I would appreciate some advice from drivers please about whether you think that I am taking the right route back into the industry. Please accept my apologies if this turns out to be a long read with some very basic questions.
History
I passed my HGV3 test back in 1979 whilst in the Army. I assume that this is now category C1. I drove Bedford RL and MK trucks with radio relay equipped box bodies. I occasionally drove a Bedford TK. Later I passed my tracked vehicle test and drove AFV 439 armoured vehicles fitted for radio relay.
On leaving the Army in 1986 I worked for a frozen food company driving Leyland fridge trucks around 3 towns on the south coast, delivering to shops and cash and carry outlets. In those days you could drive these trucks on a car licence. I was later offered longer distance work in a truck that you needed an HGV3 licence to drive. This meant nights out but I turned it down as there wasn’t a decent increase of money to make it worth it.
I then moved house and drove a van for a couple of years around West Sussex and South London. I was keen to earn more so I started working as a casual driver for a truck contract hire company in the evenings. This meant driving empty trucks such as Mercedes 1617 and Volvo FL6 and FH6, Scania and MAN box-bodies flatbeds or curtainsiders and the occasional Volvo unit to/from customer premises, garages for service and the company headquarters at the end or start of the contract hire period. These were the days of paper tachographs and no compulsory CPC.
Being a keen individual I wanted to earn more and have a more interesting job so I got into a mechanical service tech job. Then moved into manufacturing moving through production scheduling, then staff supervision and onto product design. I then moved into the media industry as a mobile IT tech with a car and 30,000 miles on the road each year. Sometime within this period I believe that my licence was grandfathered to HGV2, or what I believe is now category C.
I moved house after a marriage breakup to a place at the opposite end of the country and found myself working in various roles such as IT Training, administration, stores, mobile IT support then finally as an information analyst.
Current Situation
I have been working as an info analyst for the last decade and the lure of the office died a long time ago. I have got 5 years until retirement and some money in the bank so I can afford to jack it in and go back to the job I most enjoyed; driving. I live in an area of the country with little traffic, and the job of a truck driver is not as bad as being stuck in the Deep South of England or perhaps on the M25. There are apparently more trucks than available drivers here, and there are large civil works projects ongoing and have been for years.
Having been away from truck driving for so long, much as changed, and as I am now over 45 and never bothered with the medicals every 3 years, or CPC, which I only found out recently I have much to do.
My plan was to try to get a job on tippers. Being 4 axle medium-sized trucks I just checked my licence to see if I had the necessary category C entitlement, but it isn’t there. A bit of research into this, and please correct me if I have misunderstood this, seems to show that I lost the entitlement as I had not done the five sessions of CPC between Sep 2009 and Sep 2014. This throws a spanner in the works as I have little interest in spending my money to get the category C entitlement. I needed a new plan and decided that palleted loads or skip trucks would offer me a route out of the office hell. I could drive them on a C1 licence. In my early 60s I am too old to be hand-balling loads from trucks to premises.
The steps that I have taken so far are: -
- Obtaining D2 and D4 forms
- Passing an opticians eye test. I needed this as my 2-yearly checkup was due anyway
- Booking an HGV medical test for the rest of the D4 form completion
- Researching CPC requirements
- Trying to find somewhere to do the 5 sessions of CPC online. So far the only company I requested prices from has asked me to ring them instead of just answering the questions in the email that I sent
- Researching Tacho card application process and costs
What I need to do is: -
- Attend and pass the HGV medical test at the test location, and have the GP complete the D4 form
- Complete the D2 and D4 forms and send off to DVLA
- Take the 5 CPC sessions and pass any tests if there are any, and obtain the CPC card from the training organisation
- Apply for and receive the Tacho card through DVLA
- Apply for and secure a job
There is a slim possibility that if I managed to get into one of the companies here they would pay for me to get through the category C test. To me this isn’t the huge step of rigid to artic.
So, am I following the right route? Have I missed anything out? Could you recommend a CPC training company provider who offers online training?
Any other advice gratefully accepted. I have already been told to get all of my paperwork in order before I approach anyone!
Thank you in advance.