artics found it difficult to start with,as had no experience whatsoever and no one available to come out with me for a few days
was basically thrown in at the deep end,first 2 weeks very hard,next couple of months got better.
In a way Im glad what happened happened.I still havent driven a rigid,but im over it. I always wanted to drive bendys and thats what I did,tramped away all week and absolutely loved it.
Just go for whatever you want to do mate,follow your heart and it will work out in the end whatever you do
Welcome Shunter , I did my class C then took my C+E less than a month later. I would definitely recommend this approach (finance permitting) as it worked for me as I was a car driver with not even any 7.5t experience.
Thanks all for the feedback - if Class 2 isn’t a humongous culture shock, I reckon I’m going to go for it. At the end of the day, artics is what I want to learn to drive.
Anyway, passed my medical yesterday, so waiting for the provisional now. Can’t wait for the assessment drive - not least 'cos I don’t know how much more coldchain nightshift I can stand!
I’ll keep everyone posted, & in the meantime, I’m going to keep browsing through the threads on TruckNet - can’t tell you how useful I’m finding it.
Found this site via Alan’s HGVs Driving School in Kent (link from their website) & have been really enjoying browsing - particularly pleased that so many in my situation have the same thoughts/fears/hopes/excitement that I have.
I always wanted to drive bendys and thats what I did,tramped away all week and absolutely loved it.
