Professional Driver when you flatten a few people on a Motorway and there’s an investigation / Amateur Wage for just doing your job…
Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation? Industry wonder why they can’t get Drivers 
bbez:
Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation?
Because it isn’t a skilled vocation.
If you on amateur wages at moment think you should look for a new job! Professional driver? Obviously you don’t drive down the M6 
bbez:
Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation? Industry wonder why they can’t get Drivers
Because you can leave school with no qualifications barely able to read and write and as long as you can pass a test and the stupidly simple DCPC you can be out the following week driving a lorry on your own. Compare that to proper skilled vocations where you’re going to need to go into at least futher education or higher education and attain A levels, BTEC Level 3 or equivalent or an undergraduate degree and complete training usually 2-3 years at the very least.
Conor:
bbez:
Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation? Industry wonder why they can’t get DriversBecause you can leave school with no qualifications barely able to read and write and as long as you can pass a test and the stupidly simple DCPC you can be out the following week driving a lorry on your own. Compare that to proper skilled vocations where you’re going to need to go into at least futher education or higher education and attain A levels, BTEC Level 3 or equivalent or an undergraduate degree and complete training usually 2-3 years at the very least.
The cpc is not that simple - I needed to clarify with the instructor just how you “fill up” by putting the nozzle into the diesel tank at the petrol station. Fascinating!
JeffA:
The cpc is not that simple
Module 2 and 4 are simple. They’re set at a level where even those with zero academic qualifications can pass. They may appear to be hard to the less academically inclined and for those who panic in an test but in the grand scheme of things they’re very simple. Much of it is common sense, the rest the answers are in the scenario.
If you think the CPC isn’t simple you’d ■■■■ a brick at the level of maths required for a skilled vocational qualification although I doubt you’d even have passed the entry level requirements for the course. And judging by the level of illiteracy displayed by many on social media who say it’s a skilled vocation most wouldn’t be driving lorries if the academic standards were as high.
The DCPC isn’t hard either but I can guarantee that if there were to be exams after it with the same 85% minimum pass rate that every vocational certification I’ve ever done has had that the following Monday there’d be a lot of empty drivers seats given how we have drivers who still, despite having done two rounds of the DCPC and possibly have been working under EU drivers hours for over quarter of a century still can’t get the basics right.
Very true. The frequent posts that you see on here, with the most basic of questions, are all the evidence anyone needs to support the notion that there’s still a sufficient number of drivers requiring training.
Becoming a competent safe knowledgeable lorry driver is a skill, which takes many years to hone and you never stop learning and fine tuning just as in any trade.
There are jobs out there that require considerably more input and craft than following a pre ordained route backing the thing on a bay (eventually) and letting someone else load or unload.
Suggest find such a job and enjoy the terms and conditions such jobs attract.
Harry Monk:
bbez:
Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation?Because it isn’t a skilled vocation.
True and false.
A truck driver is expected to work for 60-70 hours a week and not make a single mistake.
Not. A. Single. Mistake.
Any mistake and your professional license is in jeopardy. You risk fines and imprisonment.
You operate in a fast moving dynamic environment with no room for errors. There’s no going back and re-doing an error. There’s no double checking for errors before commissioning.
Let me give you an example -
A newly qualified plumber will have spent several years at college and working on the tools with a qualified plumber.
He’ll be given a job installing a gas Combi boiler.
Before that boiler is fired up his mentor will run every check on gas and water. Only when he’s satisfied will the boiler be commissioned. If there’s any faults in the system it will be picked up long before it’s turned on.
And what do we do with truck drivers?
Here’s a set of keys. Take it there.
Who do you think kill more people every year. Truckers or gas installers?
Is it a skilled job? Our accident history suggests not.
Maybe that’s why we need to do CPC?
One of the things I always found mildly amusing is drivers who would bang on about the job being skilled and that we should be paid more but at the very same time saying that we shouldn’t be doing formal training and certifications like every other skilled job requires. Well you don’t get to be classed as skilled if you don’t do those things, at best you get semi-skilled which is where we’re at.
