Should new drivers all have to have some sort of apprenticeship, Now i’m not saying years to do it, but there must be something better than it is.
As a new driver, and from the many post on here, Passing a test and been in the real world is like night and day. My First week on the job ,i could see why people Jack it in.
On the job trainning streamlines the transition.
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Only training was catching the keys
and im still crap at reversing, better but dog crap
I totally agree, my training and test in no way prepared me for driving class 1.
I wasn’t taught how to reverse, I was taught how to do the manoeuvre that is in the test. Pieces of tape on the truck for markers. Load of crap.
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Time was…
Many trades had apprenticeships as well as training courses which you went on paid until you were reasonably proficient at your job.
Now it’s all ‘training on the job’ and the customer suffers crap service as a result. One conversation I had with a major agency about the short payment on my invoices resulted in the classic line ‘well there’s a new team in the finance department, you can’t expect them to get everything right all the time can you’.
Then there was the young apprentice scheme that turned into little more than a cheap labour scam.
Lorry driving? Being an old ■■■■, there were a few jobs as a drivers mate back then (not many but a few). By the time I passed my class 1, I’d been all over the place, learned first hand about loading, roping sheeting, how not to get stuck and loads of other things that rookies seem to cop for all the time now.
A fixed career progression regime obviously won’t work in an industry that bases that on face fits favouritism and elitism.
Even if it did you’ll still end up with the situation of one person being fast tracked onto the best work soon after serving their time while another is still lumbered with all the zb at 40.
I can remember arguing with the ‘careers advisor’ when I left school in the 1970’s when he said how can you drive a truck at 16 to which I replied there’s more to learn about loading/unloading all the different types of trucks from tippers to tankers and how they all work than there is about driving them.That’s going to take a good 2 or 3 years of anyone’s time.
No surprise he’d supposedly never heard of the RTITB young driver training scheme in the day.Which was my introduction to the arbitrary face fits scam that infests the industry from day 1.Some were fastracked onto it while others were laughed at for even suggesting it.
Many then being fooled by the Army saying join up for a career in the RCT and ending up in the infantry and buying themselves out.To his credit luckily for me that muppet didn’t even suggest that route. 
The job is what it is and it’s far easier now to get all the information you need from just Youtube alone.Probably better than being being stitched up by being forced to work in a warehouse for the carrot of being a ‘distribution driver’ if you’re lucky. 
Driver Apprentice
As a Driver Apprentice, train to become a proficient operator of a tractor trailer combination through education and driving skills development. You will also be given non-driving duties such as operating a forklift and working on the dock.
This is from a FedEx web page here in the US. They seem to be the only company offering driver apprenticeships but it’s not just lorry driving. 
remy:
Driver Apprentice
As a Driver Apprentice, train to become a proficient operator of a tractor trailer combination through education and driving skills development. You will also be given non-driving duties such as operating a forklift and working on the dock.This is from a FedEx web page here in the US. They seem to be the only company offering driver apprenticeships but it’s not just lorry driving.
Well over here we do the driver CPC as training you can even do the same course 5 times to make sure you know what your doing
I went straight in for a Class 1 Test in 1973 and 1st started on a 16 ton D series Ford skip lorry for CRC Transport in Exeter and then drove 6 wheel dodge tippers for 12 months before leaving to drive an artic Scania 110 Super as I recall. We never took photo’s in though’s days. Worked for Ken Wills at Bow delivering Tallow and Beef Dripping. I had a sleeper cab but never got time to sleep when we ran on log books. Only stuck it one winter, pain in the ■■■ pumping fat with a donkey engine when it’s freezing cold. Although driving his truck got me my next job at Frank Tuckers, started on skips again then 6 and 8 wheel tippers, 8 wheel brick crane and then holiday relief Class1 before I got my units. 10 years with them left to become owner driver. My first days work on the following Monday was bricks for them.It was not meant to be like that but the guy I put a lorry on the road for lost the contract that weekend. So you could say I served and apprenticeship and learned a lot on the way even though I had a class 1 license.
‘Apprenticeship’ is maybe a bit strong, apprenticeships are held by guys wanting proper trades like engineering, electricians, technicians etc.
However, there should definitely be a review of the present system, of training though, it stops at being taught how to drive around a test route, and then you’re handed a Class 1 licence, (or whatever tf they call it today.)
There should be at least some kind of after test compulsory training ,and I’m talking proper grass roots on the job training, not dcpc dog ■■■■
Then maybe a six month probationary period afterwards…
There are too many d/heads being handed licences these days, who should be driving nothing bigger than a Ford Transit.
Day 2 on the job, take this double decker to x place, and connect the anderson lead and etc. Me ’ whats a anderson lead’
Not rocket science, but !!!.
Or when the floor would not come down (freezers up), oh so i need a spanner in me tool kit then (day4)
First few day felt like at school with a D on me hat
Now i’m not shy asking people for help, and you need it .
Advice to anyone new, Be as friendly to everyone you meet, even if there a p… ,just smile, ask the next guy , If you make a mistake there more likely to help you
The older drivers have been great helping me out, even some random guy at the motorway service
about 90% are very helpful, the 10% were the younger drivers, eu drivers
crush99:
Day 2 on the job, take this double decker to x place, and connect the anderson lead and etc. Me ’ whats a anderson lead’
Not rocket science, but !!!.
Or when the floor would not come down (freezers up), oh so i need a spanner in me tool kit then (day4)First few day felt like at school with a D on me hat
Now i’m not shy asking people for help, and you need it .
Advice to anyone new, Be as friendly to everyone you meet, even if there a p… ,just smile, ask the next guy , If you make a mistake there more likely to help you
The older drivers have been great helping me out, even some random guy at the motorway service
about 90% are very helpful, the 10% were the younger drivers, eu drivers
You surprise me on that, I thought compared with the ‘Theres yer keys, now ■■■■ off’ old days, I thought you got plenty specific type job related training, albeit too much ime spent on their idea of h&s, (20% substance/80% ■■■■■■■■)
Nice to hear experienced drivers giving you guidance, I’ll help any new driver, and do…unless of course they come across as a smart arse, then they’re on their own.
It shocked me a bit returning to the industry. Now I HD a massive head start because I took a break from HGV to do something else and when that fell through I came back to it so I already knew a lot, but then also in the ten or so years away from it a lot had changed.
At my previous job you were shown everything, a lot of which was common sense and ■■■■ covering but you had at least been shown. I step back into the industry and get given the keys and away I go after a brief “sign here, sign this” session.
Now apprenticeship is perhaps strong, but there’s defo room for improvement in terms of on the job training. Cost will be the deciding factor though I bet, especially with the less blue chip type firms. They’ll bank on the fact that a driver - new pass or new to the firm or agency - will be able to wing it instead of pairing them even for a day with someone sensible.
A case in point, a guy at my place has recently passed his class one and obviously just gone thrown in. Now he at least knows the job so he’s ahead but the little nuances like considering weight of trailer/height of kingpin when dropping trailers which I’ve explained to him and he’s fine with it, but if you don’t know or don’t get shown in the first place… he also made the mistake of undoing the supports, strapping a load woth internals only to then be unable to get the pillars back in. It sounds simple but a rigid generally doesn’t have support pillars and if you don’t know or don’t get shown…
Yeah sure there’s a lot of being able to figure it out yourself so it helps not being a complete dunce, but when I was a lad 
you could fairly comfortably drop a small clanger and you’d get your ear bent, get shown the right way and life would continue as opposed to these days where there’s a risk of being strung up for even the slightest misdemeanor because “you’ve got a licence so you should know how to do x, y and z”