Worth starting out at 42

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
21

The median wage is apparently around the £27,000 mark. This is slightly different to the average, but 50% of people earn more and 50% of people earn less. I think the average is kind of misleading because obviously the ones earning millions inflate this up.

To say you can get by on £38,000 (basic) without a commute is essentially saying you are amongst the elite in the country.

Looking at driving as a career to meet this kind of target is fraught with difficulties. On the one hand, drivers are earning over this, but usually not as part of a basic wage.

The way I think of it, the value a company puts on my work is reflected in the hourly rate offered for basic hours and how many hours a week the company considers basic hours is also a consideration.

Then, any additional money I earn causes me to devalue the rest of my life. Working weekends, nights, doing extra hours decreases my quality of life and potentially shortens my life expectancy. The compensation for this is pay.

I still consider my work to be valued at my basic wage and that is how I compare my wage to other professions.

I also always consider that I must be able to meet my required outgoings with my basic wage. Overtime is not guaranteed and a change of policy can mean that the rug can get pulled out at any time.

22

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.

Given your current salary, no. It really isn’t worth going down this path. There are so many pitfalls nobody ever tells you about. It’s manual labour. It’s better than working in an Amazon warehouse…maybe?

  1. Class 2
    It isn’t “driving” it’s manual labour combined with an element of driving and very early starts and late finishes. What’s early? Getting up at 4am to get to the yard by 5am then stand in a que like a slave to be issued keys through a hole in a brick wall and be dismissed like a thicko without even a thank you. The stuff that got loaded with a forklift you’re expected to unload on your own with a pump truck. If you’re lucky an electric pump truck. You won’t be able to park outside the drop, you’ll be ■■■■■■■ sh1!t hundreds of yards down the street. Your lovely employer will put you ‘on salary’ instead of hourly because he knows you’ll never complete the drops in the allocated time. Basically, you’re doing tens of hours for free every week. You would unironically make more money as a cleaner. Don’t believe me? Check the job sites for hourly pay.

  2. Class 1
    £50,000 a year! The government said so. Hurrah!
    Utter nonsense.
    Can you make 50k, yeah you can. What are you willing to sacrifice for it? They never tell you that bit. You will sacrifice everything. And I mean everything for that money.
    If you are willing to be away from your family from early hours (2am -4am) Sunday night/Monday morning and get home maybe Friday night or Saturday morning then yes, you’ll make a grand a week. You’ll be exhausted. You’ll sleep. You won’t see your family even on those precious down hours. You would unironically make more doing those hours at Asda on the tills. I’m not joking. Asda won’t let you do those hours because it’s illegal. Truckers hours stop when the tacho stops. You’ll be paid £25 to be a security guard for the load and fuel during the night. Anything and everything that goes wrong is your fault. Late delivery? Your fault. Late collection? Your fault. No matter that you informed them of the traffic or accident. Another better driver would have got it there on time. You are made to feel worthless. It’s like an abusive relationship where you just succumb to the mental beating and break the law in the hope they’ll be pleased but they never are.
    Everyone, and I mean everyone treats you like dirt.

  3. Interesting fact - insurance
    If you smack a truck, and you will, because we’ve all done it. You’ve got to declare it on your basic car insurance. Yeah, they never told you that did they. You’ll see your premiums jump at least 50% on your car and your wife’s car (if you’re a named driver) because you were “involved” in an accident. Didn’t say “your fault” merely “involved” check your policy.

In a nutshell, it’s a job for single guys or divorced guys living in a caravan.

Can you make 50k? Yes. Could you make 50k doing these hours stacking shelves? Yes, absolutely no question.

23

Location then is a massive factor in earnings because£40- £50k plus for class 1 (for a new starter) is achievable for a 4-5 day week down south NO TRAMPING. That’ll be cage work, night trunking or both together, OR ADR pallets but that’d be more like 6 day weeks. The very thought of working 60+ hrs 6-7 days a week put me off doing my lessons for 5 years. That and the thought of doing agency because at the time everywhere wanted 2 years experience plus I was time rich at the time.

