HGV Drivers

[Raymond Reddington]

Aside from all of the "it's not what it used to be" and "don't bother" advice, I just wondered if there are any resident HGV Drivers who would be kind enough to let me ask a couple of questions.

On completion of the class 2 licence + CPC, is it possible/easy enough to go straight in to a full time employed position? I ask this, as I know the advice seems to be generally get some agency experience and then do class 1. But it's taken me a long time to move away from agency/contract work and I don't want to get myself back in to that mindset, mostly for financial reasons, the "fk it, I get paid again on Friday" attitude I seem to have developed during my time as a contractor.

Secondly, how do you see the wages going in the future... Race to the bottom or perhaps heading the right way due to brexit?

Thanks

Edited by Raymond Reddington on Friday 30th October 08:13

[Countdown]

Might be better off posting in Commercial Break.

[Raymond Reddington]

Countdown said:

Might be better off posting in Commercial Break.

Excellent, thank you. I didn't realise that little corner of PH existed.

[Shaw Tarse]

Raymond Reddington said:

Countdown said:

Might be better off posting in Commercial Break.

Excellent, thank you. I didn't realise that little corner of PH existed.

Here you go

[Raymond Reddington]

Shaw Tarse said:

Here you go

[R0G]

You will get more tailored replies on the trucknetuk newbie forum

[normalbloke]

Raymond Reddington said:

Countdown said:

Might be better off posting in Commercial Break.

Excellent, thank you. I didn't realise that little corner of PH existed.

Now, about your navigation....

[agent006]

It's still agency stwork for as long as you can stomach it. You might get lucky with a perm job, and there's no harm in trying, but do all that trying while you're working agency stuff.

Wages? We've already proven to the employers that we'll work all hours for sod all money in crap conditions so why would they see any reason to change, especially now customers and hauliers have to deal with the upcoming brexit trainwreck? Tesco aren't exactly going to react to having to pay 20% extra on all their imports by suddenly paying their drivers more.
Just having a few Poles and Lithuanians leaving the UK isn't going to make the blindest bit of difference, and as above, we've already proven time and again that the british drivers will swallow the same crap pay.

[Glenn63]

There’s loads of driver jobs out there at the minute and the need will only get greater with more and more online shopping etc. The decent firms pay well, have decent well maintained trucks and look after you but only take on ‘decent’ drivers so experience is what they look for. You may have to get a job at a ‘lesser’ company for a year or so to get your experience in first and keep looking/applying for others. Pay can vary a lot depending on work/hours/nights out etc Iv have jobs from £400 a week to £1400 a week but getting a nice place to work/life balance is greater than the cash usually in this trade, unless your young single and just money for a few years!

[Raymond Reddington]

Thanks for your thoughts, I'll also check out the Truck net website too.

I'm happy to take my chances with automation for now, I don't have a very big mortgage and it would probably be cleared by the time the robots take over.

A friend of a friend has started on the agencies a couple of months ago and has been busy for 50 hours per week with class 2. Which is encouraging. He's been on 12.50ph, which is a big drop for me, but with so much of the work being more local to me, I'd save 200 quid a month on fuel, and hours per week I spend commuting, so the money would be fine while getting thag valuable experience. I realise that a friend of a friend isn't the best information to go on, but it's a good rough starting point for me to see if it's viable financially and also that a newbie is immediately nice and busy. I've been in touch with a couple of agencies who also say they can keep me busy while I look for perm work.

I know it's not the perfect career for many, with lots of people who say don't bother. I'm keen to give it a go though. Currently I make formula one car parts from carbon fibre, and have done for the last 11 years, more or less since leaving school. It's a nice easy job and can be quite lucrative, but the fibres and resins have given me allergic rhinitis (nose always running/sore/bleeding, restricts breathing and need steroid sprays constantly and lost sense of smell until have time off then it slowly comes back). I'm also very bored of factory work.

For these reasons, I wouldn't mind at least giving it a try. I have my usual 'trade' to fall back on if necessary, and this seems like a potential way out for me doing something different.

[Kiribati268]

Raymond Reddington said:

Aside from all of the "it's not what it used to be" and "don't bother" advice, I just wondered if there are any resident HGV Drivers who would be kind enough to let me ask a couple of questions.

On completion of the class 2 licence + CPC, is it possible/easy enough to go straight in to a full time employed position? I ask this, as I know the advice seems to be generally get some agency experience and then do class 1. But it's taken me a long time to move away from agency/contract work and I don't want to get myself back in to that mindset, mostly for financial reasons, the "fk it, I get paid again on Friday" attitude I seem to have developed during my time as a contractor.

