Getting ready

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Good Evening to everybody,

I have started my journey becoming a professional lorry driver at 33, it is something that I have wanted todo for quite some time, but for various reasons, and being honest mostly not being brave enough to risk leaving a crappy but stable job for something else.

Had my medical earlier on today which was nice and quick so sent off my D2/D4 Forms as well as my Tacho card paperwork off so hopefully they make an appearance soon enough and can get on with revision and reading up on everything for the theory and cpc tests in the mean time, its all quite interesting and in some ways the very strict this or that things you have to go by is a refreshing change from the “no info just wing it” a lot easier to to know where you stand.

I know that its not going to be plain sailing, its not a perfect job, have heard all the four letter french words about the pay,hours,conditions and so on actually if all these guys did go take that shelf stacking jobs that are so much better in every-way did, then getting my first trucking job would be much easier :stuck_out_tongue:

Live in Aberdeen, so its all a little different up here compared to further south but there are still roads, places that need stuff, places that make stuff and they all need trucks so still plenty work to be done.

The plan is once get my cat C, try to get some work on the weekends and go knocking on doors with the local haulage companies to see if they will give me a chance, hopefully all the Cornoa rubbish will calm down enough by time that comes around.

I guess there isn’t much point to this post just saying hi and introducing myself, but I will ask a question.

As i understand it (quite likely wrong) if you do any driving as a professional that you have to stick with the working time directive(with some exceptions) there is no opt out option, so how many hours can you do in your none driving job a week before driving at the weekends causes issues? Am slowly going through all the hours stuff but it is a lot of info to process so though it is a good idea to ask on here.

Thank you if you got this far haha,

Cheers,
SquireT

2

Non driving job is under normal WTD which can be fully opted out of
Driving is under drivers WTD which cannot be opted out of
The two WTDs do not get added together

If doing non driving job mon to fri then under weekly rest rules you can only do one day driving every other weekend

3

Daft as it may sound (and I still find it hard to believe) working in a non-driving job all week (regardless of the number of hours worked) doesn’t affect your doing the odd driving shift on a weekend from a WTD standpoint. There is however an effect from an EU drivers’ hours standpoint, as you must have 45 hours of uninterrupted Rest every week. This can be reduced to 24 hours every other week which means that for most people with a full-time non-driving Mon-Fri day job, they can only legally do a single weekend driving shift per fortnight.

4

Brilliant thank you guys looks like I got a few things confused, for experience i’m sure that getting a couple shifts will be possible, even if it is the stuff that nobody else wants, its all a step to better things

5

Hi, and welcome to the forum. You’ve chosen a great subject to get confused with!! Most people leave it a while before they get involved in that. But, in the meantime, get confused about other stuff that’s nowhere near as complicated. So well done!

If you haven’t already chosen your training provider, we’re well known around the UK for residential courses and many folks come to us from north of the border. With 10% discount, free accommodation, fully trained, qualified and registered instructors (not a legal requirement and not common) and our own test centre on site, it all adds up.

You can get CAT C done and dusted in 3 days incl test and CE in 4 incl test. But it’s very flexible and up to the customer how long the days are and how many days are involved. But it’s always 1:1 tuition.

If I can help in any way, feel free to pm me or post on the forum.

Take care, Pete :laughing: :laughing: