whats peoples opinins on here, should hgv drivinh be classified as a skilled trade and should we be paid the same rate as skilled people ie plumbers, carpenters etc etc, after all we do a very responsible job that not anyone could do…
with out us the country would stop.
Maybe so, but don’t hold your breath.
It’s been said many times, anyone with a half sharp driving skil can pass an HGV, we know that doesn’t make them a skilled driver, but it makes them a legal one.
If it was as easy to train as a plumber or electrician, wouldn’t everyone be doing it ■■?
NO because people WANT to drive trucks (I did too, but don’t any more).
Same old song m8, until there really IS a shortage of drivers, the pay & conditions will only improve slowly
All my own humble opinion of course.
I agree with John. The LGV tests are a piece of [zb] to pass hence why you only get 4 lessons. That’s the reason why we’ve got every muppet and his brother now behind the wheels of trucks driving like [zb]s.
If mugs stopped working for £6 and £7 per hour driving artics then change might just start to happen. With the exception of one driving job when the type of work wasn’t something I’d done before and needed to be trained for it, I haven’t worked for less than £10/hr for over 12 months now. If I can do it, why not others?
another subject thats been recycled and flogged to death again.
Next subject please
or better still, something unique…a totally new subject for discussion 
Well some of them are deffo not skilled, so no, no straight forward answer to that one.
Professional truckers do a very highly skilled job and should be paid accordingly.
Of course there are the other ‘truck drivers’ who have scraped through a test and have been given a job driving a truck.
You work it out.
The only time i was ever told i was a professional driver and should know better was if i was pulled by the law. The rest of the time i was treated mostly like a dog on a lead,except when in europe were i thought you got a lot more respect off people. I would be interested to hear your views on this.
regards dave
Its not a skilled trade its a labourers job, It takes a week or less to have the ability to do it a bit like many labouring jobs and then you learn as you go.
The recent possible shortage brought hopes of better money, but due to the sudden influx of drivers from other countries it seems to be yet again a 2 bit job that someone is waiting to take over at any point.
You could train anyone to drive a truck and probably within a week have them qualified, its a job where you dont even need to know the language to do it.
If it was as easy to train as a plumber or electrician, wouldn’t everyone be doing it ■■?
To train for the above one has to learn everything from scratch hence the length of time it takes to qualify.
Those who are training to be truckers already have a driving licence and have already aquired the basics of using the road and hopefully a degree of general road sense.
The training period for heavy goods is only 4/5 days for the simple reason we are not teaching anybody a completely new skill from scratch - we are, (supposedly) taking an experienced and competent driver and simply guiding him through the requirements and safety factors of handlng a larger vehicle.
Well that is the official view but of course all those of us who have been in the training game have questioned, many times, the ‘competent and experienced road user’ bit.
We are classed as Semi skilled and why on earth would i want to earn what a plumber earns why should i take a pay cut
It is non-professional unskilled labour, which is why you earn less than you would get working on the till at Netto, don’t get sick pay, get the minimum legal holiday pay, get paid weekly etc etc etc
Dafman:
We are classed as Semi skilled and why on earth would i want to earn what a plumber earns why should i take a pay cut
I dont know of any truck drivers earning £60 an hour do you?, or £1500 for a weeks work installing a central heating system JUST labour and not including parts which are on top of that.
Rob K wrote
I agree with John. The LGV tests are a piece of [zb] to pass hence why you only get 4 lessons. That’s the reason why we’ve got every muppet and his brother now behind the wheels of trucks driving like [zb]s.
Right i’m no [zb] muppet, & didnt think i was that bad a driver until i took my HGV courses & tests…& I dont drive like a [zb]
now I DO AGREE with you that they really dont cover enough in those 4days training just the minimum to try & get you through, But the test is NOT EASY, yes some might get a good 1 in 1st time…but everytime I was @ featherstone test center Class 1 tests nearly everyone i saw failed… …
i passed on my 3rd attempt…many guys were there on there 3rd 4th & even 5th attempts.
Now this one lad was up from London on his 4th attempt, & had been a class2 driver for 8years…he failed again by leaving the trailer a foot short of the box on the reverse…(click this too see the video of it ) .
media.putfile.com/Artic-Test-reverse …yet in real life as you know you’ll either get out & keep checking your back or u’ll have someone guiding you back…
…now the examiner didnt tell him bout leaving it short & he went out on his drive & came back with 4minors…a [zb] good drive by anyone standards but still a fail.
