Hi my name is Geoff Im new to this forum.
I was a truck driver on class1 about 10 years ago, due to getting p*@@ed off with the Haulage company I was working for overloading, hiding haz chem on my trailer and basically asking me to break the rules to get loads delivered, I packed up.
Skip 10 years Im sitting in a Gatehouse bored out of mind and thinking of biting my tongue and do the CPC so I can get back into driving, the question is at 46 and not driven in anger for a decade how easy would I find it to come back to the fold?.
I have no quarms about driving in my mind I could jump in a artic today and be fine, but would prospective employers feel the same? and have the haulage firms sorted out their antics?.
Any replies would be much appriecated no matter how sarcastic. 
Newbies are finding that getting jobs after just passing is easier and some training schools are getting employers enquiring so as a previous season trucker you should have no difficulty
I assume you will need a D4 medical - if yes the never pay more than £60
the site has a cheap medical thread
The main problem as I see it would be that nowadays prospective employers all seem to want proof of recent driving experience. You’ll probably have to go the agency route for a little while, just to stick something on you’re cv.
That all depends on weather you want to sit in a gate house for 8 or 12 hour shifts and sleeping in your own bed every night or doing 13 or 15 hour shifts and sleeping somewhere else most nights.
The other side of things is also, do you want to speak people at a gatehouse as you book them in, or do you want to speak to probably 2 people in a day at your delivery and collection points and put up with the disgruntled customers that blame the drivers for every thing and putting up with the constant knob heads on the roads.
There is only one person that can help you make that decision and that is you.
but remember the 1 fundimental question on your road to your decision. do you really want to do it.
You know we can all gob off on here and do sometimes get our point across but remember after reading all the good stuff and all the negative stuff, make the decision that is going to suit you and no one else.
ROG:
Newbies are finding that getting jobs after just passing is easier and some training schools are getting employers enquiring so as a previous season trucker you should have no difficultyI assume you will need a D4 medical - if yes the never pay more than £60
the site has a cheap medical thread
Already sorted the medical, had that done when it was due.
Guess I knew Id need it sooner or later. 
know what you are saying Lizard and yes your right.
I sit in a gate house for 13 hrs a day doing 3 day shifts and 3 nights and 2 off a total of 84 hrs doing very little, all for a little over £7 P/H. When I was on the road I use to think “I wish someone would pay me to read the paper and look at the internet”.
Be carefull what you wish for.lol
bambam68:
Hi my name is Geoff Im new to this forum.
I was a truck driver on class1 about 10 years ago, due to getting p*@@ed off with the Haulage company I was working for overloading, hiding haz chem on my trailer and basically asking me to break the rules to get loads delivered, I packed up.
Skip 10 years Im sitting in a Gatehouse bored out of mind and thinking of biting my tongue and do the CPC so I can get back into driving, the question is at 46 and not driven in anger for a decade how easy would I find it to come back to the fold?.
I have no quarms about driving in my mind I could jump in a artic today and be fine, but would prospective employers feel the same? and have the haulage firms sorted out their antics?.
Any replies would be much appriecated no matter how sarcastic.
This bit I don’t understand.
It’s not your job to know if haz-chem will put you into ADR or anything, secure it, crack on, not a prob.
Never run over-loaded, don’t think anyone does that anymore.
Either get cheapest dCPC you can, or consider an alternative such as ADR, FLT, Hiab etc to make you more employable - it won’t get you ■■■■ all extra money though
bambam68:
know what you are saying Lizard and yes your right.
I sit in a gate house for 13 hrs a day doing 3 day shifts and 3 nights and 2 off a total of 84 hrs doing very little, all for a little over £7 P/H. When I was on the road I use to think "I wish someone would pay me to read the paper and look at the internet".
Be carefull what you wish for.lol
It wouldn’t be so bad if you had a variety of reading material to actually read, and the internet wasn’t wearing a rubber all the time - like the works ones tend to do. 
waynedl:
It’s not your job to know if haz-chem will put you into ADR or anything, secure it, crack on, not a prob.
Yes it is. If the Vostapo stop you and find dangerous goods on your trailer, then find out you are not qualified to carry them the first question they are going to ask is why did you take the load. If you cant give a good answer and prove that you did everything right, you and the boss will both get clobbered. Him for sending it out with an underqualified driver and you for taking it out with out the qualification.
Both are in the wrong.
I had my licence 25 years then got back into the game after 20 years, funnily enough I was 46 years old too
I was talked into taking the job by my current employer (£££ bribed) and I love it and never looked back. 
nsmith1180:
waynedl:
It’s not your job to know if haz-chem will put you into ADR or anything, secure it, crack on, not a prob.Yes it is. If the Vostapo stop you and find dangerous goods on your trailer, then find out you are not qualified to carry them the first question they are going to ask is why did you take the load. If you cant give a good answer and prove that you did everything right, you and the boss will both get clobbered. Him for sending it out with an underqualified driver and you for taking it out with out the qualification.
Both are in the wrong.
OOH - I foresee a certain ADR member putting you right on this…
nsmith1180:
waynedl:
It’s not your job to know if haz-chem will put you into ADR or anything, secure it, crack on, not a prob.Yes it is.
In the context of the OP’s question, this is a very small point, but…
The way that you’ve written your response leaves only… Oh no it isn’t!!
nsmith1180:
If the Vostapo stop you and find dangerous goods on your trailer, then find out you are not qualified to carry them the first question they are going to ask is why did you take the load. If you cant give a good answer and prove that you did everything right, you and the boss will both get clobbered. Him for sending it out with an underqualified driver and you for taking it out with out the qualification.Both are in the wrong.
