Currently doing home delivery for Bensons for Beds via Driver Hire. Money isn’t great but for now its all about experience. Passed last month (8th Oct) and been doing Bensons for 4 weeks now. They run 7.5t trucks but these are as big, if not bigger than the Class 2 truck I passed in down at PSTT.
I am always looking at jobs, and quite like the idea of getting work on tippers but these things dwarf the DAF LF 180 I have been driving. Will experience in the 7.5t be useful or should I be asking Driver Hire to find me some class 2 work?
I enjoy the Bensons work, and the experience is invaluable as a new pass. But obviously it’s not a long term solution.
We have drivers who have gone, as new passes, onto tippers. Steep learning curve, but certainly not impossible. But it also makes sense to try and get some less daunting class 2 work if that is what you fancy.
Bear in mind that some tippers will have a manual gearbox. Not the end of the world, but worth bearing in mind.
Yeah, it makes sense that it would be a big box 7.5 tonne for beds and the like. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the work and it is a challenging and undervalued job in my opinion. They really should think about equalising pay a bit more and 7.5t only drivers are only going to get scarcer as time goes by, so the void will have to be filled.
Anything which gives you time on the tacho will help hugely in getting a job especially fulltime as they can’t tell what vehicle it was. Plus most class 2 will be auto these days, except as mentioned the tippers.
Must admit, I think I would choose anything but tippers for experience as they are mostly rush rush in the extreme. Although they banned load bonuses, the culture hasn’t changed much and it is an extreme race to the bottom in terms of rates.
Suspect agency will move you after Christmas as when I had class 1, they still put me on 7.5T furniture since theres loads of that work running up to Christmas. After then it’ll just go back to their ordinary staff.
Yeh the DAFs are apparently 18t downgraded to 7.5t as the need the space. Not sure how that works tbh as dropping 10t seems impossible to me.
Got my first taste of driving alone last week and have to say, much preferred it so will definitely be looking to find myself a role where it’s just me and the road, once th paper work is done of course
Chris, I’m in exactly the same boat as you. Passed class 1 day before lockdown. Driver hire gave me a few shifts here and there and then offered me bensons which I started today at Dagenham. I took it just to get some experience to be honest and want to get on the tippers as well eventually. Keep in touch and let me know how you getting on.
Yeh the DAFs are apparently 18t downgraded to 7.5t as the need the space. Not sure how that works tbh as dropping 10t seems impossible to me.
It’s more likely that they are 10 or 12 toners downplated to 7.5. In some cases, it’s simply a paper exercise not involving any modification (or very little) to the vehicle.
Hi. I got my Class 2 licence in March of last year. I did plenty of 7.5t driving initially for 10 months or so with some 18t work too. Been on Class 2 again since. All agency work and have never once been questioned by an agency worker or a transport manager. about it. You have the necessary requirements. You’ll fine. To be honest there’s hardly any difference in driving terms anyway.
