Advantage have RHA and FTA membership according to there website.
if there membership is pucker, then it undermines the credibility of the RHA, and FTA.
i would have thought that these organisations would do some background checks before taking membership fees.
The rights and wrongs of yesterday’s situation in London remain to be evaluated. The police will take their time to investigate what has happened.
I believe that few members of the public, including many potential LGV and PCV drivers, understand that the provision of LGV and PCV training is completely unregulated. The law merely requires the vehicle to have an MoT, be suitably insured and have L plates. The trainer has to have held his or her licence for three years (or one year if they have had the other vocational licence for three years - i.e. a person holding LGV entitlement for one year and PCV entitlement for three years can supervise an LGV learner). The trainer doesn’t even have to have driven an LGV or PCV since his or her test! There’s no requirement to hold an operator’s licence or for the trainer to be on the DSA registers for LGV or PCV instructors. Indeed, the instructor doesn’t even have to have Driver CPC.
My personal view is that brokers act against the public interest. Training brokers operate a form of arbitrage, exploiting the difference between the going rate for LGV courses and what they have to pay a cheapskate training provider with few of the overheads of a properly run DSA registered LGV trainer (or, to a lesser extent, what they can persuade well-run providers to train people for during quiet periods). If the cheapskate training providers were eliminated, there wouldn’t be a substantial price / cost differential left for the brokers to exploit.
As such, I think it is time for the provision of LGV and PCV training to be regulated. I’ve posted more thoughts on this here.
limeyphil:
Advantage have RHA and FTA membership according to there website.
if there membership is pucker, then it undermines the credibility of the RHA, and FTA.
i would have thought that these organisations would do some background checks before taking membership fees.
You will find that the rha let them use the logo because they get paid for doing it. They also provide these brokers with training courses.
I feel that the rha should not endorse these brokers as they are damaging the image of the industry and putting new entrants from entering the industry.
Harry Monk:
limeyphil:
or is it a case of people that have no idea what the job entails? do they think it’s an easy option after being made redundant from 25 years in the civil service?I think that’s about it.
Newspapers go along with it because it brings in advertising revenue, to the point of running articles thinly dressed up as news items, flagging up the supposed driver shortage which we all know simply does not exist.
^+1
Tazbug:
Hi all…1st day on the site as a member. Just wanted to say that I read what you all had to say about Advantage (and others) before I signed up with a local training company. Really glad I did! thankyou so much, this site is a godsend for newbie’s like me.Class ‘C’ test on May 4th (May the 4th be with me!)
Tazbug
AAWWWH mate you got a bit lost in the feeding frenzy.
Welcome to the madhouse, and May the 4th be with you .
Harry Monk:
This [zb] Baafi should be charged with wasting Police time.
The Metropolitan Police have charged a man with possession of a weapon and making a bomb hoax
this is why you cant on here call people liars - Certain folks are watching what is said and already have their lawyers on speed dial.
Stick to FACTS not supposition
Some companies now are going into full damage control mode realising the spotlight is firmly upon them, and the way they operate - dont give them any excuse to force us to remove this thread please
Even after what’s happened Advantage HGV are still telling lies on their website to trap unwary prospective trainees.
This was taken off their website just a few minutes ago
We all know that as a new driver you’ve got as much chance of winning the lottery as you have of landing a job on £12 per hour when even most experienced drivers don’t get anywhere near that, there’s not a shortage of drivers in fact there’s a shortage of real jobs and your job choices will be very limited if you can get a job at-all.
Just be aware, just because the marketing claims etc of some companies seem to us to be “Pie in the sky” it des not mean that they are doing anything illegal. many of these companies have been around a long time and have fine tuned their marketing to ensure they stay just on the right side of the law- for example:
Many of the claims that these websites make were examined by the Advertising Standards Authority in a recent adjudication
asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudi … 51724.aspx and the company had worded it all in such a way it was legal…
Mickey Green brought M/E negotiating skills to Old London Town,a born trucker!
Hope he gets his refund or he will have to do it all over again.
Rikki-UK:
Just be aware, just because the marketing claims etc of some companies seem to us to be “Pie in the sky” it des not mean that they are doing anything illegal. many of these companies have been around a long time and have fine tuned their marketing to ensure they stay just on the right side of the law- for example:
Many of the claims that these websites make were examined by the Advertising Standards Authority in a recent adjudication
asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudi … 51724.aspx and the company had worded it all in such a way it was legal…
Fixed the link, I think that’s the correct one anyway
Rikki we should use this opportunity to put these low lifes out of business!!
merc0447:
Rikki we should use this opportunity to put these low lifes out of business!!
Brokers are being looked at closely, even before this incident we have been talking to an investigative TV programme about another broker. Since this event occurred I have had a lot of calls about how the industry “works” and I know that Pat from the PDF has been quoted quite a few times highlighting the problems.
ibtimes.co.uk/articles/33438 … -scare.htm
Response
- Easy as HGV believed that there was a high demand for HGV drivers. They provided an article that had appeared in the February 2011 edition of the trade publication “Truckstop” which they believed supported their claim. The article said that there was a shortfall of 100,000 HGV drivers and it said that vacancies for HGV drivers had increased by 138% in the last 12 months. The article explained further that vacancies had grown, nationally, by 130% in October 2010.
It sounds to me that the ASA just don’t understand that “Truckstop” (News) is just one giant advert in itself, and that the articles it prints are invariably just a sop to advertisers, rather than being genuine news stories. Truckstop News has only one source of revenue, income from advertisers.
If you read an article in Truckstop News saying that eleventy billion people are killed every year because of the poor lighting fitted to HGVs, you just know that there is going to be a full-page advert for Kelsa light bars on the next page.
According to Penn & Teller, sorry Penman and Sommerlad , the Daily Mirror investigators, Advantage have already resurrected themselves:
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/05/advantage-hgv-a-long-tailback.html
Anyone know what happen to Mr Green ? As not much is said now
Yeh, funny how a genuine grievance has been all but suppressed.
The Chamber of Commerce looks like it’s right behind Advantage, and other firms like them, such as DVLA who’s sole purpose in life is to make life difficult for good drivers, and make life more expensive (rather than impossible) for bad drivers. It’s all about revenue raising, the same as “interest” and “credit”.
“Keep the scum in the gutter” they are thinking perhaps?
“The government’s policy is to screw directly, or assist with lax regulation those other companies wishing to screw the driver community, so we’re able to get more and more indentured drivers in on minimum wage incomes over the coming decade”
One for the conspiracy theorists…
Remember, a protester who starts making progress in public, is considered a terrorist these days.
Someone with a valid point, cannot be given the oxygen of publicity.
Someone from the same camp making a public arse of themselves however, is given every bit of media coverage.
That’s why we only hear negative news items about opposition MPs, up-and-coming candidates that might outseat an incumbent, professional drivers, public sector workers, union members, and anyone else who’s recently had a pay cut.
We’re all being socially engineered to hate people from those groups, unless of course we’re already IN one of those groups as we are.
Remember, a protester who starts making progress in public, is considered a terrorist these days.
Someone with a valid point, cannot be given the oxygen of publicity.
Someone from the same camp making a public arse of themselves however, is given every bit of media coverage.That’s why we only hear negative news items about opposition MPs, up-and-coming candidates that might outseat an incumbent, professional drivers, public sector workers, union members, and anyone else who’s recently had a pay cut.
We’re all being socially engineered to hate people from those groups, unless of course we’re already IN one of those groups as we are.
+1