Been contemplating a late career change, recently - I’ve been in a variety of engineering jobs all my 38yr working life, and I reckon I’ve “hit the wall” where progress (and loss of technical faith) are concerned; time to change path - and as I’ve driven umpteen thousand miles for the last 15yrs as a big chunk of that engineering path, including a variety of 7.5tonne box trucks & flatbeds, etc - and enjoyed each run! - I have a hankering to try the truck driving field… Yeah, I know, I’m mad… That’s been said many times…!
Anyway, I’ve got the ball rolling to sample the trade and look into the correct driver training, etc - but I can’t be sure which ‘path’ might be best to begin with? Initially, it’ll be whoever might employ a newly-passed LGV driver - beggars might not be choosers, after all - but I’d like to know if anyone can ‘steer’ me in any reasonably-paid direction, if possible? I have the C1 entitlement already, but I’m not sure what that might achieve, career-wise…
I don’t particularly fancy multi-drop - I’m more into regional drops/collections, maybe even supermarket-type delivery driving (just an example, that last idea), but I’d appreciate any input from experienced drivers about what I might expect by way of ‘beginners’ work, and what I might realistically expect to earn (both at the start, and future potential target rates, if possible); after all, not much point in shelling-out all that money to pass the test, if the future returns won’t pay back, eh?
Well, that’s a start, anyway - any decent pointers will be most welcome!
To be honest, I very much doubt you’ll earn as much driving a truck as you would in an engineering career. Depending on what part of the country you live in, you may find work as a new driver, it’s not easy but plenty on here have. You will almost certainly start out doing the jobs nobody else wants but if you feel you have to drive a truck then good luck with lessons & test etc.
Well, I’d heard that some driver rates weren’t that good to begin with, but they went upscale with experience - and depended upon which ‘avenue’ you choose to drive down (if you’ll pardon the pun!), so, if I wanted to become - say, a tanker driver, carrying dangerous liquids, etc - I might therefore (reasonably) expect a better return by way of “danger money”, etc. Naturally, that kind of specialists experience should get a better pay level (if it doesn’t, I’d be worried!), and I’d therefore also hope that other more specific driving skills might reap better rewards than ‘just’ driving…
I spoke to a UPS multi-drop driver today, who told me that their beginners get £9.89ph, rising over £12ph after one year (I confirmed that by looking at their careers application weblink) - and that latter figure is what I last earned as a skilled lift engineer, so I’d be happy to attain that level fairly quickly; I’m not after a fortune, just a fair return for the investment in the right training, and a reasonable living thereafter, I’d hope…
Given your background I’d have thought that Hiab work might be up your street. Getting experience is the hard part, but if you look there are ways in that will show you the basics. Multidrop work is good for new drivers with not much driving experience as you’ll learn quick. Builders merchants typically are lowish payers but run Hiab’s for offloading, it’s not the sort of complicated work that a specialist firm will do but it’s a start. Also builders merchants tend to run decent size vehicles so you’d learn how to get in and out of some awkward spots.
Let’s face it as a new driver you’ll likely have a little knock here or there against a gatepost or fence, whatever. Get it over and done with whilst driving a tool for someone, then a company that have well specced and expensive vehicles might be more interested.
Thanks for that, 8wheels - oddly enough, I’ve often worked with HIAB drivers, loading & off-loading machinery - I even ended up welding a strut bracket on a HIAB whilst doing one really heavy job! It’s certainly worth a deeper look, that’s for sure…
Isn’t there a HIAB training certificate/course that needs doing, today? I was sure I’d heard such a comment, somewhere, and naturally if such a course (or qualification exists) & has to be taken, I’d been keen to take it.
■■■■ Van Dryver:
Isn’t there a HIAB training certificate/course that needs doing, today? I was sure I’d heard such a comment, somewhere, and naturally if such a course (or qualification exists) & has to be taken, I’d been keen to take it.
There is. It’s not an absolute legal requirement like a driving licence but you wouldn’t get a job without it.
The only requirement for a plant operator is that they are trained and competent (or similar wording) usually that will entail some documentary certification to back that up, but a company can print their own certificate to say that they have trained you.
You can get training courses where you will do a few hours and get some piece of paper that announces you have passed a course, it might satisfy someone or other but realistically you need an ALLMI certified one or if you want to work in the construction industry you need a CPCS card. These are expensive and time consuming to get but they don’t give them out in cornflake packets and if you have the card then it’s a good indication that you know your stuff.
For example the CPCS card route is like this.
Health & Safety touch screen test
Verbal Interview, recorded like a police one and you need to know exactly the right words and phrases to use, this could involve another training day to get the terminology right.
Practical Test, involves full vehicle and crane check. Load 3 items, one max weight, one blind lift where you have to rely on a signaller and one unbalanced load. Then you secure the load reposition and unload the three items.
This will get you a red card (trained operator)
To get the blue card (competent operator)
You need to do an NVQ which is loads of paperwork and more practical work.
You might find that a merchant or company doing simple deliveries would provide their own training, but you’d be unlikely to get anywhere with a bigger player without any sort of certs, to prove you have some experience before they commit some cash to your training.
Blimey! Well, I didn’t think it’d be a whizz of whirling a few buttons & hooking-up a few chains to get a ticket for HIAB, so I can now see why one Suffolk trainer has today estimated a course price of £2000…
Think I’ll just go for the Class 1 (C+E) quote I’ve had that’s £200 cheaper - that’ll do for me!
