gogzy:
its like the time i got asked if i could drive a class 2…after spending half my shift driving an artic (there was only one rigid at livingston at that point)
me and a few other drivers just stood and looked at the guy like he had just asked us to whip our bits out and when i said i can drive an artic he said “Aye but can you drive a class 2…”
in fear of being shot down but… I have been driving a very long over hanging Class 2 for a few months instead of Class 1 and they can be hard work in town plus you have to be more aware of swing out etc. Very easy to prang one.
+1 on this. You may well be the best artic driver God ever put breath into, but with all due respect it takes just one second’s forgetting that this one don’t bend in the middle to come horribly unstuck.
I’d go as far as to give credit to the TM, planner or whoever it was that had the guts to ask the question. It’s a fair one; of course it could also have been a crafty ploy to see if you’re one of those artic drivers who thinks that driving a mere rigid is beneath them.
shytalk:
Today i rang an agency …one of the biggest in the country, im semi retired and only want 2-3 days or nights a week, the job was for 7.5 tonne fridge work, this plank…bloke on the phone asked me the useual questions age etc, he then asked me when did you last drive a 7.5 tonne truck…i said oh must be 3-4 yrs back…but ive got 28 yrs experience on class 1 , oh rite he said, but havnt you driven a 7.5 tonne in the past 2yrs ? no ! ah my clients need referances to say you have driven 7.5 's in the past 2 yrs…sorry cant help you, i honestly thought this was a wind up…i said are you joking ? no its company policy cant help you…i cant get my breath are these people real ? i was [zb] fumeing inside, are they paid to be awkward and talk [zb] ? i wont be going down that route again.
Shytalk, ring 'em back and ask to speak to the consultant who specifically deals with driving, and if he or she ain’t available, ask to speak to the office supervisor. I know some of you think I defend agencies at any cost, but this looks to me like the wrong person (could be new on the job or don’t usually deal with drivers) answered the phone, and completely misunderstood the job description. No agency that I know of would turn away a driver who, I would assume, has a Class 1. More a misunderstanding than deliberate policy for my money.
I got turned down by Manpower for having a class 1. because I wasn’t prepared to do Class 2 work for £crap/hour
FFS it’s not as if class one drivers breeze in offering to pork his missus and crap on his doorstep. I object to having been considered to have “failed the attitude test” for turning up without a HIAB.
The job has been advertised for weeks now and is not far for me to travel, somehow i dont think i would be daunted by driving a 7.5 tonne, as for artics do it in my sleep ! so maybe if i had called this agency and had just passed my meds and had the dcpc all in line and done spent 500 quid …would i get the same answer ? have you driven an artic in the past 2 yrs ? maybe i would have got the same silly answer…i drive everyday in the car…not the same i can here people say…but i can still swim and ride a bike if i had to, so you have a bit of time out through your health and end up on the truck drivers scrap heap ? its realy wound me up , that this ■■■■■ who’s probably never seen the inside of a truck can come out with such bollox…i can hire one tomorrow and drive the bleeding thing ! and will be shortly for a removal for a relative…ill be shaking in me old boots at the thought of driving a 7.5 tonner…
shytalk:
in the past 4 yrs ive had health problems…legs…blood pressure, plus ops on both knees, someone said on the thread that i mite not still hold my class 1 or somat like that, i do have my class 1 one but failed my medical so i couldnt drive bendys…so rather than the dole i took early retirement private pensions…not state, now i dont want to sit the dcpc as many of you may know…
I sympathise… I really, genuinely do. Respect to you for wanting to do something productive mate.
However… and please don’t think I’m being in any way unkind… you’ve just give me another two good reasons why (assuming that you did tell him what you’ve told us above) the consultant was right to turn your offer down.
