Hi, just joined the site, looking for advice about getting into the world of hgv driving. Also i just spent the last 7 years in the Army and drove the 4ton daf and bedford, on and off. Would this class as 7 years experience in driving class 2? Im going to book a days refresher training in a class 1 vehicle to get more confidence. Also i have spoken to companies such as ‘easy as hgv’ and they say to do the RHA direct access course, is this worth doing? Also im going to book the driver cpc course.
Im looking for work around cornwall at the moment andhave sent off for the digi tacho card.
Any advice would be fantastic.
Thanks
easy as hgv is a broker I think, and avoid brokers at all costs.
Thanks for the reply! yh i basically wrote lgv/hgv and so on in the google bar and rang watever came up. now they ring me everyday!
coops2174:
Thanks for the reply! yh i basically wrote lgv/hgv and so on in the google bar and rang watever came up. now they ring me everyday!
They will do,they can sniff your £’s,be careful !
Have you got class 1 or 2,sorry I can’t work it out.All experience is good experience,just be economical with the truth. 
Stay away from easy as hgv at all costs.
Sam Millar:
Stay away from easy as hgv at all costs.
Stay away from brokers generally at all costs.
There may be a good one out there somewhere but I haven’t seen any evidence of it.
heyy mate im active service at the moment will be looking for class 1 or 2 work aswel when i get out, i also have my full ADR, try get that if you can its good to have gives you more job opportunities out there. all the best vernon. RAF REGT
I wish you both luck in your search for work outside the forces.
I have to say that I would be very unwilling to employ an ex forces
driver until he had spent some time working for someone else.
I may have been unlucky, but I have met very few with any initiative
to solve problems on their own and rather a lot who were more or less fine if given
minute by minute instructions.
I have also met many ex forces who are very good but had several years civilian experience
since they left the forces.
No disrespect implied or intended to any ex forces drivers, just saying.
To answer the question, no, I don’t think you have and your career could be very short if
you follow the advice above and do not tell the truth about what you have driven and
what you did.
Regards,
Nick.
I’d say it’d depend on the job in question, HGV driver is a bit of an odd title in that there are so many different things that you could deliver meaning that you need a different set of skills and experience.
General haulage might not open many doors for you straight away, but skips, bins etc. might do so. You are possibly on a par with a newly qualified driver, you’ve got a bit of driving experience and a little bit of understanding. Cant hurt. Good luck though.
Having worked for the dark side as a recruitment consultant for a few months, we used to view ex-forces as though they had just passed their test. Driving commercially can be very different, especially dealing with some transport managers who think they are gods gift.
You have the licence, that counts for a lot, but many will want to see some commercial experience. Sign up to an agency, and take the crappy multidrop van and 7.5t furniture shifting jobs and soon enough you’ll get your shot on the bigger stuff.
Good luck 
hello,
just read your post about 4 ton daf/bedford.
did instruction on cat c and familiarisation on these vehicles a while back for a while back in the day of army land.
you actually have been driving a 10 tonner gross with a payload of 4 tons.
so you were driving a 10 ton truck.
hope this helps.
ncooper:
I wish you both luck in your search for work outside the forces.
I have to say that I would be very unwilling to employ an ex forces
driver until he had spent some time working for someone else.
I may have been unlucky, but I have met very few with any initiative
to solve problems on their own and rather a lot who were more or less fine if given
minute by minute instructions.
I have also met many ex forces who are very good but had several years civilian experience
since they left the forces.
No disrespect implied or intended to any ex forces drivers, just saying.
To answer the question, no, I don’t think you have and your career could be very short if
you follow the advice above and do not tell the truth about what you have driven and
what you did.
Regards,
Nick.
very much in common with ex traffic cops then…regards
James Bateman2:
coops2174:
Thanks for the reply! yh i basically wrote lgv/hgv and so on in the google bar and rang watever came up. now they ring me everyday!
They will do,they can sniff your £’s,be careful !
Have you got class 1 or 2,sorry I can’t work it out.All experience is good experience,just be economical with the truth.
I have class 1 and 2 and also3+8 in and out of tanks!
mk1chris:
Having worked for the dark side as a recruitment consultant for a few months, we used to view ex-forces as though they had just passed their test. Driving commercially can be very different, especially dealing with some transport managers who think they are gods gift.
You have the licence, that counts for a lot, but many will want to see some commercial experience. Sign up to an agency, and take the crappy multidrop van and 7.5t furniture shifting jobs and soon enough you’ll get your shot on the bigger stuff.
Good luck
Sorry, but why on earth should he just accept 7.5t work? or back breaking crap the companies cannot get fully time employee’s for■■?
he has a Class 2 licence go in and ask for class 2 your not a new driver … yes shifting pallets are a bit different but dont go getting the crap just because you have not driven commerically.
dessyboy38:
hello,
just read your post about 4 ton daf/bedford.
did instruction on cat c and familiarisation on these vehicles a while back for a while back in the day of army land.
you actually have been driving a 10 tonner gross with a payload of 4 tons.
so you were driving a 10 ton truck.
hope this helps.
so basically i could write on my C.V that i had 7 years experience on and off driving a 10 tonner? and i wouldnt be lieing? thansk for your reply.
I have applied for a class 2 job driving skips around, its the only job i have seen that doesn’t say so many years experience is essential.
Does anyone have any advice, for a job interview incase im lucky enough to get one?
Thanks for all of your replies. ill be staying away from these broker guys. i,ve found a company near buy that has offered me some one to one class 1 driving refresher. I figured if i did well in a class 1 i should be fine in a class 2.
ncooper:
I wish you both luck in your search for work outside the forces.
I have to say that I would be very unwilling to employ an ex forces
driver until he had spent some time working for someone else.
I may have been unlucky, but I have met very few with any initiative
to solve problems on their own and rather a lot who were more or less fine if given
minute by minute instructions.
I have also met many ex forces who are very good but had several years civilian experience
since they left the forces.
No disrespect implied or intended to any ex forces drivers, just saying.
To answer the question, no, I don’t think you have and your career could be very short if
you follow the advice above and do not tell the truth about what you have driven and
what you did.
Regards,
Nick.
Hi thanks for your reply, do you employ drivers? if so, if i was to do the full 35 hours driver cpc, would this make a big difference? i have been offered 5 modules for 460 quid. Thanks
Hi Coops.
I’m still serving and have been doing agency work on the side for the last few years. The best thing for you to do is register with an agency and get experience that way. You shouldn’t need a CV for this but you could possibly work with many different hauliers and then add this to your CV when applying for full time work. Maybe I have been lucky, but almost all agencies I’ve been with have had ex-forces gaffers and have literally thrown class 1 work for blue chip companies my way. Most clients ask for experience but many take the date of when the licence was issued as good enough.
Best of luck mucker.
Hello there, I got out in 99 and went straight into agency work, most companies at the time would not even look at you coming out of the forces with an HGV licence. I live and work in the north east. Agencies were not bothered about experience when a job came in that needed filling despite what they say when signing up, this has not changed. After a while I just applied for full time work as it came up putting in the cv the companies I had worked for. Ended up at ASDA which is the easiest job you will get.
If you are lucky you could get a start virtually anywhere depending on what companies want when you turn up, if you were up this end and had your adr you could walk into a class 2 multi drop job on Tuesday, the dispatcher was telling me last week they are gagging for someone.
Most places I’ve worked have had ex forces driving so it’s not anything new to tm,s. despite what some people seem to think they are looked upon as reliable and trustworthy. Apply to every place you can and go visit in person if possible, I find that works better than a cv. Good luck.