Manchester agencies for new drivers?

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi all

I’m trying to come to a decision regarding a career change and whether or not it would be too risky. I can’t afford to be out of work for an extended period (bills to pay). I am 40 yrs old and work as an accountant but can’t stand the job / career. I’m not making the change to earn more money and I’m realistic (I think) about what my earning potential would be. It’s about having a job that gets me out in the real world and not being stuck in an office staring at a computer screen and sitting in meetings discussing things I couldn’t care less about.

I’ve always been interested in driving and want to get Class C+E.

I was wondering if anybody knew of agencies in the Manchester area who are open to taking on newly licensed drivers so I could contact them and have a chat about it first before just leaping into it.

Appreciate any advice thanks,

Matt

2

Are you willing to work for £7 per hour. Are you willing to pay out £2500 to be treat like ■■■■ ? Are you willing to work 70 hrs a week. and the big one…Do you LOVE driving ■■? All the answers you seek are on here…Spend some time at work reading these pages. Good luck my friend

3

Dont want to sound awful but do not listen to agencies they all talk rubbish all they want is your name on there list so they can go to companies and say look how many drivers we have got. They will take on new drivers yes and promise you the earth but take it with a pinch of salt. You are best going to companies direct and taking it from there.

4

Is it the new year that is making you think that a new you is needed.

A new beginning a new adventure, you can go for it and try. 70 to 100 pounds a day is a realistic figure that you should be considering as a driver.

More if you put on the over time.
Best connection and pertemps take on new drivers in the Manchester area.

Consider being a plumber or buy a mini cherry picker and clean gutters for 70 pound a house.

Good luck hun in your quandary.

5

My experience of agencies as a new driver has been reasonably good. I was open and honest with them when I called and most were honest in returning saying they had nothing. However, a couple said they might be able to place me as a rookie driver, and both have been true to their word. I am getting regular shifts on the days that suit me, and they’re even contacting me to ask if I’ll do extras. That’s a new driver with no previous HGV driving experience.

6

toshtwentythree:
Are you willing to work for £7 per hour. Are you willing to pay out £2500 to be treat like [zb] ? Are you willing to work 70 hrs a week. and the big one…Do you LOVE driving ■■? All the answers you seek are on here…Spend some time at work reading these pages. Good luck my friend

Well (haha) that’s quite a negative picture you paint. £7 per hour I would thought that sounds quite low. Min wage is £6.50! Are you exaggerating? Working long hours doesn’t bother me. I only work 40 now but it seems like 70 when you hate something so much.
Yes I really like driving but that’s a car. Never driven a truck

7

Darrenb:
Dont want to sound awful but do not listen to agencies they all talk rubbish all they want is your name on there list so they can go to companies and say look how many drivers we have got. They will take on new drivers yes and promise you the earth but take it with a pinch of salt. You are best going to companies direct and taking it from there.

I’ll keep that in mind ta and sound out some companies too. Cheers.

8

■■■■■■00:
Is it the new year that is making you think that a new you is needed.

A new beginning a new adventure, you can go for it and try. 70 to 100 pounds a day is a realistic figure that you should be considering as a driver.

More if you put on the over time.
Best connection and pertemps take on new drivers in the Manchester area.

Consider being a plumber or buy a mini cherry picker and clean gutters for 70 pound a house.

Good luck hun in your quandary.

Brilliant thanks for those two.

No it’s not a new year thing (more a midlife crisis lol). Seriously I just can’t keep doing what I’m doing. It’s soul destroying and affecting all aspects of my life. Living solely for 4 weeks holiday a year. What’s the point. Sod the money.

Cheers for that

9

ORC:
My experience of agencies as a new driver has been reasonably good. I was open and honest with them when I called and most were honest in returning saying they had nothing. However, a couple said they might be able to place me as a rookie driver, and both have been true to their word. I am getting regular shifts on the days that suit me, and they’re even contacting me to ask if I’ll do extras. That’s a new driver with no previous HGV driving experience.

So it’s not all doom & gloom. That’s positive but I suppose it depends on each area of the country. Thanks.

10

Has anybody just worked weekends when starting out? Just wondering if agencies would cater to that. ie: carry on in my current job but work weekends driving initially too just to get some experience. Lessens the risk of jacking the job in then finding myself sat on backside watching daytime tv for a month.