You are quite right to say that you’d have no problems driving a 7.5 tonner; in fact with that kind of experience you’ d probably be the best 7.5 driver that agency had got. The problem would lie with the rest of the job; in other words loading and unloading the ■■■■ thing. The real risk would be that you’d get the first couple of drops off OK and then someone would have to come out and take over 'cos you’d be absolutely knackered from handballing a pallet full of fishfingers up two flights of stairs. And that, my friend, is what 7.5 drivers have to do all day every day; and I suspect that deep in your heart you know that.
Secondly, no DCPC realistically means that you’ll shortly become unemployable as an LGV driver even up to 7.5 tonnes. Agencies know this, and for pefectly good reasons will not bother taking on someone with limited potential.
Might I offer a suggestion? You sound like the perfect guy to do a bit of trade-plating work; with your experience I’d hire you on the spot if I were looking for a bloke to do that. Get round your local car dealers, auction sites etc, and ask 'em. Sounds just up your street; and no bloody handball.
Cheers Sidevalve, for your kind words, yes your rite there is that element of being caught out…sorry mate its a handball job… this one was for palletised goods and states no handball…3-4 drops per shift mainly distance work…so i thought it would suit me… 2-3 days a week or nights im flexible …lol, but i know your rite and if after 2-3 drops was told sorry pal its up here 4 flights and half a mile down a warehouse i would regret it, maybe i should get on the otherside of the fence and work in the office as a consultant giving bullshine out over the phone…maybe not eh ? ah well ill keep looking maybe somat mite crop up.
rob22888:
Sidevalve is right, somebody who has been driving artics for 28 years would probably be in for the shock of their lives if given 20 drops in a 7.5tonner to do. It’s a different world.
It’s not what you’re expected to do on 7.5 multidrop that bothered me. It’s the crap pay, because when you only need a car licence to drive, they’re quick to tell you your somewhere on the social caste scale between arse-wiper and skivvy. Get a qualification, and you’ll be told "Sorry bud, but times are 'ard, and we can only pay you as a doctor of engineering who’s held a lience for everything with a steering wheel for 40 years £6.50ph in “current economic conditions”. That meaning ‘the rest of one’s natural life’ of course.
Soo… you’ll have some cash-in-hand bod of non-speke-english extraction doing the puddle jumper runs around London, double parking anywhere they see fit, because the neighbourhood is a “no go area” for police and traffic wardens, and the shrinkage is going to be legendary - all in the name of £6.50ph instead of putting someone qualified in some way on it for £12ph.
Anyone here worked out of Surrey Quays? Ok, so you get to do multi london stations and gems like picaddilly circus and all, but for £12ph I don’t complain, and just get on with it.
When you see a job advert for candidates that must be graduates - they’ll very rarely ask for the candidate’s degree to be in anything actually relevant to the job in question!
Why not have a similar outlook on professional drivers? Guaranteed to get there, get the job done, use a variety of kit, and not nick anything.
dar1976:
Unfortunately Winseer you are rapidly declining into a fantasy world there.
But it’s a nice thought.
Which part?
I’m only predicting a change on business practices away from “just in time” models and cheap labour high-overhead versions for the years to come.
Anything could precipitate such a change, but my money isn’t so much on us leaving Europe - an outsider chance at most, because the government just won’t allow it - but instead upon fuel prices falling back which in turn draws attention to the shrinkage in the entire industry.
It can’t be sensble to have £10,000 of gear on the back of your puddle jumper paying some guy with a photocopied licence £6.50ph when you can have someone with decent references do the same job for double the hourly rate, but INCREASES the company profits because nothing EVER gets nicked on that driver’s route once he or she has made it their own.
I don’t expect things to happen because they’re nice, but because before long it’ll be the only way left to make an honest buck.
Why do companies bother with private hired security guards on full time contracts otherwise? - Why not just get some extra bods in to cover when there’s more goods on base than normal?
When it comes to security, money is no object IF savings are made as a result. Soon the same will apply to not employing dubious characters just because you can do it cheaply I’m sure.
