Started off on an electric milk float, worked up to getting HGV with Lancashire Dairies at Cheetham Hill.
First solo adventure out on a 17 tonne Ford Cargo was round Glossop and Ashton under Lyme area. Bit of a learning curve when you’re used to a 7 tonner doing Coronation Street corner shop deliveries! Anyway it had a straight 6 gearbox where reverse is next to second so I’m terrified of selecting reverse so started off in first, just to make sure! I know it’s not the done thing with a straight 6 but nerves!
fingermissing:
Passed in 1999 got first hgv job 2007 .Did not try to get job until 2007.
aargh thought i was going to get the longest time accolade but you beat me!
Passed 2007 started p/time Class 2 in 2012 (5 years and 3 weeks later if i’m being exact) long story short was prepared to change career in 2007 after i passed but got offered a better and different job at my then employer. Started doing part time driving because overtime in said job dried up and decided driving was for me after all and took Class 1 then moved on altogether into full time driving 9 months after passing that.
Passed my class II in 1997, doing my final day of CPC on the 14th Jan, going door knocking today.
Only driven a Fire Engine in between.
Novicerucker2:
Passed my class II in 1997, doing my final day of CPC on the 14th Jan, going door knocking today.Only driven a Fire Engine in between.
I’m glad you brought up a 2 year old thread to let everyone know this 
ETS:
Novicerucker2:
Passed my class II in 1997, doing my final day of CPC on the 14th Jan, going door knocking today.Only driven a Fire Engine in between.
I’m glad you brought up a 2 year old thread to let everyone know this
Why the venom? what a nice welcome. He’s a new poster who’se had a read through various threads to which he could contribute rather than starting a new version. I can’t see any harm in resurrecting this; it’s certainly more interesting than yet another " I want to be an OD but I ain’t got a clue."
I was a 7.5ton driver for Securicor Omega when I passed my class 2, and I passed my class 1 a month after my class 2. They’d promised to put me onto HGVs as soon as I passed my class 2, but it took them that month to put me on the rigids. Once they did, I rapidly moved on and never looked back. I was getting weekend class 1 agency work for experience too before jumping ship. At the time though, I could have passed my HGV tests and been working immediately on agency.
Short answer: 1 month.
Ex BMC ridged first time out Taunton Tiverton South Moulton and Devonport, no test in them days learnt as you went along . First artic was Leyland Badger ,light a ■■■ in between gear change, eventually Class 1 on grandfather rights 
Drove an Mreg Leyland 18t box lorry full of Paula Rosa kitchens up to Burton and Derby around sept 2001 on agency
gearbox was like stirring porridge
First FT was Worthing BC driving a top loader s reg Iveco seddon recycling truck
Basically drove an HGV before passing my test. It was a Bedford TK with a gross weight of 8.5 ton which at the time you could drive on a car licence. You then gained a restricted Class 3 which covered you up to 10 ton. However sat my class one soon after.
It helped that i was going with my brother in his trucks from about 13 years old so i knew alot of people in the trucking industry so when it came to my first class 1 job i blagged it and ended up in a E reg FL10 tramping all over the uk.
Gave it a year or so then got a job with a company that did europe that did eventually send me over the water, and i didnt look back much after that until i got married and settled down…
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
First go, A day.
Second attempt at hgv employment, well put it this way I could find the Holy Grail faster [emoji24][emoji38]
I’ve offered all the sexuals a man can, free work, grovelling with intent, threats of untold plagues to be cast upon them if not given a chance, I’ve tried the lot.
But suggestions are welcome… [emoji16][emoji16]
Seems their be No sharks brave enough in these waters to tackle this great white… [emoji849][emoji16][emoji38]
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
Benjie83:
First go, A day.Second attempt at hgv employment, well put it this way I could find the Holy Grail faster [emoji24][emoji38]
I’ve offered all the sexuals a man can, free work, grovelling with intent, threats of untold plagues to be cast upon them if not given a chance, I’ve tried the lot.
