I have just recently passed my C+E and ADR, as Iam one of the lucky ones who is currently serving with the forces, I got all my tests and theory through the army which from what I can work out has saved me round about £4000. This is all well and good however are there any ex forces members who can shed some light on my question !!!
Here goes
Why is time driving within the army ie : Tank transporters, DROPS, Fuel Bowsers etc, not recognised by civilian companys as experience ?
My instructors at DST Leconfield said “There are thousands of driving vacancies throughout the UK” , So why are the agencies I have contacted so reluctant to take me on
I do understand that experience counts for a lot, but if no one will give you a break what the hell are you meant to do ?
Once I leave the Army in 8 years time I will be looking at going driving full time.
If I were you I wouldn’t think so far ahead.
When you leave the army in 8 years time,Britain and it’s armed forces will have ceased to exist.
You will be taking your orders straight from Brussels as part of an European Army.
why because it is differant work and although in some
points you will be better qualified than many, in others
you will not have the driveing experience,for example
covering 15–24,000km in a month is one point,
knowing the paperwork and custom procedures,
economical driveing, loadsafety (maybe?);
KNOWLEDGe which only comes when one acctually
does the job,This is what ALL newbies to this job
have problems with.
while in the army get yourself on to as many courses
as possible,if you can get a HIAB certificate also
a Forklift handlers certificate, if youare also thinking of
becomeing a OwnerDriver take both the CPC exams.
YOU will have to take or have the new exam which is
comeing into force for all Commercial Drivers,
how good are you with knowledge, about working,
driveing ,rest rules,do you know how to use the tacho-
-graph.,for example,
IF you can when allowed ,how about working
for some one when on leave?? this way you will get a insite
to the job which awaits you when you leave the army,
you will find that when you become more knowledgeable
then you will approach any new employer with perhaps a
better chance
I’m an ex-army driver. A driver by trade.
During my initial training I was taught
how to check a vehicle over
simple fault finding
basic recovery procedures
basic servicing procedures
load security among a lot of other useful things.
(The load security test was to supervise the loading of a cross country vehicle to its MGW, secure the load, then to complete a cross country course, retaining the full load. If you couldn’t complete the driving part, you failed that part of the training and had to re-do it, repeatedly if necessary)
At my first working unit, I ran the unit tyre bay for 6 months changing tyres for all the types of vehicles we had. Then I worked in the unit servicing bay, servicing those same vehicles.
After a few years I did some further training to build on the experience I had gained in the units where I had worked.
On completing that training I was qualified to
run a servicing bay
MOT type inspections
multi-leg winch rope recovery
Lorry mounted crane instruction
All-terrain fork-lift truck instruction
Continuation driving instruction
Coach driving
ADR (explosives, although it wasn’t called ADR then) etc. (No CITB certificates unfortunately)
I didn’t have experience of how commercial companies operate, tacho’s / hours law and customs procedures.
I had toured Europe at the wheel of an army Bedford MJ wagon and A-frame drag, with deadlines etc. The main difference being that it was all ‘own account’ work.
From that BritPete, what would you suggest Grundil should concentrate on to gain the experience he requires
Grundil. At this time of year, agencies don’t have a great deal of work. What they do have they tend to give it to their regulars.
Employers are unlikely to be recruiting 8 years in advance, the company may not even be in existance in 8 years time. You can only be looking for casual work at the moment, there are plenty of people doing casual work who arn’t likely to be shipped out to foreign fields at a moments notice
simon , i have done a amendment and put the dots in
and added a few words, but what ever our friend does
the more knowledge he can gain ,then this will help
him yes he will need to get experience : and if
he can whilist on leave: do some driveing this will
help,
But to be truthfull i learnt much more from
drivers on the road and also in the german class room.
then perhaps by the military who gave me my licence with 17.
and also some other qualifications as well,
I would like to add that the job has changed and is changeing daily
and what everone needs to do is keep onlearning as the school
lessons never end,
Thanks for the replies. After re-reading what i had actually typed earlier I may have mislead you to what I was after. However, gotta say the course I have just done was excellent, it pretty much covered what Simon said and a hell of a lot more as well.
