Sterling recently approached me with an offer of work - - £80 for 3 hours!! Rather stick red hot needles in my eyes.
So yes, they are certainly trying to sub the work out. Good luck to anyone who can work for £26.66 per hour 
Peter Smythe:
Sterling recently approached me with an offer of work - - £80 for 3 hours!! Rather stick red hot needles in my eyes.So yes, they are certainly trying to sub the work out. Good luck to anyone who can work for £26.66 per hour
Sounds a good deal Peter - if its ‘labour only’!!
So if sterling have there own trucks but offer work to other companies it means they are a broker.
Do any of the LGV companies that post on here use any temp staff or subbies ?
If so… are you not brokers .
Very interesting topic and one I think I can contribute to.
As for cheaper training is not high quality. I disagree with that. A small business where the owner actually does the training can afford to charge less because he does not have the additional overhead of having to pay another employee to do the work and still try to make a profit. 4 day courses can obviously be run for less than 5 days. It is debatable whether the pass rate is all that much affected by 4 or 5 days. It definately depends on the candidate. I do not however think corners should be cut because of the price. I used to work for a school in Leeds that limited the trainers to an average of just 12 miles per hour of training. (plenty of reversing and tea stops and definately no dual carriageway work)
As you may know I worked with Sterling for the last few years until 3 months ago and they have always done 4 day courses. They monitor pass rates on a trainer by trainer basis over a rolling 6 week period and there are not many that fall below about 45% overall. Roughly the same as most test centres.
In my opinion what makes a good and value for money course for the student is the following:-
- An experienced instructor with the ability to adapt to differing abilities and personalities who still takes pride in the job and cares about the students test results
- A well maintained vehicle that performs to the standard the customers expects. This does not neccessarily mean new but does mean well maintained.
- The office admin systems of the company. A candidate does not like his course dates being moved about because of overbooking or scheduled vehice maintainence etc
Of course there are other factors but get those 3 right and most candidates will be happy and have a good honest course.
A candidate has expectations when they start a course. If you can smash those expectations they will recommend you even if they do fail. If not they will stil criticise even if they pass.
Finally, Training brokers. In principle the idea is not bad. One company does what it does best, the sales and marketing and the other does what it does best. The actual training. The problem is that the brokers are greedy. The only fair way I could see it working is if the brokers charged exactly the same as the trainer did, but gets a discount from the training company for finding the customer. That way the student pays the same either way and the training company pays a marketing company for finding them the work and saving them the time and cost of advertising.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to get my points across.
26 years an Lgv Trainer:
So if sterling have there own trucks but offer work to other companies it means they are a broker.Do any of the LGV companies that post on here use any temp staff or subbies ?
If so… are you not brokers .
YES I do use temp staff
If a company uses their own vehicles but the instructor is temp staff(self employed or part time instructors) surely that makes them Employers not Brokers 
If I was to get another trainer using his vehicle then I would be using a sub contractor-
A broker is someone who mediates between a buyer and a seller but has no product or service to provide themselves-e.g. Insurance broker
26 years an Lgv Trainer:
So if sterling have there own trucks but offer work to other companies it means they are a broker.Do any of the LGV companies that post on here use any temp staff or subbies ?
If so… are you not brokers .
Do you know what happened to Sterling in Northampton? As they used to keep trucks round the back of our place, but since I’ve worked there haven’t seen them, thought seeing as you know John you might know if they’ve pulled the plug on their own vehicles here
To answer Rog. Generally Sterling own all their own vehicles. However as they advertise Nationally through Google they inevitably get enquiries and bookings from locations where they are not based. The only long term areas they used other companies to provide the training was in Scotland, South Wales and Devon/Cornwall ie not so heavily populated areas. In other areas they would use subcontractors from time to time to see if an area warranted setting up permanently with company owned vehicles.
Overall they did not intend to be seen as brokers in the sense of Clearstone, Pathway, Advantage etc
Regards
John
garnerlives:
26 years an Lgv Trainer:
So if sterling have there own trucks but offer work to other companies it means they are a broker.Do any of the LGV companies that post on here use any temp staff or subbies ?
If so… are you not brokers .
Do you know what happened to Sterling in Northampton? As they used to keep trucks round the back of our place, but since I’ve worked there haven’t seen them, thought seeing as you know John you might know if they’ve pulled the plug on their own vehicles here
No they are still running out of northampton based on brackmills now .
