Hi Everyone,
I am 41, been self-employed for 15 years in a high pressure desk bound sales operation. The nature of my business can be seasonal and certain months you earn very little if anything at all, have 3 kids and wife to support and basically feel burned out and very jaded in my current role. At this stage I am not looking to close down the business but gradually become less dependent on it for a guaranteed income. Seriously looking to qualify as an LGV 1&2 driver in the hope once qualified can work weekends and the odd nights. I suppose my main query is just what kind of income or hourly rate can you expect as a fully qualified driver via an agency or work directly for an employer. Have done agency work for Driverhire in the past just delivering new 7.7 tonne vehicles to ferrys etc. Would you recommend working for an agency once qualified or would you avoid them at all costs. Having been in sales all my life and having to be a Showman all the time, I think I would prefer the solitude that driving offers. Would appreciate any feedback and life experiences being a driver. Cheers.
The ONE IMPORTANT THING that you need to be aware of is tachograph rules, particularly how a job outside of driving affects them.
Time worked in a non driving job counts towards your drivers hours in regard to daily duty time and rest periods.
Every driver must take a daily rest of 11 hours a day (reduced to 9 three times a week) and a weekly rest of 40 hours (reduced to 36 if at home, 24 if away from base). The time you reduce it has to be added onto the weekly rest by the third weekend…
How this affects you?
Say you start your sales job at 8am and work until 5pm. You would only be able to legally WORK as a driver until 9pm that night…13 hours as you then need to take an 11 hour break from ALL work until you start your sales job at 8am the following morning.
If you work at your sales job 5 days a week, you would only be legally able to drive a lorry on one day of the weekend only. Even then its only every other weekend because you’re having to reduce the weekly rest on the weekend you drive then make it up on the weekend you don’t, because you need to take a 40 hour break from when you stop working as a HGV driver until you start your sales job at 8am on Monday
As Conor says, Tachograph Law. Have a look Here. It’ll look like gobbeldygooke the first time you read it, but it’s important 
.
Also how the working time directive will affect you.
As for hourly rates, how log’s a piece of string. I’ve been getting £8.50 per hour with no time and a half on agency, but it’s been an armchair of a job (artic). I’ve just applied for a job on a rigid at £9.50 per hour but with a fair bit of handballing (unloading by hand). This is paid for days.
Weekends on agency for artic in this neck of the woods are around about £14-00p/h for a Saturday and £16-18 for a Sunday. Thing is, agency work is very much like your job. Seasonal 
. Some months you make a killing, others it bottoms out. You’d have to see what suits you best and weather it’d fit into your plan. The guys and girls who’ve done agency for a full year would be better placed than I to tell you about the seasonal variations from the norm.
As far as the job goes, I wouldn’t do anything else. I’m my own man and that’s fine by me .
By the wayWelcome to TrucknetUK.
Welcome to Trucknet UK piker 
Hi Piker and welcome to TruckNet, if its honest opinion you want your in the right place, most of the answers are here, its just a matter of digging them out. If you can’t find just ask, someone will know.
Hi Piker,
Your situation sounds a little similar to mine. I have a full time job (fortunately with a steady income that doesn’t vary with the direction of the wind) but I was looking for a different direction and, with retirement only a little way over the horizon, the possibility to carry on working at something I enjoy for a few more years.
Read and note the advice already given about drivers’ hours regulations and the soon-to-be-applied Working Time Directive. Both sets of regulations will seriously restrict the amount of driving you can do. Fortunately for me, my working days are slightly longer (often 10-11 hours) but as my days off come in twos and threes, it’s a little easier for me to slot in a day’s driving without contravening drivers’ hours regs. The WTD will however still restrict me to only one day driving every week or two.
The other thing to consider is the cost - getting your Class 2 is likely to cost in the region of £1000, and Class 1 the same again. If you are only able to fit in a day’s driving work every couple of weeks, it’s going to be quite some time before you even recoup your outlay, let alone start making a contribution to the family ■■■■■!
OTOH if you are planning to relegate your existing business to “part time” you might well be able to make a better case for LGV driving.
