Overall I would say class 1 work pay’s a little more than class 2. Obviously ADR quals or HIAB for instance, could skew that.
The benefits of class 1 are usually that the work is easier. Another plus for some people, is that tramping is far more common in artic’s.
Mosey:
How long did you wait for a start sam?
Took me from the end of Nov to the 11th of Jan I applied for well over 100 jobs I live in hull and I had to go to immingham to get work but the company im with now is the only one who would give me a shot did an a assessment drive and got took on the day after I registed with 5 to 6 agencies with no look but just don’t give up you will get a shot in the end
I havent done my module 4 yet. But emailed a company called NAGEL LANGDONS not far from me just inquiry really and he gave me the transport manager mobile number.
So i am optimistic about start onces av passed my module 4.
Imo it comes down to experience on the road. If you have been doing multi drop work in London or other busy areas in a van/luton then doing the same in a 7.5/18t isn’t going to teach you loads.
But if you have been doing office/warehouse work and never driven on the road professionally then you are best getting experience in a class 2 truck. Although in my area it seems most of rigid work is 7.5t.
train for Class 1…in the old days we just went for that anyway.
train for Class 1…in the old days we just went for that anyway
Very true. And sometimes this was with folks with no car licence either! Used to be called “double L” has we had to display the (now defunct) HGV L plate together with a normal car L plate. On passing, the candidate would have car and Class 1.
On a similar note, I trained dozens and dozens of London Transport bus conductors as drivers in the early 70’s as one man operation began to take over from traditional crews. Many conductors never bothered with learning to drive a car. Why bother when you have a free bus pass? So they faced redundancy or learning to be a bus driver. Naturally, one or two horror stories but generally no big problem. And this was on a double decker with vacuum brakes, no power steering and a crash gearbox. Oh yes, in London!
And folks ask why I don’t agree with staged training…■■?
Pete 
I would definitely say get some c experience first. the bad habits are not hard to break and a bit of time driving a large vehicle is invaluable. I had 15 years between cat c and ce and I found the confidence I had from driving a rigid helped no end.
I did ask driver assesor after i passed class 2 the same question…
he said people are different. I have booked in for my assessement drive after deciding to go for it.
Thanks everyone for your opinions.