Not sure if this has been asked before but apologies in advance if it has…I am a young guy, been driving coaches since I was old enough doing anything from bus work to private hire to tours UK and continental. I drive anything up to 15m coaches and feel that I have proven myself and now a pretty confident / dare I say it competent driver.
I am looking to put myself through all of the training and try and cut my teeth in the trucking world now. Do any of you guys and girls have experience of crossing over from coaches to lorries? Is it a tough transition? Will I hopefully slot into it more easily than say someone else who has no exp… of driving large motors?
My best guess is that my current experience will count for absolutely nothing to some employers?
Any advice, pointers, stories - anything will be much appreciated but please don’t turn this into a row between coach drivers vs truck drivers!
I started with coaches 41 years ago and went onto trucks 38 years ago. Completely different roles with little comparison. If you like people, you’ll enjoy coaching. If you like your own company, you’ll get on well with trucks. IME few get on with both equally but I was one of the few.
If you want to do it, go for it. I suggest you have assessment drives as you may well be able to train on less than a full course.
My own experience.
Driver seat on Rigids are higher than on Coaches and even higher on Tractor Units.
Bit strange feeling, but you can see much far ahead!
Different cornering. Wheel base shorter, front wheel closer to the front. That’s for Rigids.
Can not say much about Semi trailers because doing training on Rigid and Trailer.
Whell. You don’t have to worry about size of vehicle you already drove 3 axle 15m coaches.
Gear box. About 1-2hr and sort it out. That’s for me. Some may get used to it in 10min.
And again. From new year there will be option to do training on autos and get manual entitlement
if have one on your car licence.
Will you need initial DCPC for LGV’s? Don’t want to confuse you but as I remember,
if you hold your car licence prior 1997 or PCV prior 2008, then you will have to do only periodic training,
but don’t refer to this I may be wrong.
Here’s one of threads: PCV to the C+E viewtopic.php?f=5&t=103679
Good luck.
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Mario
Thanks guys. Kind of what I wanted to hear so happy about that. Gonna try and put some money together then and find some time to fit it all in as my work schedule at the minute is absolutely mental. It just appeals to me more because I’m quite a bit of a loner at heart, can’t stand having my every move being watched over by 50+ eager passengers and worst of all I’m sick of cleaning other peoples s#%$!
