Am I seeing things or are these advertising at the top of this page■■?
Truly amazing!! Clearly the folk who run this forum are interested in making money out of advertisers regardless of the best interests of the readers.
However, it’s still down to the customer to go and look at the training provider before they book. This has been said hundreds of times on this forum - - and still people are suckered in to parting with their hard earned to these brokers.
Just in case there’s anyone new out there, let me explain. There are a few hundred truck training providers in the UK. Most have websites and can easily be found on a simple Google search. The first ones that come up at the very top of the page are there because they’ve paid for that position. Some, not all, of them don’t actually operate driving schools at all. They are a marketing machine who will take your money, keep a bit, and pass the rest (not very much of it) to the cheapest trainer they can find in your area. Why not do the homework yourself?
Brokers are not necessarilly trading dishonestly (although most of their advertising is misleading to say the least) but you are feeding an “agent” who you don’t need.
The best thing to do is to book on recommendation. If you can’t find anyone who has had training and can recommend, then do the Google thing and visit the trainer.
All the best to everyone taking up driving; please don’t risk getting ripped off at the first hurdle.
Pete 
Hi Chevmac,
I see what you mean. It looks like they are.
I was looking on the roadtransport website the other day and saw that the Google adds (bottom of page) were displaying brokers. I wrote last week to Andy Salter the Road Transport Publisher raising my concerns. Did not hear anything back!!
IMHO I think they should not be entertaining these companies. On the contrary. Personally I think RT has a responsibility to promote what is positive about this industry and this would not include Brokers.
I nearly went with Easy as HGV when i was looking around. When i found out that they were a broker i left them well alone, but had to tell them that i had changed my mind about lessons so they would leave me alone.
HGV Training with Easy As HGV could not be easier. We have over 35 of the best DSA approved HGV Training schools nationwide, call us today to find your closest HGV Training school.
LIES LIES LIES!
How on earth can Easy as HGV say they have “over 35 of the best DSA approved HGV Training schools” when:
A. The DSA do not approve HGV Training schools
B. If Easy as HGV are referring to DSA Accredited Training Schools, there is a grand total of 13 different trainers throughout the UK and 3 of those are Fire Services. So there are 10 different DSA Accredited schools in the entire UK available for commercial training. Check it out for yourselves dsa.gov.uk/category.asp?cat=324
Clearly Easy as HGV are misrepresenting the facts which are more along the lines of having over 35 trainers throughout the UK, none of which are owned by Easy as HGV and it’s impossible for them to be approved and highly unlikely that any are accredited.
Buyer beware!
Shame on this site for allowing the advertising!
Peter Smythe:
HGV Training with Easy As HGV could not be easier. We have over 35 of the best DSA approved HGV Training schools nationwide, call us today to find your closest HGV Training school.
LIES LIES LIES!
How on earth can Easy as HGV say they have “over 35 of the best DSA approved HGV Training schools” when:
A. The DSA do not approve HGV Training schools
B. If Easy as HGV are referring to DSA Accredited Training Schools, there is a grand total of 13 different trainers throughout the UK and 3 of those are Fire Services. So there are 10 different DSA Accredited schools in the entire UK available for commercial training. Check it out for yourselves dsa.gov.uk/category.asp?cat=324Clearly Easy as HGV are misrepresenting the facts which are more along the lines of having over 35 trainers throughout the UK, none of which are owned by Easy as HGV and it’s impossible for them to be approved and highly unlikely that any are accredited.
Buyer beware!
Shame on this site for allowing the advertising!
The same printed media company have carried adverts for years of operator license consultants and rent a CPC who also leave a quite bitter taste and are not favourites of the Traffic Commissioners.
Peter Smythe:
HGV Training with Easy As HGV could not be easier. We have over 35 of the best DSA approved HGV Training schools nationwide, call us today to find your closest HGV Training school.
LIES LIES LIES!
How on earth can Easy as HGV say they have “over 35 of the best DSA approved HGV Training schools” when:
A. The DSA do not approve HGV Training schools
B. If Easy as HGV are referring to DSA Accredited Training Schools, there is a grand total of 13 different trainers throughout the UK and 3 of those are Fire Services. So there are 10 different DSA Accredited schools in the entire UK available for commercial training. Check it out for yourselves dsa.gov.uk/category.asp?cat=324Clearly Easy as HGV are misrepresenting the facts which are more along the lines of having over 35 trainers throughout the UK, none of which are owned by Easy as HGV and it’s impossible for them to be approved and highly unlikely that any are accredited.
Buyer beware!
Shame on this site for allowing the advertising!
Could this mean that both the advertiser and possibly the forum are in breach of trading standards 
I believe the ‘Ads by Google’ logo at the bottom of the advert is part of the Google adwords and adsense systems.
This works by the website offering space on their webpage for adverts that Google place there for advertisers willing to pay every time the advert is clicked.
The website owners then get a percentage of whatever the advertiser (in this case EasyAs) is willing to pay for the click.
Every time the advert is clicked it costs EasyAs money and a small part of that goes to this site.
If you refresh the page or press F5 you will notice the same advert does not always appear. This is because different advertisers are bidding for space at different prices on different keywords and the same advert does not always win the bidding auction
I don’t think you are seeing things John and a school I know is doing their training and the rumour factory has it they are struggling to pay wages I do stress this is rumour.