Winseer,thats the state of affairs now…driving a 7.5 tonner is never going to be a viable move, they pay basic rates and know if we dont take it some foreigner will ! and do it for a bag of balloons and some coffee, im just ■■■■■■ at the agencys stupid idea that …ah no mate not driven a 7.5 in 2 yrs…makes you unemployable answer…im not removing a tumour from someones brain ffs…when you have done nowt else for years its like …well you dont give it a second thought…ok im of an age not as fit as i was, but im not dribbling in me porridge yet…i can tie my own shoe laces…and wipe my own arse…its not brain surgery or rocket science is it ?..makes me wonder whether i should bother at all.
I think that you should offer your services to a local small outfit ,you know where the staff all have pertinent knowledge of what drivers actually do.
This is what I’m saying. THe firms are going out of their way to get FOREIGNERS driving the damned puddle jumpers - they don’t want malcontent you and me doing it for what we consider to be “underpaid” wages. They’ll take on someone who you and I know will have their collective hands in the goodies being carried on a regular basis.
The shrinkage goes UP as the goods vehicle gets SMALLER. Nicking stuff would only be possible if goods in staff persist with their slovenly attitude that has them going on break as you put a vehicle on a door to be unloaded… By yourself of course.
Once you’ve got rid of goods in guy, guess what? Anything can go missing, and does.
My experience of all this was running a local shop with my Dad and often finding that incoming deliveries were nearly ALWAYS short by a similar amount. This “shrinkage” dropped to zero when a holiday relief was on the van instead, suggesting that the “temps” were a whole lot more honest than the regular guys, who were some 20 something lads from Londonderry. SO there you go.
The items “short” were things like an outer of rolling baccy, a single 200 cig box, and at the lower end, a single jar of the more expensive per-quarter sweets.
Of course, my dad would meticulously check off items, and catch the buggers out every time, and they’d swear blind it was an honest mistake, replace the missing goods, and nothing more got said… I got plenty of dirty looks from Paddy & Murphy by remarking “strange how it’s never OVER by a similar amount eh?”. I’m sure I wouldn’t be walking home alone that night - that’s how much I trust the tinker scumbags.
Nowdays, NO ONE CARES what goes wrong, what gets nicked, who’s to blame - as long as it’s not bossman, goods in folk, or full timers. “Just blame the agency guy, cos we’ll likely not see them again here anyways”.
I can’t say I’m keen on returning to full time until companies cut out this apathy among their own number - let alone the agency staff.
stevieboy308:
shytalk, can you not approach the company directly yourself? you said it’s not far away so i’m guessing you know who they are?
Yes i do Stevie, but thought id go the route that was offered on the web, now i know an old mate who still works for this company, so after been dejected i gave him a call…he said this agency has provided nowt but clowns…one didnt do his checks and did a good job of defrosting a few grands worth of goods…another smashed the truck up first time out, and others that have been booked for at least 4 shifts didnt bother turning in after day one, says it all to me …but i suppose i could approach them cold call and see, i do know the TM is a miserable git, i know from applying there some yrs ago and asked my old buddy is he still there and as miserable ? yes he is and still as grumpy, i dont do grumpy i have a short fuse with that sort…my misses says bite your tongue…its hard to if people talk down to you, so i will call in this week and see what the outcome is.
Although I don’t envisage going driving full time any time soon. The daft thing is I would be unemployable with many companies. I would fail at the interview.
Have you driven a lorry in the last 2 years?
No sorry I haven’t, but I have held a class 1 for 35 years.
It is that stupid, but I could lie and be driving tomorrow afternoon.
I see more and more agency driving jobs advertised stating “must have driven (whatever) class of vehicle a minimum of ■■■ hours in the last 2 years.”
The agency will tell you it is the client insisting on it. I then see the same job at the same co. advertised with a different agency and they don’t have that condition. Go figure.
I’ve noticed this numerous times.
Sorry but what planet are some of you on…‘Question.Can you drive a 7.5ton rigid…Answer.Yes,do it all the time.’… What the hell is a tractor unit but a 7.5ton rigid,give or
take a kilo or two.
