When I worked as a labourer I was UNSKILLED
When I was a bus/coach driver I was SEMI-SKILLED
When I got my degree in Business Computing and worked as a Senior Systems Engineer I was a PROFESSIONAL
Now I am a Lorry driver and I am SEMI-SKILLED
The police refer to you as a professional driver because in the eyes of the law you make a living driving commercial vehicles and as such are a professional driver so should know more than the average car driver or person who drives for leisure activity.
i think you will find the police will refer to you as a skilled driver when it suits. ie if you have an accident etc.
if you are pulled in your car and say I am a professional driver they normally say no you are not. as said I don’t agree with it but just look on here at the accidents numpties driving under low bridges etc. all of which shows how unskilled it is, you train for a week and take a test this does not qualify you as professional am afraid.
can the average joe do it I guess you can say yes and no seeing as the majority of drivers are just this.
war1974:
as said I don’t agree with it but just look on here at the accidents numpties driving under low bridges etc. all of which shows how unskilled it is, you train for a week and take a test this does not qualify you as professional am afraid.
can the average joe do it I guess you can say yes and no seeing as the majority of drivers are just this.
Jesus…
Doctors are professionals but they make mistakes. Are you saying a doctor is unskilled if they make a ■■■■ up?
And no the test doesn’t make you a professional because you’re not doing a job which requires you to be the member of a body or institution to do it. However the test and the DCPC does make you semi-skilled.
And no the average Joe cannot do it. They can do it once they’ve had a medical, taken a vocational driving test and done a DCPC but they cannot just walk off the street and do it with minimal instruction as someone doing work in a factory on a production line putting cherries on cakes can.
alder:
When I got my degree in Business Computing and worked as a Senior Systems Engineer I was a PROFESSIONAL
No you weren’t, you were skilled. A degree does not make you a professional, being a member of a regulated body does. You would be a professional if you were registered with the Engineering Council and held a Chartered or Incorporated qualification issued by the Engineering Council but without such you are just classed as skilled as a Senior Systems Engineer.
alder:
When I got my degree in Business Computing and worked as a Senior Systems Engineer I was a PROFESSIONAL
No you weren’t, you were skilled. A degree does not make you a professional, being a member of a regulated body does. You would be a professional if you were registered with the Engineering Council and held a Chartered or Incorporated qualification issued by the Engineering Council but without such you are just classed as skilled as a Senior Systems Engineer.
war1974:
best of luck but no matter how much you try to dress it up its not skilled, I don’t agree with this but it isn’t and if unskilled people are out there earning more then best of luck.
Is flying an aircraft a skilled job considering modern technology can take off, fly and land the aircraft without the pilot doing a thing. The pilot spends less time controlling the plane than I do steering a truck and he gets around £70,000 a year to boot!
So how do you define skilled?
war1974:
best of luck but no matter how much you try to dress it up its not skilled, I don’t agree with this but it isn’t and if unskilled people are out there earning more then best of luck.
Is flying an aircraft a skilled job considering modern technology can take off, fly and land the aircraft without the pilot doing a thing. The pilot spends less time controlling the plane than I do steering a truck and he gets around £70,000 a year to boot!
So how do you define skilled?
war1974:
as said I don’t agree with it but just look on here at the accidents numpties driving under low bridges etc. all of which shows how unskilled it is, you train for a week and take a test this does not qualify you as professional am afraid.
can the average joe do it I guess you can say yes and no seeing as the majority of drivers are just this.
Jesus…
Doctors are professionals but they make mistakes. Are you saying a doctor is unskilled if they make a ■■■■ up?
And no the test doesn’t make you a professional because you’re not doing a job which requires you to be the member of a body or institution to do it. However the test and the DCPC does make you semi-skilled.
And no the average Joe cannot do it. They can do it once they’ve had a medical, taken a vocational driving test and done a DCPC but they cannot just walk off the street and do it with minimal instruction as someone doing work in a factory on a production line putting cherries on cakes can.
here we go again conor A, I didn’t take a medical when I passed my test at 21, what I did have was 3 days ‘training’’ and a test on the 4th day. after that I was then a ‘qualified’ hgv class 1 driver.
the dcpc is about as much of a qualification as the ones you get from a cereal packet ( no pass / fail, ability to sit through the same dross 5 times and still pass ).
sorry conor as I said I don’t agree with it and no doubt you never will as a world class agency driver. but its not skilled hence no country offers it as a way of entry unless as with the likes of Canada etc they are right up ■■■■ street.
war1974:
here we go again conor A, I didn’t take a medical when I passed my test at 21, what I did have was 3 days ‘training’’ and a test on the 4th day. after that I was then a ‘qualified’ hgv class 1 driver.
the dcpc is about as much of a qualification as the ones you get from a cereal packet ( no pass / fail, ability to sit through the same dross 5 times and still pass ).
sorry conor as I said I don’t agree with it and no doubt you never will as a world class agency driver. but its not skilled hence no country offers it as a way of entry unless as with the likes of Canada etc they are right up [zb] street.
