After a long time thinking about it I’ve decided to try my hand at HGV driving. I really think it’s an industry I could get my teeth into. I tried to get my Class 2 about 7 years ago but I jumped in too fast and didn’t really give it my best shot, so I failed and never tried again. Plus, I went though a broker and it skinned me alive financially. Now that I’m slightly older and wiser (hopefully) I feel the time is right. Bit nervous but ready to give it a damned good shot.
Looking for some advice regarding training and also employment.
With regards to employment - I’m doing some research into job prospects and the general health of the industry at the moment. Any advice or comments on this front? When/if I get my licence my attitude is to dive into just about anything and not be too picky just to get some experience under my belt but at the same time would like to know when someone is taking the proverbial out of me as a newbie.
And with regards to training - I’m looking about at a few trainers (and steering WELL clear of brokers) and keep coming back to Peter Smythe near Mansfield because he seems damned good and his rep is unbelievable. Anyone trained with him before? I realise he’s on this forum but thought I’d ask anyway.
SaucyWeeTart:
… I’m looking about at a few trainers (and steering WELL clear of brokers) and keep coming back to Peter Smythe near Mansfield because he seems damned good and his rep is unbelievable. Anyone trained with him before? And I realise he’s on this forum but thought I’d ask anyway.
I hesitate to say this because of how it might sound, but here goes…
A scroll through the posts in this very forum should get you all the confirmation you may need, but you already seem to know that Peter’s “rep is unbelievable” which means that you’re off to a great start on a quest to believe.
Am brand new here myself and going to take the plunge (well, dip my toes to start). Have already decided i am taking the ‘this is a marathon, not a sprint’ approach (try my luck with 7.5 tonne to see how it is, if i enjoy it then train for the bigger vehicles while chalking up driving experience along the way). After reading just a handful of comments on here, even tho it is 122 miles each way for me, am waiting for an (and hoping there is another) open day to pay a visit to Peter Smythe Transport Training.
Yea, I’ve got about a 550 mile round trip by car if I’m gonna train down there. Pretty ironic if I was to say that I couldn’t be ar**d driving all that way considering what I’d be training to be…
Visited Pete’s school. Great setup. I didn’t get my Class 2 there in the end but that’s because I found a good local school that served my purposes. If I’d not found that I’d have gone back to Smythe’s.
Got 20 CV’s printed. Got hard dray work straightaway. Job kept trying to kill me. I’m a small bloke, and after two broken fingers, a chipped elbow, and forever being covered in cuts and bruises, then culminating in a workplace accident that could’ve been much worse I sacked that off.
Since then I’ve been doing various agency work. Plus: variety which helps you know what you do and do not like. Minus: lack of consistency, unforced days off, constant inductions. I’m nearly at 6 months of driving so some permanent options might open up. All in all, I’m happy I got my licence, and I really enjoy nights out (even in a truck without air-con in the heat we had recently)
SaucyWeeTart:
Great job. What was your strategy after passing for finding work?
Originally I was looking for either tipper work or trunking work to begin with. I soon found out there isn’t much Class 2 trunking work in the South East of England and tipper work around here is trickier to find than expected.
In the end, I signed up to like 5 or 6 agencies, stating PAYE only. Some I walked away from after they could only offer Umbrella.
My first Class 2 work was at Gatwick airport, driving and reversing in tighter spots than you would find on the road but low mileage each night. I lasted 6 months on that, as it was more a labourers job than a driver’s job. In that 6 months I probably saw 8-10 drivers come and go.
After that, I signed up to another agency and they gave me some pretty crap work, did a bit of general haulage on Class 2 moving paper products (Company were surprised I bothered strapping the load, as “it was paper, it was heavy and wouldn’t move” in their words). Then I did some plant delivery/collection in the middle of London with a 26 tonne long wheel base with beaver tail - That was fun.
Then I got some better work at the agency when they realised I would turn up ontime and didn’t crash the truck. They got me into Hermes, driving 12 and 18 tonne trucks, doing some Class 2 trunking up to Rugby and more local multi drop at residential addresses, and depot to sub-depot type work - The night work was easier but mostly moving pallets and parcels on/in the pallets with collars around them. That same agency got me some Class 1 work at Hermes, again trunking up to Rugby and back.
Then the agency sent me to Royal Mail for a driving assessment on Class 2, which I passed and I’ve been happy there since - But they are changing with some management getting pushing drivers to do more per shift and cut journey times.
Still curious to give tippers a go one day, as well as maybe tankers too.
