The highest you’d need to climb usually is the upper deck of the crane to get into the control cab, which is only a few steps on a ladder. I don’t operate mobile ‘tower’ cranes, just the standard mobile cranes.
Google "LTM 1040“ and “LTM 1750“ and you’ll see the types of cranes in our company, which is nationwide.
Cheers @marky-p , so just class 2? Obviously if I did my class 1, I can also drive class 2. Are you contracting through ltd for that kind of money? Or card in on the books?
I got offered a government funded class 2 course, starting in feb! Got no holidays left at my current job until April 
might go to the induction in feb, and ask if i can start in April, but it’s only class 2
if its the boot camp scheme then you will need to do x number of hours training before you even set foot in the driving school. You will probably be given a list of topics to choose from and book onto each one at a time and place to suit you. It would easily be april before you get to the actual lessons.
Dont worry about it “only being” class 2 have a read of the newbie section no one managed to get straight into class one and plenty struggled finding class 2 work. Get your license if you insist and get some experience then consider getting class 1 if you find you do indeed like it.
We’re all PAYE at my firm, and yes just class 2 and obviously my CPCS crane ticket. To clarify, I drive AND operate the cranes.
If you get offered work as a self employed LGV driver, without owning your own truck, consider a pair buying these:
Cooper1203, Few of us got straight into class 1 from a car licence, myself included. Whether it was worth it or not is a different matter. Probably worth doing class 2 and nothing more.
A good plan but isn’t it still the case that people, like me, who came into this industry hankering for a life of travel, might not be so excited in driving several miles only to set up on a job that never moves for several days?
Not decrying it, just wondering that it might not be the OP’s motive. 
i didnt either … i got my class 2 license in 2019. i did two weeks at wincanton as a 7.5 tonne driver but only drove once. then got a go at xpo delivering chemicals which i did for 2.5 years or there abouts again 7.5t. Then started at tesco which was my first proper class 2 job did that for 9 months or so would of been longer as i was saving for class 1 lessons but the agency i was with started doing the govt boot camp scheme so i snuck through the back door onto that and got my class 1 in april 2022
Same for me. A few weeks after passing Class 1 in 2022, I managed to get on agency work with Tesco and driving a rigid for them a few months later was the first time I’d driven a rigid since passing Class 2 in 2021.
I’m still on that agency work, combined with Royal Mail agency work and getting 2/3 shifts a week fairly regularly now, which suits me nicely at the moment. Fingers crossed it continues!
To all the old blokes trying to put the OP off, remember back to when you first started. Would anyone have dissuaded you? If it turns out the job is not what the OP thought it would be, there’s nothing to stop him going back, or again taking a totally new tack. The different views are good from the point of view that he won’t be coming into the industry, looking blindly through rose coloured glasses.
We aim to please. 
You aim too, please.
As said the sign in the truckstop toilet. 
We don’t need that sort of thing here, sharpshooters, one and all.
There was a ‘little red book’ too with digs and clearing house details. Our company gave us a folder with clearing house and haulage company phone numbers. ATM I can only remember Silver Roadways, but one of my first was from a large transport company based in Poole (Blue lorries) who I think are now a name from the past.
Edit Looked it up H J Cutler and the load was ceramic tiles.
At the end of the day those of us with 50 odd years experience wouldn’t consider starting up again the way things are-our time was totally different.
Anyone coming into the industry now doesn’t have that history and therefore will accept (for better or worse) what is available today. Yes, it’s micromanaged down to the n’th degree at some places and any decent firms will expect you to operate within the law but that is the future-it’s not going to change.
If the OP wants to give it a go then possibly some of our younger forum members might be the better ones to give advice and let us more senior members reminisce about the haze of diesel fumes, plank beds, drafts, wet,heavy sheets,frozen ropes et al. Aye,they were good times but things have moved on ( even Robroy has decided a Renault is quite a nice living space!
(Even Robroy has decided a Renault is quite a nice living)
That’s classic but you have to give him the benefit of doubt, it was a Mercedes before that so it could be said it’s an upgrade and times have changed
Is there something wrong with the present highest type cab Renault?..am I missing something here?
Tbf I feel amply qualified to give that (personal) opinion having driven most types of trucks in my time to compare it with.
I dont get excited over trucks anymore but I know what I like.
There is only the Actros that I absolutely hated, other than that I dont think there is actually a ‘bad’ truck on the market,. just some are better (and worse) than others.
So yeah I stand by it, I used to feel the same about XXL cabbed MANs and the old style Magnum.
I loved my Superspace DAF and the old type Topliner with the bunk above the windscreen, but yeah (imo) the high cab Magnum replacement Renault ticks all the boxes for me.
My last lorry before retirement was a Magnum here, given to me brand new after only 2 months on the job, kept it all through my 3 years with Gauthier and thought I was fittingly going out at the highpoint of my career, cabwise.
But my nostalgia for my beginnings in1963 are not diminished, it was all well worth it.
Quite the contrary Spardo, regarding the OP’s original motive, any cranes from 230 tonne and above spend most of the year travelling the UK.
Interesting to know, but what was the average time on site would you reckon? Also, without having any knowledge of the crane industry, how long would it take a newbie to get into the 230 tonne bracket?
I can’t speak for him but from my personal history my desire to be a driver came from being mobile, new people, new places, new experiences and the getting from one to the other in between.