Come on Riki and the moderators give us your opinion of this as I am certain you didn’t sign up for this.
It’s not the only one The LGVTrainingcompany.co.uk has just appeared -don’t see any of them on here helping newbies with advice for free 
don’t see any of them on here helping newbies with advice for free
Is that cos they don’t actually know anything apart from how to take credit card details■■?
Data Academy:
I don’t think you are seeing things John and a school I know is doing their training and the rumour factory has it they are struggling to pay wages I do stress this is rumour.
Come on Riki and the moderators give us your opinion of this as I am certain you didn’t sign up for this.
[/quote]
He already did that Rick F N.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=43880&p=495003#p495003
> Rikki-UK:
> > Wheel Nut:
> > But before I do, if this was a Catholic website would you allow Durex to advertise on it?
>
>
> we did make the only change WE could and removed those ads from the forums. As we couldnt get those specific companies that were causing concerns removed from the Google ads, we removed all the Google ads completly
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44304&hilit=google+HGV+Training
Gents. FYI
The LGV Training Company and Easy as HGV are the same company. They are located at the same address in Camberley. Fast Track HGV Training and HGV and LGV Training are the same company too. They are trying to get 2 bites of the same cherry.
A lot of these Brokers now have 2 or more website. Even more deceit.
Easy as HGV also own a training company called Surrey & Hants Training. Surrey & Hants train and test in and around the Guildford area. I have approached a number of Surrey & Hants Instructors to confirm my suspicions but for some reason they all seem to deny they are owned by Easy as.
Yet Surrey and Hants also trade from the same location.
It’s all smoke and mirrors. What I don’t get is why all the deceit.
John, I understand absolutely how addwords work but what is the point of good instructors and training companies posting good advice on here when at the top of the website page is an advert for Brokers. Just the sort of companies we are advising newbie’s to avoid?
hgvlgvtraining
I’ve not seen an Ad on here for Months, I use AdBlocker and Ad Muncher. Both very good at what they do. 
Data Academy:
I
Come on Riki and the moderators give us your opinion of this as I am certain you didn’t sign up for this.
[/quote]
Moderater in this forum where
Earlier in the year a friend asked about LGV training I & another member gave him some advice about training & providers even sen him the 1’s in the northeast he still went with a broker even though we advised against this
animal:
Earlier in the year a friend asked about LGV training I & another member gave him some advice about training & providers even sen him the 1’s in the northeast he still went with a broker even though we advised against this
Yup this doe’s happen but at least he had the advice and chose not to take it I don’t have a problem with that it is after all his money and he can choose to spend it where he likes…but it doe’s make you wonder why.
Cheers Rick.
hgvlgvtraining:
Hi Chevmac,I see what you mean. It looks like they are.
I was looking on the roadtransport website the other day and saw that the Google adds (bottom of page) were displaying brokers. I wrote last week to Andy Salter the Road Transport Publisher raising my concerns. Did not hear anything back!!
IMHO I think they should not be entertaining these companies. On the contrary. Personally I think RT has a responsibility to promote what is positive about this industry and this would not include Brokers.
Are you just doing the same when you supply them with training Sean? If the trainers did not supply training then there will be no brokers! The trainers that are supplying beware because the writing is on the wall for most of these brokers because they simply cannot trade profitably.
You guys were asking for a Mod’s comment, so here goes…
Rikki has answered most of your questions in another topic in this forum, but I can only speak for what I know about.
I know that a ‘broker’ type company is perfectly legal as long as it complies with ALL relevant legislation.
There do seem to be some of the ‘brokers’ whose claims might be said to be rather fanciful, so I’d suggest that those should be reported to the Advertising Standards Authority / Trading Standards / BBC Watchdog for consideration of possible action.
We might not like the idea of ‘brokers,’ but IMHO burnie1 has a very valid point when he said:
burnie1:
If the trainers did not supply training then there will be no brokers! The trainers that are supplying beware because the writing is on the wall for most of these brokers because they simply cannot trade profitably.
As the owners of training schools, YOU all make your own business decisions and if that includes having ‘brokers’ as customers, then so be it.
Since a ‘broker’ is simply an intermediary who links prospective trainees with training schools, would it be possible that the ‘brokers’ would lose their ‘angle’ if you folks didn’t trade with them? Just a thought. 
Maybe some of you guys might look a little closer to home to discover the reasons that ‘brokers’ exist at all.
Another thought that strikes me about the ‘brokers’ is that it could be argued that they have gained their angle by simply exploiting an advertising gap caused by… ahem … errr… hmmm… a gap in advertising by training schools who didn’t consider using all possible advertising media. 
Now we’re back to Sean’s website that seeks to place YOUR adverts higher up the returns in internet search engine results.
I recently discovered a post in one of our forums by a ‘broker’ and I had no doubt that I should remove it from the forum as it clearly breached our ‘no advertising’ rule, so it had to go. The volunteer Mod/Admin Team does its best, but we don’t claim to be perfect.
I fail to understand why anyone would use the internet and especially forums without an Ad Blocker. Adblock Plus used with Firefox even removes the blue place holder for the ads.