Ok, I admit, Ive been watching the Green Tongue brigade, But what I’m wondering is How much are the Apprentices paid, Do Stobbies get a grant for each, What is in the T&C’s re the training, How long would it take for an apprentice gain a real wage ?
There is one thing thou, At least one company is actually taking the bull by the horn and training people into the Haulage industry, That is the only good point I can see from this, But I am certain that Stobbies will have a Claw back agreement with each apprentice if they mess up or quit
I think they are on £2.60 an hour, if you are over 19 and have done at least a year of your apprenticeship you should get the national minimum wage with would be £4.98 an hour
bubsy06:
I think they are on £2.60 an hour, if you are over 19 and have done at least a year of your apprenticeship you should get the national minimum wage with would be £4.98 an hour
ty Busby, Wonder if anyone will have the info I seek, But if you are right, will these children work 50 - 60 hrs a week, and whats the Insurance implications ? but stobbies are on a winner even if the insurance is doubled, may think twice thou if a huge increase of non disclosed damage starts to happen
To be a genuine apprenticeship ( and therefore avoid some of the legislation on pay etc) there has to be a large element of teaching each week, so these guys cannot go out and do a full weeks work each week, and the company had to pay the expense of their training.
That is no different to any other job that has apprenticeships (e.g. Welders etc) except in those trades most people are “time served” and been through it themselves
In our trade it has always been more informal and gone the way of going through crap jobs and pay and gaining experience and slowly moving up.
I dont see much dofference except with the apprenticeship scheme its more formal with more defined training… you still start at the bottom and they are not pretending the low pay is anything but apprenticeship pay
PinkLadyTrucker:
There is one thing thou, At least one company is actually taking the bull by the horn and training people into the Haulage industry, That is the only good point I can see from this
Agreed.
Not all that long ago, 1973 to be exact, I started my first driving job soon after passing my HGV Class 1 test.
I had been a “trainee car salesman” and knew nothing about lorry driving except that I wanted to do it.
I was taken on by a long established haulage company as a Class 1 driver but I spent my first day handballing
8 stone (50 kg) blue bags of ICI fertiliser from a stack onto 33’ trailers.
(I can’t imagine that the author of the “Jacked before I started” thread would have stayed long.)
I was then taught how to load slippery waxed paper bags of wheatfeed onto a flatbed and how to stop them falling off.
Once I was allowed out alone, in an Albion Clydesdale four wheeler, I spent almost a year learning and being taught before I was “promoted” to a six wheeler.
It was almost 18 months before I was finally given an artic.
What I learned has stood me in good stead for the next 39 years and although I was disappointed at the time, I realised that the best way to become good at any
job is to start at the bottom.
I am quite certain that many, if not most, of today’s lost loads and rollovers could have been prevented if only the drivers had been given proper training and gained enough experience on smaller easier vehicles before being sent out with a 44 tonne top heavy lorry which they discover, too late, doesn’t handle like a car.
I am still amazed at how few drivers can or will fix a minor fault to keep the lorry running, stop with a soft or flat tyre in a very dangerous place a few hundred yards from a lay by or junction, drive about with inadequate load restraints, or otherwise demonstrate that they aren’t very good at what they do.
I have worked with a few who couldn’t even change a marker light bulb and wouldn’t know where to find one if you asked them but no doubt regale their drinking friends with tales of their “truck driving adventures”.
I’m no fan of Stobarts but if they can produce a few properly trained and equipped drivers then good for them.
Regards,
Nick
as an ex apprentice, from the motor trade. when i started 4yr’s ago, it was 4 day’s at work, 1 at college, and a max of 40hrs a week in total 
. the minumim pay was £80 per week, that soon got bumped up to £95 per week. then i managed to wangle another £25 for me to come in early and saturday morning’s aswell. i then left that place for another place where i was on minium wage, which was £788 after tax.
TBH it is generally regarade that apprentice is cheap labour…
and here here to pink lady trucker. the haulage industry is dead man’s shoe’s and as much as we all dislike the green army, at least they are trying to do somthing about it…
In 76 a 1st yr diesel mech apprentice was if i mind correctly was 16 quid a wk,did a yr then got offered a job on a machine pulling timber out o a forrest for 50 quid plus piece work bonus… 
should have finnished my time…
jimmy.
Some Countries like Germany have that since Dekades.
When they finish with passing an Exame they are “Professional Driver” during other just a Hand with Driving License.
I have had some local ‘Business Regeneration’ brigade send out a rather nice young lady offering me an Apprentice to work here in my Training company.
