New Wannabe Trucker

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi all,

I’ve spent a while reading through the threads on this very informative forum and decided it was time I introduced myself and said hi.

I’ve always loved lorries since before I can remember; spending my Saturday mornings and school holidays sitting in the passenger seat of my dad’s tipper. Sometimes, if I was really good, he’d even let me operate the levers to tip the body :smiley:.

After leaving school I worked in call centres and offices for a couple of years. I soon decided that I hated sitting in an office and went off to join the Royal Navy and trained as an engineer on submarines. My love of lorries remained and during my leave periods I would often go out with my dad or help with the maintenance on his lorry.

I left the Navy in November 2010 after 8 years. I guess I forgot about hating sitting at a desk and took a job as a project manager for an energy company, something I now very much regret!

So this brings me here - I’ve decided to get an LGV licence and today ordered my D2 & D4 forms from the DVLA to apply for my provisional licence.

I am aware that times aren’t great and breaks are hard to come by, but I’m concerned that if I don’t try I will always gaze at the lorries trundling along and wonder “what if…”

Sorry for the long, rambling post. I’ll get on with reading through more of the stuff on here now! :slight_smile:

2

You could have done the forms the easy way & downloaded them print off fill in send away

Or go to a good training provider & they will do all for you including booking your medical, booking your HPT theory test etc

3

Hi and welcome.

Times may not be great but you should do what you would like to do. And if thats being a HGV Driver then go for it :smiley:

Good Luck mate :sunglasses: :smiley:

Gareth

4

Cheers for the replies animal and gazza. :smiley:

I may be wrong but as far as I can tell only the D4 is available for download from the DVLA website, the D2 link just takes me to the ‘online form ordering’ page.

I was planning on just cracking on and booking the medical, theory and HPT etc myself. Is there a benefit to using a training provider to do this that I may have missed?

Cheers.

5

Darby83:
I was planning on just cracking on and booking the medical, theory and HPT etc myself.

That’s how I did it. No real advantage in using the trainer to do it as far as I can see unless you weren’t certain what you needed to do :slight_smile:

6

Don’t use your own doctor for the medical, you can get it for about a third of the cost elsewhere. There are links somewhere on here to places you can use.

7

Best of luck mate, brave decisions and I hope it all works out for you down the line :slight_smile:

8

Hi and welcome. As said, no major advantage to involving a trainer at this point except establishing a relationship. It’s better if the trainer is aware you are somewhere in the system so that you can be borne in mind when scheduling.

Please dont part with any money until you have visited the trainer, sat in the vehicles, met the instructors etc etc. The only exception to this is rock solid recommendation. Not all training is the same - and you will find there are “brokers” who will take your money and then, one fine day, book you into the cheapest trainer they can find. So stay well clear of them. Just put a trainer name on here and you’ll soon find out what the opinion is!!

All the best with it, Pete :laughing: :laughing:

9

Agree with Pete, too many unsuspecting people are being done over by brokers now so when you get someone in mind to give you training, don’t part with nothing, come here first and ask if we’ve heard of them. :slight_smile:

10

I did the same as you and ordered the forms online ,booked the theory tests etc myself . My medical cost me £35 , with a retired doc who does LGV medicals locally .

Good luck in your quest and let us know how its going :slight_smile:

cheers Mike

11

Hi there Darby83!

Welcome onto the forum, and I really don’t blame you in following your heart. I have done the very same thing a few times now because just like you say, if you don’t go for it you will always be wondering, ‘what if?’

It is quite difficult seeking a good job at the moment, but it isn’t impossible. Things will improve eventually. In fact there have been quite a few recent posts on here by members new & old, that will prove that a good attitude, positivity and maybe a little luck in being in the right place at the right time will get you there. So, go for it mate! :smiley:

All the very best with it, and don’t forget to keep everybody updated with your progress on here. Cheers! :sunglasses:

12

The advantage I found was that they done the medical there had a retired Dr come in to do it

Also managed to get theory & HPT test same day following on from each other they also lent me the disc for the theory

But do agree no real advantage in using a trainer & as has been said dont use a broker go direct to the company or visit a few in your area there is a list of recommended trainers on here

13

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your training as others have said if you want to know if trainer ok ask on here we are all willing to help as much as poss so dont feel shy on asking questions no matter how daft you think they are we promise we wont take the micky too much :wink:

all the best

Jen x