HGV or Plant.

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi guys and gals,

Hope you’re all having a good day. Long term lurker and occasional poster needing some advice.

I’ve been driving vans commercially for a while now and have more or less got to the point of having the cash to train so I can improve my earning potential for my young family.

I’ve read on here the upsides and downsides of hgv driving and it has been interesting. I’ve looked at all types of training, from non driving stuff such as asbestos removal, pat testing etc etc.

It always comes back to truck driving though because ultimately driving is what I enjoy and I think with a professional outlook, a willingness to start low and learn things, I can not only have a job I enjoy but one that pays relatively well.

However, I recall seeing some of the experienced heads here saying if they had the choice now, they’d go the plant route e.g 360 excavator. I’ve looked at jobs and the money seems good.

It does seem like only contract work, would that be a fair view? It also seems you’d have to travel quite a bit for it too? Has anyone got their plant tickets and would recommend it? Can you finish a plant course on a friday and work on a Monday? It seems the 2 year thing comes up a lot there too, is that quite strict? Also seems there a couple of different tickets out there, which is confusing.

Sorry for all the questions, I just need to get this right. I’m not wealthy enough to make the wrong call here and I can’t let my family down. Any help would be great and massively appreciated. I also would ideally like to work for a firm, on the books with all the perks that go with it, not self employment ideally.

Perhaps also worth mentioning I’m located in South Wales, in Swansea.

DD.

2

You’re on a HGV forum mate so it’s gonna be bias towards it I guess, or maybe to some HGV drivers the grass is always greener so they might say get your plant ticket instead.

When I look up 360 excavator operator in my area, Manchester, there’s only 10 jobs near me in a radius of 25 miles. First 3 jobs are £10 an hour, a few don’t say the pay and 2 say £15 - £17.50 an hour, then I click on both of them and one says 3 days contract and the other says 6 hour shifts. So to me, there ain’t much work out there that’s easily available; I’m guessing it’s a more of a who you know type of job? I could be wrong, seems mostly contract work where you’ll be going site to site driving up and down the motorway to sites miles away spending your wages on fuel.

I look up HGV driver in the same radius and there’s 837 jobs. So already you’ve got a much higher chance of getting a job, not just that, you can choose the type of work you want to do. You could do general haulage, hiab work, waste, be a trunker or a tramper and do nights out. You can do nights, days, evenings etc. A 360 operator ain’t working at night. You’ve got the potential to do a lot more hours as a HGV driver which in turns makes more money, also the fact you can switch jobs and go to jobs that are 100% driving, or 50% driving and 50% doing something else and learn a trade alongside it.

An excavator you’re stuck on a building site or in a yard loading/deloading all day. You can go to any jobs and it will all be the same work. As a HGV driver, if you don’t like your job you can change it and do something completely different. Obviously I’m bias though I’ve been driving HGV’s now for 6 years since I was 23 and I love it.

3

Pros and cons for both options.

Experience is the big problem on both counts but probably easier to get driving a truck than as a plant op. I work for a plant hire company as a HGV driver delivering the plant and we have a number of 360 drivers who are employed / self employed operators. They are all (except one) experienced blue CPCS card holders with a lot of experience, yet there are still drivers who are not very good at certain types of job who we can’t send to certain sites. The one exception is a young lad with a red (trained) card who came along with a HGV licence.

Normally our firm would never take a red card on and after taking him, it was a struggle to get sites to accept him until he proved himself to a couple of customers and is currently getting on fine.

With your HGV class 2 ticket which is reasonably easy and quick to obtain, you have the potential to drive a wide variety of vehicles on varied work. With a CPCS card you have a similar amount of training and time involved but it will only offer one category.

For example the excavator category has

180 excavator
360 excavator
360 excavator (wheeled)

3 different categories for driving a digger and even then the 360 is offered as a small / large version where you can do a test for machines up to 10t or one for 10t and over. Why you’d pay for the smaller ticket and restrict yourself is beyond me but maybe if you were just doing utility works etc it’s worth it? A bit like doing 7.5t rather than HGV2 so you can drive an ambulance.

Added to that there is a separate course for lifting ops that some sites want if you are using the excavator to lift / unload.

The forklift ticket is similarly split into different categories.

Rough terrain masted
Rough terrain telescopic
Rough terrain telescopic (roto)

My HIab ticket is only good for Hook, and does not allow me to use a brick grab (clamp) or grab (clamshell bucket)

Each of the CPCS courses is a separate training journey costing time and money to get a red trained card, getting a blue experienced card will involve a minimum number of hours and an NVQ completion.

Lastly the operators ability is much less the deciding factor in if they stay on a site rather than their attitude. The miserable unhelpful ones are soon offhired as their face doesn’t fit and a diferent driver sent to replace. Even some of our better drivers who fit in 95% of sites are branded as crap on others because the foreman doesn’t like them or whatever.

With all that in mind driving a HGV on your own seems a much easier path.

4

StormST and 8wheels, thanks boys for taking the time to not only reply but give loads of really good points too. I really appreciate you doing that.

I think you’re both right tbh, that variety you can get from driving a hgv is probably the biggest pro when you compare the two. Also the lack of jobs for plant is a concern too when you compare.

Cheers again, hopefully I can get my hgv class 2 passed this year.