Yes thanks and I regularly takes trucks out too 
Wheel Nut:
To continue with this thread, one of the best planner managers I have ever had couldn’t drive. Mick Booth was a long haired music lover from Snaith who could route 40 vehicles without a problem.Even my mum who was a transport manager didn’t drive and she had the respect of her drivers and sub contractors.
Some companies insist their TMs DON’T have a licence so that they aren’t tempted to go out on the road when there is a driver shortage. Concentrate on the job in hand as the saying goes! TMs don’t have to gain experience on the road although it is a good grounding. Some of the largest companies have non driving TMs and TO staff and before you say it - it shows
Yes had one, but lost it for medical reasons.
Having or not having one doesn’t make you a better TM.
Common sense will do that.
And however much experience you have there will be always somebody who has more T-shirts and been there done it.
TM = Transport Manager, the word says it all, if he was meant to drive he would be called a driver.
Manager: Managed the job
Driver: drives
Do you really think the gaffer of Kraft Foods can make Kenco Coffee, Philadelphia Cheese and Cadbury chocolate?
No but she can manage some size of a business, it’s a thing in the transport world that you should be able to drive to be able to manage people.
A good Manager needs the following qualities:
- Filter the BS out
- Have an open mind
- Understand the law and the implications
- Run a profitable business
- Maintain the fleet (and again he doesn’t have to be a mechanic to do so)
- Manage people
It’s a bit like you expect a midwife to have children
A doctor to have had some surgery done to his body and tried all the medication himself.
A funeral director to been buried
Etc. etc.
What’s the main difference between God, the TM and the drivers?
God and the TM know they’re not drivers. 
Well the four brothers that own Virginia built it themselves so were drivers. And my respect for them is the reason I’ve been at Virginia 5 times longer than my previous longest job. If you’ve got a problem with anything talk to them, they always have the right answer. Just earlier I swapped trailers with one. The most common place you’ll see James and Eamon is in a truck, Sean in the yard washing stuff and Ray in the office. What they don’t know about transport isn’t worth knowing. I agree you don’t need an HGV to be a good TM but it can certainly help.
Yes he has ! he also makes my tea in a morning, often couples the trailer up and will tip and reload the trailer if needed, its took me years of training to get him to this level !
Seriously although I work for a large company, our contract operates as a small individual unit with only about a dozen of us, we all do one and others jobs, I’m mainly driving but could be in the office or in the warehouse on a fork lift.
Anyone heard of them or even you losing your licences when you renew them??
Just been told this today! 
Our TM sent his off for the renewal thing, and it came back with only class C and not also with his C+E!
DVLA said it was a ‘computer error’ and it couldn’t be ‘reversed’, unless he re-took his test.
He went for ‘advice’, and still didn’t have a leg to stand on!
Therefore, our TM used to be a C+E driver, and now is only a class C driver.
I don’t think not having a hgv licence makes you a bad TM the same way as having a licence will make you a good TM. One of the best TM’s I’ve ever worked for didn’t have a hgv licence, But he knew were his trucks were, when they should be empty and had another load ready. He kept you working, which seemed to annoy some drivers, but if you had a problem or delay loading or unloading, a phone call to him and he’d sort it out.
He also could remember if you asked him on Monday for an early finish on Friday, and by Thursday you’d be heading home for a local job on Friday.
Goldfinger:
Anyone heard of them or even you losing your licences when you renew them??Just been told this today!
Our TM sent his off for the renewal thing, and it came back with only class C and not also with his C+E!
DVLA said it was a ‘computer error’ and it couldn’t be ‘reversed’, unless he re-took his test.
He went for ‘advice’, and still didn’t have a leg to stand on!
Therefore, our TM used to be a C+E driver, and now is only a class C driver.
Couldn’t he just present them with his pass certificate? Are you sure he had the licence in the first place 
Pass cert doesn’t prove anything according to DVLA, best way is to get a photocopy signed by a magistrate/JP/policeman/solicitor etc before you send it off.
MADBAZ:
Pass cert doesn’t prove anything according to DVLA, best way is to get a photocopy signed by a magistrate/JP/policeman/solicitor etc before you send it off.
Been told that wouldn’t work either. (photoshop etc). 
Just checked, I’ve still got my pass certificate for if/when it happends to me. 
Ours hasn’t; but she’s been with the firm all her working life, knows the job inside out and puts more hours in than a fair few of the drivers. When it comes to wanting to know , for example, if a certain lorry will go into a ceertain farm or whether or not such and such a run is legally possible she asks us and respects our opinion; very rare we get asked to do the impossible, and we’re never TOLD to do anything.
And… she backs us all the way with the mill manager and directors, and fights our corner in meetings.
You can’t ask for better than that.
That’s something else our TM does, stand up against some of the other managers usually the company H&S (always putting more unnecessary ‘hurdles’ in our way).
But when you do do wrong, he will kick your arse.
A couple of our senior management were drivers years ago, but so long ago as to be worth nothing, of the four junior managers, one is from outside, two were promoted from clerks and one went from being a driver to a planner, to a manager. He is the worst of the lot. The rest are pretty decent.
Where I work, we have several TM’s the top bloke has No HGV entailments but dose have a CPC. Dose he know what he’s doing 
not entirely .
As for the so called line Managers (day to day TM’s) One has Both HGV Licence and CPC and to be honest is the only one who actually know what he’s doing!!! As for the reset most don’t have CPC’s and around 50% have HGV licence. And there is one with no qualifications, i mean no car licence or CPC or degree just the od GCSE!!
Yes, 2 directors and 2 planners have Class 1…and apart from accounts,that’s the full
office compliment.
starfighter:
and one went from being a driver to a planner,
We’re having to endure this at the moment; One of the company teararses who because he did it, we are expected to do it…and his missus wants to come off the road aswell and go into the office; She might as well, as she’s always in there chatting to managers anyway…when not parking up and visiting Tesco Express