Here we go yet again with drivers getting all bent out of shape when ever its mentioned that our job requires skill,training etc and not just anyone can do it. desypete loves to blame the CPC for low wages but its probably more to do with the fact there are guys out there who get ■■■■■■ off seem absolutely determined to convince all and sundry that we are just mindless ■■■■■ who cant do anything else so we take the easy route of a job that anyone can do
Ive said it before (probably on this thread but I cant be bothered reading back through the 3 pages) and ill say it again,with so many determined to be right that we are unskilled and not that important then why,with TMs and company bosses on this forum,would anything like a decent wage be offered?
I can see why war1974 would want to keep running it down since he runs an agency (if I remember correctly) and if he talks it up his drivers might give it “here wait a minute,we want more money”. But when you have DRIVERS running it down,then why would you think you deserve more than £7 an hour?
You can go from nothing to being a qualified lorry driver in five days. A skilled job that does not make.
The other thing is that observations when out on the road suggest that any idiot can, in fact, drive a lorry for a living and quite a lot of them do exactly that. It’s not a hard job and it’s not a difficult job. All it requires is a bit of common sense to do properly.
cheers snowman yes I work in recruitment and you can ask any of my guys I pay them as fair a rate as I can (more than most others) as I stated I don’t agree with the ‘classification’ but looking at the job as a whole its not skilled no where near skilled, any job where you can train for a few days and pass a test isn’t skilled to me. semi skilled you could argue the point for some forms of driving ( specialist loads etc.) but the vast majority nowadays pick a curtainsider/fridge/box from point a driver to point b tip and reload/come home. could it be upgraded? yes if they had made the dcpc some form of pass / fail exam (but again that would reduce the numbers as not everyone is good in these sort of conditions).
I am a driver 1st and foremost I have been in/around trucks since a nipper have my class 1 and up until last year still drove, when I was a driver I still didn’t think it was a skilled job as it isn’t, would you class flt drivers and llop drivers as skilled? van drivers (wouldn’t get me doing 60 drops a day in a million years)?
driving is easier now than it ever has been for the driver (less handball/auto boxes/sat nav/health and safety preventing most forms of free thinking and the like).
is it hard? yes at times. is it well paid? not with minimum wage pushing everyone else ever closer no. is it skilled? sorry snowman but as much as I would like to say yes I just cant.
and ref the OP if you can get a steady £10-20 or whatever per hour then great.
All lorry driving is semi skilled, as you need to have legal training to do it. Unskilled jobs are confined to jobs where you need no training above and beyond “this is how you do it”
To be an LGV driver you will need:
•excellent driving skills
•the ability to work alone and concentrate for long periods
•a polite manner with customers, when picking up or dropping off loads
•a good understanding of safety, on the road and when loading and unloading
•the ability to complete record sheets and paperwork accurately
•a reasonable level of fitness to work with loads
•to be trustworthy and reliable.
OVLOV JAY:
All lorry driving is semi skilled, as you need to have legal training to do it. Unskilled jobs are confined to jobs where you need no training above and beyond “this is how you do it”
mrginge:
Costco don’t give membership for hgv drivers so it’s not a skilled/professional job.
I’d better give my card back then lol
The only way I got mine was because of my brother being a pensions/mortgage advisor. Before that he got his from my dad as he is a chartered accountant.
I would say that to physically make a lorry move you need a small degree of eye hand coordination. To drive one properly you need to develop a skill. Unfortunately that skill is hard to quantify, hence we get these threads.
the maoster:
I would say that to physically make a lorry move you need a small degree of eye hand coordination. To drive one properly you need to develop a skill. Unfortunately that skill is hard to quantify, hence we get these threads.
What about reversing onto a bay, turning in a tight yard or manouvering in a supermarket car park whilst surrounded by pedestrians and other vehicles? They all require the application of skill. Some people on here don’t realise how difficult their job is, or how good at it they are.
