Newbie to the forum

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

hello all, been a member for a short while now and just noticed today that im allowed to post so here goes. my name is Simon and im a yorkshire lad (gods county). had my class 2 licence for roughly ten years now but found it hard getting work as a noob and tbh i wasnt persistent enough and settled for a taxi drivers job locally. it was chose your own hours etc etc and it got me a few miles under my belt. unfortunately i was a very naughty boy “back in the day” and i ended up totting up 13 points and getting banned :cry:

As you can imagine, im having a similar problem finding work as i did initially but this time its my own fault (i hold my hands up to it) I am now solely doing agency class 2 work and refusing to do any other work as this time i am ten years older, married and a lot more mature and refuse to let my past mistakes mess me up longer than needs be. anyway, thats me and my background in a nutshell so fingers crossed work comes my way.

I am interested in both tramping and trunking but im in a bit of a pickle, as a newly married man, is there such thing as part time tramping (full time id see the wife 4 days A MONTH). i do like seeing the country but i also like seeing my wife too. trunking also interests me as its the same regular run BUT i only see one part of the country and thats not what iu got into the job for. anyway, seems i have rambled on a little longer than i should so ill leave it as is lol. cracking site btw

2

If you talk to the guys who do tramping a lot of them relationships have suffered because they dont get to spend enough time with the family , not always but my opinion is its a single mans/womans job , trunking is as you say the same route most days/nights , multidrop can be hard work but keeps ya fit :wink: , one of the most fun jobs I have done was on the ro ros for recycling the guys are a great laugh just a shame here its not that well paid but I dont know what its like round your way , Ive done the bins and you start early 5 or 6 morning but your finished around 11 12 so get to spend time with the kids and wifey :bulb:
good luck with it all and welcome to the forum :smiley:

3

thanks for your kind reply. as i write now i am putting my feet up from one the most enjoyable days work in a long time. i was called from my agency to go to poundstretcher head office in huddersfield to start at 5:30, a lay in. Anyway i got there to meet the friendliest set of lads ever, turns out i was driving a mounted box van (if thats what ya call em). firstly, let me say im not a fan of multi drop so when they tell me that my three drops (hornsea, 2 leeds) were not multi drop but they were one load,back,one load,back etc i thought this was gonna be the worst, turns out i enjoyed it. i had a 10 plate merc axios (is it?) auto which was absolutely fantastic. such a lovely smooth drive and so easy to get where you want it. i got back from my first truck load in hornsea and thats when i learn a new trick. my box has legs and i can just swap the boxes rather than waiting for a reload, this is unheard of to me. i dropped my box quick sharpish and picked another up (perfectly may i add :slight_smile: ) and i was away. The next two drops in leeds went smoothly enough and i was back home. To end this with a drivers hours query, i ended up doing 14 hours today but am i right in thinking that because i only did one other 10 hour shift this week this extension is well within the law, i did have two 45 min “breaks” today so the tacho should be kept happy. i must admit it all confuses me and i just cant understand why the laws are so restrictive. again, thanks for the welcome

4

Glad you enjoyed it , answer to your query yes your fine , and the laws are there so we can not be made to work ourselves to the grave lol , believe me if we did not have them rules and regs most employers would have us working 24hrs , think how knackered you are after a 14hr day lol ,
There are so many varied jobs in hgv driving that you will find your niche , and agency gives you the opportunity to try out different jobs and find what suits you best ,
go into your local vosa and they have a handy little booklet with drivers hours etc in , :bulb:

5

Jennie:
go into your local vosa and they have a handy little booklet with drivers hours etc in , :bulb:

This one - EU Drivers Hours
and
This one - Road Transport Working Time

Weighty booklets, probably giving rise to more questions than answers, but good for reference. :confused:

Hi and good luck finding work that suits :smiley:

6

thanks guys, im enjoying agency work at the minute as im seeing it from a different perspective to what i was before. the work might not be constant at the minute but i am getting my name thrown about and showing my face, i always work my hardest so hopefully one day ill drop on a company that needs someone full time. Hard work will pay off eventually.