HGV Training

Catherine12

Hi.
My partner is thinking of giving up job earning £15,000 a year to do HGV driving etc.
Just wondered if anyone can tell me roughly what they make for what sort of hours, as he has been told £30,000 plus, which if it is the case we would pay the £2,000 couse fee for class c and E.

Can anyone give me any starters as to where to go for courses, who is recruiting- any big companies recruiting who will train you, and again roughly what they earn for what sort of hours for long and international driving etc.
This would be a big career change, but would enable us to have a better future- appreciate any responses.

heretolearn_2

let me guess, the training provider is the one telling you that he can earn £30,000+, right?

I don't have direct experience on that type of work myself but I know when it comes up here before people have warned against it as there are not enough HGV jobs for experienced people even. Search the site for more info and see if you can find a drivers forum somewhere for the real picture before he gives up his job. You could also contact agencies that supply drivers - do they need drivers or do they have plenty on their books already looking for work?

Also I'm not too sure about the money - it used to be well paid but I don't think so much now. I've seen ads for HGV drivers for about £10/hour, that doesn't add up to £30k.

Catherine12

Thanks for the reply- no we are very wary of what people tell us, as i know they are the ones trying to sell it to us, it's just it is something he is quite interested in. He would not give up his job until he has properly looked into it, so that is why just looking on here to see if anyone has experience, and actually does the job at the moment just so we can get a good idea. I know £30,000 wont be your 9-5 job either, but was wondering about nights and international etc also.

Notmyrealname

Catherine12 wrote: »

Hi.
My partner is thinking of giving up job earning £15,000 a year to do HGV driving etc.
Just wondered if anyone can tell me roughly what they make for what sort of hours, as he has been told £30,000 plus, which if it is the case we would pay the £2,000 couse fee for class c and E.

Can anyone give me any starters as to where to go for courses, who is recruiting- any big companies recruiting who will train you, and again roughly what they earn for what sort of hours for long and international driving etc.
This would be a big career change, but would enable us to have a better future- appreciate any responses.

Its a lie. All those claims of wages and loads of work are a lie. I'm a former lorry driver. OK, reality check:

It will cost a lot more than £2000 to get C+E. You cannot go straight to artic -you have to take the rigid test (Cat C) first. First of all he will need to apply for a licence and for that he'll need a medical which my doctor charges £120 for. It will cost £2000 just to get Cat C. Once he's done that he'll have to take a Driver CPC course of 35hrs before he can even be employed as a HGV driver. No DCPC, no work. He'll also need a digital tachograph card which is another £20. And then he can look for work. He'll need to do another £2000 course to get C+E but he can do that as soon as he's passed his Cat C.

So £2000 is actually more like £4000 or around £4300 or so with the DCPC.

Wages. £7-£9/hr is typical - Tesco shelf stackers earn more per hour. International work pays less than doing just UK work. I have a friend who does earn £30k but he leaves home early Monday morning and gets back late Friday spending all week out in the truck, sleeping in it - basically living in an 8ft wide, 6ft long and 5ft high metal box kipping in laybys, overcrowded truckstop and motorway service car parks. The firms paying the big money want experienced drivers though. WAGES ARE BACK TO WHAT THEY WERE IN THE EARLY 2000's.

The average working week is 55hrs usually starting or finishing between 4am to 6am. There are 8-5 jobs at builders merchants and the like but he'd not earn any more than he does now. Legally you can work up to a maximum 15hrs a day and 84hrs in a week and the trampers at Stobarts and container companies do just that. If you do a 15hr day you'll be expected to start again after just a 9hr break. If you finish 12hrs after starting then you've had an early finish. There is no such thing as a guaranteed finish time. Once you've put the key in the ignition, all bets are off and sometimes even before that. I've turned up to work at 3am to find a flat tyre which then adds 2-3hrs onto the day whilst it gets fixed.

Jobs. THere's not loads of jobs or anything approaching loads of jobs. Think about it. When the economy shrinks, less goods are being sold so less stuff needs to be moved which means fewer lorry drivers required. Most jobs advertised are agency jobs but agency work in haulage is booked by the day or week at best. You don't get monthly or longer placements. There are 10,000s of HGV drivers with a decade or more experience looking for work.

Health. It seriously screws it up. Sleep depravation and disorders are common - I've lost count of the number of days I've not slept at all especially working nights with a young family. It was OK until the last night of the week, Friday. I would get home at around 7am on Saturday morning. An hour later the kids would be up. The options were to have no sleep or not see the kids that day. Also spinal injuries - usually damage to discs in the lumbar region.

