agreed, and may i add, that an employer who wont pay parking cant moan when his driver loses a load!
my trucks only pay for parking when they are loaded, when they are empty i prefer not to pay because at the end of the day its too dear!
paul
I always thought that Night out money was paid to counteract the extra costs of not being at home, IE to feed you at home with the rest of your family would cost around £ 3 per day. Eat 3 meals when out in the truck £5 for breakfast £2.50 sandwiches for lunch, £ 10 for evening meal. These are only rough figures, but the end result is I would be £14.50 worse off away from home, so night out money goes some way to covering my extra expenses. Other costs I incur when away include laundry, showering etc etc. My night out money does not make me better off, it just covers my night out expences…I claim parking money back from my company when I have to pay to park,
The only reason, I work nights out, is purely to supplement the meagre £5.50/hr I get 
I have asked the boss direct to pay for parking on top, and the answer is NO, I would love a good nights sleep, instead of having to find laybys etc that I can get a curtainsider in and off the road and being rocked to sleep everytime someone flies by.
BUT until, I have gained more experience and can find better conditions elsewhere, I’m stuck with it 
I have to agree with Rob K fully on this one, night out money is to boost my wages (& no I am not a fool), if I didnt want the extra I could tell my gaffer I didnt want nights out (like a lot on our fleet do).
I had a boss years ago that tried to tell me night out money was paid to me so I could pay parking, sorry but it isnt, its mine for the bloody inconvenience of sleeping in the cab, ■■■■■■■■ in carrier bags etc. etc.
Every boss would love a driver who pays parking out of his night out money, its a living not a bloody hobby, " cant do enough for a good boss"…oh yes you can !!!
If it was my own truck I would have to pay to park it (if I wanted to park in wee wee smelling MSA’s) but as it isnt mine, doesnt have curtains to cut, if anyone wants the load (blocks or bricks) they are welcome to it as long as they dont wake me up by tipping it!
I am one of the ‘self catering brigade’ & I park in laybys for free…thats what its about, I dont go through the inconvenience of nighting out to spend any of it (new pair of shoes for one of the kids & all that !!)
whatever 
paul
flatbedman:
whateverpaul
Dont ‘whatever’, that isnt even a coherent reply so why waste the bandwidth?
& you can roll your eyes all you like too, your boss has a cleaner behind than my boss cos I dont clean his for him.
I agree its obviously to cover expenses, but under no circumstances would i pay to park the truck out of it, if i were in a job where the boss expected me to pay to park out of the night out money, then id stick two fingers up.
Back to the original post…
I passed 8 months ago, and i know what you mean about the test not gearing you up for the real thing, i was also caught out with the legs 
However, i was lucky enough, that Henk of the PDA arranged a day out with there driving instructor at sainsburys, i was more than happy to take it out, and it eased my mind a hell of a lot having someone sat there that i could ask questions and advice.
Other than that, it was a case of asking questions to other drivers etc, its doesnt bother me to ask someone else, and as of yet ive not found any driver that isnt willing to help. 
cav, i am my boss.
paul
flatbedman:
cav, i am my boss.paul
whats funny cav??
paul
flatbedman:
whats funny cav??paul
Just the fact that being your own boss would make it extremely difficult for you to lick your own behind clean
paul
I can remember doing my test nearly two years ago, and to be honest with you i didn’t find it that bad, i think it was because i really wanted to do it and i knew i could do it that got me to the end, that and gassing to the examiner all the way round… hehe.
Anyway…
I don’t know how true this is and to be honest as i passed i didn’t really look into it, but there was a rumour that the way the test was done was to be changed. Instead of having a week intensive course then a test it was going to be something like 240 hours of training, which included the little things they don’t tell you about, roping, sheeting, tautliners, winding legs up, trailers with two sets of legs (dam confusing) how to load a trailer properly, double deckers, diff locks, steering rear axles on trailers and the like.
I found that getting the test was the easy part, it was actually getting your foot in the door and to be given the opportunity to get out on the road that was the hard part. Luckily someone believed in me and my persistance.
Tiggz
Most of the Euro countries have a lot more training then in the UK, The Dutch do a driving course and a mechanical course but they are allowed to drive at a younger age. I think this diploma takes about a month training, The hardest thing they have to learn though is how to use a DKV card 
Hugarocamion drivers used to have to do 12 months or more in the workshops before being allowed in a truck.
Loaded training should be compulsory in real life size trucks with normal gearboxes and equipment.
The ex army training school at Leconfield are using these little daf 10tonners with a pallet on wheels behind them.
I took my test with the company i worked for in one of the trucks the company used daily. I did my training with RTITB who used new modern trucks and a 40’ trailer.
I read the post about parking and night out money earlier in this thread.
Night out money was called subsistence money and is between 16 and £18 according to the taxman of the parish. Non sleepers get more because they have to use Travelodges and Campanile thingys now.
The subsistence is to pay for extra meals that could be prepared at home with the family more cheaply. It is to pay for the purchase and upkeep of bedding and laundry services. It isnt to pay for parking someone elses truck in a muddy swamp and using toilets with mouldy green walls and windows.
The greedy truckstop owners and msa are under the impression that the money a driver receives is for them. If you are away from home you have to purchase 3 meals each day. Tea, Breakfast and Dinner or for the southerners, Dinner, Brunch and Lunch. Thats nearly £15 so how can you pay parking from £18
These meal vouchers schemes should be like wine vouchers or luncheon vouchers that you can save up and spend like cash.
If the parking areas want to reward you then they give you loyalty points and not: Pay £12 parking and get a free fatburger and a minature teabag