Job (almost) down - FOAK HGV training query...

I suspect I am going to be handed a redundancy notice next week.
After 27+ years in a 'secure job' its a bit of a shock - but not a
surprise.

All my working life I have considered doing an HGV Class 1 course as
a 'backup' career.[1] Now might be the time, so what does the FOAK
advise? Pitfalls? Stuff to watch out for etc? [2]

Chris D
[1] Ph.D to trucker in one easy step...
[2] I am used to navigating an articulated 140 ft of boat along
narrow canals - so the size is not an issue.[3]
[3] SWMBO agrees

 

No comment on the HGV bit, but if you're determined, then an ADR
certificate will make it easier to get a job.
eg: http://www.training-adr.co.uk/

Good luck.

 

Commiserations, Chris. That's a bit poor of form on your employer;s
side, what?

Aha! Hazchem. WTF do they keep changing the bloody terminology?

Mate of mine drives trucks for a living. His 'mate' has already done
her little truck test and passed, now wants to do her big artic test.
She's going to /Poland/ to take her test. Apparently the intensive
course and the test costs the thick end of a grand here, but a ton in
Poland.

So she's going on holiday for a couple of weeks to see Eastern Europe
and coming back with an HGV C+E licence. Being a Euro licence it will
be valid here, somewhat bizarrely. ICBW about all this (and it smells
a bit fishy, tbh - although rather tempting in a way) and await
correction from SWK, but that's what I've been told.

 

Yoorup innit? I have to have an ADR 'cos maybe once a fortnight, I have to
drive with a radioactive isotope in my car (ie. not HGV)

We now have 2 Polish NDT techs, sourced from UK agencies. This is a
worrying trend, on so many levels.

 

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk...nk=gst&q=polish&rnum=4&hl=en#7b8907ac2610f51c

--
platypus

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to
give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise
bald and unconvincing narrative."

 

Blaney's the man to speak to.

 

Good grief - that's a bit of a change. Say hello from me if you speak
to him again.

 

I thought he'd retired in moneyed luxury.

I didn't know that. Hello Mr F! how's tricks?

 

Hmmm, ta... <fx: dusts off passport application form>

Chris D

 

Thanks for the advice/comments. I have made a few tentative enquiries
and we will see what next week brings.
<fx: dons rose-tinted spectacles>
They might make me a new job offer I can't refuse.

Cheers

Chris D

 

Not too bad Ta.

 

I'm actually having quite a hoot. Agency work, since I don't want to do it
permanently. The agency haven't messed me about, the work varies from a
variety of transport companies (the worst to work for) and others.
I'm doing mainly glass/steel/fizzy pop/palletised deliveries (days only).

Most of it is piss easy, I don't even mind the traffic. I'm being paid beer
money after all. Crap money (due to my no weekends, no nights stipulation)
but I didn't start doing it to get rich.

 

<waves>

 

<flicks vees>

 

OK...

It depends how hard you want to work (read how many hours)

If you don't mind working nights then the money is not bad and the traffic
is a LOT better. On nights up here in't frozen north you can expect to earn
around £10 to £12 per hour + x1.5 after 8 1/2 hours (+£20ish and parking
fees for nights out) and at most firms you will be expected to work about 12
hours per night as most of the firms I've worked for trunk into London and
surrounding areas.

Everyone says you will have to do agency work first but in my experience if
you aim for a big firm and go and knock on the door instead of calling on
the phone and get to see the transport manager you stand a pretty good
chance. I worked on the agency for 1 week then went knocking on doors of the
local major warehouses and got set on by Wincanton.

In my experience there are two schools:
1) You work for a major player where all regs are enforced i.e. tacho law,
driving hours, duty hours. The units are usually fairly new, clean and well
maintained and you tend to get palletised single drop loads without many
back hauls. (wages set in stone, paid monthly, overtime month in arrears)

2) You work for a small operator where you are frequently asked to sail
close to the wind with regard to regs. The units are usually fairly tired,
smelly and might not be that well maintained and tend to break down quite
often. You tend to get lots of back hauls and you end up carrying everything
not always palletised and usually close to the weight limits as these
smaller operators will take nearly anything as a return load to make the run
pay. (Often paid weekly but extras can be negotiated)

The job isn't bad in summer with a box or curtain sider doing single drop
loads into distribution centres but it's completely shit when it's pissing
down with rain/sleet pushed by 30mph winds and you are trying to get the
sheets roped back down on a flatbed loaded with PSE timber that has to be
kept dry. All in all I find there are more ok shifts than bad ones.

A lot of the transport offices/staff of the places you deliver to will treat
you like something they need to scrape off the bottom of their shoes, your
own transport supervisors.managers will happily shift your start times
around without much notice or consideration of your sleep patterns so you
need to be on the ball with regard to your rest periods (tacho law).

You will work for a few shit firms until you find a firm that gives a ****
then it turns into an OK job with reasonable wages.

HTH

 

Welcome to the fold "brother" )

 

Good plan. Comes in very handy if you need to earn money quickly, for
example in between losing one job and waiting for the two month
interview process for the next one to start. Whenever I have needed
HGV work it has never been more than a couple of days wait away. It
also is a handy card to have when the rest of the office are shitting
themselves over impending redundancy. So handy in fact, that I'll be
pushing the sprogs through theirs as soon as they are old enough.

Some agencies are shite from beginning to end - however you can screen
out the ones that don't have work waiting over the phone and then just
go to the two or three that sound the most promising. If you look
half human and don't come across as a complete oaf, they will
generally find some work.

If you then simply turn up for your job, do it with a minimum of fuss
and then bugger off with a signed time sheet your agency will love
you lots and give you more and better work. Really. Honest. You
wouldn't believe how many unreliable whingeing militant fuckwits
agencies have on their books - be semi professional, don't start
demanding you only drive nothing older than an 06 plate and they will
keep you in as much work as you want.

Modern trucks are easy to drive, and unless you do your first days
work in something like an ERF with a twin split gearbox, you'll figure
it out in a mile or so. If you end up delivering to distribution
centers, the reversing bit generally has plenty of room for error.

I'd second what Monz said about the 'two schools' thing, and having
done the general haulage stuff / refuse-to-landfill / tippers in
general work I'd now avoid them like the plague. Blaney is on the
money with doing nights - not just for the traffic issue, or the
better cash, but also because you tend to get to go to easier places
to find and park, as opposed to blind-siding across a busy high street
into the back of an Argos whilst trying not to take out too many
pedestrians.

Personal preference will dictate whether you go for permanent or
agency work - at least with the latter you can gain quite a lot of
experience in a short space of time. I would only do agency work
nowadays because a) I really *really* hate working for a company that
wants me to give a months notice if I want a couple of days off, b)
because you can quickly get out of shit companies and find one that
suits and c) because I could just about get by with doing Saturday and
Sunday and having the rest of the week off and such jobs are rare in a
permie gig.

Good luck.

 

Which is why I keep mine up to date.

 

Thanks for this - and to everyone else for their comments

Cheers

Chris D

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Alex Ferrier

<waves>

'Ello

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