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.
Thanks for the advice, but he talks as if hes been driving for 50 years, sorry!!! I dont mean to offend, but i do love a good debate!!!
Rob K:
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?
delboy98:
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,:
The generation before me ( I started in 1963) benefitted from an unofficial apprenticeship, at least for wagon and drags, by virtue of the fact that the law required a second man (boy) in the cab to operate the trailer brake. The advantage of this was that at the same time they learned how to rope and sheet, find loads, drive safely and look after the motor.
I passed my car test and that afternoon got a job as a Co-op pop man on a little Commer Bantam Karrier. Bigger than a car but not much. I listened to older drivers and absorbed their knowledge. After progressing through tippers I landed my first tramping job with a 4 wheel Albion flat. I asked how to rope and sheet and how to find my loads. The experienced drivers were more than happy to put me right. I bought ‘The Headlight’ for the backloads and digs and gradually got it right by taking care and thinking about the job. My first artic was given to me one Saturday morning when the previous bloke left. No lessons, just, ‘take it home and practice over the weekend’. The only advice I got was ‘turn the wheel the opposite way when reversing and give corners a wider berth’. The rest is application and aptitude. If you ain’t got it, you ain’t got it. But above all - ask and listen.
Not sure how I would have gone on if I’d had to take a test. A mate at the time who was not driving during the qualifying exemption period failed first time because the examiner, who wasn’t born when Pete first drove a wagon, couldn’t see a safe driver beyond the strict confines of the book.
delboy98:
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
dafdave
When i started in 1968 it was all flats and the old boys used to help you with the roping and sheeting and directions provided you didnt go in with an i know it all atitude.Mind you the job was a lot different then there was a lot more cammorade then,today due to the way the jobs run e/body is in too much of a rush chasing del.targets and avoiding congestion to have the time to help each other.Regarding training today employers dont have to train e/body there are that many drivers idle .Plus today you have agencies which you did not have when i started the employers attitude today being take agency on when your busy lay off when your not.Theres the answer to your problem mate a catch 22 situation.
To put things into context. I have had my Class 1 for over 3 years and no way would i say the test was easy.I am also a qualified pilot which took me 45 hours to complete over the course of a year whereas to pass my HGV took about the same. There is certainly skill involved in driving a lorry safely in the same league as flying a plane with passengers. Outsiders and as it seems some drivers feel this profession is unskilled but i am proud to say i am a lorry driver .