The army now learns about tacho’s, this was never done before as the army has crown exemption, but from a rumour i have heard it will be introduced sometime this coming year. I actually applied for an agency today and had to sit a brief test on Tacho’s, the guy who interviewed me seem quite suprised when i got full marks on his test, maybe he thought i was just another " dumb squaddie ".
I also realise that the army maybe the size of a postage stamp in 8 years time, but i was not implying that i was looking for a company to work with in 8 years time
As some one said, it is just casual work im after, but i guess i will have to see what comes up
If the British army train you to do a job, like being a driver, then they teach you everything they need you to know and a lot more. They also make sure you keep up to date with everything they need you to know and continue to expand your knowledge of the job.
If, on the other hand, they teach you to drive a truck to spend some money. Thats all they teach you.
There are a lot of ex-squaddies who the army gave a licence to, well they had to pass the test, but that is all they where taught.
When they leave the army, they discover that there isn’t much call for people who can carry heavy weights and kill other people. So they say,“Oh, by the way, I was also an army driver”. It takes next to no time before their new boss realises that they know next to nothing about driving. By that time, the damage is done. If this one was an army driver, then the next one will be just the same. So no-one is prepared to take the initial risk. You’re back to the same Catch-22 as the person who passed their test last week.
Now I’ve got to tread carefully here, there are a lot of army toes on this site , but, I’ll give you 2 examples of why some people might have misgivings.
I passed my motorbike test with the army. It was a joke. There was no roadwork, everything was done on the camp. When the sergeant put his hand up for the emergency stop, no problem for me but my mate must have missed it. He came to a leisurely halt after about 10 yards when he realised I wasn’t there any more. The sergeant looked at him thoughtfully for a minute, looked at his watch, then said ‘OK’. . They seemed more interested in whether we could drive as slowly as possible off road (with road bikes) without putting a foot down. Both of us made a mess of it. The sergeant then said ‘no, no, no, give it here, I’ll show you’. He then did a perfect round, watched us only slightly improved and gave us the little pink slips.
When I worked at K&M of Bulwell (now Hucknall) a bloke fresh from the army took the top off a powder tanker under Macclesfield bridge. When the question was asked later by others ‘how could that happen?’ , the answer was ‘ex Army’ followed by . 'Nuff said.
Now I know this was a long time ago and things may have changed but it does demonstrate a certain attitude in many transport circles.
Now where was that tin hat, it’s around here somewhere
Spardo:
Now I’ve got to tread carefully here, there are a lot of army toes on this site , but, I’ll give you 2 examples of why some people might have misgivings.
I passed my motorbike test with the army. It was a joke. There was no roadwork, everything was done on the camp. When the sergeant put his hand up for the emergency stop, no problem for me but my mate must have missed it. He came to a leisurely halt after about 10 yards when he realised I wasn’t there any more. The sergeant looked at him thoughtfully for a minute, looked at his watch, then said ‘OK’. . They seemed more interested in whether we could drive as slowly as possible off road (with road bikes) without putting a foot down. Both of us made a mess of it. The sergeant then said ‘no, no, no, give it here, I’ll show you’. He then did a perfect round, watched us only slightly improved and gave us the little pink slips.
When I worked at K&M of Bulwell (now Hucknall) a bloke fresh from the army took the top off a powder tanker under Macclesfield bridge. When the question was asked later by others ‘how could that happen?’ , the answer was ‘ex Army’ followed by . 'Nuff said.
Now I know this was a long time ago and things may have changed but it does demonstrate a certain attitude in many transport circles.
