Evening all,
Thought id tip my hat in the Newbie section. As title says currently serving and going to take up agency in spare time. l’m currently a TMA so i’d like to think im clued up with driving regs and also hold most ADR classes in packages. Now my only search for driver wisdom is the hypothetical “step up” to articulated from the use of class 2 and c + e which is an everyday occurrence for me.
All advice welcome
Cheers
Hi, and welcome.
Sounds as if you’re familiar with w+d but want to have a go at artic if I understand correctly. Best thing is to go to a trainer and have a couple of hours. Failing which, capable w+d drivers sort it out for themselves very quickly.
Bear in mind that you will need driver cpc to drive in civvy street (if you haven’t already got it).
All the best, Pete 
I think that your forces work counts as other work for the EU regs so if correct then that will restrict when you can drive to conform to the weekly rest regs
If your forces work is mon to fri then you will be able to drive for one day every other weekend for example if the above is correct
All other work must be officially recorded and the easiest way is to use an analogue card for each day of other work with your name date start and finish times on each
As Peter mentioned, you need to be in the LGV driver cpc periodic system to drive LGVs commercially in civvy street which means you either have a pre 1997 car licence or passed initial dcpc modules 2 and 4 - which is it in your case?
You’ll get round the artic thing without training if you’ve managed to drive W+D for the queen.
Expect a great deal of ■■■■ wittery from agencies, they know not how useless they are (the agencies not their drivers…well not all of them anyway)
If you’re anything like me you’ll get chewed off with agency work in seconds. I 'd consider going direct with a small haulage firm rather than agency tbh.
Cheers for all advice And suggestions so far.
In regards to driver cpc, im under the impression it doesnt come into effect until next year, September i believe?
In regards to going from w + d to articulated, im sure i could crack on with out any major issues, however i intend to do 4 hours conversion course locally which isnt to much out if my own Pocket.
Many Thanks
I think it depends when you passed your car test and HGV if you have acquired rights then no it doesn’t start til 9/9/14, however if you passed after a certain date (which escapes me now) gthen you have to do modules 2 and 4
Benny-UK:
In regards to driver cpc, im under the impression it doesnt come into effect until next year, September i believe?
That is only correct if you had any LGV including C1 from a pre 1997 car licence before 10/09/2009
If you did not then you must take and pass the initial LGV dcpc modules 2 and 4 before being allowed to drive LGVs commercially