Or are weekends more sought after (higher rates of pay)?

11

With the legislation on hours I believe you can only work a day every couple of weekends (look up weekly rest in the reg’s you will see how this works out…kind of like a reduced 24hr rest one week and then a full one the following week).

I did some agency work for Drive Hire but mainly weekend stuff. I think some of their clients require the license to be held for 2 years. At the time I had Class 2 and they were fairly open about the fact that there isn’t always that much Class 2 work on weekends, and that it was mainly Class 1. I’d had the Class 2 for over 2 years so they put me on the books.

Following that I did my Class 1 and didn’t really expect to get any Class 1 work for sometime, but I sent them a copy of my licence anyway, and they got me a few shifts on Class 1 even though I had no experience.

Think the strangest job I had from them was driving one of those kids play bus things?!

BTW, do you have 7.5t entitlement? If you do you HGV training along with DCPC, I think this will renew the DCPC for you 7.5t entitlement (hopefully somewhere will be along shortly to correct me if I’m wrong). As you’ve had that for over 2 years agencies should be able to put you on the books.

I followed a similar path to what you mentioned, first getting bits of weekend work where possible but staying with the security of my current job.

12

KarlM:
With the legislation on hours I believe you can only work a day every couple of weekends (look up weekly rest in the reg’s you will see how this works out…kind of like a reduced 24hr rest one week and then a full one the following week).

I did some agency work for Drive Hire but mainly weekend stuff. I think some of their clients require the license to be held for 2 years. At the time I had Class 2 and they were fairly open about the fact that there isn’t always that much Class 2 work on weekends, and that it was mainly Class 1. I’d had the Class 2 for over 2 years so they put me on the books.

Following that I did my Class 1 and didn’t really expect to get any Class 1 work for sometime, but I sent them a copy of my licence anyway, and they got me a few shifts on Class 1 even though I had no experience.

Think the strangest job I had from them was driving one of those kids play bus things?!

BTW, do you have 7.5t entitlement? If you do you HGV training along with DCPC, I think this will renew the DCPC for you 7.5t entitlement (hopefully somewhere will be along shortly to correct me if I’m wrong). As you’ve had that for over 2 years agencies should be able to put you on the books.

I followed a similar path to what you mentioned, first getting bits of weekend work where possible but staying with the security of my current job.

Thanks Karl. No I don’t have 7.5t. I’ll look into the weekly rest.

13

Matt74:

toshtwentythree:
Are you willing to work for £7 per hour. Are you willing to pay out £2500 to be treat like [zb] ? Are you willing to work 70 hrs a week. and the big one…Do you LOVE driving ■■? All the answers you seek are on here…Spend some time at work reading these pages. Good luck my friend

Well (haha) that’s quite a negative picture you paint. £7 per hour I would thought that sounds quite low. Min wage is £6.50! Are you exaggerating? Working long hours doesn’t bother me. I only work 40 now but it seems like 70 when you hate something so much.
Yes I really like driving but that’s a car. Never driven a truck

He’s not being negative, there are still jobs out there paying £7. He is wrong with hours you could work 82 per week and even though you don’t mind working long hours is it worth it? Do you have a famliy will they mind you never being at home? If it’s something you want to do go ahead but think hard about it before you spend all that cash.

14

mac12:

Matt74:

toshtwentythree:
Are you willing to work for £7 per hour. Are you willing to pay out £2500 to be treat like [zb] ? Are you willing to work 70 hrs a week. and the big one…Do you LOVE driving ■■? All the answers you seek are on here…Spend some time at work reading these pages. Good luck my friend

Well (haha) that’s quite a negative picture you paint. £7 per hour I would thought that sounds quite low. Min wage is £6.50! Are you exaggerating? Working long hours doesn’t bother me. I only work 40 now but it seems like 70 when you hate something so much.
Yes I really like driving but that’s a car. Never driven a truck

He’s not being negative, there are still jobs out there paying £7. He is wrong with hours you could work 82 per week and even though you don’t mind working long hours is it worth it? Do you have a famliy will they mind you never being at home? If it’s something you want to do go ahead but think hard about it before you spend all that cash.

I wasn’t trying to say he was being negative just that the image his description gave wasn’t a very encouraging one. I’m also not trying to say that isn’t correct.

I’m trying to stay completely open minded.