But suggestions are welcome… [emoji16][emoji16]
Seems their be No sharks brave enough in these waters to tackle this great white… [emoji849][emoji16][emoji38]
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
How you feeling now . Ready to jump in again.
WheelsofCardiff:
Benjie83:
First go, A day.Second attempt at hgv employment, well put it this way I could find the Holy Grail faster [emoji24][emoji38]
I’ve offered all the sexuals a man can, free work, grovelling with intent, threats of untold plagues to be cast upon them if not given a chance, I’ve tried the lot.
But suggestions are welcome… [emoji16][emoji16]
Seems their be No sharks brave enough in these waters to tackle this great white… [emoji849][emoji16][emoji38]
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
How you feeling now . Ready to jump in again.
Merry Christmas fella [emoji41][emoji41]
DAMB right I am [emoji123][emoji123][emoji91][emoji91]
Ain’t ashamed to admit nothing in my life, I needed some help and finally I took it, just wish I’d listened to myself and family alot sooner, but that’s man pride hey [emoji850]
So I went and done what I needed to do, I resigned from Stobart… (genuinely gutted to do so too!! )… But it wernt right I couldn’t be the employee I should be for them due to my issues, esp when the folks I’d been around had been so sound, so outta respect for them, and as my way of kinda apologising I put myself out to pasture.
Believe I left on mutual good terms though, and again I’m very greatful to them for allowing me to do it over them P45ing me as that would have killed me off as I don’t get sacked, it’s my life rule [emoji16][emoji38]
Alas, I’m hopeful I’ll find something a bit nearer to home now maybe, where I can atleast prove to my family I’m out to drive for the career and get them safe an well, and not as an excuse to run away and hide due to my own demons…
Dog will find a home, even if he’s gotta burgle his way in [emoji16]
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
passed my test in nov 1990 still working in a factory
then started applying for jobs and got the usual no experience knock back. april 1991
sent off for a job based in france doing deliveries of equipment for organised camp sites ( canvas…eurocamp etc etc ) 10 weeks all over europe Pre boarders coming down ( that was fun…not…!!! )
enough good/bad experiences to find out if i really wanted to do driving now been doing it in various guises for 28 years
dave docwra:
Passed my class 1 test in the morning at Kilmarnock test station in 1981, phoned into the company to let them know all was good, they asked me to go the SAI works at Ayr & rebuild a failed hub reduction unit on our rigid 6x4, ERF 150 gardner with DB box, once completed the driver had run out of time & jumped into the company car and said your be okay lad, so there I am fully loaded with 14t of bagged fertiliser on my first road legal HGV trip heading down the A77 to Stranraer.
Bet you enjoyed climbing out of Ballantrae…
Passed my class 1 test in 1976, I was working at Louis Reece in Wigan on a 7.5 ton which you could drive on a car licence back then , the firm applied for a class 3A licence for me for a British Leyland flat bed they had then, cant remember the model now!!!.
I finished there and applied for HGV training at the dole, back then you had to have a class 3 licence prior to going in for class 1 training with the dole.
Apparently back then this class 3A licence entitled me to go straight for my class 1.
I passed my test & got a job with Inter-city transport at Lowton.
My first trip out in a class 1 was in a Volvo F86 bubble cab.
I had to go to Chorley to load a flat bed trailer & rope & sheet a 20 ton load of rubber. By the time I’d finished roping & sheeting (first time for that as tautliners hadn’t come out then) it was dark.
I then realised I couldn’t turn round & had to back up around a dog leg onto a main road to get out 
, I kept stopping and getting out of the cab to see where the back end of the trailer was as it was Winter & pitch black.
I eventually managed to get it out with a bit of sweating lol but the next worrying thing was the sheer weight of the trailer! I’d only ever driven a unit with an empty flat bed 20’ trailer and the first roundabout gave me a squeaky bum moment 
First time reversing around a dog leg in the dark was nervy to say the least.