Sorry Nick, but waynedl has this exactly right mate.
The legal responsibilities of the various participants in ADR are very clearly written:
ADR 1.4.2.1 says:
The consignor of dangerous goods is required to hand over for carriage only consignments which conform to the requirements of ADR
That means that the consignor is responsible for… the correctness of classification, packaging, labelling, documentation, description etc
ADR 1.4.2.2 says:
… the carrier shall in particular:
(a) Ascertain that the dangerous goods to be carried are authorized for carriage in accordance with ADR;
(b) Ascertain that all information prescribed in ADR related to the dangerous goods to be carried has been provided by the consignor before carriage, …… The carrier may, however, rely on information and data made available to him by other participants.
A sender (consignor) sometimes tells/writes porkies, so ADR has taken care of that in such a way that the owner of the vehicle (the carrier) is protected from being left to carry the can when a load isn’t correctly declared.
Since an employed driver is an employee of the carrier, the driver’s only real option is to carry out his/her employer’s instructions.
If those instructions turn out to be incorrect (either deliberately or innocently) how on earth is a driver supposed to know how/when/whether ADR applies to any given job? 
The answer to that is that BOTH the consignor AND the carrier are required to have a properly qualified DGSA (or at least access to one) in order to know the legality of any job involving the carriage of dangerous goods.
Having said the above, it’s perfectly possible that a driver might discover some dangerous goods on a vehicle, but if they do, my advice is that the driver should check this with his/her boss and then be guided by the answer given.
Consignors and Carriers have needed a DGSA since 01/01/2000 and a driver hasn’t needed to decide whether ADR applies to a job since 09/05/2004.
Cheers dude, I had a good teacher 
WHOOPS! I seem to have opened a can of worms.
Regarding the several haz chem incidents, one was another driver refused to take a load upto Newcastle because in the paperwork there was haz chem notes and he didnt have a ADR, so they gave him my load to London and when I got to the yard I was told there was a change of plan. The notes had been removed and faxed as I later found out as we were unloading.
I only found this out by accident after meeting the other driver in the yard several days later.
Second one they hid 8x 250l barrels in a line in the middle of the trailer and packed items around them because they knew I was going through Dartford tunnel, which if Im right you used to need a police ■■■■■■ through anyway but since I had no ADR wouldnt have mattered anyway.
And this was before 2004.
bambam68:
WHOOPS! I seem to have opened a can of worms.
Regarding the several haz chem incidents, one was another driver refused to take a load upto Newcastle because in the paperwork there was haz chem notes and he didnt have a ADR, so they gave him my load to London and when I got to the yard I was told there was a change of plan. The notes had been removed and faxed as I later found out as we were unloading.
I only found this out by accident after meeting the other driver in the yard several days later.
Second one they hid 8x 250l barrels in a line in the middle of the trailer and packed items around them because they knew I was going through Dartford tunnel, which if Im right you used to need a police ■■■■■■ through anyway but since I had no ADR wouldnt have mattered anyway.
And this was before 2004.
ADR - depending on product / code / UN - MAY need an ■■■■■■.
Having 8x 250l barrels of something on doesn’t automatically mean you’re in ADR.
Would you take your car and caravan through the Dartford Tunnel? You got gas and fuel there, surely that’s ADR?
Waynedl, not disagreeing with you, it was a long time ago and I cant remember what it was.
If they go to the trouble of hiding it that must say something.
Anyway Im not interested in that, the thread started as… 
bambam68:
Waynedl, not disagreeing with you, it was a long time ago and I cant remember what it was.
If they go to the trouble of hiding it that must say something.
Anyway Im not interested in that, the thread started as…
I know mate, it was a long time ago, and it’s still playing on your mind.
Just trying to give you some facts that’ll help you have a little less stress from here on.
I was the same, before I did my ADR, I didn’t have a clue, it’s mad that you do a qualification to find out if you need it or not.
bambam68:
Anyway Im not interested in that, the thread started as…
Exactly mate, which is why I started with:
I:
In the context of the OP’s question, this is a very small point, but…
It’s fair to say that some of the pallet networks ‘forget’ that dangerous goods need proper paperwork and should be correctly declared to the carrier.
Anyway, my excuse is that Nick started it!! 
Hi Geoff,
To answer your intitial question simply do your dCPC get a digi card sign up with an agency and you will be working in no time especially this time of year.
I too was out the game for 10 years and found it easy to get back in the swing of things.
I informed the agency of this and they told me to lie about assesments etc, if questioned - not a problem for me and I was back on regular weekend work in no time then landed a proper job…
The important bits are that most trucks are now automatics and a simple google search will show you how to use them, also on my first job I found it usefull to find a quiet ind estate and practice a reverse, but like riding a bike its easy enough to remember. Oh and on your first job take your time and double /triple check everything.
Mostly air suspension now so search on this forum for hooking up tips as well.
waynedl:
bambam68:
Waynedl, not disagreeing with you, it was a long time ago and I cant remember what it was.
If they go to the trouble of hiding it that must say something.
Anyway Im not interested in that, the thread started as…I know mate, it was a long time ago, and it’s still playing on your mind.
Just trying to give you some facts that’ll help you have a little less stress from here on.
I was the same, before I did my ADR, I didn’t have a clue, it’s mad that you do a qualification to find out if you need it or not.
Ive been married 27 years im passed stress, im upto quite submission.