I am in a sales job on £45k i have completely had enough of it.
I live in Warrington where there are lots of warehouses etc. i need to earn £36k as a minimum. Ideally £40k.
Is it worth me training on class 2 and working up. is it worth the investment.
I am worried as a new driver i am maybe too old? I will certainly graft and i am fit and healthy.
I quite like the idea of multidrops etc. I just need to make sure i can earn the money. Ideally Monday to Friday.
Any advice would be grateful and examples of wages etc in the area.
Frankly no. If you are earning 45k your gonna struggle as a new pass to earn that amount unless you want to work every hour if every day 5 days/nights a week and 6 every other week. Unless you happen to be lucky and land a decent job paying decent wages for decent hours. But they are fairly few and far between.
36 to 40k is doable in most areas but for 50 or 60 hours a week generally, and In some areas more hours a week than that.
The job is as crap as any job your trying to move from, potentially even worse with all the BS, micromanagement and all the rest of the crap you have to deal with.
If I could earn even 40k away from truck driving I think I’d do it in a heartbeat and never look back tbh.
You’re not too old at all, but expecting to start on no less than 36k may very well be unrealistic. There is not a shortage of drivers, only a shortage of experienced drivers.
Just do it or you’ll never know.
I went straight to class 1 at 42 and there are probably more people i work with who are older rather than younger.
As for wages, set a bar and don’t accept less. It’s cringe-worthy what some people are happy with when it comes to pay.
You have to bear in mind that you would be starting a new profession and you will be on the bottom rung. In these circumstances, salary expectations don’t really come into it for a couple of years anyway. Driving is very much a case of being given a chance and you sink or swim.
Well paid class 2 work would probably be hard graft and early morning starts. Put those work boots and hi-viz on and work up a sweat kind of thing.
At 42, you may be able to stomach the hard graft for a couple of years, but more than likely you would want to get on class 1 in the longer term.
There is some money to be made, but for the likes of £45,000, you would require to be doing probably five days at 10-11 hours a day. At times this can feel like an existence rather than a life, because your free time is reduced accordingly.
Col81:
I am in a sales job on £45k i have completely had enough of it.
I live in Warrington where there are lots of warehouses etc. i need to earn £36k as a minimum. Ideally £40k.
Is it worth me training on class 2 and working up. is it worth the investment.
I am worried as a new driver i am maybe too old? I will certainly graft and i am fit and healthy.
I quite like the idea of multidrops etc. I just need to make sure i can earn the money. Ideally Monday to Friday.
Any advice would be grateful and examples of wages etc in the area.
42 too old there are drivers in their eighties where I work, I my self got back into it in my late 40s.
I passed my class last August at 52. Started Full time the following week doing class 1 pallatized multidrop. Crap money, 55hr week Mon-Fri…boring as hell. Too slow for me and too much waiting around at places.
Got driving experience though and landed full time cage work for one stop (lots of people seem to detest the thought of pushing heavy cages over rough ground) but I enjoy it. A 4 day rota, no Sundays, every third week is an Easter bank holiday hours average 48 but it’s probably less. Today I started at 4am and was home at 13:45, 2 shops just outside London and 3 in Basingstoke, tomorrow is a rest day. Money is £41205 basic £43605 with bonus. Then there’s O/T on top of that. Tesco I think are on around £38k but do Sundays as well. They also do ■■■■ all.
Home bargains pay around £45k for days and £50k+ for nights, but they work a 5 day week.
You might not want to be a cage monkey though, people seem to think it’s hard work?
Col81:
I am in a sales job on £45k i have completely had enough of it.
I live in Warrington where there are lots of warehouses etc. i need to earn £36k as a minimum. Ideally £40k.
Is it worth me training on class 2 and working up. is it worth the investment.
I am worried as a new driver i am maybe too old? I will certainly graft and i am fit and healthy.
I quite like the idea of multidrops etc. I just need to make sure i can earn the money. Ideally Monday to Friday.
Any advice would be grateful and examples of wages etc in the area.
Being a new starter you cannot be choosy. Some companies operate on varied shift patterns. It is not a Dolly Parton hours
Food multi drop on class 2 can pay well, not sure about your area but dahn sarf round here the hourly rates look good.
Primarily because it’s bloody hard work, early starts doing kitchen deliveries to schools etc. it’s not for everyone but a good way to get experience, I started out doing it and whilst it was never the work I wanted to do, I realised very quickly that doing 20-25 schools in a day taught you how to sharpen up your driving and how to manage your time.
I did 9 months, in that time I had enough experience to move on to more interesting things and confidence and experience of doing central London so that not much fazed me.
Col81:
I am in a sales job on £45k i have completely had enough of it.
I live in Warrington where there are lots of warehouses etc. i need to earn £36k as a minimum. Ideally £40k.
