If you want to know how much you can earn when you see all the companies that are so short of drivers advertising ring them up and ask how much they pay and for how many hours, if wages and hours where so good they will have them in the ad but they don’t why?
I think most of the driver shortage is drivers moving from one company to another looking for something better as you never see good firms that pay well looking for staff. There is one near me (Conor on here works agency for them) that pays £38500 per year for a 56 hour week that includes breaks drivers never leave.
mac12:
If you want to know how much you can earn when you see all the companies that are so short of drivers advertising ring them up and ask how much they pay and for how many hours, if wages and hours where so good they will have them in the ad but they don’t why?
I think most of the driver shortage is drivers moving from one company to another looking for something better as you never see good firms that pay well looking for staff. There is one near me (Conor on here works agency for them) that pays £38500 per year for a 56 hour week that includes breaks drivers never leave.
If you hold a Cat. C1, D1, C, D, or C+E licence which dates back to before September 10th 2009, you will have “acquired rights” and this is applicable for five years. If you wish to continue driving for a living, you need to attend 35 hours of Driver CPC Periodic Training at an Approved Centre and your details must be entered on the DSA website database. Your training must be completed by September 2014.
I got my license 2006 but it says I have to have completed the CPC by September 2014?
Welshlad32:
If you hold a Cat. C1, D1, C, D, or C+E licence which dates back to before September 10th 2009, you will have “acquired rights” and this is applicable for five years. If you wish to continue driving for a living, you need to attend 35 hours of Driver CPC Periodic Training at an Approved Centre and your details must be entered on the DSA website database. Your training must be completed by September 2014.
I got my license 2006 but it says I have to have completed the CPC by September 2014?
So can you please explain what this means for me?
You need to complete 35 hours of periodic driver cpc before you can legally use a LGV licence for commercial purposes
The other thing you need to do is to beef up on the current regulations so I suggest that you get 7 of the 35 dcpc hours by doing a tacho and regs course
cevans7676:
hi there on your main question you say in your first line you were 24 and that could be the whole reason you were turned away by so many companies as most transport companies have an age restriction of 25 due to insurance reasons and i hear this regularly its crap but its real and it wont change anytime soon im sure. now lets look at the job yes it can be good money but most drivers only get a decent wage due to putting in the hours and in the manchester area there are companies paying class 1 drivers (complete idiots) less than you can earn in asda or tesco stacking shelves but not all companies are like that. if you have seen the sign be a truck driver earn £600 take home per week and this is the reason you want to do the job stop and think as yes some drivers earn this but mainly trampers. in my opinion you need to enjoy driving in the first place to even think about this job. the job is great and i love it and would not go back to a warehouse/office (my opinion) but you have to also understand a lot of them in the office telling you what to do couldnt even couple up the trailer let alone drive them. you need to ask yourself these questions i think
do you like driving for long periods of time?
2)do you like to work on your own for most of the time?
3)can you stay calm under pressure?
4)can you get up early in the morning?
5)can you get your head round the driver hours and working time directive?
if you can answer yes to these question driving could be a job for you. just check out other cpc courses in your area as i got my 35 hours cpc for £325 inc vat and its so easy to get.
hope this helps you decide what you want to do in the future but dont let negative people put you off as if its your kind of job you wont want to leave trust me
I totally disagree with this comment every time it comes up about shelf stackers in supermarkets earning more than class 1 drivers. I came from a retail background and started out stacking shelves in a supermarket. Without naming them directly lets just say they have had a recent habit of inflating their profits if you know the one I mean. Anyway I can safely assure you that shelf stackers don’t earn much above minimum wage, they didn’t all those years ago when I did it and they don’t earn much more currently as I still have friends who do this - by the way if your not aware the current minimum wage is £6.50 for 21 and over. The worst example of class 1 pay I have seen is £7.90 in Lincolnshire and even then that has gone up to £8.50 now so some £2 an hour more than NMW and your average supermarket pay. Now that is an extreme example because even in the worst paying area’s of the country lets say like the North East I have seen driving work advertised at £9, most other parts of the UK you can say minimum £10ph and in most parts considerably more than that presently.
My opinions on those questions
You don’t necessarily have to drive for long periods of time, depends what type of work you are doing. If you don’t want too there is plenty of jobs that don’t require this, if you do then great again lots of trunking and distance work. You can tailor your requirements to suit.
It isn’t and doesn’t have to be a lonely job if you don’t want it to be. I personally do supermarket and store delivery work because I like having interaction with people throughout the day and not being on my own for long periods of time, this is slightly linked to point 1 for me because I don’t just want to drive for 9 or 10 hours a day out of choice because that gets mind numbingly boring. As an average I’d say I do between 4-6 most days but sometimes as little as 2-3.
