go and get their own drivers, 100 of them…
Lol. One of the chaps pictured drives a brand new green Lambo Hurracan. Plenty money being made at B&M.
Liverpool Echo:
… blue chip employers such as B&M …
Blue chip my arse! 
So you have to “graduate” to minimum wage these days? 
It would be interesting to hear from the local trainers in the North West for their perspective on this. The cynical side of me sees this as a cracking money spinner for these Driving Ambition people.
I hope b&m can afford to issue all the new starts with measuring sticks for the trailers…plenty of nice bridges surrounding scouseland. 
eagerbeaver:
It would be interesting to hear from the local trainers in the North West for their perspective on this. The cynical side of me sees this as a cracking money spinner for these Driving Ambition people.
Regardless, much rather there was more of this going on than firms shopping abroad and/or bleating on about wanting the government to land qualified drivers at their feet.
The success of it really depends on how good the job is at the end of it. If it’s the usual long hours/low pay/treated like crap scenario alongside awkward store deliveries on double deckers, they’ll see all the good drivers they’ve invested in poached. It then won’t take long for them to lose interest in the training.
If the pay & conditions were that great this scheme surely wouldn’t exist. You don’t see Aldi struggling for drivers & bemoaning driver shortages whenever they open new depots & we all know why.
The “Article” doesn’t load for me… my adblock blocks it… maybe because it’s a “Training Company” advert in disguise 
They’re so ■■■■ a company and struggling to get drivers,that they have to offer new drivers a discount crash course.No wonder everything about them is Broken & Mangled.
I’m intrigued by the way it says:
“The first 100 people who have completed their training at the Widnes Business Park centre benefited from the scheme that’s enabled them to pass their LGV test in a just few weeks for £1,900.”
Test, and not tests…
So is that 1.9k for just Class 2, or Class 1 as well? 
While that’s cheap for both, it’s certainly not cheap for just Class VAN.
If it is just the class 2 licence, what work will they even do for B&M, as I assume the majority of their work is artic’s?
Sounds like this could be a bit of a con, and if so, it’s disappointing that the Echo hasn’t dug a bit deeper. 
“This investment helps to cut test waiting times to three days, ensuring that upwards of 20 people are able to pass through the training centre’s gates each week to become qualified drivers”
Sausage factory.
So 100 newly qualified, never had any experience whatsoever, ‘oooo that’s quite big innit’ drivers hit the road in DD curtainsiders…
Nothing to go wrong there then.
You’re right, it is a good example of how the skillset is viewed. They consider 100 new licence holders to be the equivalent of 100 experienced drivers.
Whilst, on the face of it, it looks to be a good initiative to bring qualified drivers into the business, it doesn’t address why they need to do this in the first place. I wonder how many of this first batch will still be driving a hgv in two years time, never mind with the same company.
Nearly drowned in my tea. When did a company like B&M become blue chip!? Standards really are dropping through the floor!
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They’ll just be doing trailer swaps I’d guess. Either that or a load of their trampers have quit.
They were doing away with tramping and having a couple of satellite depots down south instead, Daventry and Avonmouth. They’re also after a site somewhere near Glasgow. My mate went there as a day man, who’d do them the odd night out as a favour. He’s now been made up to a trainer at Middlewich.
He was telling me what a cushy number the trampers were on, and how they took the proverbial.
If say you got 2 drops in Redruth and somewhere else like Camborne (not far away) they were getting away with taking 3 days to do it.
Many of them would work a 5 or 6 day week and only deliver to 4 shops all week. So now the depots will only do the stores local to them, and the other yards will get 20 or 30 units allocated to each of them for starters, and depot lads will just take down loaded trailers, and bring back the salvage and empties.
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Sounds like its got trouble/desperation written all over it. B&M seems to be one of those companies (plenty out there in various sectors) that have exploded in terms of growth/sales quickly and the logistics side of it really struggles to control things/keep up. They will get-by legally just but will generally go through drivers for fun and probably rely on agency a lot which brings a whole host of other issues.
Good experienced drivers are pretty much impossible to find these days.
Can’t see it working tbh,one reason to start with how can they say training and test in 3 days?,you look at most of the posts on the newbie bit and the wise training sages say once you have your assessment only then they decide how long a candidate needs,so Driving Ambition are that good they have found candidates that only need 3days? Yeah right ok.
Going from passing your class 1 to taking a decker out isn’t the smartest move or the safest,not knocking the new passes but B&M for doing it,they must have plenty of spare trailers tho.Been driving long enough to know what’s what but no matter how long you have been driving taking a decker out isn’t some thing to be rushed.
dave_k:
Good experienced drivers are pretty much impossible to find these days.
They’re ten a penny, it’s just that they’re all happy in jobs with good wages and t’s&c’s 
OVLOV JAY:
dave_k:
Good experienced drivers are pretty much impossible to find these days.They’re ten a penny, it’s just that they’re all happy in jobs with good wages and t’s&c’s
Not sure about the first bit but i’ll agree with your second bit, really need to offer good terms and wages to coax and retain the good ones.