Driving assessments

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

I’ve been driving class 1 for an agency since the start of december and have worked for 2 separate companies, and its generally been a really good experience.
However, neither of the companies gave any mention of me needing to do any kind of assessment/induction. It was literally just a case of handing me keys and paperwork, bit of a talkthrough of what I was going to be doing through the shift, and off I went!

Luckily I’m not the sort of person whos afraid to ask questions, and I have to admit, every other driver I’ve asked for any sort of help, from how to open the curtains on the trailer, how to use the tacho properly, or even just to watch me into a bay, has been nothing but helpful towards me as a new driver! So I’ve learnt most of what I know from these good natured drivers in the yards.

What confuses me is why would a company happily let a new,inexperienced driver behind the wheel of one of their trucks (one company having a 15/65 plate fleet I might add) and expect it to go smoothly?

I was speaking to the TM of one of the companies in the office about it one day, and he said a lot of it was down to agencies not willing to pay drivers for assessment days.

Any thoughts?

2

You took a test and passed. That bit of plastic says your competent to drive said vehicle. If every company made every agency driver do assessments you would have to pay for your trainer or trainers to do nothing but train the odd agency driver that may come into said company maybe once in a lifetime. The job I do would entail the driver to be assessed trained on safe systems of work not just for the depot but also the 3rd party depot I deliver too. So that’s 3 trainers for 1 run .

3

I need to do a driving assessment Monday before they let me loose

Not bothered about doing it tbh. Its the first foot on the Ladder

4

Depends on how the company is run. Some places have assessments where you go with an experienced and trusted driver who will report back to the office. I find you’ll most likely get an assessment if you are applying for a full time job rather than rocking up as agency. As an employer, when you request a driver from an agency, unless they agency say the driver is new or inexperienced then I would be expecting someone who will just get on with the job. That being said, how often do agencies ever tell the truth?