Basically - some 18 - 24 year old on £2.60 whatever it is an hour plus I get £1500 within three months of them starting and a further £1000 if they are still here 6 months after that.
I have to let them go to college 1 day a week - for which I don’t have to pay them if I don’t want.
WHen I asked what she thought I would do with an Apprentice she suggested they could make me a brew, answer the phone maybe empty the bins - “Does it matter? You’ll be getting £2500 from the Government”. When I asked what they would be doing at college one day a week it was basic ENglish, Maths and making sure they were litterate
Kind of sickened me that these people are out ‘selling’ apprentice schemes to businesses when it is quite clear the ‘apprentice’ will get very little out of it and certainly not an apprenticeship.
First CV arrived by email. 18 year old girl. Unemployed since leaving school apart from a brief spell as ‘Santa’s Helper’ - she put it down as a seasonal temporary job (NO!). Seems her ambition is '“To learn young kids to read and write proper”. Judging from here CV she needed that help herself.
I won’t be playing at the great British Apprentice giveaway and won’t be taking one on board (Although the company next door is simply because it is ‘cheap labour’)
I think what Stobarts is doing is fantastic and I wish I had the money to do the same. yes he will have them tied in to something. He certainly won’t be losing and I am sure he has grants and Government money falling out of his pockets. I wouldn’t be surprised if he found grants and other payments to set it all up in the first place on the promise he would employ hundreds of young people. Gets them all off the governments unemployed list eh?
Can’t knock the Stobart enterprise. Like em or hate em they are a flagship for the industry and possibly the only one that can’t do wrong in the public eye.
Pete
ncooper:
PinkLadyTrucker:
There is one thing thou, At least one company is actually taking the bull by the horn and training people into the Haulage industry, That is the only good point I can see from thisAgreed.
I am quite certain that many, if not most, of today’s lost loads and rollovers could have been prevented if only the drivers had been given proper training and gained enough experience on smaller easier vehicles before being sent out with a 44 tonne top heavy lorry which they discover, too late, doesn’t handle like a car.
I am still amazed at how few drivers can or will fix a minor fault to keep the lorry running, stop with a soft or flat tyre in a very dangerous place a few hundred yards from a lay by or junction, drive about with inadequate load restraints, or otherwise demonstrate that they aren’t very good at what they do.
I have worked with a few who couldn’t even change a marker light bulb and wouldn’t know where to find one if you asked them but no doubt regale their drinking friends with tales of their “truck driving adventures”.
I’m no fan of Stobarts but if they can produce a few properly trained and equipped drivers then good for them.
Regards,
Nick
Couldn’t agree more. Having managed drivers for a good few years I have been shocked at the standards I have seen. Or rather the vast spectrum of standards from downright unbelievably poor to - “wow, now he knows what he’s doing”. But the worst thing was the attitude of some “Not my job mate” drivers. As you say - a blown bulb “Not my job mate”. A load that is clearly damaged due to having not been secured and possibly the driving style “Not my problem mate”. Damage to vehicles and a “It’s insured innit” attitude. The one that really got me after a driver smashed the front bumper on a bollard was “It’s not mine so I aint bothered, maybe the MD should sell his Range Rover to pay for it eh?”
I am sure I will get shot down for saying this - but the DCPC will eventually come good and drag the profession back to being a profession and schemes such as Stobarts Apprenticeship will help tremendously.
I am not ‘tarring all drivers with the same brush’ I have come across some cracking professional skilled and knowledgeable drivers who I would employ tomorrow, but I seem to have come across a lot that I’d rather not employ.
Same in any industry I suppose. My many years in the Army meant I met lads I certainly would not want alongside me when the ■■■■ hit the fan … and some I wouldn’t go anywhere without them by my side and knew I could put my life in their hands. They had all had the same training … it’s the person that is difficult to change.
With grants available there is nothing stopping other large logistics compnies dong the same as Stobarts. Some might already be for all we know, but they don’t have the TV profile to shout about it.
But it does sound like this is yet another govenment get scheme to reduce the figures instead of sort proper training leading to proper jobs.
Many years ago I was one of those on the YTS scheme, one day a college learning stuff that I’d already passed exems in and then a dogs body for a company. A few years earlier a person with my O’levels would have got an apprenticeship, but they had all but gone.
Although there is nothing wrong with tea making and sweeping up being part of your introduction to work, but you should also be learning and progressing so you become useful and therefore employable.
Since working in motorsport I’ve seen quite a few youngsters come in a “gofar” and progress. When they start they make tea, sweep up and clean cars, but they learn stuff working alongside me with the trucks and the mechanics and machinists.