Most lorry drivers when they get home on a weekend spend that weekend absolutely knackered doing as little as possible recouperating for the following week. Because they spend all week out, they want to spend their weekend at home, not driving about as they do all week. If you've a young family, lorry driving is the last thing to do to have a better quality of life or a better future.

Things may change in 4 or 5 years when the economy picks up, many HGV drivers have retired (the average age in a RTA study 5 years ago was 53) and some who got laid off in this recession have seen life is better outside of haulage and not gone back.

dickydonkin

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Its a lie. All those claims of wages and loads of work are a lie. I'm a former lorry driver. OK, reality check:

It will cost a lot more than £2000 to get C+E. You cannot go straight to artic -you have to take the rigid test (Cat C) first. First of all he will need to apply for a licence and for that he'll need a medical which my doctor charges £120 for. It will cost £2000 just to get Cat C. Once he's done that he'll have to take a Driver CPC course of 35hrs before he can even be employed as a HGV driver. No DCPC, no work. He'll also need a digital tachograph card which is another £20. And then he can look for work. He'll need to do another £2000 course to get C+E but he can do that as soon as he's passed his Cat C.

So £2000 is actually more like £4000 or around £4300 or so with the DCPC.

Wages. £7-£9/hr is typical - Tesco shelf stackers earn more per hour. International work pays less than doing just UK work. I have a friend who does earn £30k but he leaves home early Monday morning and gets back late Friday spending all week out in the truck, sleeping in it - basically living in an 8ft wide, 6ft long and 5ft high metal box kipping in laybys, overcrowded truckstop and motorway service car parks. The firms paying the big money want experienced drivers though. WAGES ARE BACK TO WHAT THEY WERE IN THE EARLY 2000's.

The average working week is 55hrs usually starting or finishing between 4am to 6am. There are 8-5 jobs at builders merchants and the like but he'd not earn any more than he does now. Legally you can work up to a maximum 15hrs a day and 84hrs in a week and the trampers at Stobarts and container companies do just that. If you do a 15hr day you'll be expected to start again after just a 9hr break. If you finish 12hrs after starting then you've had an early finish. There is no such thing as a guaranteed finish time. Once you've put the key in the ignition, all bets are off and sometimes even before that. I've turned up to work at 3am to find a flat tyre which then adds 2-3hrs onto the day whilst it gets fixed.

Jobs. THere's not loads of jobs or anything approaching loads of jobs. Think about it. When the economy shrinks, less goods are being sold so less stuff needs to be moved which means fewer lorry drivers required. Most jobs advertised are agency jobs but agency work in haulage is booked by the day or week at best. You don't get monthly or longer placements. There are 10,000s of HGV drivers with a decade or more experience looking for work.

Health. It seriously screws it up. Sleep depravation and disorders are common - I've lost count of the number of days I've not slept at all especially working nights with a young family. It was OK until the last night of the week, Friday. I would get home at around 7am on Saturday morning. An hour later the kids would be up. The options were to have no sleep or not see the kids that day. Also spinal injuries - usually damage to discs in the lumbar region.

Most lorry drivers when they get home on a weekend spend that weekend absolutely knackered doing as little as possible recouperating for the following week. Because they spend all week out, they want to spend their weekend at home, not driving about as they do all week. If you've a young family, lorry driving is the last thing to do to have a better quality of life or a better future.

Things may change in 4 or 5 years when the economy picks up, many HGV drivers have retired (the average age in a RTA study 5 years ago was 53) and some who got laid off in this recession have seen life is better outside of haulage and not gone back.

There's not a lot to add to the above and is a fair reflection of the job.

Just to mention as well, if the OP's partner is under 25, then it will be difficult to obtain a job due to insurance stipulations.

I did the job for over 25 years in better times and for two very good companies - I certainly would not contemplate going back into road haulage although I still retain my C+E licence - which I will likely let go when it is up for renewal this year.

farmerboy

A few of things to add to the above.

Firstly, if you are going to go through with it DON'T use a broker for the training, from your post I susspect you have been in contact with one as they are the ones usually making the claims of '£30,000+ earnings' ect. Find a local training school.

Secondly, check out TrucknetUK, they have a newbie section on there where some trainers post and you'll get some real expiernces frome people who have, and are, doing the training.

Thirdly, once passed you'll hit the wall of the 2 yrs expierence problem. This is more of a problem at the minute as work is slack and there are alot of expierenced drivers out there looking for work. I'm not saying it can't be gotten over, but don't expect to pass and jump straight into an artic, you may have to work your way up from vans ect.