The good paying jobs are out there if you search for them and actively contact company’s who are not advertising. I’ve been looking and Warrington isn’t favourable with well paying class 2

I actually began enquiring when I first got my provisional to see who would take new starters. You have to be very proactive to get ahead, not just waiting for positions to be advertised. I think given the salary he’s on he could crack on with the theory then lessons and if I’m not mistaken, as he’s probably on 40 hours pw so he could actually (wtd permitting) do sat hgv driving gaining valuable experience. This has the benefit of extra income, gaining experience and finding out if it’s for him. Definitely do not quit the sales job before hand.

He could do class 1 then ADR tanks and although working 40hrs ish and no nights out it will be rotating shifts of days + nights. So it’s not all work and no life. For the extra £1200 I would deffo go straight to class 1. I did but I did have 3 years of bus driving prior. It will literally more than double your possibilities.

24

PaddyTheLorryDriver:
as he’s probably on 40 hours pw so he could actually (wtd permitting) do sat hgv driving gaining valuable experience

Every other Saturday because he would need to comply with the drivers weekly rest periods and if he has a Monday to Friday job in sales and also works EVERY Saturday driving a HGV, he would be breaking the rules, so realistically he can only do 1 Saturday a fortnight, and his Monday to Friday sales job would HAVE to be recorded as manual entries on his tacho.

25

shullbit:

PaddyTheLorryDriver:
as he’s probably on 40 hours pw so he could actually (wtd permitting) do sat hgv driving gaining valuable experience

Every other Saturday because he would need to comply with the drivers weekly rest periods and if he has a Monday to Friday job in sales and also works EVERY Saturday driving a HGV, he would be breaking the rules, so realistically he can only do 1 Saturday a fortnight, and his Monday to Friday sales job would HAVE to be recorded as manual entries on his tacho.

Recording it all as manual entries is more trouble than it’s worth. If you don’t work for a few weeks it becomes impossible as there are only a certain number of actions you can record manual entries for. There is also the risk of messing it up.

Instead, I now write my non-driving work on the back of tachograph paper and record the manual entries as “?”.

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26

Goff118:

shullbit:

PaddyTheLorryDriver:
as he’s probably on 40 hours pw so he could actually (wtd permitting) do sat hgv driving gaining valuable experience

Every other Saturday because he would need to comply with the drivers weekly rest periods and if he has a Monday to Friday job in sales and also works EVERY Saturday driving a HGV, he would be breaking the rules, so realistically he can only do 1 Saturday a fortnight, and his Monday to Friday sales job would HAVE to be recorded as manual entries on his tacho.

Recording it all as manual entries is more trouble than it’s worth. If you don’t work for a few weeks it becomes impossible as there are only a certain number of actions you can record manual entries for. There is also the risk of messing it up.

Instead, I now write my non-driving work on the back of tachograph paper and record the manual entries as “?”.

Sent from my DUB-LX1 using Tapatalk

You had better brush up on the rules/LAW in that case, because whilst you can use attestation forms you STILL must account for ALL periods when your card is not inserted, the question mark symbol wont wash anymore, and while you can argue that ‘‘I have always done it like this and never had any problems’’ the fact remains that it is the law… gov.uk/government/publicati … other-work.
It is really beyond my comprehension how drivers struggle with manual entries, they are a piece of cake, and now that DVSA accept that on an attestation form you can record a full week in one block rather than each individual day, it is even simpler. The question mark symbol now means ‘‘I dont know how to do manual entries’’.

27

shullbit:

Goff118:

shullbit:

PaddyTheLorryDriver:
as he’s probably on 40 hours pw so he could actually (wtd permitting) do sat hgv driving gaining valuable experience

Every other Saturday because he would need to comply with the drivers weekly rest periods and if he has a Monday to Friday job in sales and also works EVERY Saturday driving a HGV, he would be breaking the rules, so realistically he can only do 1 Saturday a fortnight, and his Monday to Friday sales job would HAVE to be recorded as manual entries on his tacho.

Recording it all as manual entries is more trouble than it’s worth. If you don’t work for a few weeks it becomes impossible as there are only a certain number of actions you can record manual entries for. There is also the risk of messing it up.

Instead, I now write my non-driving work on the back of tachograph paper and record the manual entries as “?”.

Sent from my DUB-LX1 using Tapatalk

You had better brush up on the rules/LAW in that case, because whilst you can use attestation forms you STILL must account for ALL periods when your card is not inserted, the question mark symbol wont wash anymore, and while you can argue that ‘‘I have always done it like this and never had any problems’’ the fact remains that it is the law… gov.uk/government/publicati … other-work.
It is really beyond my comprehension how drivers struggle with manual entries, they are a piece of cake, and now that DVSA accept that on an attestation form you can record a full week in one block rather than each individual day, it is even simpler. The question mark symbol now means ‘‘I dont know how to do manual entries’’.

