I’ve been thinking of doing my ADR licence for a while
I’ve just seen something about a PDP aswell?
Is it worth bothering with? I’m on Class 1 M-F at the moment and I’ve had a search around and to be honest, very few ADR jobs pay as much as or more than I’m earning currently. Some are more
Just wondered whether or not to put myself through the courses…
PDP is what you need as petrol tanker driver for loading and unloading in fuel terminals have to renew it every year .Which counts towards your CPC hours you need to be working in the fuel industry to get it
If ADR isn’t paying as much as non-ADR in your area, then there’s your answer. It will cost roughly twice as much to do an ADR course as it will to renew your CPC, if you won’t get the value for that money then what’s the point?
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trucker10:
PDP is what you need as petrol tanker driver for loading and unloading in fuel terminals have to renew it every year .Which counts towards your CPC hours you need to be working in the fuel industry to get it
Feels like a case of you can’t have one without the other but you need one before you can get it…?
Terry Cooksey:
If ADR isn’t paying as much as non-ADR in your area, then there’s your answer. It will cost roughly twice as much to do an ADR course as it will to renew your CPC, if you won’t get the value for that money then what’s the point?Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Yep that’s a fair point, CPC course (all levels) locally is just over £600
Thejpmshow:
trucker10:
PDP is what you need as petrol tanker driver for loading and unloading in fuel terminals have to renew it every year .Which counts towards your CPC hours you need to be working in the fuel industry to get itFeels like a case of you can’t have one without the other but you need one before you can get it…?
The PDP is made up of both a theory and practical test. In order to do the practical, you’d need a fuel tanker and a delivery destination as you need to shoe safe loading and unloading techniques. Obviously, this requires a decent level of training to learn how to do this safely, so you wouldn’t be able to get a PDP until after you’ve started working for a company that does fuel work
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Thejpmshow:
Terry Cooksey:
If ADR isn’t paying as much as non-ADR in your area, then there’s your answer. It will cost roughly twice as much to do an ADR course as it will to renew your CPC, if you won’t get the value for that money then what’s the point?Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Yep that’s a fair point, CPC course (all levels) locally is just over £600
And the ADR price? Also worth pointing out you can still do CPC online, and there are considerably cheaper prices than that for CPC if you look around, making the cost difference even greater (you can do the ADR course online, but the exams have to be sat at approved training centres, so you’d need one fairly local, unlike with online CPC)
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If I remember rightly, doing an ADR course counts 21 hours worth of DCPC to your account, so you get that as added value cos you ain’t got to sit through three sessions of instructors boring the crap out of you about their exploits on a Saturday morning.
As to whether you get a better paid job out of it; debatable but it does massively widen the scope of employability for you, and if that plum job does come up you’re further up the queue than the applicant who doesn’t have ADR. There are other things to consider besides the actual pay rate; my firm sub to Calor and whilst I’m not paid a premium doing their runs it’s a doddle cos it’s just trailer swaps. So easier work if nothing else.
As Terry says you need a tanker and a job driving it to do PDP.
One thing to note about ADR work; even if your firm is on “double green” with DVSA, expect to get pulled over for ADR kit checks.
Sidevalve:
One thing to note about ADR work; even if your firm is on “double green” with DVSA, expect to get pulled over for ADR kit checks.
Company I work for keeps most of their ADR kit (spill kit, gloves, goggles, first aid kit, respirator etc) in a sealed holdall in the wagons. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve told them they need to get rid of the seals as half of the stuff in there has expiration dates that the driver is unable to check without breaking the seal on the bag (if the seal is broken the driver is meant to report it so the bag can be swapped for another sealed one, again with expiration dates all unknown)
As you will know, expired gear is as bad as not having it at all, but my lot don’t seem to learn, no matter how much I tell them (pretty bad when they won’t listen to a qualified DGSA about ADR regs, but they only employ me as a driver so I guess it’s not my responsibility)
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I believe it’s very worthwhile doing ADR, but then again I am an ADR Instructor, so I would say that wouldn’t I ? 
and there’s a lot of ADR work in my neck of the woods (Teesside).
Around here you can do ADR for as little as £466 including Tanks and therefore 28 hours of DCPC. So subtract the cost of four days of DCPC (cheapest available is still VR at £35 a pop) and that equates to the ADR costing just £326, so it would pay for itself very easily.
There’s no need to think about PDP, as has been said it’s only necessary to go into the refinery, of which there are only about 6 in the UK.
An ADR PPE kit bag should really be issued to the driver, not the vehicle, and the driver should be entrusted to maintain and check it. If there’s anything amiss with the kitbag on a DVSA “encounter” as they like to call them, I’m not sure they’d be understanding about sealed-bag-swap-system described, not least of all because you can’t test the batteries on your torch and flashing beacons.
CPC at £600? Only if you’re doing TMCPC; or someone is “taking your eyes out and coming back for the sockets”, £600 for 35 hours equates to £120 a session!
Terry Cooksey:
Sidevalve:
One thing to note about ADR work; even if your firm is on “double green” with DVSA, expect to get pulled over for ADR kit checks.Company I work for keeps most of their ADR kit (spill kit, gloves, goggles, first aid kit, respirator etc) in a sealed holdall in the wagons. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve told them they need to get rid of the seals as half of the stuff in there has expiration dates that the driver is unable to check without breaking the seal on the bag (if the seal is broken the driver is meant to report it so the bag can be swapped for another sealed one, again with expiration dates all unknown)
As you will know, expired gear is as bad as not having it at all, but my lot don’t seem to learn, no matter how much I tell them (pretty bad when they won’t listen to a qualified DGSA about ADR regs, but they only employ me as a driver so I guess it’s not my responsibility)Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
In Germany in most Adr load collection(one pallets or 33) loader before start loading come with check sheet and check everything,expired date.If something missed that no loading.
Thanks for the answers / opinions
I’ve changed from thejpmshow to BE5T D4D
If you need access to jobs then its a good idea, but a lot of ADR is pallet work vs the fancy stuff unless you’re in an area with various tankers (not just fuel).
But just remember it makes you much more visible to DVSA and the police commercial vehicle unit, so more likely to be stopped.
It amazing how much offices don’t understand that ADR really means they have to take this stuff seriously. Had same problem as Terry with sealed bags and not allowed to open them. Finally convinced them to allow it and the amount of stuff out of date, not working or missing was insane in every truck.
Pre-PDP I did the full course (7 classes, tanks and packages) twice. Paying for it myself, and never once used it to earn money because in my local area there isn’t enough demand and financial reward for having it.
After the 1st one lapsed, I did all it again around 2019 to gain the DCPC 21 hours, figuring that I may as well get something extra (DCPC hours) if I did it, tbh I wished I had spent it on whiskey and beer for what use it was to me
Short answer…NO.
Unless you are looking for a career in tankers then dont bother. Most haulage companies just will not pay the right wage for orange plate work!