I think those on here who say lgv driver is not a skill then think of you first year or six months when you started…please dont say it was easy
The older drivers on here highlight how trucking, ‘isn’t what it used to be’. With automatic transmission, CC, no more sheeting etc. Now, there won’t be a need to even go backwards. How in God’s name can pointing a vehicle down a road be classed as a ‘skill’. Hold on to the shortage to get more money because you ain’t getting it through adulation.
LazyDriver:
The older drivers on here highlight how trucking, ‘isn’t what it used to be’. With automatic transmission, CC, no more sheeting etc. Now, there won’t be a need to even go backwards. How in God’s name can pointing a vehicle down a road be classed as a ‘skill’. Hold on to the shortage to get more money because you ain’t getting it through adulation.
You couldn’t just put someone in a wagon and say “Off you go love - there’s 6 Tesco express places to deliver to” tho right? So there has to be some difference between a non-hgv driver and a hgv driver. If it isn’t “skill” then what is it? Experience? Talent?
Is guitar playing a skill? Anyone can pick up and play an E chord within 20 minutes but does that mean Jimi Hendrix didn’t have a skill?
People appear to be getting “skilled” mixed up with “Experience”
HGV driving isn’t a skilled profession, you can be the dumbest human on the planet but as long as you can keep your eye lids open for 35 hours you get a blue card, even the most stupid imbecile would eventually pass a test even if it took them multiple attempts. It doesn’t make them skilled it just gives them a licence to drive an HGV.
Now someone with years of driving is experienced and less unlikely to hit things and bring the truck back in one piece. In this present climate the experience part has gone out of the window with most companies just looking for an arse on a seat, we are just in demand at the moment we will soon be forgotten about, then the press will move on to a lack of fruit and veg on the shelves because nobody wants to work on farms, so then fruit/vegetable pickers will be deemed a “skilled” job. Rinse and repeat with any area of employment that is struggling to get workers.
Skilled in my opinion is someone that went to college /University for a number of years and studied, sat exams.
Not someone that rocked up at an HGV school on Monday morning and by Friday night was driving an HGV up the M6 for DpD.
To be fair, a lot of lorry drivers cannot operate a tape measure safely, there can be no other reason for the amount of bridges getting clobbered.
Wheel Nut:
To be fair, a lot of lorry drivers cannot operate a tape measure safely, there can be no other reason for the amount of bridges getting clobbered.
If it wasn’t covered in my 4 days of training, it must be deemed unnecessary. 
bbez:
Professional Driver when you flatten a few people on a Motorway and there’s an investigation / Amateur Wage for just doing your job…Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation? Industry wonder why they can’t get Drivers
It IS recognised as a skilled vocation:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skilled_worker
I don’t really agree with the “Amateur Wages” argument either, I have experience of both the engineering and teaching professions and know that there are plenty of both who can end up doing stupid long hours on similar pay.
Conor’s argument that the job is semi-skilled sounds quite reasonable, untill you look at some of the other (typically classed as) “semi-skilled” jobs e.g. Waiter.
Reckon you could take a food order from a menu, deliver said order to the kitchen and then the actual food back to the same table twenty minutes later?
You do?
Congratulations, you’re Semi - Skilled !
bbez:
Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation? Industry wonder why they can’t get Drivers
Quite a few drivers are skilled but equally quite a few are not . As for why they can’t get drivers… if you read a few forum posts, how welcoming and friendly does the image of ‘professional’ drivers seem to be?
Acorn:
bbez:
Why isn’t Truck Driving recognised as a Skilled Vacation? Industry wonder why they can’t get DriversQuite a few drivers are skilled but equally quite a few are not . As for why they can’t get drivers… if you read a few forum posts, how welcoming and friendly does the image of ‘professional’ drivers seem to be?
Totally agree some of the posts on here do confirm why I needed to find another skill
Yes there are elements of the job that can be genuinely classified as skilled. Some of the equipment attached to the vehicles nowadays will not be a 2 minute instruction as to how to operate despite the manufacturers efforts
Back in the day I spent many an hour explaining to fellow drivers how to set their fridge controls. The concept of checking the fridge motor oil level at the same time as the vehicle checks did not exist and if the fridge stopped or wouldn’t start it was always the garages fault
KTMrider:
It IS recognised as a skilled vocation:
Not under the official UK definition which is the one the government use. No requirement for any further/higher education qualifications. Hell there’s not even a requirement to have attended school at all.