Hi, brief introduction I got my licences 5 years back and my CPC is due to expire this month. I haven’t done any days towards it yet. I now work as a whole time fire fighter and haven’t done much driving other than the odd few days for a while. My FF wage is obviously my main income but the Mrs maternity ends soon and we are weighing up me working a second job for her to stay at home to avoid child care costs.
Is it worth me doing my CPC to work for agencies? Is there still plenty work with them? I’m in Wolverhampton.
My current options are to renew CPC and drive or put the money toward retraining in something else but most options need more money than I have (sparky for example).
I’d be looking for 2 days out of 8 for driving and providing I could get that regularly then the driving route is probably best. Have my class 1 and experience in most the normal jobs agencies are likely to have.
If it’s worth renewing, does anyone know any half decent agencies near Wolverhampton?
Work for an agency, the better the return on your investment. You have to have the dcpc to drive for anyone so having to fork out for it is a no brainer. Not sure it’s quite so easy to get qualified as a fully fledged sparky. A friend of mines lad did years at college to gain his sparky ticket and even after all that he can’t sign certain types of work off. There won’t be much call for agency drivers until the end of this month and sometimes into April as well.
Problem you might have is finding space on a dcpc course. I reckon they’ll all be slammed with drivers trying to beat the September deadline.
Thanks ms for your reply! Obviously if i’m to co time any sort of driving I need the CPC. If agencies are still busy enough for me to be able to pick 2 or 3 days out of 8 then it’ll be worthwhile.
Most firefighters tend to have a second job and a lot of them are trade related. Training to become a domestic electrician can be as simple as a 4 week course but the cost is almost 3k. There are other avenues too though, such as CCTV installation which is much cheaper to qualify in.
Driving is probably my easiest option. Driving hours can make trying to get enough work in difficult but not impossible. I work 4 on 4 off. My 4 on are 2 days followed by 2 night shifts.
It depends on what you want to do with it, because atm you don’t appear to do enough shifts to warrant it, so the return on your investment is poor. However if you decide to work more regularly then the investment will be worthwhile. Only you can decide which is the best thing for you.
While I’m here… does anyone know how long a piece of string is?
peirre:
It depends on what you want to do with it, because atm you don’t appear to do enough shifts to warrant it, so the return on your investment is poor. However if you decide to work more regularly then the investment will be worthwhile. Only you can decide which is the best thing for you.
While I’m here… does anyone know how long a piece of string is?
2-3 days income paid out (plus a week of your time/ holidays) enables you to work for the next 5 years, if its your best/ easiest option then surely you take it?
Providing the work is there it’ll be worth while. What is the going rate for agency weekday and weekend at the moment? I just don’t want to pay out for CPC to find there’s not much agency work out there
sometime soon there will be some herbert coming along to remind you that all the work you do as a fireman must be declared as other work on your digicard otherwise itl be a murder enquiry when you get interrogated by the vostapo.
Do you need a DCPC to drive a fire engine? As you have the driving licence you may as well do DCPC . Becoming qualified at any thing worth while would cost more than £400.00 .
WhiteTruckMan:
As an aside, why do so many firefighters have second jobs? As compared with other emergency services? Is the pay really that crap?
Possibly because if they are on the night shift they spend much of their time asleep? I’m not stating that as fact BTW because I don’t know, but it seems logical to me.
WhiteTruckMan:
As an aside, why do so many firefighters have second jobs? As compared with other emergency services? Is the pay really that crap?
Possibly because if they are on the night shift they spend much of their time asleep? I’m not stating that as fact BTW because I don’t know, but it seems logical to me.
Perhaps, but it shouldn’t be viewed in a negative way. If a firefighters night shift gets paid for doing nowt all night it means they’ve had no fires to put out, which is a good thing. But you wouldn’t want them to be unavailable would you?
That having been said…even if they did spend the whole shift kipping it would presumably count as POA rather than rest if the law is strictly interpreted (as of course it would be if DVSA were investigating a lorry driver) so they could not legally drive the next day. If however their rest days fell favourably, perhaps they could.
alamcculloch:
Do you need a DCPC to drive a fire engine? As you have the driving licence you may as well do DCPC . Becoming qualified at any thing worth while would cost more than £400.00 .
Not required by the Fire Brigade, guy I know is a Brigade Driver, but has a sideline that involves having his own 18 ton truck, so has to have a DCPC.
WhiteTruckMan:
As an aside, why do so many firefighters have second jobs? As compared with other emergency services? Is the pay really that crap?
Possibly because if they are on the night shift they spend much of their time asleep? I’m not stating that as fact BTW because I don’t know, but it seems logical to me.
