First off - I’m new here, so soz if this is posted in the wrong place or something.
Anyway, what I’m wondering is this:
Considering that training for a 1 costs upwards of - at a guess - £3000, why is anyone learning to be an LGV driver?
It would take ages to recoup the costs, even if a person could find regular work, so why is anyone doing it? Does
everyone think we’re all on £40k pa or something?
You used to be able to learn fairly cheaply and it was a quick way off the dole, but now there’s the CPC and wotnot.
Not that that’s a bad thing; I remember learning on a Volvo, then turning up in a far flung car park at 4.00am because
the agency couldn’t find anyone else, with no one to ask, the ink dripping off my licence, searching for the keys on top
of the front wheel, then trying to work out why the gears of the ancient ERF were back to front and made a terrible
crunching sound every time I tried to change down…
skell790:
First off - I’m new here, so soz if this is posted in the wrong place or something.
Anyway, what I’m wondering is this:
Considering that training for a 1 costs upwards of - at a guess - £3000, why is anyone learning to be an LGV driver?
It would take ages to recoup the costs, even if a person could find regular work, so why is anyone doing it? Does everyone think we’re all on £40k pa or something?
If you read certain newpapers you could easily believe that a couple of weeks after passing your test test you’d be in full employment at £40k +
Maybe that sort of gullibility is the reason why so many drivers keep repeating the BS they hear in RDC’s.
skell790:
You used to be able to learn fairly cheaply and it was a quick way off the dole, but now there’s the CPC and wotnot.
Not that that’s a bad thing; I remember learning on a Volvo, then turning up in a far flung car park at 4.00am because
the agency couldn’t find anyone else, with no one to ask, the ink dripping off my licence, searching for the keys on top
of the front wheel, then trying to work out why the gears of the ancient ERF were back to front and made a terrible
crunching sound every time I tried to change down…
God that sounds familiar. except I trained on a Ford Cargo and the truck was a Volvo F7.
The conversation on the phone went like this:
“be there at 5am, reg number XXXX, keys will be under the flower pot, paperwork in the cab, ever used a tipper?” “No” say I “Ok when you get to Cantley just find one of my other driver and ask him how to use it, Bye! see you when you get back.”
And maybe some people would rather drive a lorry round all day and see different places and things, rather than working in a supermarket filling shelves. (Which is now better money than trucking i know) maybe its in the blood.
Mullens:
And maybe some people would rather drive a lorry round all day and see different places and things, rather than working in a supermarket filling shelves. (Which is now better money than trucking i know) maybe its in the blood.
I must admit that driving at 6.00am on a lovely spring morning has it’s attractions, but staring at a line of lorries for six hours at a grey RDC when you’d really like to be home gets wearing after a while eg thirty years.
skell790:
Then I told him about the hours and what he could expect to earn.
What did you tell him
I told him nine quid an hour with time and a half after eight if he was lucky, variable start times, any five from seven, and never - ever - knowing when he’d finish. Which sounds about average to me.
my personal opinion is that a lot don’t just see it as a job, i wanted to drive trucks for a young age, i don’t know why apart from the fact i use to go with my cousin in his truck when i was about 8, now iv’e done the agency route and the day work, but to be truthful i didn’t like, been tramping now for nearly 20 yrs and i couldn’t do anything else, just love the freedom!! its now a way of life. through the years its earnt me a good living, but and its a big BUT if i had to go and get my licence tomorrow would i do it■■?
hell yes!!! its not going to make you rich but the satifaction of the job for me is whats its about. i would sooner be doing a job that i enjoy than a job that pays more but i hate, i will let the rest of you make your minds up to wether i am mad or not
I agree with the other posters. It’s a job that you have to want to do. It’s in the blood. When these are combined it does give a lot a satisfaction and freedom.
wildfire:
i would sooner be doing a job that i enjoy than a job that pays more but i hate
spot on.
iv`e had better paying jobs…but i used to hate my life.come sunday tea time i would be on a downer at the prospect of another working week.
i no longer get this…which is worth a lot in my eyes
I agree with the other posters. It’s a job that you have to want to do. It’s in the blood. When these are combined it does give a lot a satisfaction and freedom.
I tramped a while for Railfreight at Stratford when it was still British Rail in the pre tracker days. Leave at 4.00 am Monday, return 12.00am Saturday. Yeah, it was fun, but it also paid well. Which is sort of important, considering.
wildfire:
my personal opinion is that a lot don’t just see it as a job, i wanted to drive trucks for a young age, i don’t know why apart from the fact i use to go with my cousin in his truck when i was about 8, now iv’e done the agency route and the day work, but to be truthful i didn’t like, been tramping now for nearly 20 yrs and i couldn’t do anything else, just love the freedom!! its now a way of life. through the years its earnt me a good living, but and its a big BUT if i had to go and get my licence tomorrow would i do it■■?
hell yes!!! its not going to make you rich but the satifaction of the job for me is whats its about. i would sooner be doing a job that i enjoy than a job that pays more but i hate, i will let the rest of you make your minds up to wether i am mad or not
Well said and I agree…I wanted to do it from a young age,I dont come from a trucking background just wanted to do it,I had a spare 2 grand in 2003 and I did my licences and apart from a few months here and there back on the steel erecting,I haven’t looked back.
I have always tramped but am at a stage now where I dont want to be away as much,but it gives me a reasonable living and I dont have to work with ■■■■■ day in day out,I can listen to 6 music all day,go to the toilet when i want,drink as much tea as I want,speak to people on the phone when I want,eat when I want and every day is different.
those who moan about the ‘crap’ money and ‘obscene’ working conditions should go and work in a factory in China for a bit of a reality check or just to ‘■■■■ right off’ might be an idea and get another career!!
Right now I’m working for 6.10 an hour, Monday-thursday 7pm-7am nights, and Saturday or Sunday 7am-7pm days… every 3 years I have to fork out 245 quid for my own security badge, I’m sat at a reception desk all night / day watching everyone drive past. I love to drive, and I love being up in the day time. The place I’ve been stuck on for the last year is a ballache, the amount of extra work I’ve been ordered to do is astonishing, I go home and don’t have the energy to make myself any food cause I’m that knackered. I am just about covering my bills, and because my wife has a normal office job, I never get to see her. She is just getting home when I get to work, and when I get in she is getting ready to go to work. Over the weekend we get to see each other for a Saturday or Sunday, but sometimes I’m working both, so I don’t see her at all.
if you put me on 7.50 an hour and knocked me down to 48 hours a week is be happier than a pig in zb.
And the reason I don’t complain about it, is that last time I phoned the office to say I was exhausted from constantly swapping from days to nights and I needed to do one or the other, I was given 12 hours a week for the next 3 weeks to teach me how to keep my mouth shut.