So I dont really care how good a driver you prob are,or how tough a life you’ve had…you cannot tar everyone with the same brush…as i didnt when i was taken out by a senior driver ( to show me the ropes) who scared the [zb] life out of me when he fell asleep @ the wheel heading for the central reservation…should I call you senior guys MUPPETS OLD TIMERS WHO SHOULD’NT BEHIND A WHEEL OF A TRUCK because you havent taken the New Test■■?,
NO of course not , because whatever job your doing no matter what age they are or how long they’ve been doing it…you’ll always find someone better or worse than you…such is life!!! Rant over 
Back on to topic, I left my job as a Skilled worker ( Die Sinker / Engraver ) engraving dies to stamp coins & medals…the pay no difference in hourly rate to what I am on now…apart from now i get overtime
My point is as others have put, skilled, semi skilled or labourer…if you are in demand you’ll commmand the wage…but as what happened in IT where everyman & his dog trained for, the hourly rate as now dropped terribly, as it will now everyone has been training to become plumbers & plasterers! !!!
wills
The test is a piece of [zb]. The problem is 4 days training is nowhere near enough. Did anyone only do 4 days car driving before doing their test? Extremely unlikely. If you got time equivalent to that for driving a car then you’d agree that it’s a doddle to pass. 
i did a 5 yr apprentiship at rollsroyce at patchway bristol to be come a skilled engineer so i could earn good money, exellent conditions etc etc
i did a 5 day course to be come a lorry driver , but in both cases i never started learning until i went in the factory at patchway and out on the road when driving, the only way you learn is off the ones whove been there and done it,
i had to machine aero engine parts to tenths of a thou , they had to be right, you dont just break down in the sky you fall down so that was a skilled proffesion
but to also get a artic into places you dont think youll fit and through towns / cities without wiping out everything is i.m.h.o just as much a skilled trade.
as for saying its not reconized as a proffesion as mugs work for 6/ 7p.h an hour is crap, we all have to start somewhere, for christs sake we dont do it for the sake of it , reasons dictate we have to.
Rob K:
The test is a piece of [zb]. The problem is 4 days training is nowhere near enough. Did anyone only do 4 days car driving before doing their test? Extremely unlikely. If you got time equivalent to that for driving a car then you’d agree that it’s a doddle to pass.
yep totally agree, cant argue with that
But it took me 11 lessons to pass my car test ie 11 hours
compared to 4 x 2 1/2 hours + 2 test @ 90mins + 2 extra hours =
TOTAL 15 hours 
+ That too class2 lessons+test
GRAND TOTAL = 30 HOURS
Rob K:
The test is a piece of [zb]. The problem is 4 days training is nowhere near enough. Did anyone only do 4 days car driving before doing their test? Extremely unlikely. If you got time equivalent to that for driving a car then you’d agree that it’s a doddle to pass.
I aint no muppet, we all started somewhere!!! I bet when you passed your test there was no theory test or the need to do class 2 before the class 1!!! Even you was a newly licenced HGV driver once Rob K!!!
To do my HGV2 i had 4 days one on one training @ 8 hours a day - 32 hours training - Passed first Time with 4 minors
To do my HGV1 i had 4 days one on one training @ 8 hours a day - 32 hours training - Passed Second Time with 7 minors
Total for HGV Licences - 64 Hours training
Had one on one training due to my Above the knee Mid Thigh Amputation, Only had an auto licence before so had extra training for Gears and Clutch.
Car test - I had 4 2 hour lessons - 8 Hours Training and passed first time - Clean sheet I have to add!!
Big Difference dont you think■■?
Ihave read the replies on this subject and all i say is,passing the test does not make a truckdriver.Icould go on for hrs.but you men who have been in the job a good many yrs. know what im getting at.I was still learning when i retired after34yrs. There were no tautliners then.
dave
delboy98:
Rob K:
The test is a piece of [zb]. The problem is 4 days training is nowhere near enough. Did anyone only do 4 days car driving before doing their test? Extremely unlikely. If you got time equivalent to that for driving a car then you’d agree that it’s a doddle to pass.I aint no muppet, we all started somewhere!!! I bet when you passed your test there was no theory test or the need to do class 2 before the class 1!!! Even you was a newly licenced HGV driver once Rob K!!!
I’d hate you to get off onthe wrong foot Del, but Rob passed his class one only 3years ago, and his class two about five years ago. He is about 29yrs old and has had his licar cence since 1995 and if if he says there is to many muppets driving trucks then i’ll go with his experienced opinion!! After all he has been driving agency for 11 years and he knows his stuff.
Its like any other job, as far as learning as you go along is concearned, I am also a fully qualified Electrician, in which I spent 3 Years doing an apprenticship to acheve. And even now i dont know Everything and every so often I have to go on a course to update myself on new regulations, which i do incase i ever want to go back into it Full Time (plenty of Moonlighting meanwhile 
)
The hard part of this job is gaining experiance, as most firms wont touch you if you’ve had under 2 years experiance, so what do you suggest then, an apprenticship scheme where you have to double man with somone of experiance for 3 years, similar to a apprenticeship■■?
Be interesting to hear your comments and some of you old timers had to have been new to the game once, we all have to start somewhere, im only 28 and been driving only 4 years 1 of which working for a spanish haulier