Taking my HGV licence - is it worth it?
Discussion
Hi guys,
Recently I've been thinking of changing career, and truck driving appeals. I know it's long hours, early starts etc but to be honest that doesn't bother me.
Is it still worth doing? I have the money to do my class 2 & 1 but just wondered what people thought of the idea and what the average wage is for example?
Recently I've been thinking of changing career, and truck driving appeals. I know it's long hours, early starts etc but to be honest that doesn't bother me.
Is it still worth doing? I have the money to do my class 2 & 1 but just wondered what people thought of the idea and what the average wage is for example?
I think it depends on what you do now and where in the country you are.
I went from almost minimum wage in a factory to £10/hr (multiplied by crazy truck driver hours) and more than doubled my monthly income. So I think it's great. It means I can now own a house, and a nicer one than I thought I could ever manage, plus nice cars! I also live in Yorkshire, and do mainly agricultural work, mostly to and from Scotland, so I don't see much traffic, and get to spend all my time out in the sticks, great. But many lorry drivers spend all their time trundling up and down the m6 or round the m25, in a low powered, not fancy lorry, from miserable distribution centre to an equally miserable destination.
I think the job is what you make of it, it seems to me that the stuff that pays best is doing night trunking, it's easy work, but you'll probably be dragging a badly loaded double decker trailer through all the night time contraflows, roadworks, and up and down the same boring roads. If I was doing that I'd probably think I made a massive mistake. I could earn a fair bit more, but I like going to farms, I like that I don't drive a boring truck and I like that my truck isn't fitted with a tracker.
I think it helps if you actually like the equipment and are a bit geeky about it. My brother is a train driver, he says it's the same at his place, those who take an interest like the job, those to whom it's "just a job." don't really enjoy it.
One thing I do think is that it's far from the worst time to get into the job, there is a genuine shortage of drivers so you shouldn't struggle to get that first job, then, you can go wherever you want to with it
I went from almost minimum wage in a factory to £10/hr (multiplied by crazy truck driver hours) and more than doubled my monthly income. So I think it's great. It means I can now own a house, and a nicer one than I thought I could ever manage, plus nice cars! I also live in Yorkshire, and do mainly agricultural work, mostly to and from Scotland, so I don't see much traffic, and get to spend all my time out in the sticks, great. But many lorry drivers spend all their time trundling up and down the m6 or round the m25, in a low powered, not fancy lorry, from miserable distribution centre to an equally miserable destination.
I think the job is what you make of it, it seems to me that the stuff that pays best is doing night trunking, it's easy work, but you'll probably be dragging a badly loaded double decker trailer through all the night time contraflows, roadworks, and up and down the same boring roads. If I was doing that I'd probably think I made a massive mistake. I could earn a fair bit more, but I like going to farms, I like that I don't drive a boring truck and I like that my truck isn't fitted with a tracker.
I think it helps if you actually like the equipment and are a bit geeky about it. My brother is a train driver, he says it's the same at his place, those who take an interest like the job, those to whom it's "just a job." don't really enjoy it.
One thing I do think is that it's far from the worst time to get into the job, there is a genuine shortage of drivers so you shouldn't struggle to get that first job, then, you can go wherever you want to with it
It depends what you enjoy I guess, I think the second post gives you a reasonable idea.
I did some multi-drop work in an 18 tonner back in about 2002. It was hard work, very challenging to drive a vehicle of that size in inner city and urban areas, especially with all the poorly trained car drivers, scooters and pedestrians, meaning you can't afford to let your guard down for a second.
Driving longer distances on the motorway is ok, but a little dull. Having said that, I'd probably quite enjoy a bit of trunking (that's depot to depot work, no manual hand balling), in a nice big 44 tonner.
The idea of being tracked at all times doesn't bother me, but then I'm not hiding anything, the guys at the place I used to work at who were concerned about trackers were also the ones swinging the lead.
I actually drove a fairly new 7.5 tonne truck the other week, I know it's only small, but it brought back a few fond memories. It's very relaxing bumbling along the motorway at 56 mph, and if you're a Radio 4 fan, you end up being pretty well up to date on world events, gardening, women's hour, the Archers etc.
I did some multi-drop work in an 18 tonner back in about 2002. It was hard work, very challenging to drive a vehicle of that size in inner city and urban areas, especially with all the poorly trained car drivers, scooters and pedestrians, meaning you can't afford to let your guard down for a second.
Driving longer distances on the motorway is ok, but a little dull. Having said that, I'd probably quite enjoy a bit of trunking (that's depot to depot work, no manual hand balling
), in a nice big 44 tonner.The idea of being tracked at all times doesn't bother me, but then I'm not hiding anything, the guys at the place I used to work at who were concerned about trackers were also the ones swinging the lead.