John is still with them the other guy was errrrr well let say he left … the second truck at northampton is used as and when by a subby on behalf of qualitas …
How Do you know John did he teach you i cant remember ?
In reply to Tunny43 and others I feel I should make myself clear. I know other always like to point the finger on this site, which is entertaining at times but I wouldn’t like others to get the wrong impression of my company. We don’t try to be the cheapest, but instead strive to offer a good service.
How you can think I was slating your company service is beyond me. I’ve been in his industry a long time and know that one man bands can offer cheaper training, but do they offer as good a service? I think not, it’s just my view, your entittled to yours. But we offer reversing practice in our private yard, have two office staff to take care of bookings, fully equiped garage for repairs, comfortable classrooms, choice of vehicles and a variety of courses. Our training facility cost us £1.2 million to build and have spent £240,000 on vehicles in the past 10 years, a sole trader costs are far lower. This is obviously good for the customer because they have a choice, they choose whatever they want. Must say though, cost have increased a lot in he last six months, we used to get drivers through to class one for a few hundred less just 6 months ago, now with cpc, test fees increased and fuel costs going up it’s getting more expensive like everything else.
What I was saying that if you go to a broker then you are paying two companies and that the instructor is conducting training for a tight budget. So if anyone is charging £150 per day for a one to one 7 hour lesson then good luck to you but I think you might be better off going back to driving. I was told by the customer that the training was one to one and lasted a whole day, if your getting £150 per person and train two to one thEn that’s a good rate! But not one to one, it’s less than £20 per hour! That’s what I’m getting at.
I was merely picking holes in the quote my customer had, I don’t see how anyone can train one person all day in a truck for £150, do you?
Tockwith Training:
I was merely picking holes in the quote my customer had, I don’t see how anyone can train one person all day in a truck for £150, do you?
Did the quote actually state that it was ALL-DAY 1 to 1 training ?
Tockwith Training:
In reply to Tunny43 and others I feel I should make myself clear. I know other always like to point the finger on this site, which is entertaining at times but I wouldn’t like others to get the wrong impression of my company. We don’t try to be the cheapest, but instead strive to offer a good service.How you can think I was slating your company service is beyond me. I’ve been in his industry a long time and know that one man bands can offer cheaper training, but do they offer as good a service? I think not, it’s just my view, your entittled to yours. But we offer reversing practice in our private yard, have two office staff to take care of bookings, fully equiped garage for repairs, comfortable classrooms, choice of vehicles and a variety of courses. Our training facility cost us £1.2 million to build and have spent £240,000 on vehicles in the past 10 years, a sole trader costs are far lower. This is obviously good for the customer because they have a choice, they choose whatever they want. Must say though, cost have increased a lot in he last six months, we used to get drivers through to class one for a few hundred less just 6 months ago, now with cpc, test fees increased and fuel costs going up it’s getting more expensive like everything else.
What I was saying that if you go to a broker then you are paying two companies and that the instructor is conducting training for a tight budget. So if anyone is charging £150 per day for a one to one 7 hour lesson then good luck to you but I think you might be better off going back to driving. I was told by the customer that the training was one to one and lasted a whole day, if your getting £150 per person and train two to one thEn that’s a good rate! But not one to one, it’s less than £20 per hour! That’s what I’m getting at.
I was merely picking holes in the quote my customer had, I don’t see how anyone can train one person all day in a truck for £150, do you?
You said how did he think you were slating his company in you post you said … Maybe he considers this slating ?
Tockwith Training wrote:
i think it was DirectLGV, but there is no way the course could be good quality,
Tunny43:
Tockwith Training:
I recognise all those names!Had to rescue a customer on friday that had a quote for 1:1 training, 4 day course inc test fee and vat for £999.99, Our cost is around £1300 so obviously he thought about shifting to, i think it was DirectLGV, but there is no way the course could be good quality, not for that price, take off the test fee and the vat, and the truck is only earning £187 per day, how do they pay for decent instructor, good truck and £60 of diesel and still earn a profit for both the instructor and the agency, it just doesn’t add up. Maybe they say they do 1:1 but shorten the day to 4/5/6 hours, spend lots of time in a layby chatting or have some other method.
Pointed all this out to our customer and they fortunately saw the deal looked a bit iffy, could have lost out on that one easily and i’m sure they do manage to get some work. They ask us to train drivers for them but at £150 per day I would rather have the waggon stood, it costs me less!