Now where was that tin hat, it’s around here somewhere
ive no experiance with the army but i have heard the same things said… basically if you can drive in a straight line you pass the test.
as i said ive no experiance with the army maybe … well proberley il be corrected.
hi mate
As an x army driver all i can say mate is when on leave drive for as many firms as pos and in an array of trucks to get a feel of the job. as all before have said unlessyou can show that you can do the job they want you to do they wont employ you nows the time time to make mistakes not in 8yr when you need the job best off luck in what ever you do mate.
bill
Right, i thought that some one will have to stand up
and put the army view over, the driveing test is
carried out exactly, as per the test for all persons
wishing to have a UK driveing licence,so it is not
a case of just pointing the vehicle in one direction
and a straight line and ““BOB.s YOUR UNCLE””,
you have passed NO WAY AT ALL;!!THE DRIVERS
will get taught to do a daily check (first-parade)
on the vehicle,and have to take certain exams
to gain qualifications;;THEY WILL only be taught
to drives as the Forces WISH THEM TO;; and so
they will not be in many respects as good as a
driver who is working in the commercial area
IF the ex-SERVICES person can not adapt
and work as the commercial transport wishes
then he/she will not be acceptted, what many
people forget is that some people adapt quicker
than others,whilist some are just helpless after
being in the forces for so long,where the services
do take all the strain of moderen life off you
what people should not forget is that many
ex-forces do adapt and turn out as good
drivers for the commerical driveing,and
remember some of those who did the
Middle–East were ex-forces as well as the
odd popstar,wrestling star,lawyer,nurse etc etc
my tip to any ex-forces who wishes to take
up the job is be preparded to start at the bottom
again no matter how old you are, and do ask
questions when unsure, …AND as for the
commercial driver, we are not finished with learning
and can also learn from those who are new to the job
as some times,they will be able to show another view
or point which we can all ,benifit from,
Just got back in and read what everyone has written,
Thanks Pete for saying what I was going to !!! I was about to start throwing hand grenades at people…lol
It does seem that even though the army employs over 15,000 drivers of various ilks, we will always be in the minority and tarred with the same brush !!!
As Pete said, the tests we do are exactly the same as what the civilians do, the only difference for us is the cost !!
I passed my cat C test 7 days after stepping foot in the driving seat of a wagon for the first time ever, i then took 2 tests to complete my cat C+E, and the time scale was over a total of 11 days !
I can understand what everyone else says about the army, but put yourself into the shoes of a 17 year old, who has just passed the cat B licence, then C+ E, they are then going to units with little or no driving experience (car or wagon ) what so ever and then they are expected to take on loads upto 80+ Tonnes.
Granted, there are some crap drivers in the army, but were not all bad !!!
Sorry, went of on a slight tangent then !!!
Now got myself registered with 3 agencies, and going for an assesment with NFT out of Bristol next week.
I knew people who did National Service and as others have said they were basically given thier licences, really depended on the requirements of the unit they served in, but probably due to the removal of Crown Immunity this type of attitude has changed and as far as I’m aware all forces personal have to pass a civilian test at VOSA run test centres, plus they do get trained to do much more then you’d do on a civilian course.
I’ve worked with loads of ex-forces drivers and you do get the one’s that are in your face, with a “I’m ex forces and I’m better than you” attitude, even if you’ve done the job for years and understand it better than they do.
But for each one of them there are many more who quietly get on with the job in a professional manner and aren’t afraid to ask if they don’t know. The thing is the one’s who tell you how great they are are normally the one’s Who only got a basic training,went nowhere and did nothing.
The other thing is that it doesn’t just apply to the ex-forces drivers.
As for getting work my advice to you is they same as for everybody else, go round all the agencies and companies of all sizes, some won’t want you because they had bad experiences with Ex-forces or just don’t need drivers, but others will look at your military background as an advantage, it’s just being in the right place at the right time.
, but, I’ll give you 2 examples of why some people might have misgivings.
. They seemed more interested in whether we could drive as slowly as possible off road (with road bikes) without putting a foot down. Both of us made a mess of it. The sergeant then said ‘no, no, no, give it here, I’ll show you’. He then did a perfect round, watched us only slightly improved and gave us the little pink slips. 
…easy peasy it was.