Hi folks! I need advice and guidance, on various issues, and I wondered whether this might be the place to ask.
I am 60, currently unemployed (And very, very, skint). I once used to drive all over Western Europe. At a guess, well over 1,000,000 miles*
I was very lucky, I was delivering high-value antiques and works of art etc. I had a sympathetic and generous employer, and I was well-paid and looked-after. My expenses were never questioned. I loved my little truck, and the job.
But I only had a C1/Class 3 ticket. (“Grandad’s rights”!)
Time passed. And I was working doing other things, and I did not update to CPC.
I never made much “provision for the future”. Now, the future is here.
I have two, tiny, pension-pots, which I am in the process of “cashing-in”
One is approx £7.5k, the other is approx £750.00
Should I “invest” some or all of this money? This would be a “last throw of the dice” for me.
Just the CPC and find 7.5T work?
Go for a C/Class2 as well?
Go for C+E/Class 1?
Any and all answers warmly welcomed!
*Paris, (central) most Tuesdays, and back ‘most’ Saturdays, but often… Geneva, Zurich, Amsterdam, Antwerp… And sometimes:
“O! Steve! Any chance? Madrid, Hamburg, Prague, Vienna, Milan, Nice, Florence, Rome, Berlin, Bremen, Cagliari (I know, that was a weird one, and they had booked me out of Livorno!)”
etc. I NEVER said no!
What do you think? I speak reasonably fluent French, and can get by in German and Italian (just!).
Euro work for most part will need your class 1 there is work out there on class 2 and smaller but not much ,there are companies that will take you on and having language skills will certainly help! If it is something you won’t todo go for it need about 3k to get the license then it’s join the job hunt, fortunately these days plenty of places will take you on at least.
“My expenses were never questioned”
Except once, when the financial director (boss’s ex-wife) called me after her quarterly review of the “petty-cash” situation.
“Steve, we are a bit worried about your expenses”
“O?”
“Yes, you don’t seem to spend very much, compared to your colleagues, and we wondered if perhaps, you have a stack of reciepts that you have not presented”?
“No, once I’m out, I don’t need much…I COULD I suppose, spend more, but really I am fine. Thanks! ■■■”
I know. I was very lucky!
richfr:
You could do your CPC try some 7.5t work see how it goes earn some money first. I did mine online was £35 a day so £175 investment + taco card £32.
richfr:
You could do your CPC try some 7.5t work see how it goes earn some money first. I did mine online was £35 a day so £175 investment + taco card £32.
See what van work is about as you wont need a cpc for that just till you decide what you are going to do & get back into it as lot of things have changed as you may be aware
Go for C+E/Class 1?
Any and all answers warmly welcomed!..
My sympathies with you. I have also been broke and tried to get Class 1. At 55 I could cash a pension and then I had the funds for Class 1 (unlike yourself I had Class 2). In my case I had to move out of my late mother’s house and moved to the Spalding area to find almost no Class 2 work and the house I bought needed work so I couldn’t contemplate an almost immediate resale. The move was a rush job which can happen when the owner does and executors are involved.
To answer your questions
1] 7.5T little work available compared with Class 2 and Class 1 but look around your area. Knowhow and other domestic delivery type of work. But pay is poor but would get you started with only CPC to fund.
2] Class 2 again check your area for potential work. Pallet freight is what I started in… Thetford/Diss/Eye areas in Suffolk had 7 such firms within 20 miles of where I then lived. In pallet freight work there is a progression in the sense that 7.5T used for local delivery, 18T for the main delivery/collection work and then Class 1 for large delivery/collection and hub trunking. If you started on 7.5T they may offer you Class 2. I found that some drivers doing Class 2 were in fact Class 1 and preferred doing the Class 2 delivery/collection work. Pallet freight does offer progression which other businesses don’t.
3] Class 1? You could do both Class 2 and Class 1 and then you have no worries about getting work. Class 1 is quite a step up from Class 2 and reversing needs to be mastered early on. The first couple of months I found hard but then one improves exponentially. After 6 months you’ll have had some nerve racking challenges and then think nothing of it.
Your other option? I started driving when I had 15 yrs until retirement. You are a bit older than me. An intermediate step into driving or alternative could be forklift driving. Cashing the £750 would get you through a proper forklift course (with licence) - true licence not an in house one. If you have an RDC in your area they pay excellent cash £14 per hour at Tesco and Aldi. You would be into cash a bit quicker than driving. It could be 2.5/3 months for a Class 2 course vacancy (then perhaps another 3 months for a Class 1 course). A firm I do collections for - the forklift driving is also a shunter job and such firms take on immediately and do shunter training. Can be better paid than artic work and you sleep in your own bed. There is ‘forklift driving’ and forklift driving - the more professional side is RDC and pallet freight work - driving fast and loading efficiently is quite a skill… good drivers are in short supply. Very different to the average goods inwards driver. To decide - I’d say drive round your area and see for yourself the possibilities.
Class 1 - things have improved since Brexit. Many Polish have gone back home and wages have gone up… I take home £750-800 per week. If you did the Class 1 you would be earning but it could take you 6 months or more to get there. You did say you were short of cash aside of cashing the pension.
I was on the edge of repossession when I did Class 1 and now next month clear the mortgage I had. Cashing my pension paid for my arrears and Class 1. HTH from someone who has been there!
animal:
See what van work is about as you wont need a cpc for that just till you decide what you are going to do & get back into it as lot of things have changed as you may be aware
I have been a “van” driver for many years, and frankly I hated it. I was a truck driver for years before that, I loved it!
ParcelForce etc. 120 + drops per day, 60-70 hours PW!
(It is not the hours I minded so much, it was the grind, constantly behind schedules, and the toxic working environment!)
animal:
See what van work is about as you wont need a cpc for that just till you decide what you are going to do & get back into it as lot of things have changed as you may be aware
I have been a “van” driver for many years, and frankly I hated it. I was a truck driver for years before that, I loved it!
ParcelForce etc. 120 + drops per day, 60-70 hours PW!
(It is not the hours I minded so much, it was the grind, constantly behind schedules, and the toxic working environment!)
When I did van work I never had or done multi drop they were alway 1 maybe 2 drops did go all over including Europe