Hi everyone, first time poster here, so be gentle.
I have no experience of the transport industry whatsoever, other than my old man was a HGV driver (retired over 10 years ago), and am a little taken aback by the volume of knowledge and qualities needed.
I’m contemplating a career change and switching from the Prison Service to something totally different. “Dont do it”, i hear you say, but i’d say the same to someone going the other way!! Living near the M62/M1 interchange there seems a lot of jobs around, which made me look into this career path… Is there a shortage of drivers or something■■?
So hello again and please be prepared for a bombardment of questions.
Hi and welcome to the forum. So far as jobs go, it’s certainly the best it’s been for a long time. Don’t be fooled, though. Some of the work will be seasonal up to Christmas - so you’ll miss that now.
I believe there was someone else on here who left the Prison Service - so you’re not the first.
As someone who has been through the test and its new at driving in general (only been driving for 2 years prior to passing my C), its tough. As a newbie, you’ll be thrown in at the deep end at most places and are expected to swim. You’ll be doing all sorts of work for all sorts of companies. So are better than others. You will make mistakes, you will break something at some point but don’t let that worry you. You drive on the road everyday, something is bound to go wrong.
As a new driver it well come as a bit of a shock to what they expect you to know and do but don’t let that scare you. Not once have I been turned away by another driver when I asked for some advice and guidance. My advice to you is to book an assessment drive. Driving a even a C class truck is a lot different to a car. You may think you want to do it but if you get behind the wheel and find out its not to your liking then you’ve only lost £40 a most rather than £2000.
All that being said, if you can keep a cool head and are reasonably organised you should do well but remember, passing the test is only one stage. It only gets tough when you are out there working for real.
Thanks for the welcome guys, its much appreciated.
Yeah i’ve been looking into local training centres, with Elmet and Tockwith being two i plan on visiting. First things first, i’ve requested the D2 package forms to fill in and get my medical and provisional out of the way. Then i believe the next step is visit a local training centre for an assessment. Can i get a provisional licence for C&E now or just C at this stage…■■
The driver CPC seems to be the biggest ball ache, and most time consuming. I can imaging this puts off new drivers joining the industry!!?
In your experiences how long could this whole process take? i know everyone is different, but providing i take well to it and pass everything first time (extremely wishful thinking i know!!), are we taking a month, 3 months, 6 months, or maybe a year??
So you want to leave the prison service with good money, pension, good hours to drive a truck. Think hard about it first paying £3000 to get your licence then maybe not find work after or if you get work you may be doing 84 hours per week for around the NMW.
The clever way to do initial DCPC is to do the mod 2 theory on the same day you do the basic theory and HPT tests at the theory centre then to do the mod 4 during your practical road training so you do not have to hire the lorry again to do it
mac12:
So you want to leave the prison service with good money, pension, good hours to drive a truck. Think hard about it first paying £3000 to get your licence then maybe not find work after or if you get work you may be doing 84 hours per week for around the NMW.
Thanks for the words of caution Mac, but prison officers are starting on less than 20k a year and that includes the unsociable hours top up. The working conditions too are becoming increasingly dangerous and its not something i wouldn’t want anyone over the age of 50/55 doing let alone a retirement age of 68 (could even be increased by the time i retire as im 35).
But i take on board your comments as there extremely valid and ones i am thinking about. (NMW = National Minimum Wage■■?)
ROG:
The clever way to do initial DCPC is to do the mod 2 theory on the same day you do the basic theory and HPT tests at the theory centre then to do the mod 4 during your practical road training so you do not have to hire the lorry again to do it
ROG is this something a training centre will help with?? Can the MODS be done in any order??
Regarding timing I recently passed class c and from taking my medical it took 10 weeks for my provisional to arrive but I’ve read a few posts where they have been returned quicker. Then it was a further 4 week delay till I could get a slot for the theory test. So your probably looking at 3 to 5 months to get qualified.
I’ve got one week left to serve in my current IT post before starting a new job / career as a driver. Seems to be plenty of work around my area with companies willing to consider newly qualified drivers. But as said earlier will probably be harder after Christmas.
Earliest a training school at Leicester can start a trainee for C practical is in Jan 2015 so to go now from Taking medical to getting C+E is likely to take from 3 to 4 months
That COULD be the case around the UK at the good schools
On the plus side it shows that things are well on the up
bagz:
What’s a ‘shunt’? referring to you being allowed 2 in the test?
Ive googled it, and it just comes up with a type of driving work…
You reverse and get yourself a bit pear shaped- Then you need to move forwards to straighten up/ get better steering angle- this is what’s called a ‘shunt’
Earliest a training school at Leicester can start a trainee for C practical is in Jan 2015
We are end Nov at Peterborough and mid Dec at Mansfield. We’ve kept the wait to a minimum by using an extra vehicle and trainer.
Things are certainly “on the up”. We are currently booking approximately 2 weeks work each week. In other words, without increasing capacity, our waiting list will increase steadily. But candidates can be sure we have the additional capacity in place to minimise delays.