As for agency rates - I get a basic £8.15 day rate on Class 2, with (slightly) enhanced rates for evening/night/early morning/weekend and overtime working. (Sunny Northants - within a stone’s throw almost of the DIRFT railfreight complex next to M1 J18 - some areas appear to pay a lot less).
Agency work does have the advantage that you can experience differnt types of work, and working for different operators, with the possibility of finding work and/or employers that suit you best.
Hope this helps.
Roymondo it may be worth your while reading through Lucy’s filleted version of the WTD in the WTD forum.
Like you I work casual as I do a 35hr week at the day job, so I’m available Fri/Sat/Sun and as long as I do not do more than:
11 Duties in 17 weeks or 16 Duties in 26 weeks you are exempt from WTD legislation as it applies to mobile workers, ie Drivers. Even if I do more I will not have a problem keeping my hours within the 48 average in 17 wks.
My restirctions are I can work either Fri/Sat only and get a 36 weekly, or Sun only that way I can get my 36 weekly in and count Sunday as the new week.
I also interpret the rules to say that because I get a daily rest period of 16 hrs every week day, every hour rest above 11 can count towards off setting the weekly rest for the previous week.
I am sure to be corrected here if I’m wrong (hard hat ready)
Conor:
and a weekly rest of 40 hoursbecause you need to take a 40 hour break
■■
CM:
11 Duties in 17 weeks or 16 Duties in 26 weeks you are exempt from WTD legislation as it applies to mobile workers, ie Drivers. Even if I do more I will not have a problem keeping my hours within the 48 average in 17 wks.My restirctions are I can work either Fri/Sat only and get a 36 weekly, or Sun only that way I can get my 36 weekly in and count Sunday as the new week.
I also interpret the rules to say that because I get a daily rest period of 16 hrs every week day, every hour rest above 11 can count towards off setting the weekly rest for the previous week.
I am sure to be corrected here if I’m wrong (hard hat ready)
Thanks CM - my hours average out at 40 per week in the “day job” - albeit with shifts of varying lengths - sometimes 8 hours, sometimes 9, 10 or 11 hours. The result is that I get more than two days off per week (actually 14 days off every 5 weeks) so I can usually fit in driving days (or compensate for reduced weekly rest) without any problem. As my notional 40 hour working week includes five (paid) 45 minute refreshment breaks, I believe my working hours under the WTD rules are actually only 36.25, so keeping within an average 48 hours per week shouldn’t be too hard.
I’m not too sure about your interpretation of the rules WRT weekly rest and compensation. AIUI the compensation has to be taken in one chunk, doesn’t it? i.e. If you reduce your weekly rest to 36 hours you have to add 9 hours to one of your daily 11 hour rests? Or have I got that one bottom about front?
Roymondo:
CM:
I’m not too sure about your interpretation of the rules WRT weekly rest and compensation. AIUI the compensation has to be taken in one chunk, doesn’t it? i.e. If you reduce your weekly rest to 36 hours you have to add 9 hours to one of your daily 11 hour rests? Or have I got that one bottom about front?
Thanks Roymondo, if I’m wrong someone will tell me, but because I do flexible working and work from home at least two days a week I can even fit an 11 + 9 in if I need to.
CM - I’ve checked up on this. If you reduce a weekly rest from the normal 45 hours then you must “pay it back” by the end of the third week, and this compensation has to be taken in one go - i.e. by adding 9 hours (or whatever is needed to make it up to 45 hours) in one chunk to a daily or weekly rest period.
Roymondo:
CM - I’ve checked up on this. If you reduce a weekly rest from the normal 45 hours then you must “pay it back” by the end of the third week, and this compensation has to be taken in one go - i.e. by adding 9 hours (or whatever is needed to make it up to 45 hours) in one chunk to a daily or weekly rest period.
That’s fine Roymondo, it just means that in my worst case I cannot work at all on the third week, that way I do a 66 hr Rest period (45+21 12.30 Fri - 07.30 Mon), this means that I could even do a 10hr Sunday in wk3 and count that as the start of the next working week. It would mean however that I would have to have week 4 off the bring me back to a Fri/Sat availability in wk 5.