Expect to work silly hours, and long hours. Yes you are governed but hours laws, but you can legally be at work for anything upto 84 hours a week. A realistic earning for a artic driver would be between £20-25,000 per year. There are jobs paying what they are claiming, but are few and far between and usually deadmans shoes jobs, given to people with a reputation built up over several years in the industry.

I wouldn't give up a job to go and do it. A more sensible approach, if he really wants to do it, would be fit the training around the current job. Once passed try and get on an agencies books and do a bit at weekends. Assuming he works 5 days a week at present, he would be able to work 1 day everyother weekend and still be legal with his breaks. This would get him some expierence and possibly lead to the chance to go full time. Thats how I started 16yrs ago, and after 12mths of weekend work I went fulltime. I now do 3/4 days a week to fit in with other work I have

Catherine12

Thanks for the replies- all really helpful. Yes he is over 25, so at least that part is okay, will have a look at the things in posts and consider all info- at the moment if he could just get a licence i think that is what he would like to do- still has Monday- Friday job whilst obtaining the licence if he can. And he possibly would be happy starting off doing agency/weekdn work also to fit in if he could. He has Motorcycle and car Licence already, and wants to further skills, and give himself and us more opporunity, so thank you very much for all info given in posts. If anyone has any further info please feel free to comment as interested in everyones facts/opinions/stories etc.

saintjammyswine

Agree with everything above but only from contact with people in the industry, not a driver myself. I come from the training angle and ignore what private training organisations say about the work you can get etc. Contact your local FE College as many now offer training in Driving Goods Vehicles including apprenticeships (for all ages) and will have contact with local employers. There are companies hiring and putting people through these apprenticeships and paying normal (ish) wages but it would save the £4k upfront. Also have a look at National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) website for any positions locally.

bugslet

Hi Catherine

As a previous poster suggests, it's probably worth looking at Trucknet - two recent threads have been on the lack of work ( and that's for experienced drivers) and the wages paid. IIRC, it averaged out at £9.44 las time I looked - obviously there are regional differences.

I have my own haulage business and echo pretty much all that has been said before. There are plenty of drivers around at the moment - quite a few are talking about letting their licenses go when the Driver CPC comes in in a couple of years, but if they do or not remains to be seen! The lack of two years experience is usually got round by working for agencies, if you can get work. One point, if your OH tries to drive a weekends whilst working a full time job, then he should come under WTD regs which limit him to working 48 hours a week. That's a bit complex to go into here fully, but it's somethig that should be taken into consideration. If he did go ahead and a firm were looking to take him on, the insurance deal breaker is often in the form of additional excess - we looked at it once and it was an additional £500.00 - if your OH was willing, then mention that you would be prepared to stump up the extra.

My lads and lass! are on around 31-34k a year, but they do some hours for that. Without going into details, it is a doddle of a job, but the hours are long and you can be away from home. Again, speaking from out perspective only, we do a mix of national and international and the hourly wages are the same for both - you make up extra by being on a night out and we have some pay structures in place that guarantee a set amount of hours whilst you are abroad as well.

Ultimately, what I would say is that if he's had burning ambition to take to the road, it's a great life. I used to love being away and if you get a good job, you meet great people, have a degree of autonomy and scenery changes all the time! If he's just thinking about doing it to improve the money situation, I'd have another think about it because it is tough, it is hard and if he's away a lot, it can be a marriage breaker.

Best of luck and if you have any questions, please feel free to PM.

Jo_F

As the partner of a week out lorry driver, I would say he would be better off getting his fork lift licences and find work in a warehouse.

My partner generally leaves here at 3.30am Monday morning, and I next see him around 6pm Friday night, we have to get everything done on a Saturday, as it's early to bed Sunday to be up at 3 the next morning.

The company that he works for is paying for his DCPC for him, but to be honest, that's about all they are paying, the wage rate is crap, but he gets his hours each week, and unless you actually walk, its a difficult company to get sacked from!

He only went there as it was the only local company that would take him on with a freshly printed licence, everywhere else wanted the magic 2 years experience (he's nearly hit that milestone), the othe advantage of the company is that they all the drivers to have passengers, so I have been out with him, and had a couple of nights out too, as has my son.

You have to have a strong relationship, its hard being the one at home all week having to deal with kids, things that crop up in the house etc etc, and only being able to talk to each other on the phone (made even harder if he's doing night shifts!)

C_Mababejive

Im not in the industry but it echos the kind of stuff i have heard. There are plenty of training organisations that will tell you you can earn a fortune being a trucker,plumber,gas engineer,electrician or whatever but they all have vested interests because they need to sell training courses. Once they give you your pass cert,you will find that you will be up against plenty of people who already have a wealth of experience who are there to ensure that you dont survive because you are competition.