Driveroneuk:
I see more and more agency driving jobs advertised stating “must have driven (whatever) class of vehicle a minimum of ■■■ hours in the last 2 years.”
The agency will tell you it is the client insisting on it. I then see the same job at the same co. advertised with a different agency and they don’t have that condition. Go figure.
I’ve noticed this numerous times.
Says to me that one of the agencies is following the client spec, and one isn’t. In other words, one of them is at least trying to do the job properly; the other knows ■■■■ well that by dropping the spec part it’ll pick up the dross which it can then try and sneak into the client in the hope they don’t notice. Which agency would YOU rather work for?
Quite simply, it’s only a more definitive spec of “must have relevant experience” which has been on virtually every job advert whether agency or not, since Noah was advertising for carpenters. No conspiracy here.
Armageddon… you’re missing the point. Read my replies in this thread again.
If this condition becomes more prolific how are those of us who haven’t driven for a few years supposed to get back in work?
20+ years experience, clean license, DCPC card (I will have) yet they’d rather have someone with 6 points and only 2 years but recent experience?
If I don’t go swimming for 2 years, I don’t forget how to swim. If I don’t ride a bike for 2 years, I don’t forget how to ride one.
I have being driving class 1 for the last 12 years the last 4 for an agency, about 5 weeks ago a man in the village asked me to drive his 7.5 tonner for £9.50 per hour delivering his plants to garden centres. This job should last until the end of November will I get back on artics then or will the agencies say no experience.
Driveroneuk:
If this condition becomes more prolific how are those of us who haven’t driven for a few years supposed to get back in work?
20+ years experience, clean license, DCPC card (I will have) yet they’d rather have someone with 6 points and only 2 years but recent experience?
If I don’t go swimming for 2 years, I don’t forget how to swim. If I don’t ride a bike for 2 years, I don’t forget how to ride one.
I can’t help but think that this sort of thing may be driven by insurers, and aided and abetted by industry’s passion for “conformity”; and as we all know that doesn’t work of reality, but is formed by a bunch of accrued statistics which can be slanted to mean just about anything.
It’s becoming similar to the criteria applied to FLT drivers. Back in the day anyone could jump on a forklift and tip or load a lorry; then it became necessary to pass a test, which just like an HGV driving test bore little or no resemblence to what actually happened in the workplace. Next it was regular refresher courses, at ever-decreasing intervals.Slightly off-topic, the same is happening to motorcycle training, every year there’s another extra hoop to jump through. See the pattern here?
Will it make for better drivers? I doubt it; my long-held belief is that good HGV drivers are born not made. That, however, is of no importance whatsoever to the box-tickers who run the job today.
Driveroneuk:
I see more and more agency driving jobs advertised stating “must have driven (whatever) class of vehicle a minimum of ■■■ hours in the last 2 years.”
The agency will tell you it is the client insisting on it. I then see the same job at the same co. advertised with a different agency and they don’t have that condition. Go figure.
I’ve noticed this numerous times.
Says to me that one of the agencies is following the client spec, and one isn’t. In other words, one of them is at least trying to do the job properly; the other knows ■■■■ well that by dropping the spec part it’ll pick up the dross which it can then try and sneak into the client in the hope they don’t notice. Which agency would YOU rather work for?
Quite simply, it’s only a more definitive spec of “must have relevant experience” which has been on virtually every job advert whether agency or not, since Noah was advertising for carpenters. No conspiracy here.
Armageddon… you’re missing the point. Read my replies in this thread again.[/quote
Being before the invention of Currency, what do you think Noah used to pay off the carpenters? - Mated pairs of Unicorns & Dragons perhaps?
I don’t think he would have “paid” them a ‘free ticket to ride’, otherwise there would have been a glut of carpenters after the flood, with no one wanting to rebuild for the poor wages (paid in rabbits) on offer.