Secondly, how do you see the wages going in the future... Race to the bottom or perhaps heading the right way due to brexit?

Thanks

Edited by Raymond Reddington on Friday 30th October 08:13

On the first question, no, not really. You'll have to go agency for a while and the company you work for will likely take you on after a few months if you're decent. Once you've got experience under your belt you'll be able to apply for full time positions directly. That's not to say you won't be able to land a full time position straight away, anything is possible, but if a company is faced with 2 people applying for a job. One has 10 years experience at 2 other firms against you, a fresh pass then it's a no brainer who they will employ.

There are good and bad jobs out there (i've only ever worked under agency), i've done work that was 6am-5pm everyday that was back breaking work, rushed all day and hated it but then I moved to a pallet network and did 9am-4/5pm and the days were relaxed. I actually felt guilty if I got back to the yard too early!

It does depend on what your lifestyle is. You can do class 2 work to get a feel for it and go do class 1 and spend all week out tramping, but you won't have a social life. Sure the £25/night adds up at the end of the month, but you're basically living to work. Some people enjoy that, but it's not for me.

There are loads of plus points;

-I'm given a manifest and my keys, what I do after that is entirely upto me. There's no manager breathing down your neck and providing the job is done, nobody minds.
-It's all outdoors, I can't stand being stuck to a desk in an office.
-It is pretty rewarding, you feel like you're actually doing something. Nobody appreciates it, but when you see what happens and how many companies the items pass through to get cheap products from China to the shop shelves it does amaze.

Like with everything, there's bad too;

-It is a lonely job, with just yourself for company. You'll chat to the odd other driver, FLT driver or security, but other than that, you're on your own.
-Car drivers! Sometimes I think they park awkward on purpose, i've had to squeeze through many a gap with an inch or two either side. If a fire engine needed to get down I wouldn't want to be in the house at the end of the road, put it that way. You have some drivers that either don't care that you need space and time and are completely oblivious to the fact i'm straddling 2 lanes with an indicator on and dive up the inside or there's loads that dive out the way as if it were a container ship heading towards them, there's no inbetween.

I'm rambling now! Just do it, get your licence, digi card and CPC and work for an agency for 6 months. If you hate it then at least you tried, if you love it, well, you'll be glad you did it and there will always be a job for you.

Pay isn't great, class 2 you're looking at £11-£12.50/hour. Class one is £12-£15.

[Kiribati268]

Raymond Reddington said:

I'm happy to take my chances with automation for now, I don't have a very big mortgage and it would probably be cleared by the time the robots take over.

IMO I don't know why people beat this self-driving trucks coming soon malarky. I can't even get my Google home to work a plug socket without shouting many things, swearing a lot, giving up and then just doing it myself manually anyway.

Technology is bloody good, but self driving trucks? Decades away yet.

[agent006]

Kiribati268 said:

On the first question, no, not really. You'll have to go agency for a while and the company you work for will likely take you on after a few months if you're decent.

That's a very good point. Agency work can be a great way of essentially auditioning a stack of local employers. If you're doing anything more than holiday cover, then there's a shout at a perm job. Be better than most agency drivers (which isn't hard) and a decent boss will notice. Be nice to the customers, give the cab a wipe down on your break, do decent MPG, look after the kit. The firm you want to work for will notice that kind of thing.

There are plenty of jobs around, and there's no rush to get onto class 1 unless you have some sort of motorway fetish. There's plenty of work in class2.
I've got my eye on plant hire work as that seems a good mix of driving and interesting deliveries.
Also a friend of mine is having an absolute whale of a time driving a bin lorry having spent twenty years tramping.

[Massey135]

It's a lonely job and suits those who like their own company.
Tramping in a sleeper cab is not everyone's cup of tea either.
Best jobs with best terms and conditions are with companies who do own account work - often trucks are not their core business but they are prepared to pay a bit more and have decent trucks to carry their own goods. Their haulage operation is not always run as a cost centre. These positions are harder to come by though.
General haulage is a race to the bottom there will always be someone looking to cut the rate and this affects the driver at the end if the day.

[Raymond Reddington]

Thank you for the Insights all.

I've also been browsing the truck net forums and watched quite a few ' HGVlogs' on YouTube. Quite interesting to actually watch a day in the life of a newly passed driver doing the sort of class 2 stuff that people on the forums seem to sometimes slag off I.e. Multi drop handballing pallets and cages etc outside convenience stores.

I think I'd be happy enough doing some agency for variety and experience, I'll just have to be careful with the pennies so I don't get too used to weekly pay again! There are tons of jobs online locally, so hopefully when the time is right, I'd have something suitable to apply for.

