hgv training

jimbms

Tell them your a Polish one legged transexual you may have a chance then.

kerr01uk

thanks for all the info,think i will try the job centre again in the morning,im not going to give up as its all i have wanted to do so im going to get the funds some how.

System

i appreciate this is what you want to do just be aware that there are many experienced drivers out of work so its not going to be a guarnatee [sp] of work. a lot of employers require not only a licence but 2 years experience.

Jo_F

You will also need to work upto it, I'm not sure if you have to do 7.5 tonne first (my other half already had that entitlement), but you will need to send off for the provisional, have a medical, do your theory test, then take lessons in a class 2, go on and do the test for that, (rigids), then take lessons for your class 1 before you can go for the test. It's just cost my other half in the region of around £3k and as he was doing it around his regular work, 2 years of time to get his. He is waiting on a couple of companies to get back to him with regard work.

As a hint, for each test, you are looking in the region of £300 to £500 a shot, that's for the tuition/refresher before hand, the use of the vehicle, and the test fees, I can't remember the exact figures, but it was somewhere around that region for each test day.

Hammyman

kerr01uk wrote: »

im looking for advice,on how to fund for hgv training,im currently on new deal with jobcentre,and my credit rating has seen better days,so there is slim chance of us getting a loan,does anybody know of any help from anywhere to help me with this problem.

Each licence will cost around £1500 for a 5 day intensive course with test. You'll need a medical (£100 or so) in order to get a licence. You'll need to take the theory test. When you've passed you'll need to apply for a digital tacho card as well which is approximately £40.

The money is rubbish. Wages, thanks to the recession, have now dropped back to where they were in the late 1990's. Tesco shelf stackers are on a higher hourly rate.

Here's some advice from someone with 16 years experience in the industry.

DON'T DO IT.


People think its an easy job that any person with a licence can do. It is far from it - the driving is the easy part.They see the lorry driver driving his lorry down the road and think that's the job. They don't see the lorry driver working out the routes and then working out where he needs to take breaks, what time he'll get there, calculating alternative routes in his head plus whether he can do it or not within the hours when there's a road closure. They don't see the lorry driver pulling 24 1 tonne pallets out of the back of the trailer with a manual pallet truck. They don't see the lorry driver humping hoses around and climbing up and down tankers. They don't see the lorry driver humping 50lb tarpaulin sheets about or clambering up to the top of stacks of timber at the dockside in strong winds without any safety equipment to sheet it down. They don't see the driver with the compactor on the back who has to put up with the smell of putrid food and wading around in it when offloading at the yard. They don't see how the driver has to work out how to distribute the weight or how he alters his driving to take into account the load as each load needs to be loaded and treated differently and this is where it catches people out. You usually find people who think it is easy at the side of the road with the load hanging off the trailer or in an ambulance when they've rolled it or stuffed it into something or in court paying £1000 fine for overload on an axle because they've not spread the weight properly.

Firstly and most importantly though as has been previously mentioned, there have been many tens of thousands of experienced drivers such as myself who have been laid off and are looking for work. Most companies want a minimum of 2 years experience. Most of those laid off have a decade or more and you're up against them.

Second is the impact on your life. The average working week is FIFTY FIVE HOURS but can legally be as much as 84hrs. Overtime is not optional, its compulsory - as long as you can do the hours within the EU drivers hours regs you are expected to do them and it will be in your contract. That means up to 15hrs a day for three days a week, up to 6 days a week. You can be out all week, leaving before the sun comes up on Monday morning or on a Sunday evening getting back late on Friday or Saturday morning. Typical starts are 4-6am for days and 4-7pm for nights. Starting at that time, you'll be doing an 11-12hr shift. I'm sure you can work out how little time that leaves for a social life.

Third is the impact on your health. Back injuries are a big problem. Sleep depravation part and parcel of the job - if you need 8hrs a day, its not for you. Obesity is also quite high as well. Stress is a big problem in the industry too. Imagine how stressed you get in rush hour driving then multiply that by 10.

People will treat you like dirt. On the road you've got 33,000,000 people trying to kill you. Car drivers do anything to be in front of you or get past you, carving you up and expecting you to be able to stop 44 tonnes of vehicle in the same distance as a 1 tonne car. You've goods in clerks will completely ignore you. Nobody wants you there but they want the stuff you carry. There is a massive raft of legislation and more increasing year on year. It has been claimed to be the most legislated sector in the country. If anything goes wrong, it is your fault and its you who pays the fines.

If you think I'm making it sound worse than it is, I'm not. Get yourself over to Trucknet forums and you'll find out for yourself.

angelbob

hi my ex had this paid for by the job centre but he had to be claiming for six months but was about 7 years ago so dont know about it now

kerr01uk

have been claiming for about 2 years now, on the new deal, have just been informaed by a family member that a job centre less than 20 miles away from us would pay for hgv if they so wish, but they wont here

creased-leach

Hammyman, couldn't agree more. The stress of the job- well, mainly the stress of company pressure to break the law, or lose the job, drove my OH to a major breakdown.

Hammyman

creased-leach wrote: »

Hammyman, couldn't agree more. The stress of the job- well, mainly the stress of company pressure to break the law, or lose the job, drove my OH to a major breakdown.

Pat Nicholson, chairwoman of the Professional Drivers Association, used to tell me I was talking rubbish when I said how much it affected your life. I was an advocate of a maximum 48hr week with no exceptions. She was on containers and spent most of her career leaving on Sunday night and getting back Saturday morning and being out all week. Recently she was forced to quit driving due to health. In a phone call a few weeks after she quit she said she'd realised that I was right and whilst she was in the job, she couldn't see it.

The only reason the driver shortage ended was because the recession came so fewer goods needed to be moved. Up to that point there was 10,000 people per annum leaving the job and only 3,000 provisional HGV licence applications which included the Armed Forces.

A few years ago, a FTA study revealed the average age of a HGV driver was 53. I reckon that in 5-10 years that once most of the current drivers have retired or walked out of the job, the industry may wake up and it become worthwhile doing. I won't be rushing back any time soon.