Ok i have just passed my c+e test (still smiling) what i need now is experience.
The situation is that i work full time for local council driving a bin wagon (god do i hate it & the new ops manager is a complete ■■■, already had a few run ins with him, but thats another story). I drive approx 37 hours a week Monday to Friday on domestic hours, every other week i am on 24 hour 7 day call out to drive a gritter (driving the gritter dosn’t count towards hours).
As i am the only earner & have a mortgage etc to pay i can’t afford to not work.
Reading the posts on here it looks like the best way to gain the experience i need is to sign with an agency, but to stay legal i could only do 1 8 hour shift every other weekend, also it looks like agency work gets quiet after xmas so jacking the job in is not really an option right now (but knowing the next time the ops manager gets on my case i can tell him where to stick the job is a great feeling ).
When my licence comes back i will get myself round the local transport firms to see if they will take on a new driver & go see the agencys.
Any help and/or advice would be very welcome
mick57:
When my licence comes back i will get myself round the local transport firms to see if they will take on a new driver & go see the agencys.
Any help and/or advice would be very welcome
Mick
That’s what I would do…
I have also just passed my class 1 but still yet to drive cause license has not come through. I have no doubt I could find full time work locally, albeit less money and not ideal. I have in the last week turned down class 1 work on 4 occasions due to no license, thankfully still working full weeks class 2.
From what folks say this could all change in the new year… Agency work that is, I still should be able to get on a firm.
Thankfully I don’t still have a mortgage to pay so different circumstance, but I have done the bins and wouldn’t again. I also live in a part of the uk where work is not in abundance and wages are low. Have a look around your area and way it up…
I do a simular thing but work in an office and usually do one shift per weekend or alternate weekends and that works our OK for your leagal hrs.
I work for Driver HIre in York and the rates are OK and most of the work is easy - been doing some work at Morrisons at Knaresborough you get 8 hrs pay but the runs are job and finish - one Sunday I was home after 3½ hrs.
Now i may be totally wrong on this but a couple of things that spring to mind are as follows,
Firstly, if your driving on domestic hours you will not be able to do that 8 hour shift at any weekend, because you cannot mix driving domestic and European.
Secondly, you could find yourself a job say with royal mail, who also run on domestic hours and then you could work seven days a week and basically all of the eu laws go out of the window.
Domestic hours mean you can drive for 10 hours with no break, you do not have to have weekly rests, goes against everything on the eu rules.
Manpower driving have all the contracts for royal mail, so i’m sure they’d be willing to give you a crack at it if you went in and explained your situation, there screaming for drivers this time of year.
Failing that, try going for a full time job driving class 1, and jack the bins in.
As soon as you insert a tacho the rest of the week comes under tacho, I’ve had this argument with the office chimp at the local depot.
Domestic rules apply’s to the work & the vehicle doing it, the driver only falls under domestic laws if that is all he is doing.
But if Firemen can mix the two & get away with it, then…
daxi i think i’m right in saying that they are totally exempt from both eu and domestic rules, firemen that is. If however they want to come under rules, they fall under domestic and not eu.