I passed my test in 1968.In those days you could go from car to class 1 straight away and to get a driving job all you needed was the ability to knock on a door.The first company I drove for was Bell’s Warehousing and Haulage in Newark.All other drivers except myself had their licence by grandfather rights.I knew nothing about everything whether it was vehicle based or load security.All the guys there were decent lads and looked after me.After a couple of years i moved to BRS,Newark where I learnt that some drivers could be less than helpful or honest.All good experience.
Gidders:
I passed my test in 1968.In those days you could go from car to class 1 straight away and to get a driving job all you needed was the ability to knock on a door.The first company I drove for was Bell’s Warehousing and Haulage in Newark.All other drivers except myself had their licence by grandfather rights.I knew nothing about everything whether it was vehicle based or load security.All the guys there were decent lads and looked after me.After a couple of years i moved to BRS,Newark where I learnt that some drivers could be less than helpful or honest.All good experience.
Like you “Gidders” I started in the sixties. I got a PSV licence in '68, aged 21. I started driving lorries in '69 and qualified by “grandfather” rights for a class 2
but I really wanted a class1. The company I worked for (Miles Druce Metals) sent two drivers to their Group driving school at Southampton. We did a week’s course and returned home to take our tests at Newcastle.
The other driver (Malcolm Wilson) went for test early Monday, driving the artic alone as his ordinary licence still covered him to drive. I went out with a few deliveries around Newcastle, then went and changed over with him at Gosforth test station, where he took the motor I’d driven and finished the deliveries. We both passed but if we’d failed we could still have driven back to the depot as our old licence covered us until it expired. Regards Kev.
Ps. I’ve still got my HGV licence, I passed the yearly medical for the seventh time earlier this month, and I’ve just sent it off for renewal.
It was nineteen sixty-one and I was eighteen. I’d been selling ice cream in Wales got a job in London selling (would you believe) encyclopaedias which, it turned out, I was very bad at.
Unemployed and broke, I went to the Labour Exchange to see what they had to offer and when they asked me what trade I was interested in I said, the spur of the moment, driving. This, I think, was on a Thursday and they gave me two interviews for the following day: one was with Rentokil (driving one of their little vans around swapping the bins in the incinerators in ladies toilets) and the other with a local, general haulage contractor.
Rentokil had a better hourly rate, but virtually no overtime on offer, so when I was offered a job driving what was then called a “three-tonner” with plenty of weekend work available, I jumped at it. Of course, in those days, you could pass your test in a three-wheeler and jump into the cab of the biggest truck going without taking any additional tests. I had driven an ice cream van around the South Wales valleys that that’s a pretty different league to a removal van in central London.
Of course, I lied through my teeth at the interview, saying that I knew my way around London and had plenty of experience driving trucks. They got an old boy out of the little warehouse at the back of the greengrocer’s shop which was their operational base and told him to check out my driving skills. The truck was parked on a one-way street in Islington and we drove about a quarter of a mile before he told me to turn left into a side street and stop outside a cafe. After a cup of tea and a sausage butty, which he generously paid for, we turned left and left again to get back to the shop and he told them I was okay.
I started work the following Monday morning and they gave me a bunch of collection and delivery notes. Other drivers offered to help with directions and they said things like, “you know as you drive down Southwark high Street you see a big old church on your right?” I would nod, not having the faintest clue where Southwark was let alone anything else. I did have an A to Z and I spent a lot of time driving with it on the steering wheel.
Anyone who thinks their employer is stingy today has no idea. The women who ran that company stingy down to a fine art: when we were given our notes we would be given a chit for what they considered to be enough fuel to do the job (maybe 2 gallons?). We had to collect our fuel from a local garage that gave double Green Shield stamps and then hand them into the office at the end of the day. Maintenance was fix-it-when-it-breaks and when I broke down in Watford one day, they sent another driver in a truck with a long chain and towed me down the A1 through Highbury and Archway down the hill to Islington; you simply could not imagine doing that these days.
Years later, I got a class III with grandfather rights and then years after that, I was a TM and put all my drivers through their class I and added my own name to the list.
n