I record all non-driving work on Tachograph paper as per the law. I then use “?” on the manual entry as it is the only suitable option for what I am recording.

Have you ever tried recording more than 2 weeks non-driving work using manual entries? It’s not possible, as I said above.

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28

You had better brush up on the rules/LAW in that case, because whilst you can use attestation forms you STILL must account for ALL periods when your card is not inserted, the question mark symbol wont wash anymore, and while you can argue that ‘‘I have always done it like this and never had any problems’’ the fact remains that it is the law… gov.uk/government/publicati … other-work.
It is really beyond my comprehension how drivers struggle with manual entries, they are a piece of cake, and now that DVSA accept that on an attestation form you can record a full week in one block rather than each individual day, it is even simpler. The question mark symbol now means ‘‘I dont know how to do manual entries’’.

I record all non-driving work on Tachograph paper as per the law. I then use “?” on the manual entry as it is the only suitable option for what I am recording.

Have you ever tried recording more than 2 weeks non-driving work using manual entries? It’s not possible, as I said above.

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[/quote]
Ok I see how you do it and why you use question mark, but to say it is impossible is wrong, it can be a pain if you have more than a couple of weeks to do, but certainly not impossible, our company insist on manual entries even for situations such as you have described, so what would you do if you worked for my company who insist on manual entries, and if you cant do them they let you go.

In anycase, the OP needs to know that if he goes down the route of working every other Saturday alongside his other job he would need to record his other Monday to Friday work somehow, whether that be by manual entry or attestation form so that he complies with the law at a roadside DVSA check, and he would ONLY be able to work every other Saturday legally.

29

Ok I see how you do it and why you use question mark, but to say it is impossible is wrong, it can be a pain if you have more than a couple of weeks to do, but certainly not impossible, our company insist on manual entries even for situations such as you have described, so what would you do if you worked for my company who insist on manual entries, and if you cant do them they let you go.

In anycase, the OP needs to know that if he goes down the route of working every other Saturday alongside his other job he would need to record his other Monday to Friday work somehow, whether that be by manual entry or attestation form so that he complies with the law at a roadside DVSA check, and he would ONLY be able to work every other Saturday legally.

I am fine with manual entries and can do them with no problem. It is however physically impossible to manually enter more than a couple of weeks of non-driving work. Try it - there is a limit on the number of entries you can make. Unless that is particular to a certain type of machine, although I doubt it.

I think I got to approx 15 days of entering work + break + work + rest for each day until the machine no longer allowed any more entries.

30

Goff118:

Ok I see how you do it and why you use question mark, but to say it is impossible is wrong, it can be a pain if you have more than a couple of weeks to do, but certainly not impossible, our company insist on manual entries even for situations such as you have described, so what would you do if you worked for my company who insist on manual entries, and if you cant do them they let you go.

In anycase, the OP needs to know that if he goes down the route of working every other Saturday alongside his other job he would need to record his other Monday to Friday work somehow, whether that be by manual entry or attestation form so that he complies with the law at a roadside DVSA check, and he would ONLY be able to work every other Saturday legally.

I am fine with manual entries and can do them with no problem. It is however physically impossible to manually enter more than a couple of weeks of non-driving work. Try it - there is a limit on the number of entries you can make. Unless that is particular to a certain type of machine, although I doubt it.

I think I got to approx 15 days of entering work + break + work + rest for each day until the machine no longer allowed any more entries.

Machine stops letting you do entries if you fail to interact with it for more than 30 seconds

31

Machine stops letting you do entries if you fail to interact with it for more than 30 seconds

And also stops letting you do entries after a certain amount of entries.

32

I started my HGV journey at 46. I used to be a senior finance person back home (20 years ago) and a boring but hands-on senior accountant in Scotland. I was rejecting any options to climb back to the top of the finance ladder as I knew the boredom would’ve killed me [emoji23] I was making circa 40k a year.