Is it worth me training on class 2 and working up. is it worth the investment.
I am worried as a new driver i am maybe too old? I will certainly graft and i am fit and healthy.
I quite like the idea of multidrops etc. I just need to make sure i can earn the money. Ideally Monday to Friday.
Any advice would be grateful and examples of wages etc in the area.
42 is not old if you’re young at heart and keep in shape. I was 42 last year when I got my C+E in May but got bored of driving from A to B every day.
I’ve just passed the CPCS A60 for Mobile Cranes and work for Ainscough, and so far I find it quite interesting. Will get my Slinger ticket soon too.
If you like a challenge and eventually want the potential to earn well over double what you’d earn as a trucker (with overtime/bonuses etc on the Heavy Cranes) then maybe consider operating cranes.
After 23 years in Retail Management, I made the career change and passed my Class 1 in November last year. Like you, I was on a good salary, but I was at a crossroads and could keep on doing what I was doing, although be it moving into food retail, or take a redundancy package.
I always knew that as a HGV driver I would be starting at the bottom of the ladder, so weren’t drawn in be some of the salaries banded about when we had the shortage around the pandemic.
As is the case with most new drivers, getting my foot in the door wasn’t easy, but I went to firms and asked them for honest advice. That be to try Class 2 first, or go down the agency route. The main reasons I was told, were the risks associated with a new driver, and also the cost in regards to excess around insurance.
Went down the agency route and have had steady work since Jan, the site have also trained me up on a Terberg unit to help with shunting. Currently, they are looking into taking me on a perm contract.
It’s not easy, especially when you have had the comfort of knowing your incomings each month for 20+ years, but I feel the rewards will be worth it. From being accountable for 6 managers and 60 staff, to getting somewhere A to B safely and handing my keys in at the end of the run. It’s genuinely nice to be able to switch off from work at the end of a shift, and focus on my family.
Thank you for the responses. I think i am scared as daft as it sounds a whole new world and the worry of failure, I can’t afford to lose at it as i have plenty of bills etc to pay for. I work in vehicle sales and to be honest its very slow and my wage has dropped to £40k now. I spend £200 a month on fuel travelling to work its a 70 mile a day round trip. I could get by on £38k if i didnt travel to work. Agency would be no good as i need a income etc and to know where i am at.
I am looking at it more closely. I think i will request the licence and go for the medical and start from there.
Col81:
Thank you for the responses. I think i am scared as daft as it sounds a whole new world and the worry of failure, I can’t afford to lose at it as i have plenty of bills etc to pay for. I work in vehicle sales and to be honest its very slow and my wage has dropped to £40k now. I spend £200 a month on fuel travelling to work its a 70 mile a day round trip. I could get by on £38k if i didnt travel to work. Agency would be no good as i need a income etc and to know where i am at.
I am looking at it more closely. I think i will request the licence and go for the medical and start from there.
Have a look at some of the posts on here about how many new pass drivers can’t get a start because they have no experience, I am not syaing you wont get a start if you pass, but you might have to spend a couple of years on the bottom rungs unless you get lucky. You are already on 40k if you give that up you might end up on less than 30k starting at the bottom maybe on class 2 multi drop work before you even get a chance to get on class 1, I did 2 years on 28k 4 years ago after I passed my class 1 before I manage to find something better. Yep 28k on class 1, I couldn’t get a start anywhere else because I had no class 1 experience.
trevorking1964:
I was trying to offer a positive spin for the man.
Late in life should not be a barrier.
New pass doesn’t mean a job can’t be found.
Sorry.
I know you was, but he also needs to know the potential reality, he is earning almost 40k in his job now, 40k that he says he needs, I was pointing out that he might not get that for a year or two unless he gets lucky.
He might give up his job for one of the many firms out there giving false promises who just want a body in the seat and end up losing his house because he cant break 30k. Then again he might find something paying 40k where he is doing 72 hours a week and maxing out his driving hours every week, getting up at 3am to start work at 4am in the morning and finishing at 7pm at night after waiting 2 hours to get collections unloaded at a shipping agent after being stuck in rush hour traffic for 3 hours etc…and then the commute home to a meal on his own because his wife and kids have already had their food. Then struggling to get to sleep because you know you have to get up early and do it all again tomorrow.
People need to realise that this industry is not the easy street that is portrayed in a few edited videos that they might have seen on youtube
there are drivers in their eighties where I work, I my self got back into it in my late 40s.
hours average 48 but it’s probably less. Today I started at 4am and was home at 13:45, 2 shops just outside London and 3 in Basingstoke, tomorrow is a rest day. Money is £41205 basic £43605 with bonus. Then there’s O/T on top of that. Tesco I think are on around £38k but do Sundays as well. They also do ■■■■ all.