Perhaps, but it shouldn’t be viewed in a negative way. If a firefighters night shift gets paid for doing nowt all night it means they’ve had no fires to put out, which is a good thing. But you wouldn’t want them to be unavailable would you?
Don’t get me wrong, if this is the case I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but the question was asked as to why firefighters were more likely to have second jobs than police or ambulance workers, and possibly the reason is that the nature of those jobs are very different and staff are far more likely to be actively involved in dealing with their particular field of emergencies than firefighters, who by the nature of the job will be dealing with emergencies relatively infrequently.
Book and attend the 5 day course at Haywards in Walsall.(Look upon it as an investment …)
haytrans.co.uk
-(A well established, expanding haulage firm with a good reputation…)
After a couple of days, ask the tutor who to speak to over in the Transport office who deals with driver recruitment.
Explain your circumstances to them, firefighter, looking for part time day work, regular rota with days known in advance (due to your 4 on/4 off shifts for the fire service,) just renewed your CPC in their excellent training facility, etc.
They have a variety of types of trailer which suggests to me a good place to get yourself some experience on different types of loads.
(Personally I’d prefer the Container work, but for yourself it will be a learning curve for the first year or so, given the part time basis you’d be there.)
My honest opinion is that they would be happy to have someone like you walking through their door and would take your contact details in an instant…
**Even if you didn’t hear from them for a bit you could certainly phone them after a few weeks to remind them - that firefighter fella who they spoke to when he was there renewing his CPC !
WhiteTruckMan:
As an aside, why do so many firefighters have second jobs? As compared with other emergency services? Is the pay really that crap?
Possibly because if they are on the night shift they spend much of their time asleep? I’m not stating that as fact BTW because I don’t know, but it seems logical to me.
Perhaps, but it shouldn’t be viewed in a negative way. If a firefighters night shift gets paid for doing nowt all night it means they’ve had no fires to put out, which is a good thing. But you wouldn’t want them to be unavailable would you?
Don’t get me wrong, if this is the case I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but the question was asked as to why firefighters were more likely to have second jobs than police or ambulance workers, and possibly the reason is that the nature of those jobs are very different and staff are far more likely to be actively involved in dealing with their particular field of emergencies than firefighters, who by the nature of the job will be dealing with emergencies relatively infrequently.
It’s due to the shift system 4 on 4 off. Still working 48 hour weeks though.
The only thing you have to be careful with is sticking to the WTD. Which you can still do worked out over an average 17 week period.
One week work one of your middle days off. Following week do 2.
This isn’t a problem with guys that work part time in trades etc but if you break WTD or get a pull from DVSA make sure everything is above board as Fire Service bosses will not look favourably on this.
Book and attend the 5 day course at Haywards in Walsall.(Look upon it as an investment …)
haytrans.co.uk
-(A well established, expanding haulage firm with a good reputation…)
After a couple of days, ask the tutor who to speak to over in the Transport office who deals with driver recruitment.
Explain your circumstances to them, firefighter, looking for part time day work, regular rota with days known in advance (due to your 4 on/4 off shifts for the fire service,) just renewed your CPC in their excellent training facility, etc.
They have a variety of types of trailer which suggests to me a good place to get yourself some experience on different types of loads.
(Personally I’d prefer the Container work, but for yourself it will be a learning curve for the first year or so, given the part time basis you’d be there.)
My honest opinion is that they would be happy to have someone like you walking through their door and would take your contact details in an instant…
**Even if you didn’t hear from them for a bit you could certainly phone them after a few weeks to remind them - that firefighter fella who they spoke to when he was there renewing his CPC !
Good Luck for the future…
I’ll have a look into them, thanks for the recommendation!
Lots of people work second jobs because 1, the pay isn’t good and 2, the 4 on 4 off shift pattern gives us chance to work another job.
We have written stand down time during nights but as we’re still available for emergency calls only I’m not sure how this would affect the wtd or whether it could be classed as rest or poa. Our official stand down is 4.5 hours I believe.
Thanks for all your replies! I’ll have a look at a course for my dcpc and get back into it then I think!
Carl-H:
We have written stand down time during nights but as we’re still available for emergency calls only I’m not sure how this would affect the wtd or whether it could be classed as rest or poa. Our official stand down is 4.5 hours I believe.
My take on it would be that it would be classed as POA because you’re on call. EU definition of a rest period (cut and pasted from Govenment website) is an uninterrupted period where a driver may freely dispose of their time. You clearly can’t do that because you’re on call even if it is for emergencies only. Therefore it’s POA.
…)
etc.
