time to get truckin

Deleted User 234324 · 15 Apr 2013 at 12:03

So first of many steps complete towards changing careers, from IT technician/desk jockey to HGV driver.

Been stuck behind a desk for ~15 years and am frankly sick of it, decided its time for a career change. Decided I want to drive for a living so started by doing part time delivery work for a local firm, love it so then decided why not do it in a real vehicle. An articulated truck!

Provisional sorted, theory booked, assessment on Thursday.

wingman · 15 Apr 2013 at 12:06

A relative of mine has recently decided to do this, a qualified chef who just couldn't hack it any more.

Best of luck with the transition.

mattyg · 15 Apr 2013 at 12:28

I own a courier company with 14 drivers. Good luck its tough out there. Although my cousin was on about £50k per year doing the fuel deliveries for a large fuel depot

wingman · 15 Apr 2013 at 12:39

mattyg said:
I own a courier company with 14 drivers.

Out of interest, are the drivers self employed or do you employ them?

Mr-White · 15 Apr 2013 at 13:00

mattyg said:
I own a courier company with 14 drivers. Good luck its tough out there. Although my cousin was on about £50k per year doing the fuel deliveries for a large fuel depot

I'm in the wrong profession :eek:

MW

Scania · 15 Apr 2013 at 15:18

Good luck with it OP!

I presume you appreciate you have to obtain your rigid /Class2 / LGV C call it what you want!! first, prior to the artic / Class1 / LGV C+E license?? - many don't.....

Speaking from the position of somebody newly married and as a consequence now somewhat reluctant to do my regular 70+ hour weeks, I hope you know what your letting yourself in for!!

Last year, I earned circa £36k, but believe me, I worked for it. £50k p/a tanker drivers is something of a myth in my experience of chatting to said drivers in the main, some exceptions, but very few despite recent media coverage of tanker driver wages IMO.

In short,

VERY long hours.

Persecution (as it sometimes feels like) by the likes of VOSA.

General hatred by other road users.

Indifference toward your personal life by the people who plan your work.

15hrs on, 9hrs off 3 days per week, 13hrs on, 11hrs off for the remainder.

You may think I'm being extreme, believe me, after 15+ years as an HGV driver, alas, it's very much the norm.

I quite fancy driving a desk.....

On the plus side, I'd rather drive a truck (especially a large engined Scania) over ANY car over a long distance!

Just be absolutely sure your well aware of what your potentially letting yourself in for!!!

If I can help in any way, don't hesitate to ask.

pepsilol · 15 Apr 2013 at 15:30

Mr-White said:
I'm in the wrong profession

MW

Notice the word about there!

mattyg · 15 Apr 2013 at 15:31

wingman said:
Out of interest, are the drivers self employed or do you employ them?

They're self employed but I have been asked to TUPE 15 of one of my contracts drivers so some may be employed in the future.......Why???

wingman · 15 Apr 2013 at 15:34

mattyg said:
They're self employed but I have been asked to TUPE 15 of one of my contracts drivers so some may be employed in the future.......Why???

My dad is always talking about expanding his courier business; figured employing people would always bring unnecessary pains to the company.

mattyg · 15 Apr 2013 at 16:55

wingman said:
My dad is always talking about expanding his courier business; figured employing people would always bring unnecessary pains to the company.

Self employed is the way to go. Its a grey area but because couriering can be so up and down HMRC give us some more leeway.

Where's your dad based I may be able to send some regular work his way

mattyg · 15 Apr 2013 at 16:57

Scania said:
Good luck with it OP!

I presume you appreciate you have to obtain your rigid /Class2 / LGV C call it what you want!! first, prior to the artic / Class1 / LGV C+E license?? - many don't.....

Speaking from the position of somebody newly married and as a consequence now somewhat reluctant to do my regular 70+ hour weeks, I hope you know what your letting yourself in for!!

Last year, I earned circa £36k, but believe me, I worked for it. £50k p/a tanker drivers is something of a myth in my experience of chatting to said drivers in the main, some exceptions, but very few despite recent media coverage of tanker driver wages IMO.

In short,

VERY long hours.

Persecution (as it sometimes feels like) by the likes of VOSA.

General hatred by other road users.

Indifference toward your personal life by the people who plan your work.

15hrs on, 9hrs off 3 days per week, 13hrs on, 11hrs off for the remainder.

You may think I'm being extreme, believe me, after 15+ years as an HGV driver, alas, it's very much the norm.

I quite fancy driving a desk.....

On the plus side, I'd rather drive a truck (especially a large engined Scania) over ANY car over a long distance!

Just be absolutely sure your well aware of what your potentially letting yourself in for!!!

If I can help in any way, don't hesitate to ask.

I think my cousin isn't the Norm poss had some other role to play aswell.

atpbx · 15 Apr 2013 at 17:26

wingman said:
My dad is always talking about expanding his courier business; figured employing people would always bring unnecessary pains to the company.

Depending on what courier work you are doing, IE same day work or operating as part of a multidrop network, then both have there advantages and disadvantages.