The fancier your finance job title sounds, the more hours is expected from you to put in. It was never enough for my boss who was a proper ■■■■ and made the decision to, eventually, hang my accountant’s hat significantly easier [emoji6]

The Monsters got older, the boat was stable, so the time has come to rock it a bit [emoji16] I’d always dreamt about being either a commercial pilot or an artic driver. Too old and too poor to become the former, I decided to go for the other dream. I won a Xmas competition run by PSTT five years ago and got my Class 2 licence (weekend course). Unfortunately, I didn’t upgrade my licence to artics straight away and got a job with DHL Nisa instead. Looking back, I think it was a mistake and a waste of time - it’s just my personal opinion.

Anyway, ended up doing multidrop for 2 years, my Class 1 training got cancelled twice because of the lockdowns. Luckily, I worked through the entire COVID and even got a virtual badge of a key worker with some, in my opinion deserved, appreciation. It’s a shame it’s disappeared in a blink of the eye as soon as the COVID circus was gone…
Anyway, I left DHL, went to work for co-op as an agency driver and focused on my class 1 training. By the way, I was making 990-1000 a week doing class 2 multidrop for co-op and I absolutely loved it [emoji2956]

Passed my Class 1 in June 2 years ago (at the very first try with 2 minors that were really examiner’s faults as he couldn’t make up his mind lol) and started driving artics 3 days later, long before I physically got my new licence. Been an agency driver since and have worked for 44 different companies.

I did have a short full time spell at the very beginning - went tramping with Stobart doing container work for Tesco. I loved it and the money was as good as it was at co-op [emoji1] The reason I did it was, basically, to learn real life reverse manoeuvres which the job was ideal for rather than doing simple trunks and reversing once in a while.
I must admit that after passing the test I was ■■■■■ at driving artics backwards [emoji1]Unfortunately, due to family situation, I cannot do tramping full time, so had to go back to full time agency work after 2.5 months (that was the deal with the Wife). I did manage to learn, a bit, how to park in between two trailers though [emoji6]

After a year, I decided to try working as a fuel driver. Did it for 4 months and hated it as I was on aviation fuel only, driving from Grangemouth to Edinburgh Airport 4 times a night. It was almost as boring as being an accountant [emoji23]

I’ve done fridges, containers, curtain siders, deckers, tankers and some work on a movie set. Done pallet network, Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Asda, courier companies. I’ve had pretty much all possible dangerous goods on my trailers, some extra old whiskey worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and some really cool Honda motorbikes. I also pulled those fancy American trailers that movie staff and stars use while on sets. That was both extra challenging and extra fun!
It’s all happened for me in just 28 months…

I’m back on fridges the now which, along with tankers, is my favourite type of work. I make 55-60k a year and don’t mind the long hours (I work nights only). The big difference is, compared to my previous profession, that once I’ve handed the keys back in at the end of my shift I can forget about work and totally reset my brain. That was NEVER an option in my old job. I was either ‘just’ thinking about the stuff I had to do, or pulling out a laptop and actually doing it. The boss was never pleased regardless. I wish I had had the courage to make the change sooner.

Obviously, some of my friends and family members are still disgusted with my career change as the old profession, allegedly, is so prestigious. I couldn’t care less and I always tell them: I drive artics for a living and I’m living the dream!
Just go for it! All the best
Rav

PS Thinking about another big change and moving over to Canada and driving proper trucks between Canada and the States [emoji6]

Sent from my moto g(8) using Tapatalk

33

To answer the original question, yes do it. Why stay in a job you dislike?

At 52 I paid for my own class 2 license just under 2 years ago.
I was previously a sales manager in the motor trade earning between £40-50k a year depending on results. After passing, I applied for 3 jobs. All 3 called me back.
First 1 needed 6 months experience and the other 2 offered me an assessment. Both offered me a job.

The one I opted for works 4 days on 2 days off with overtime regularly available if you want it. 90% of the time I work double manned and over the 4 days we’ll do between 50 and 60 hours. And no, this isn’t tramping. Yes they’re long hours but half the time I’m in the passenger seat or on break.

My first year doing class 2, I earned about £55k. The company paid for my class 1 in November last year and this year I’ll earn about £65k. The money’s great, the hours are long, and the job’s relatively easy.

What you’ll find is that most of the negative responses are from people who constantly moan at the only job they’ve ever known but do nothing (or don’t have the balls) to make a change. They’ve never seen the flip side of the coin. In a sales background you have to achieve results.
You’re not just given a bunch of keys every day and a postcode! If I had a week off in sales, I had to work twice as hard the week before to make sure everything was in place for while I wasn’t there, and twice as hard the week I came back to catch up with what I’d missed, (never mind the 500 emails sitting in my inbox).