Could say that in a lot of careers and jobs and it also makes it sound a lot more dramatic, at the end of the day you are just driving a lorry not performing open heart surgery!
Not necessarily a requirement to be a truck driver, so many places particularly bigger companies and distribution centres are 24/7 so you can be more specific with what suits you.
Takes you about 10 minutes if you read it properly and digest what you are reading.
I totally agree with the last comment about not being put off by negative people.
Yes I do enjoy driving, I passed my car test on my 17th birthday and I love it. When I was having my HGV lessons, even though I was ■■■■■■■■ myself, I really did enjoy it!
What appeals to me about the job is the open road, travelling to new places, seeing the changing of the seasons, the feeling of power and responsibilty and being king of the road! Cheesy I know.
Being self employed over the last 5 years I’m used to working alone mist of the time so that doesn’t really bother me.
This might be a silly question but is class 1 pay that much better than class 2? I know you said you went straight onto the artics but would I be better off looking for rigid work to begin with our not?
ROG:
The other thing you need to do is to beef up on the current regulations so I suggest that you get 7 of the 35 dcpc hours by doing a tacho and regs course
If you go back & look I have put link up to Drivers regs
ROG:
The other thing you need to do is to beef up on the current regulations so I suggest that you get 7 of the 35 dcpc hours by doing a tacho and regs course
If you go back & look I have put link up to Drivers regs
Many cannot grasp the regs simply from reading them - the questions posed on this site prove that
Welshlad32:
I have got a digi tacho card and I asked my local training centre and they said I need to do the cpc periodic course which will be £350 plus vat…more frigin expense.
Be aware that your Digi card is only valid for 5yrs so you may need to replace that as well (£19 to renew) I know coz I just had to renew mine, also if you’re prepared to pay for a refresher course then that will go towards 7hrs of your DCPC
So four modules (4x7hrs) and a days C+E refresher with Commercial Operator Training (Swansea and also Carew in Pembrokeshire) will cover your 35hrs DCPC and give you a foot in the door with a lot of the agencies and employers (a lot are saying that Insurance won’t touch anyone who hasn’t driven LGV’s in the last six months)
How much? well all that just cost me £617 (actually £636 inc my renewed digi card) Am I mad? Probably, but I was a driver before I had to come off the road and its the only thing I know I’ll ever go back to, so its worth it as far as I’m concerned.
Wages, well yeah here in South Wales £8 to £8.50 p.h. is around the norm (probably a bit more with Agencies) so like Rog said, its your vocation or its not, that’s all it boils down to because you certainly won’t get rich doing it!
I spoke to a training school in Cardiff where I got my lessons and they said I could do a refresher day and that would count towards my periodic cpc @ £370 + vat. I then asked my local training company and they told me I couldn’t do that? They said the 1 day refresher course did not count towards the 35hr cpc? They want almost £500.
So I have a bit of a dilemma as I want to do the course at my local centre which is available next week, but they are more expensive than the place in Cardiff which can’t book me in until mid December!!
Welshlad32:
I spoke to a training school in Cardiff where I got my lessons and they said I could do a refresher day and that would count towards my periodic cpc @ £370 + vat. I then asked my local training company and they told me I couldn’t do that? They said the 1 day refresher course did not count towards the 35hr cpc?
If they have the LGV practical training hours approved for dcpc then of course they can use them for a training refresher course of at least 7 hours
Ok thanks for that, I will give them another ring , that sounds like the better option as I need the practise and it shouldn’t cost me extra to do the refresher course on top.
ROG:
The other thing you need to do is to beef up on the current regulations so I suggest that you get 7 of the 35 dcpc hours by doing a tacho and regs course
If you go back & look I have put link up to Drivers regs
Many cannot grasp the regs simply from reading them - the questions posed on this site prove that
This is true but a lot of people dont read the regs they just ask the question
The other problem is the trainers dont alway know the regs as not long ago myself & another member on here both done the last of our 35 hr both done Drivers hr in different parts of the country his instructor said that you couldnt do 2 10 hr drives connectively when asked he said it was something to do with breaks
ROG:
The other thing you need to do is to beef up on the current regulations so I suggest that you get 7 of the 35 dcpc hours by doing a tacho and regs course
If you go back & look I have put link up to Drivers regs
Many cannot grasp the regs simply from reading them - the questions posed on this site prove that
This is true but a lot of people dont read the regs they just ask the question
The other problem is the trainers dont alway know the regs as not long ago myself & another member on here both done the last of our 35 hr both done Drivers hr in different parts of the country his instructor said that you couldnt do 2 10 hr drives connectively when asked he said it was something to do with breaks
Non LGV school Dcpc trainers may never have driven a LGV in their life nor got any licence yet drivers choose to go to them for training and believe what they say!
when asked he said it was something to do with breaks