Hey folks,
I’m just wondering if there are any drivers/ex-drivers out there who have made the move into the construction world?
I’ve been looking for my next step in my career and a move away from driving and I’ve been directed by a colleague towards getting tickets for plant equipment (telehandlers, dumpers etc) and I’m just trying to gather some practical, real life advice on the best way to do that.
Any help welcome, cheers.
Maybe try get driving job with plant hire company. As some will train you how to drive the equipment ie dumper trucks telehandler to drive them on and off the truck when delivering to site etc.
Is a foot in the door make contacts
The easiest way in is on a tractor as a lot of sites need you to have class 1, once you’re on site you can work out what machines interest you. If you look up flannery boot camp you can get the cpcs tickets for free, Hs2 is probably the largest employer at the moment but sizewell and the lower Thames crossing will be kicking off soon.
I always considered it a move down the ladder into that scene from my time as a bob-a-job labourer / roofer but I suppose the plant side of things is sorta more sideways along.
Not exclusively construction but we do a lot of it, I’ve gone from class 1 to mobile crane operator. Been a crane driver for 2 years now and on some jobs I take home £2,000 a week after tax. No tacho, no WTD, easy work, less stress.
There is a genuine shortage of crane drivers across the country but I don’t know why more drivers haven’t cottoned on this skillset because it’s a no-brainer when you consider the pay.
CPCS A60 mobile crane course is what you’re after.
I’m genuinely surprised there is a shortage of crane drivers. I thought that line of work would be well wrapped up.
I agree, it’s usually considered a ‘dead man’s shoes’ trade.
Well I think I may know why. Firstly the pay I see for it is not much more than for driving a wagon. Still decent but you have to pay between £2,500 to nearly £4,000 for the 2 year ticket unless you have prior experience with plant and crane-work. That’s a considerable sum, and if you can’t get your blue card (which is an on-site assessor coming out to grill you) it’s the same sum all over again 2 years later!
I like cranes and the job having worked in parallel to it in my earlier life, but that red-tape the new labour fckwits introduced did a right number on it.
I guess if you can get a firm to sponsor you it’s not so bad, but I’m not chucking down cash on the chance it’ll pay off long-term. You can instead end up on the agency feast-and-famine route AND you still have your CPC nonsense as well on top of it for your Cat C driving the crane about etc.
Pays a LOT more than driving a wagon, trust me. Sites like Google, Glassdoor and indeed don’t reveal what the actual numbers are. Even our crane fitters in the workshop are on at least £100k per year.
Between our local depots and our Heavy Cranes division, driver pay generally ranges between £70k to £100k per year. No wagon drivers are earning anywhere near that. I know of some crane firms paying their drivers between £140k to £150k.
So what’s the cons then? Again, very surprised there is a shortage if that’s the regular wages?
That’s excellent coin indeed but you wouldn’t see that unless you were in the Home Counties or had decades of experience? I don’t know what parts of the country that is in. Usually you’d need to be working in the oil and gas crane side of things to pull that amount in. And again, how many positions? It’s dead-man’s-shoes, much like commercial diving. I don’t see hardly any vacancies for that role type, not compared to the ubiquitous lorry-driver jobs.
I wouldn’t mind giving it a go, but feel it’s a closed-shop industry. Good if you get in with a good firm. But how many days of the week do you need to grind to pull in the top money you are throwing around?
Md1987 - Some might say the cons are the amount of hours we do. It’s not uncommon to have to do 70hrs or more in a 5 day week mon-fri.
The flying tanker - other than that I’m pretty sure you don’t have to be in the home counties to earn the above, as the depots and firms I’m referring to are all in the south-east. And no you don’t have to be exclusively in the oil & gas industry or have decades of experience. I only did 6 weeks in an oil refinery last year. I can’t speak for the smaller firms in the rest of the country as I don’t know how busy they are or how big their long term contracts are etc, but I can assure you it is not a ‘closed shop’ as you describe it. Even in my first year on a red card I did £70k, whilst another driver in my yard did £90k with 10yrs experience.
These days I usually do 5-6 days a week. Very occasionally I do 7 days in a row.
Am I reading it right then that your work sphere is in the South-East of the UK / England? Too far for me alas.
Do they do night shifts? Cause I can’t function during the day 
Yep south east
Yep we do night shifts