HGV/LGV Training - Prospects for Job?

DFlights

Hi all, I have been thinking about my future and am considering a driving career. It's not something I've thought about much in my thirties, but in my twenties I nearly applied for an HGV licence (life circumstances changed and meant I couldn't see it through back then). As I enjoy driving and currently have a part-time job driving a van, I was wondering about revisiting the HGV application.
I know that it's expensive (saving will pay for the first part, the C/rigid licence), but I'm also thinking about the prospects - there seem to be a lot of jobs around my area (near Chesterfield, Derbyshire) for C and C+E drivers, but as I'd have zero experience, what would be the best way to approach companies? Would approaching agencies, after obtaining a licence, be a better way to gain experience?
Any lorry drivers who can give advice, please? Also, any advice on how to find a reputable school for HGV training?
Thank you.

bugslet

Hi Dflights

Might be time to get yourself over to Trucknet, they have a newbies board.

http://www.trucknetuk.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=925682154258b8db867c6afc892de09d

Jury is out as if there is a driver shortage or not, personally I think we are on the brink of one; there are enough drivers now, but only just. As the average age of a HGV driver is mid fifties and there aren't enough new drivers coming through to replace those leaving, I believe that means drivers will be more in demand and - good news for you - the pressure will be on to increase rates of pay. There is some evidence of that, though there are plenty of jobs oop North still that pay £8.00 an hour:eek:.

Zero experience - lot of people start out on agency. It's hard work and you don't always get treat well, but stick at it for 6 months and you will get a lot of experience and if you are good, you could well get offered a job. Approach companies, some will take on despite the lack of experience. We take a percentage of new/young drivers ( sorry not based near you ), other firms will as well, you just have to find them!

Be careful of any training company that says that they can guarantee you work, that's usually an indicator of a dodgy company. I'll let the good folk of Trucknet guide you on that one.

Good luck - I've done nothing but be involved in haulage my whole working life, from forkie, to driver, to running a company and most days I love it.

Rog_Jones_75

What about those companies that offer the training and to fund it all guys? I seen something recently on this think it said you have to commit 2 years to them as they are funding it. It was a hgv 2 trainee job I believe...

bugslet

Not my area of expertise Rog - sounds like a form of apprenticeship? Depends on who the company is, might be a good offer.

Happychappy

Hi DFlights

I can highly recommend a firm at Hucknall near J27, Trent Training, the owner Ady Garner used to be the LGV instructor for the fire service, he is a nice guy, patient, honest and very knowledgable, with years of personal and training LGV experience, worth a look at, I don't know how his prices compare, but I do know his training and success rate is excellent, I run a driver training unit, and am also Cat C+E, Cat D and just about everything else, so do have experience, also just resat the 35 hours CPC which fortunately for you will all be part of your initial Cat C driving licence acquisition.

Bugslet gives good advice about Trucknetuk, there is currently plenty of agency work around your area for Cat C and C+E, some of it is due to the CPC five yearly training, some older drivers didn't bother, so the pool of drivers with current CPC has reduced, I personally would go down the route of getting a Cat C without tying in to an agent, and then see what's out there, but I'm sure Trucknet will be the best place for you to get advice. Best of luck

AndyBSG

The average HGV salary at the moment is about 24K but in truth you'll probably be looking at about 18K as that 24K includes tanker and dangerous material drivers.

I'd say that unless you can advance to fuel/chemical tankers then your earnings are probably capped at about 26-28K.

I worked for C. Butt doing Moben kitchen deliveries as a drivers mate and a lot of the drivers there were chucking it in because they could only get agency work(This is going back about 6-7 years).

They were also up against Eastern European drivers who would work longer and harder, for less money and more likely to sign their daily driver check forms ignoring broken mirrors, lights, overloaded lorries and happily pull their tacho card out and carry on driving once they'd reached their hours limit.

Also, not sure what the situation is with HGV categories now but we had a mix of 7.5 and 18 ton lorries. 7.5 ton drivers got paid less but there were more of them due to the old C1 'grandfather' licence category.

Nowadays I think the HGV licence covers bother 7.5 ton and above under in the same category so all of a sudden all new drivers don't want to drive 7.5 ton lorries for less money(especially as 7.5 ton lorries are more likely to be multi drop jobs than bigger lorries).

Maybe someone who's still in the game can tell me if 7.5 ton jobs are now having to pay the same money now to attract new drivers who can drive bigger trucks?

bugslet

I don't know Andy myself - be interested to see what others come along and say.

We have a mixed fleet - vans, 7.5 and artics - the rate for 7.5 is based on van drivers driving them, though it doesn't stop us putting artic lads on them if we are quiet on the big stuff.

Our artic drivers come out with between 34 - 38k, but we do international.

DFlights

Thank you all, lots to think about. I'm personally leaning towards saving up and doing my Cat C out of my own money, so as not to be tied into any agency/company.
I'll look up Trucknet and everything else mentioned, thank you.

As for pay - it's rare for me to have had any job that's paid much more than minimum wage, so with my very low living costs (no kids, small rented house, not very materialistic) the relatively low rate of pay probably wouldn't bother me too much to start with, though I like the idea of graduating to various dangerous loads in good time.

As for age, I'm forty, so a bit on the older end f the spectrum and hence why I'm probably now re-evaluating my life so far, and looking for something that I will enjoy and keep learning about up to retirement.

Jo_F

As well as your licence (which also means doing the medical, theory and hazard perception first), you will also need to do your Driver CPC, which is 35 hours of classroom stuff, (repeated every 5 years) without your CPC card you cannot drive for money.

bugslet

I think most training places build the DCPC into their training plan.

Oddly when I lookked at the newbie board on trucknet there were a couple of lads around forty , taking their test.

chanie

My partner is an LGV driver and got his licence about 3 years ago.

He had to sign up with an agency to get experience and is still with the agency. Other than a lean period just after Xmas, work has been constant. We live in London though, so finding work isn't a problem.

He has been offered lots of permanent jobs, because he's a natural driver and can handle large trucks easily, he's pleasant and has common sense. He's stayed agency due to our family circumstances (young children) although he dislikes the agency work as it tends to be the worse jobs. The advantage of the agency is thAt it has given him the opportunity to work for lots of different companies, so he knows what types of jobs he will enjoy.

I asked him about going for the HGV licence and he said that the money isn't much more than he's on now, so doesn't think it's worth it.