Of course there are people who do seem untrainable and don’t really want to work and will do anything to get back on benefits.
bubsy06:
I think they are on £2.60 an hour, if you are over 19 and have done at least a year of your apprenticeship you should get the national minimum wage with would be £4.98 an hour
Spot on for the pay rates. However, there seems to be some confusion between what an ‘‘apprenticeship’’ is now as opposed to a proper apprentice of the past. This is no five year deal with day release to college. The ‘‘apprenticeship’’ now is a vocational qualification based course that can last for a year but as the training companies want the money in it is likely to be a lot under a year.
It is a win win for the employer as they will get a grant to take an apprentice on, around £1500 and £1000 stage payment if the apprentice stays over six months. They have an employee on £2.60/hour and then NMW, so yes, cheap labour. The training company (in the case of Stobart its System Training which was Hargreaves or in house trainers) gets around £6,500 for the training element including driver training to achieve the necessary to start out as an LGV driver.
At least some companies are taking the bull by the horns but with the down turn in young people coming into this industry (the average age of an LGV Driver is 46!) they are really securing their own future as well as the youngsters is they recruit from the Job Centre.
If the haulage companies can work out a partnership with the insurance companies it could be a successful scheme. The idea of the Young Driver Scheme a few years back where 18 year olds could be recruited and trained to drive rigid vehicles under the age of 21 wasn’t particularly successful because of the high insurance premiums. Most insurance companies bulk about anyone under 25 without experience. Chicken and egg here really. 
ncooper:
PinkLadyTrucker:
There is one thing thou, At least one company is actually taking the bull by the horn and training people into the Haulage industry, That is the only good point I can see from thisAgreed.
Not all that long ago, 1973 to be exact, I started my first driving job soon after passing my HGV Class 1 test.
I had been a “trainee car salesman” and knew nothing about lorry driving except that I wanted to do it.I was taken on by a long established haulage company as a Class 1 driver but I spent my first day handballing
8 stone (50 kg) blue bags of ICI fertiliser from a stack onto 33’ trailers.
(I can’t imagine that the author of the “Jacked before I started” thread would have stayed long.)
I was then taught how to load slippery waxed paper bags of wheatfeed onto a flatbed and how to stop them falling off.
Once I was allowed out alone, in an Albion Clydesdale four wheeler, I spent almost a year learning and being taught before I was “promoted” to a six wheeler.
It was almost 18 months before I was finally given an artic.What I learned has stood me in good stead for the next 39 years and although I was disappointed at the time, I realised that the best way to become good at any
job is to start at the bottom.I am quite certain that many, if not most, of today’s lost loads and rollovers could have been prevented if only the drivers had been given proper training and gained enough experience on smaller easier vehicles before being sent out with a 44 tonne top heavy lorry which they discover, too late, doesn’t handle like a car.
I am still amazed at how few drivers can or will fix a minor fault to keep the lorry running, stop with a soft or flat tyre in a very dangerous place a few hundred yards from a lay by or junction, drive about with inadequate load restraints, or otherwise demonstrate that they aren’t very good at what they do.
I have worked with a few who couldn’t even change a marker light bulb and wouldn’t know where to find one if you asked them but no doubt regale their drinking friends with tales of their “truck driving adventures”.
I’m no fan of Stobarts but if they can produce a few properly trained and equipped drivers then good for them.
Regards,
Nick
Nick. How dare you come on this forum talking sense?
It is so true and luckily was the way I was taught. I wasn’t trained, they train monkeys and poodles.
From working with proper blokes who could do the job, bullying was allowed as was competitive behaviour, especially in the yard on a Saturday morning, come on you tossers, haven’t you got them few bags transhipped yet? This young lad of 14 has more clue then you Fred Aye maybe,but e’ll larn to steady up.
We were sent out in a rigid with a few easy drops or a lot of sacks with no real time pressure, the competitive bit kicked in and you would always try to beat the other blokes back to the yard. I am quite proud of the fact that my very first absolutely Brand New lorry was given to me by Van den Bosch after 30 years behind the wheel. I wasn’t crying about not having a new V8 Scania in my first week
apprentice is 3 Year and paid around £400.-/Month in first Year.
They learn the Technic of Lorry,Physic and Stability of load,all of Paperwork and have to work in different Departments with 1 Day a Week in School.
Later they start Driving with a trainer in Cab with them.
After 3 Year they get a Certificate as Professional Drivers.
In germany you often not taken as Driver if you haven’t done apprentice.
Posted a week ago a Translated Copy of a german Hauler Magazin,where they discuss that Matter