How Dare you suggest that because somebody is charging less than you they wont be delivering good quality training.
I’m based in the North West - Wigan to be precise and charge considerably less than the £999 you’ve quoted and i Do deliver good quality training and can show a very good 1st time pass rate and overall pass rate as well. Just because i’m cheap i’m certainly not nasty(tongue firmly in cheek)
I make a living on what i charge and just about keep “ticking over”. It would be lovely to charge your rates but unfortunately it just wouldn’t work up here.
Don’t tar us all with the same brush and make stupid remarks about the cost. You’re very welcome to spend a day with me and check out my Poor quality training
Maybe the punters will pay that in upmarket York but not here in Wigan.
the cost of the course i took for cat C was £750 and did 5days all days were 4hour sessions and on 5th day i had 1hour warm up then the test which i passed with only 2 minors,£1300 i would def look around, £1300 is like what these brokers charge. or am i wrong■■?
Peter Smythe
FROM HERE:
Up for a laugh?? Have a look at Network HGV. Remarkably similar to the old Advantage website and the voice on the phone I’m sure is straight from Sterling.Your thoughts■■?
YUP - It’s another broker networkhgv.co.uk/index.htm
- over 40 centres UK wide
ROG:
Peter Smythe
FROM HERE:
Up for a laugh?? Have a look at Network HGV. Remarkably similar to the old Advantage website and the voice on the phone I’m sure is straight from Sterling.Your thoughts■■?
YUP - It’s another broker networkhgv.co.uk/index.htm
- over 40 centres UK wide
there a job advertised here for them if interested
delboytwo:
there a job advertised here for them if interested
HGV/LGV product knowledge is preferred but not essential.
They have a 0844 tel number on their site and no direct e-mail contact but…
Call Steve Manning, Sales Manager on 02079537774 or email your cv to sm@networkhgv.co.uk
I see that the Sterling & Qualitas websites are no longer available…
Trainee lorry drivers dumped by Autosearch (Essex) Ltd
By Nick Sommerlad on February 18, 2010 12:00 AM in WorkQualitas Training founder John Dawson
Five hundred trainee truckers lost their course fees of up to £1,000 when Autosearch (Essex) Ltd collapsed.
Tommy Williams, a sweeper on Liverpool’s Albert Dock, enrolled with Qualitas Training: “I am on low pay and needed this to better myself.”
Qualitas was run by John Dawson (right), 53, from Braintree, Essex, until it was wound up in 2007 but continued as a Âtrading name for Autosearch.
Autosearch went bust last year owing £460,000 to trainee truckers.
Dawson’s ugly mug has graced this column before, when his IT training firm Amraf Training PLC collapsed in 2001. Thousands of students wasted £4,000 fees on courses that were abandoned, but not before Dawson and co-director Anthony Johnson banked £1.5million in two years.
Dawson’s already dusted himself off again and has set up Flair HGV Training.
He’s now got the cheek to call for Âminimum training standards, warning:
“It’s all too easy to close down and start again.” Well, he’d know.Source: mirror.co.uk
Pat
ROG
FROM HERE:Deathstar:
Piece in today’s Mirror about the re emergence of Qualitas under a different name… blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigation … ped-b.htmlThe assumption is incorrect IMO
Flair training is a one-man-band W&D outfit which is owned by the former Qualitas founder who left Sterling/Qualitas months before it went ■■■■-up.
I cannot see how a one-man-band W&D outfit compares to the size or set up of the former Sterling/Qualitas…
The Sterling & Qualitas websites are now no more
I just hope those poor potential trainees paid by CREDIT card
Well Rog, if I was considering investing my money into training I would heed the warning and NOT consider it to be an ‘assumption’.
If indeed you are right then no doubt Mr Dawson will be wanting ‘compensation’ from The Mirror.
I would certainly discourage anyone to book any training with someone who has that type of track record when there are so many honest and excellent training companies about.
Pat
Another one !!
SimonB
FROM HERE:
http://www.hgvexpress.co.uk/This is run by Tahir Mahmood…ex manager of Pathway!
Si
Q: Where do I do my training?
A: We offer nationwide training so you can you don’t have to travel far from home or family if you don’t want to. This provides you the advantage of not having the large travelling costs and you won’t have to stay at a costly hotel at your expense. Our training schools are conveniently located across the entire country