I really like the idea of night work, I don't know why, something about driving at night I love, but having done nights before, I don't like what it does to my sleep and home life.

What have I got to lose, apart from a couple of grand for the training. Its definitely worth a go and hey I might even love it. I just need an exit plan from my current industry pretty sharpish as its starting to affect me physically and mentally now.

When lockdown is done and dusted and we have moved house, I'll get the ball rolling and hopefully keep the thread updated.

[Nickyboy]

Raymond Reddington said:

Thank you for the Insights all.

I've also been browsing the truck net forums and watched quite a few ' HGVlogs' on YouTube. Quite interesting to actually watch a day in the life of a newly passed driver doing the sort of class 2 stuff that people on the forums seem to sometimes slag off I.e. Multi drop handballing pallets and cages etc outside convenience stores.

That's the problem with a lot of people in the industry and they wonder why the wages are so low. They scoff at being offered £10 an hour yet in reality all a lot of them do is drive to one place or another, open their back doors or curtains and get in their cab in the warm while someone earning minimum wages does the hard work unloading or loading. It's not their kind of work to being doing multidrop yet in reality that's where you earn some decent money, that along with specialised work like tankers or transporters. I've been doing multidrop parcels for 21 years and earn a damn good wage but i have to work for it. I posted a daily diary on Trucknet about 10 years ago and everyone said they could never do it yet expect to be paid £50k a year for driving a modern truck from one place to another and sit on a loading bay for a few hours while someone does the heavy work.

[Its Just Adz]

I passed my C just over 2.5 years ago, had a few weeks applying for bits and then got a full time position.
It wasn't a great job, but it was experience being out on my own and a foot on the ladder. Crap hours and even worse money, but it shows a full time position can be found with no experience.
Luckily I knew a few guys on transporters and as soon as an opening came up I moved onto them, been doing them just over 2 years now and love it.

[Lemming Train]

Massey135 said:

It's a lonely job and suits those who like their own company.
Tramping in a sleeper cab is not everyone's cup of tea either.
Best jobs with best terms and conditions are with companies who do own account work - often trucks are not their core business but they are prepared to pay a bit more and have decent trucks to carry their own goods. Their haulage operation is not always run as a cost centre. These positions are harder to come by though.
General haulage is a race to the bottom there will always be someone looking to cut the rate and this affects the driver at the end if the day.

This guy knows ^ . Although I don't tend to agree with the assertion it's a lonely job. It's what you make it. It's a wonder I get anything done at all as we (the drivers) spend all day on the phone winding each other up and generally taking the piss out of each other and who has the easiest runs etc. I spend more time talking to them than I do the missus at home .

My place is own account on tankers and pays a good chunk above the average for the area, but own account isn't necessarily the holy grail dead-man's-shoes job that many think it is. Unlike general haulage which, generally speaking, is organised to some degree, own account work can be utter pandemonium as there's no-one in control to sort out problems with the trucks or what to do when you have a breakdown or a puncture on a weekend when the office is closed. You end up dealing with some useless 'manager' in accounts or the warehouse who has even less of a clue what to do than you so you end up having to sort it out yourself and making the calls. Own account work can be the cream, but tends to require you to have a functioning brain and be able to use your own initiative to sort out problems yourself to make sure the job gets done. The 'reward' for that is usually good pay (comparatively) and you're treated like an adult and left alone to get on with it without your phone ringing every 30 mins wanting to know where you are. Some places will see the MD ask you to spec your own new truck too - something you won't get when you're working for Wincanton. A good well-spec'd truck that you like driving does wonders for your job satisfaction and well-being.

To the guy in Northampton - you're in the so-called golden triangle there and you're surrounded by tons of RDCs. You're in the best location for class 1 work and pay. I will say that £12.50 / hr for class 2 work is toppy if that's days. The norm elsewhere in the country is more £9-10, give or take. Class 1 sits around a quid an hour higher, with night work typically another quid above that. Again, round numbers and will vary depending on where in the country you are. Northants quite possibly a couple of quid an hour more than those as there's a lot of demand for drivers so places have to offer more in order to get drivers to move their crap. Not so much demand in the wilds of rural Scotland when the money won't be far above the national minimum wage.

Edited by Lemming Train on Tuesday 3rd November 01:21

[fttm]

^^ We must sub for the same operation LT ? Hauling cryogenic tankers in Canada , left alone to get on with the job and also sort out the crap when it comes along . Big rewards , but whilst sometimes the job is a breeze there are times when the money is hard earned , very satisfying though .