Im currently van driving for an agency (just a van btw, not a rigid van ), I passed the Royal Mail Cat C driving assessment this afternoon with quite a picky assessor so I must have been okay, he did say my Instructor had done an excellent job with me
My dilemma is this, the RM job is only up till Christmas with another agency (unless RM miraculously keep me on ) and the van driving job will take me into January 2016 with my C+E course starting on 6 Jan. The van job pays less but its kept the cash coming in for the last 3 weeks and that agency ‘says’ they have requested an assessment with that firm for January when this contract ends.
The RM job pays more and is Cat C work which is obviously what I want to do…
Do I drop the van job and hop onto the RM rigid work trunking for the experience and the money or do I stay put and drive a van? (which is not what I laid out good money, time and effort for) Apologies if it sounds like a no brainer to you guys, I just dont like letting the first agency down but Im sure theyre used to drivers moving around for money/work type.
Hi Mrs Mac
1st thing don’t worry about letting an agency down they won’t think twice about messing you about so suit themselves, also having RM on your cv is always going to look better than van driving when you go for a permanent job.If you tell RM your doing your class 1 and you do well on rigids you can apply for class 1 permanently.
I’d jump on the cat c work cause worse case your only going to be out of work a couple of weeks I went for a interview yesterday and they said Id have to start with them driving a van but I’ve all ready been driving vans for nearly 10 years dint spend this money to be a van driver
Thanks Jeff, I get the impression the first agency are more interested in fulfilling the van contract than getting me some Cat C assessments to be honest The work is easy with set runs and some light lifting, and I get paid for 8 hours even if I finish the run in 6 hours, but as I said before, I didnt spend all that money just to drive a VW/Merc van.
The second agency has got back to me with 2 shifts at the weekend for RM which I can do, only 7.5 tonnes but at the same rate as Cat C. Will see how it works out then…
samledger1212:
I went for a interview yesterday and they said Id have to start with them driving a van but I’ve all ready been driving vans for nearly 10 years dint spend this money to be a van driver
Exactly samledger Its not cheap to train and its not what I want to do.
I drove vans for a long time done my C didn’t really drive many kept on driving vans until passed CE never stopped driving them never used my C apart form a couple times
I tell you to jump to RM as that look better than like Yodel Van Driver as employers then say oh you had ‘HGV driving Experience’
Just along you think you could afford with no work after January however if you do a good job at Royal Mail and get in good books with Royal Mail transport Managers and they know your going for Class 1 they might be able to justify keeping you a wee bit longer, Happened to my pal who went as a Xmas Temp Driver and he been there 4 years on nightshift doing trunk work between sorting offices but he just did same as what your doing.
Thanks for the replies folks, Im doing my first shift for RM tonight (7.5 tonne for 9 hours) and Im looking forward to it.
I dont know where I will be going to or quite how it works there so Im hoping someone there will show me around and tell me what the procedures are for when I get to where Im going I’ll get to the depot 30 mins before the shift so I get a little time to find out ‘whats what’.
Has anyone worked for RM? Any advice?
), I passed the Royal Mail Cat C driving assessment this afternoon with quite a picky assessor so I must have been okay, he did say my Instructor had done an excellent job with me 
) and the van driving job will take me into January 2016 with my C+E course starting on 6 Jan. The van job pays less but its kept the cash coming in for the last 3 weeks and that agency ‘says’ they have requested an assessment with that firm for January when this contract ends.
The work is easy with set runs and some light lifting, and I get paid for 8 hours even if I finish the run in 6 hours, but as I said before, I didnt spend all that money just to drive a VW/Merc van.
Its not cheap to train and its not what I want to do.