LGV course - worth the outlay?

Steve-o

A little bit of background about me before the question...

I'm a 'mature student', who went part-time at work when I started my course a couple of years ago. I was working in the evenings straight after Uni, 5 days a week, which was a killer for me as it meant that I had to try and fit in a lot of Uni work into a very small number of free hours. After two years of this, I decided that enough was enough, and quit work two months ago (I didn't really have much choice, as my Uni medical placement meant that I wouldn't have been able to get back to work in time for a month anyway).

I'd been talking to a few friends and work colleagues who drive LGVs before I quit, and they were all quite positive about me being able to work at the weekends as an LGV driver. The hourly rate they quoted (£15-£18ph at weekends) means that I'd get more from doing one ten hour day than I did from my full week part-time job!

So, now I'm in the position of having no income, and living off my credit card until something gets sorted. The cost of the £3k LGV course would have to go on my credit card, which I have no problem with as I consider it an 'investment'.

My question is: how much weekend driving work is available, and what is the realistic hourly rate for it? I'd only want to drive on Sundays, and possibly Saturdays too at a push, so I have to decide whether it's a 'good' investment before I take the plunge.

banger9365

3k seem a lot to me put i did mine over 12 years ago, the problem you will have is that you will not have that 2years experience so you will get the real naff jobs that now one wants and you will have to have a CPC in 2014 to get paid for it, working for an agency at weekend you will have your up and downs like every thing else.
if nothing else it will teach you how to drive a lot better and safer even if you are a good driver to start with (it opens your eyes to other on the road that you not noticed before ,agood learning curve),
i hope there are overs on the forum that can help better on the agency side.
one thing i do now if the medical uni thing do not work you will alway have a job driveing
(sorry about spelling ,i am just a LGV/HGV class one driver)

grey_lady

Dont know about the hourly rate or weekend availability
but i do know that the intensive weeklong course to pass the test has quite a low passrate, just like a car test lots of people need more than one attempt - worth bearing in mind that there could be additional resit costs.

Steve-o

banger9365 wrote: »

one thing i do now if the medical uni thing do not work you will alway have a job driveing

That's something else that I considered. I'd also be able to do a solid few months in the summer 'holidays' too.

@ Grey_Lady: One of my mates recently passed for £2k, but he's a bit of a natural when it comes to driving anyway. The £3k number is really a realistic minimum for me, with the very real possibility of it costing more. My mate told me that his brother had taken the LGV course, and after spending £6k and still not passing he gave up! :rotfl:

xlt_hunter

I did my HGV class c and c+e last year and I can honesty say is "was" a real stuggle in the first year.

I got my Class C course paid via the skills council as I wanted a career changed, as I was until 24 at the time, they paid all the costs in term of the training and test fees which came to about £800 for 4.5 days of training and the test on the final 0.5 of a day - you will have to foot the bill for the medical, theroy and new photocard (when you pass)

I also got my class c+e from the same trainer but private as I the skills council doesn;'t cover the next step, so I saved up about £850 iirc to do the training and test fee again. Again its 1 weeks training.

Now with wages, I could think that the wages of £12-15 would be nightshift on weekends as that is true to the agency working for the DHL base in Newark - but that figure would really be for the expericed driver or if you lucky the blue eye boy There are naff jobs out there, and expect to be on wages around £6/hour until you find something decent.

When you pass, you will find it hard to find a employer who will take you on (I did) due to my age at the time and because of the insurance thing as well (must be over 25 etc...). Also employers like to have a driver with over 2 years expericence.

I finally got there in the end doing about 40 hour week for just over £26.5k a year in Lincolnshire, so its not bad if you know who to speak to. And bewarned, there are cowboys out there!

Elliesmum

xlt_hunter wrote: »

I did my HGV class c and c+e last year and I can honesty say is "was" a real stuggle in the first year.

I got my Class C course paid via the skills council as I wanted a career changed, as I was until 24 at the time, they paid all the costs in term of the training and test fees which came to about £800 for 4.5 days of training and the test on the final 0.5 of a day - you will have to foot the bill for the medical, theroy and new photocard (when you pass)

I also got my class c+e from the same trainer but private as I the skills council doesn;'t cover the next step, so I saved up about £850 iirc to do the training and test fee again. Again its 1 weeks training.

Now with wages, I could think that the wages of £12-15 would be nightshift on weekends as that is true to the agency working for the DHL base in Newark - but that figure would really be for the expericed driver or if you lucky the blue eye boy There are naff jobs out there, and expect to be on wages around £6/hour until you find something decent.

When you pass, you will find it hard to find a employer who will take you on (I did) due to my age at the time and because of the insurance thing as well (must be over 25 etc...). Also employers like to have a driver with over 2 years expericence.

I finally got there in the end doing about 40 hour week for just over £26.5k a year in Lincolnshire, so its not bad if you know who to speak to. And bewarned, there are cowboys out there!

I would say this is about right. My DH paid around £1500 to get his class 1 & 2 (C+E) he worked for an agency for around 15 months before getting a permanent job - but to be fair this was his choice at the time. He could have been permanent much quicker than that.

He currently earns around £26 K, nightshift (which suits us better as a family) for technically 40 hours a week but in reality he does about 32! Overtime is very limited but when he does the "sixth" shift he gets and additional £140 and sometimes this could be for 2 hours work

He works a Sun to Thur night shift pattern but again like this Sunday he went in at 3pm and was home in time for tea at 5.30 pm and this is classed as a full shift - I know nice work if you can get it

HTH's

EM xx

mini_mad_dad

i agree with the above but,
as a newly passed class 2 driver (nearly a year now) i gotta admit the £750 ish quid i spent on passing this test was a bit of a waste of money so far... i have held a psv licence for the last six years, years of of 7 1/2ton work for a major player in logistics, airside driver of 16t vehicles on heathrow airport and being a class 1 night shunter (both of which i required no licence for). when i passed my test last year my aim was to fund my next test with a bit of agency work this way i'd get my class 1. but in the last year after signing up with atleast no fewer tha 8 agencys i had no work... they used "we have plenty of 7 ton work or van work, but with out road expirence no one will take me on for class 2 work!" yes even with my experience. i have applied for loads of full time jobs too, all say i need to have held my licence for 2 years befor thier insurance company with insure me. but this i have to admit is all since i moved to wales back down south near to the airport where i was i really dont think i'd have this problem...

my plan now is that i sit on my licence for 2 years as i now currently work in a call center for large bank (as this so far in wales seems to be easiest option for me) and take back to the road in a year or so... dont let this put you off tho like i said back down south i would not have this problem, living in wales i'm not going to suject my self to low pay and very little work.
if and when i do pass my class 1 tho the earning potential is good luckily where i live, i'm surrounded by several major reatail distribution depots which all pay around £22k+

racluz

Generally id say 13 to 18ph night work was the going rate west midlnands area and ive found work comes and goes depending on time of year and who you drive for. As a rule and as said by most 2 years experience is a must which makes it hard to find any work whatsoever.
Also if your going to pay three grand take a course where you pay in instalments rather than putting it on your card i believe quite a few training companies do this and it will be a lot cheaper without all that ridiculus interest.
good luck