I actually drove a fairly new 7.5 tonne truck the other week, I know it's only small, but it brought back a few fond memories. It's very relaxing bumbling along the motorway at 56 mph, and if you're a Radio 4 fan, you end up being pretty well up to date on world events, gardening, women's hour, the Archers etc
.Don't do it. Most drivers are doing nearly two (normal) weeks work in one to get a decent take home wage. Contraflows no longer exist at night, the f
ktards from the highways agency just close roads. Tracked by the office, Vosa funding themselves by fining you and total aholes in cars that just have to squeeze in front of you, so they can then hold you up on an average speed zone on a motorway where no fking work is going on. Ah it's a great life if all you want is a Scania with half drawn curtains and fairy lights stuck everywhere.
ktards from the highways agency just close roads. Tracked by the office, Vosa funding themselves by fining you and total aholes in cars that just have to squeeze in front of you, so they can then hold you up on an average speed zone on a motorway where no fking work is going on. Ah it's a great life if all you want is a Scania with half drawn curtains and fairy lights stuck everywhere. Away from big cities its a fairly relaxing job ,if its M25 ,M1 or Midlands M6+M5 its soul destroying ,pallet work is ok ,aviod handball at all costs ,its hard work and you will end up overloaded ,customers think they can just fill all the available space and have no clue about weight .
A big factor if doing nights out will be where you park,will they cover all the costs ,night out money ,meal allowance. Some are happy stopping in laybys and cooking in the cab, the food available on the road is very hit and miss in this country.
You will be working to the maximum permitted hours and will have to manage your time very well .
Very little social life if you are away most of the week .
A big factor if doing nights out will be where you park,will they cover all the costs ,night out money ,meal allowance. Some are happy stopping in laybys and cooking in the cab, the food available on the road is very hit and miss in this country.
You will be working to the maximum permitted hours and will have to manage your time very well .
Very little social life if you are away most of the week .
myvision said:
What does long distance pay?
The same as everything else. Truckers like to brag about their take home pay but conveniently leave out how many hours it entailed. As someone said above, in the trucking industry you generally do nearly twice as many hours per week as any 'normal' job so divide the take home by 2 and you'll get an approximate figure for weekly earnings, which for a long distance driver is the equivalent to about £250 per week.Best way to make money at this job for the least amount of effort is to set yourself up as driver 'service' contractor, get your face known at places you like to work and then ensure the wheel is kept greased so-to-speak with the right people in the planning office to ensure that your name is top of the pile when they need a driver. I do very well financially from truck driving but it took a very long time and a lot of hard graft to get to the comfy position I'm in now with all my ducks lined up perfectly.
GC8 said:
And you're a company director too! If you can add 'fat (powerfully built)' and 'bald with goatee' to that then you have the venerated Pistonheads triumvirate!
Not there yet and probably never will be as a goatee wouldn't suit my fat face.
And another thing about being your own boss is when they need you to work NYE night you can give them the option of £x/hr or wishing them all the best
, which is exactly what I've just done as they naively thought I would be charging my normal night rate as "it's not a weekend night or a bank holiday". 
See you in the new year then! 
mph1977 said:
gus607 said:
Enforcement getting stricter by the day.
Do you really want to be watched every working minute ?
levelling the playing field Do you really want to be watched every working minute ?
the enforcement for LGVs and PCVs is so strict becasue of the culture of running bent
s and they can make a nice, easy, effortless income for handing out FPNs for unsecured loads, for example.If you have the spare cash, get the licence(s), and then think about a totally different career! If your career of choice goes tits up, truck driving is a good filler which pays reasonably well if you're prepared to put the hours in. Don't forget you'll also need to get & maintain a current DCPC card to get any work, and that costs money too.
mph1977 said:
levelling the playing field
the enforcement for LGVs and PCVs is so strict because of the culture of running bent
I'd be interested to know how you're so sure about this 'culture'.the enforcement for LGVs and PCVs is so strict because of the culture of running bent
It doesn't exist at my employer's Company; we have H&S officers who will remind us of our obligations under the law, and support us in explaining to management why we (on occasion) cannot do as they ask.
Neither have I seen evidence of widespread non-compliance in other operations. I spend all week away at work, I speak to many drivers, only very rarely have I heard tales of such shenanigans.
ToothbrushMan said:
seems crazy that to work for an employer you (the guy doing the driving) has to cough up for all these costs? or that what they call self-employment?
No different to any other pre-requisite qualification - how many Chambers would take on a pupil without a Law degree?Though some hauliers do train or pay for training (mine runs an apprenticeship scheme), there are enough qualified drivers about that most don't.
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