I’m so glad that I didn’t know about this site until after I’d made the decision to try because the negativity towards this job would have put me off trying. As it is, my family and friends keep telling me how much happier I am now compared to my sales days. I actually smile now!

Don’t let the answers on here put you off. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.

34

I’m on about 40k for class 2 and I’m 58 mate , I also decided to take my class 1 test and passed that today . Age ain’t going to stop me ever .

35

Col.B:
I also decided to take my class 1 test and passed that today

pass ce.png
PASSING FIREWORKS.gif

36

£55k class 2 and £65k class 1…[zb] hell !! is that all :open_mouth:

37

shullbit:
You had better brush up on the rules/LAW in that case, because whilst you can use attestation forms you STILL must account for ALL periods when your card is not inserted, the question mark symbol wont wash anymore, and while you can argue that ‘‘I have always done it like this and never had any problems’’ the fact remains that it is the law… gov.uk/government/publicati … other-work.
It is really beyond my comprehension how drivers struggle with manual entries, they are a piece of cake, and now that DVSA accept that on an attestation form you can record a full week in one block rather than each individual day, it is even simpler. The question mark symbol now means ‘‘I dont know how to do manual entries’’.

I don’t think you are right that you input the information from an attestation form as a manual entry, you would use the “?”.

38

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.

If you like driving lorries, if you like cab food or café food and a good night’s kip and shower at the end of a long hard day, and keep a bag of munchies by your side and exercise so you don’t get too fat and eat healthily and enjoy navigation and want to do this and earn some good money and get naturally better and better at the job and are responsible with also the occasional sense of humour - like, being stuck on the M25 for 5 hours and getting an infringement for that when some Pollock has glued himself to HM Queen Elizabeth Bridge then go for it.

You have to pay for training. You might even pass first time… Sometimes, you may have to think outside of the box or best your way out of a paper bag. Not that taking a wrong turn off a roundabout into a lovely, beautiful, flowery, country village happens very often, at 8am in the morning, and having the opportunity to practice your skills of turning the lorry around and getting back onto the main route or even missing your turn for the warehouse while the road your on gets narrower and narrower and magically becomes a residential area with plenty of room for a pushchair, then this is the job for you.
If you like the idea of multi drops then that will keep you nice and fit and you might not get such a lorry belly.

If you love it, it’s great - Class 2 rigid is somewhat easier, I find, than class 1 artic.

The money can be good nowadays just shop around. Decide when you function best during the day or night -;If you want to work full time, part time, four on four off weekends, or tramping. Tramping can be fun if you have a Snap Account or some money or bring your own tins of food, if only for when you get stuck - try not to do this job starving or broke as ----holes, you need food and water.

You will see great countryside, and maybe lots of traffic. Get used to the cool nav sets: Garmin, Tom Tom, some online ones and finally, just before destination with no unknown bridges or vehicle weight, length, width or height, height, height restrictions you can use Google maps but not en-route, usually, because Google isn’t for B I G T R U C K S it’s for little cars.

It’s great fun, you can go from Car to Class 1 but personally I would go for Class 2 and get used to driving something bigger than a car.

You can do multi-drop in a van but it may kill you from the insides because it’s hard as flip! If any job is physically dropping your goolies and giving you pain then do a job within your pain grade…

Ask around, in here which jobs are the best to suit your - temperament, build, laziness, hard working Ness, desires for back home for tea or tramping to get out the house, you can pick and choose, UK, International, removals, bins, containers, tankers, transporters, fridges, theres a trucking job out there for you any size, shape or form - it’s a lot of fun.

If you want to do it, do it, age has nothing to do with it.

Good luck. It IS fun !! :smiley:

39

Col.B:
I’m on about 40k for class 2 and I’m 58 mate , I also decided to take my class 1 test and passed that today . Age ain’t going to stop me ever .

Congrats!!! - good feeling hey?!

Enjoy :smiley:

40

Hi, I left this on hold. I have adjusted my finances and can earn £35-£36k has the market changed? is it worth training up and giving it a go? looking at Class 2. I see lots of people saying its near impossible to get a job as a new driver?