My name is Dave I work for a major bus company in the West Midlands. At the moment I earn around 340 pounds after tax for 37.5 hours a week.
So I’m considering getting into HGV driving but would like to know a few things.
Ok. Carry on…
Was some guy on Facebook asking same question however he gave it a miss because he was on £15ph driving a bus for 48h per week for some company in West Midlands iirc.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Apologies 'm doing this on my phone and I ran out of room on the text box. Like I said I earn around 340 pound a week. Can I achieve this wage being a new hgv,/lgv driver. I assume I’ll have to work agency and I’ll assume my bus driving experience probably counts for nothing. Should I do c and c e as soon as possible or should I just get class c under my belt. How much should I expect to pay for class c, CE and CPC. My biggest concern is hoping the grass will be greener and It may not be.
Look to see if TrentBarton have any vacancies near you. They are the company that was paying £15ph for bus drivers and always looking for drivers from what the guy said. 10h shifts.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
My experience is you don’t necessarily have to line an agency’s pocket, but then again what i move isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. My start as a cat C was £30000+ but it is 60 hrs every week. It was directly employed through an agency. I’d put my face through the door of two. One came up with plenty of work, the other one was as much use as a handbrake in a canoe.
From what i read on here,bus experience counts for nothing.
Some prefer class 1 straight after, (while you’re still in training mode) some say get some class 2 time under your belt. I’m in the second group, given the amount of class 1 drivers that come on here asking how do you work a Tachograph etc.
Budget £400 for driver CPC and you won’t be far out.
There’s money to be made in this game, but not on a 40 hr week.
Hope that helps mate
Nobby_Clarke:
My experience is you don’t necessarily have to line an agency’s pocket, but then again what i move isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. My start as a cat C was £30000+ but it is 60 hrs every week. It was directly employed through an agency. I’d put my face through the door of two. One came up with plenty of work, the other one was as much use as a handbrake in a canoe.From what i read on here,bus experience counts for nothing.
Some prefer class 1 straight after, (while you’re still in training mode) some say get some class 2 time under your belt. I’m in the second group, given the amount of class 1 drivers that come on here asking how do you work a Tachograph etc.
Budget £400 for driver CPC and you won’t be far out.
There’s money to be made in this game, but not on a 40 hr week.
Hope that helps mate
Thanks for your time and advice mate. I’m not scared of hard work. I get paid 37.5 hours a week but in reality with splits shifts you can find yourself out the house for twelves hours a day. I think I’m going to get the ball rolling. A local training company by me called MTS is doing class C, CE and CPC for 2400 all in which seems good value for money.
Sent from my Vodafone Smart ultra 6 using Tapatalk
casualdav:
My name is Dave I work for a major bus company in the West Midlands. At the moment I earn around 340 pounds after tax for 37.5 hours a week. Last may i was meant to start a new role within the company as an inspector which is around 27k a year, due to business reasons the job was put on hold even til this day the HR guy tells me I’m just waiting for a start date. What really irritated me about this was they were taking 7 inspectors, the 5 external applicants started yet me and the other bus driver are awaiting start dates.At this moment I feel very bitter towards the company and I’m not the kind if guy who puts all his eggs in one basket.
So I’m considering getting into HGV driving but would like to know a few things.
Hi, I live near the West Mid’s , I’ve been exactly in your position and passed my LGV class C 2 months ago. Having held a PCV since 1991 I thought that I’d at least have a slight head start over other new drivers but this doesn’t appear to be the case.
The only work I’ve found so far is driving a refuse vehicle via an agency for £8.79 an hour. I stuck that out for 10 days, it was horrendous as there should’ve been a 3 man crew including the driver but due to staff shortages there were only 2 of us emptying 400 odd bins a day full of stinking heavy garden waste and I was doing 90% of the loading. I was physically exhausted after 10/ 12 hour shifts with only a 30 minute break as refuse trucks are tacho exempt.
The regular driver reckoned my driving was too slow and cautious ( ironically I’d failed a driving assessment at another company for driving too aggressively ? ) so he took the wheel most of the time.
I wasn’t prepared to reverse at breakneck speed along unfamiliar narrow lanes, farm driveways, and cul de sacs and risk having accidents with parked vehicles and property or worst of all colliding with a pedestrian.
I’m currently still seeking a LGV job but have an interview booked for next week with a large local bus company earning £9.48 an hour as I need to pay the mounting bills.
I’d say go ahead and get your licence ( I passed everything first time partly due to my PCV experience ) but advise you that its not as easy to walk into LGV work as it is for PCV work despite the so called “driver shortage”
Check your cpc before you pay out for it gov.uk/check-your-driver-cp … ning-hours I had C1 (7.5Ton) on my licence when I did my ongoing bus cpc so it actually counted for both PCV and LGV despite the actual courses being very bus focused (shows what a waste of time it is 
). What categories does it show on the back of your cpc card?
I recently took the plunge after 11 years of buses. Did all my theory and hazard tests last year while still working and chucked it in at xmas. passed class 2 first go in january (once you get rid of the bad habits you will walk class 2, the wagon is like driving a dinky bus 
) I did a bit of class 2 agency but wasnt getting much work so thought screw it, I’ll do artic soon as poss for more options. Passed that first go too.
I’ve ended up for the last few weeks driving a 26T 6 legger class 2 for a pallet firm through my agency on temp to perm. Guy I’m working for asked after a few days “How are you the only person not to complain about some of the roads you’re having to go down when you are driving the biggest rigid wagon we have?” “Simple answer, I used to drive a double deck bus down most of them and thats bigger than this thing, I’ve also got my class 1” On hearing I have my class 1 he is giving me the holiday cover for the little urban trailer runs and afternoon trunk to the hub with a decker trailer to give me some artic experience.
There were moments when I was struggling to find more than a couple of days work a week when I thought, what the hell have I done. But, couple of months down the line and Im getting more comfortable, best decision I ever made.
No whining punters, the day is pretty much yours to sort out for yourself, you get whatever radio station you want, stop at the butty van when you fancy. The thing I found hard to get used to was the not knowing where you are going the next day after being on the same route for 5 years and worrying about getting lost or stuck. Now thats one of the parts I really enjoy, gets the old grey matter working. Lost quite a few pounds as well, lugging pallets around on a pump truck instead off sitting on my lazy ■■■■ all day
Anyhoo, good luck with whatever way you go 
Ps, Im on about the same money as I was, maybe a little less but doing less than the 60hrs a week I used to do 
My advice for a bus driver changing to driving trucks is this:
If the cargo starts talking, check for migrants!
A good agency on Class 2 will pay £9-£10 per hour, bad ones like Driver Hire (■■■■ them) pay £8 per hour for a lot of jobs, and £10.25 once you go over 8 hours in a shift. However they often try to avoid this.
Drivers Direct are an agency who dont pay well either.
I’m with Tailored Recruitment, working around 45-50 hours at £10 per hour, so around £400-450 per week is my take home, I’m a new pass class 2 driver.