Quick introduction My name is Sean im currently living near coventry in rugby im 23 years old I hold class 1 and 2 licence which I obtained whilst being in the army and passed when i was 18-19, I left the army in Oct 07 after doing 5 years as i joined as a junior at 16 straight from school. Since leaving the army I have worked for a few agencies doing class 2 work, multi drop all over the country which I was quite comfortable at doing and didnt have much difficulty or problems, except for the hourly rate and the inconsistency of the work.
I left the driving side of things and worked in a gym for 8 months as a personal trainer, which i also obtained from the army and I have since been made redundant. I am now working for a company in a warehouse working 9-5 on terrible money, I have just signed up with an agency to do weekend driving Class 1 work, I have explained that i have no experience and that i am quite nervous about reversing the arctics ( I am quite confident that driving will be pretty straight forward ) however I am slightly worried about getting into the yards and having to reverse onto the bays as its been over 5 years since I was last in an arctic.
I am going out on a driving assessment/refresher tomorrow with the Transport Manager at this company to hopefully boost my confidence so i can start working for them asap.
The wages are more than double what i am earning a week and i will take home more from working weekends than what i am working mon-fri.
any advice or help is welcome, I suppose most have been in my position with the worry of reversing and the first day on the job jitters!!
A few newbies in your area have just secured F/T permanent C+E employment with Norbert Detressangle (ND) - I’m sure one of those newbies will be along to give you some details…
Chelseaboy9:
I am now working for a company in a warehouse working 9-5 on terrible money, I have just signed up with an agency to do weekend driving Class 1 work,
You can only drive for one day every other weekend due to the EU drivers hours weekly rest laws.
In the week (Monday 0000 to Sunday 2400) when you do drive, the other days you work must be listed on the back of a seperate tacho card for each day with your name, date, start & finish time on each card. This is so that VOSA/Police can check that you are having the required weekly rest.
Chelseaboy9:
The wages are more than double what i am earning a week and i will take home more from working weekends than what i am working mon-fri.
Working for one day every other weekend - that must one hell of a well paid shift or the other job is paying below minimum wage !!!
Chelseaboy9:
I am going out on a driving assessment/refresher tomorrow with the Transport Manager at this company to hopefully boost my confidence so i can start working for them asap.
Excellent idea.
Chelseaboy9:
I suppose most have been in my position with the worry of reversing
Well went for my assessment this morning, after being told to wait for 40mins in the canteen, I had a chat with the Transport Manager explaining that i have plenty of exp on class 2 vehicles yet limited on class 1 and that I basically need a refresher on reversing onto the bays etc as the driving side is pretty straight forward… After our little chat he disapeared for 10 mins only to return and tell me they cant employ me as I have limited Experiance lol!! SAME OLD SAME OLD!!!
23yrs of AGE how am i meant to get EXP unless someone gives me a chance!!
In reply to my earlier post after researching the legal regs etc, I realized I would only beable to work the one shift a weekend, but it wud give me a bit of exp and maybe if the option was there i would quit my 9-5 job and go on the road full time.
I have just got off the phone with the agency which told me that the whole point of the refresher was to get me on the road to get a bit of confidence up and to have an hour or so reversing onto the bays!! obviously some confusion has come up somewhere so she is going to see the transport manager this afternoon for a meeting and will bring up my situation!! Lets HOPE for a good result!!!
I’m glad that the assessment went quite well and that you gained some experience from it.
The more assessments you do, the more experience gained but don’t let them take the pee - there have been instances where an ‘assessment’ can take 4 hours - whilst you drive to somewhere and deliver something - A free driver for the company !!!
Chelseaboy9:
I realized I would only beable to work the one shift a weekend
Every other weekend
I know it’s a pain to fill in those cards for the other days you worked in that week but that’s the rules…
I will be happy to get the chance to go out so atleast i can say that i have some experiance… little is better than none!
Frustrating as there is lots of work available, I still havent heard back from the agency will leave it until 4 and ring them!
Worst comes to worse i will go back to driving class 2 vehicles if the work is out there, just the pay isnt great!
