Hi everyone!
Checking in as a wannabe 
I’ve just sent off my D2 and D4… now it’s the anxious wait for the provisional to come back!
I’ve always loved trucks, ever since I was a youngster - I used to drive my parents up the wall when we would go on holiday and they would give me a disposable camera (remember those?!) and when they got it developed it was 24 or 36 pictures of lorries 
Welcome and enjoy the forum slowlane, just wait till you have an assessment drive you will be made up!
Tbh I was same my dad was a bus and lorry driver (tho7.5t only) always loved big vehicles. Enjoyed catching his buses and later the trips in school hols in the cab with him! Happy days.
Thanks spaceman!
I’m looking forward to it… with a certain amount of nervous energy!
Woo! My provisional turned up in the post!
Next stop… booking training.
Hello and welcome,be sure to check out the list of recommended trainers on this site…oh and avoid brokers at ALL costs!!
xichrisxi:
Hello and welcome,be sure to check out the list of recommended trainers on this site…oh and avoid brokers at ALL costs!!
Thank you!
I’ve been a lurker for a while, so I’ve picked up on some of the pitfalls (I’m sure I’ll discover a few more though, hah!)
I’m looking at using Stobart to get the licence and (hopefully) a first job in one hit. There is a lot of anti-Stobart sentiment here, which is concerning, but my current thinking is that any first job is going to hard so I might as well have a hard time there as anywhere else! You’re not tied into working for them after the training either, so there doesn’t seem to be too much downside.
My biggest problem is that I won’t be available to work once I’ve passed my test, it’ll take a while to disentangle myself from my current job.
had thought about stobart but not sure I could tolerate in and out of classroom for weeks on end assuming they do it that way.
not sure if true I saw it on here somewhere about giving the own drivers worse jobs and agency the better ones. would have thought it would be other way around. (no offence to agency drivers).
Good luck when you start mate, where are you based ? Spoke to a few stobarts trainees when I done mine.
Yeah, the horror stories abound… Not sure what to make of it really. Like, is it a case of “old hand’s nightmare, newbies foot in the door” or something else? Personally I’d rather suffer corporate ■■■■■■■■ for a while than go on class 2 multidrop in central London. Each to their own, I suppose!
It seems fairly attractive - £2,880 for C and C+E and your initial CPC, and you’ve already drunk the corporate KoolAid so are in with a strong chance of a job with them. I’ve got a little shortlist of a couple of other DVSA registered trainers within easy reach… and there is also thoughts of doing PSTT’s residential course.
I’m based in London, possibly heading into Cambridgeshire somewhere in the near future.
So yeah, we will see how it pans out but if I could get it done and get out tramping out of Rainham/Dagenham/Tilbury perhaps, or see if Downtons are desperate enough to take me on! I’m sure there will be a handful of other firms to find too.
here was I thinking that stobarts give you a job and pay you through the hgv. sure i saw it on tv once. 
.according to the website looks like they are a trainer with no guarantee of a job at the end. is that right?
Yep, that’s the doodle. No different to any other trainer really, aside from the guaranteed interview after you pass. The price is about the same as everywhere else too.
Knights of Olde are the only firm I know about who do an apprentice scheme.
they must employ people as well though in the first instance (maybe youngsters) and train them at there own cost?
My gaff does an apprentice scheme. To dome extent anyway. You do about 6 months washing wagons loading and strapping and warehousing then theyll put you through class 2 cpc and all tests involved. Then once you pass they put you on pallet network multidrop. If you show aptitude and promise they occasionally offer to put you through class 1 on the undderstanding youll be back on pallets for a stint before going to general haulage
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