The impression I’m starting to get is that maybe this isn’t worth doing which is pretty demoralising

15

Matt74 if you can get with a good firm that looks after there staff it can be the best job going it’s just so hard to find such a firm as good firms never need drivers as nobody leaves. I passed my test about 15 years ago and drove until last August first 8 years for a firm who could not be better rest for agencies where I always had plenty of work but now I have left I can see how bad drivers get treated and could never recommend anybody to take up driving. If you want to change look round for something else.

16

I’ve gone part time in my office job, down from five to three days per week. That frees up two days for driving every week and two days of rest. Every other week I can do an extra driving day and take a reduced weekly rest as long as I can make up the reduction which is usually okay.

The agency is flexible and able to supply me work to fit my part-time requirements. Sometimes things seem to go wrong and I don’t get a shift even though I’ve said I’m available - I don’t know whether that is a shortage of work or bad management, communication breakdown etc.

17

Hi all

I’m trying to come to a decision regarding a career change and whether or not it would be too risky. I can’t afford to be out of work for an extended period (bills to pay). I am 40 yrs old and work as an accountant but can’t stand the job / career. I’m not making the change to earn more money and I’m realistic (I think) about what my earning potential would be. It’s about having a job that gets me out in the real world and not being stuck in an office staring at a computer screen and sitting in meetings discussing things I couldn’t care less about.

I’ve always been interested in driving and want to get Class C+E.

Go for It!

The greatest thing about having your HGV licence is that you can dip in and out of the job whenever you want to, you’ve got it until you’re 65+ (25+ years left for you!).

Most of us had to pay for our training and test ourselves. After this expense, your other expenses will most likely be quite small: HGV licence renewal,(20 quid?) Digitacho Card (20 Quid?) Medical (75 quid) and CPC (300 quid) every 5 years= which is all going to cost you around 100 quid per year.

After you’ve had your license 2 years, you can just blag it… I’ve been and seen loads of drivers over the years who must have blagged it, plenty of drivers will help you out when you start, especially if you ask!. After doing this job for a while now, it’s easy to spot the new lads, young and old who don’t want to admit they are new to the job… but we all know who you are :smiley: … We all have to start somewhere.

Wages.
Employed: Expect an average of around 8.00 per hour (regular hours)… it gets more difficult to find the higher paid work, but it’s there if you look.

Ltd Co Freelance. Expect an average of 11.00 per hour…+ Vat (if Vat reg) (regular hours)… it gets more difficult to find the higher paid rated work, but it’s there if you look.

I’ve had my Class 1 HGV licence for 29 years and have dipped in and out of truck driving and done many other things such as workshop manager, restaurant owner, science teacher, fashion buyer, English teacher, book seller, civil engineer, site fitter and other work that I’ve forgotten about. I’ve taken my HGV test 3 times, In the UK, Australia and Canada, i’ve probably paid out a good few grand in tests, but have enjoyed myself doing it and i’ve always made the money back… eventually!

P.S. I have a wife and kids and bills to pay, and the get dragged to live all over the place, but somehow we manage to do okay.

One life, Live it!

18

Here are the regs

gov.uk/government/publicati … cles-in-gb

Some firms pay £7.00 per hr this is true
Fowler Welch pay £7.75 p/h Stobbarts about the same

You could speak with David Bratts they take on new drivers dont think the wages are brilliant but kit not bad & they do have there own fitters to look after stuff

Couple years ago I was earning a bit more the min wage but was out all week & my hr were maxed to the limit each week on the weekend really no energy to do anything

Have a look round your area see who is there go speak to firms as well they may take you on part time they may also give you some other answers

19

Hi mate try wisemans in trafford park for work. Im taking home like 400 a week for 48 hours they dont like you doing anymore. They wont accept you running bent and do generally look after you something you need as a newb. Ive been there 3 months i got the job day after i passed my test 3 months ago. It is hard work you generally do more grafting than driving but it gets your foot on the ladder to build up some experience anyway.

20

@ contractdriver
excellent advice mate. I agree. I love the job. I’m on agency. 3 in fact. I hop around alot between them. It’s to not let them get complacent with me. Agencies do take the cheese, so it’s the best way to de a l with them. Be firm but polite.

Wages are good. New vehicles most of the time. Now after 5 years I’m expirienced with alot of different makes.