As a same day operator, I wouldnt want staff on the books, I would want a large pool of people I could call on as and when, as a multidrop operator I personally prefer employed drivers.

You get no benefit from having self employed multidrop drivers I have found.

As I go round the depots in the network where I am now I've found more and more people that have flirted with owner drivers are reverting to having drivers back on the books.

wingman · 15 Apr 2013 at 17:54

mattyg said:
Self employed is the way to go. Its a grey area but because couriering can be so up and down HMRC give us some more leeway.

Where's your dad based I may be able to send some regular work his way

He's based in the Worcester region but is always on the hunt for return jobs and such. Let me know if you have anything in this area. Many thanks.

mattyg · 15 Apr 2013 at 18:46

wingman said:
He's based in the Worcester region but is always on the hunt for return jobs and such. Let me know if you have anything in this area. Many thanks.

We provide a specialist pathology courier service so don't really deal with backloads/co loads but your dad is in an Ideal location for either helping if we get stuck or a breakdown or poss holiday cover. We have a drop point in Tewkesbury and one of my guys lives in stourport.

If he googles "Dedicated pathology Courier" I think were number one for that term were the ones to Go2

Its my old site and the phone number went dead a while ago.

I don't want my overclockers/business info to end up on searches.

Ask him to email me his details

Mr-White · 15 Apr 2013 at 21:32

pepsilol said:
Notice the word about there!

That's got to be a very flexible use of the word about to still not make that impressive for driving a truck.

MW

Deleted User 234324 · 15 Apr 2013 at 21:58

Scania said:
Good luck with it OP!

I presume you appreciate you have to obtain your rigid /Class2 / LGV C call it what you want!! first, prior to the artic / Class1 / LGV C+E license?? - many don't.....

Speaking from the position of somebody newly married and as a consequence now somewhat reluctant to do my regular 70+ hour weeks, I hope you know what your letting yourself in for!!

Last year, I earned circa £36k, but believe me, I worked for it. £50k p/a tanker drivers is something of a myth in my experience of chatting to said drivers in the main, some exceptions, but very few despite recent media coverage of tanker driver wages IMO.

In short,

VERY long hours.

Persecution (as it sometimes feels like) by the likes of VOSA.

General hatred by other road users.

Indifference toward your personal life by the people who plan your work.

15hrs on, 9hrs off 3 days per week, 13hrs on, 11hrs off for the remainder.

You may think I'm being extreme, believe me, after 15+ years as an HGV driver, alas, it's very much the norm.

I quite fancy driving a desk.....

On the plus side, I'd rather drive a truck (especially a large engined Scania) over ANY car over a long distance!

Just be absolutely sure your well aware of what your potentially letting yourself in for!!!

If I can help in any way, don't hesitate to ask.

Cheer's for the nice post

, let's just say after 15+ years and being mid 30's I have finally decided on a career path I actually want to do. Sure the delivery work I do now is nothing in comparison to long distance haulage but spending 9-10 hours a day on the road, I'm still smiling at the end of each shift.

It's also a great opportunity to see more of the country and world rather than being stuck in dreary Devon with its crap pay and high living costs. As I have no baggage anywhere is possible.

Scania · 16 Apr 2013 at 06:40

MadMossy said:
Cheer's for the nice post , let's just say after 15+ years and being mid 30's I have finally decided on a career path I actually want to do. Sure the delivery work I do now is nothing in comparison to long distance haulage but spending 9-10 hours a day on the road, I'm still smiling at the end of each shift.

It's also a great opportunity to see more of the country and world rather than being stuck in dreary Devon with its crap pay and high living costs. As I have no baggage anywhere is possible.

Fair enough

As I say though, consider the hours, they can be extreme.
You can drive upto 9 hours (extendable to 10 twice a week) but remember, that's time spent with the vehicle moving, a lot of people - not saying you - don't quite appreciate how tiring it can be to drive for such an accumulated length of time...

My Mrs works 9-5:30 including breaks and she can't comprehend how I manage to drive for more time and only require (in the eyes of the law) a 45min break after 4:30 driving, on top of the driving, you can as I said in my other post, work a 15hr shift - and then be expected to start all over again after 9hrs off!!

In time, you do get used to it but it can still be hard to stay alert and maintain concentration - somewhat essential with a 6 axle artic IMO!!

No baggage is an advantage, as would be a realisation that you'll have little social life to obtain any in this line of work!!

You'll certainly see the country (and maybe beyond) and can appreciate you wanting to escape the costs down there - I recently spent a week in Taunton, went down to Honiton and Collumpton in Devon and was very surprised at the price differences compared to Somerset, never mind Staffordshire where I live!
Wanting to do the job is a plus too, many do it because they have no other option which isn't so good... And many I'm sure wonder why they wanted to do it once they've done it for a while!!

You'll discover this country's hidden parts (mostly obscure industrial estates though) and certainly learn good road craft in time.... I do find it worrying these days though when I consider that I don't need any more to check maps no matter where I'm sent, and that I know my way around London better than my home town....

Hyburnate · 16 Apr 2013 at 07:08

Scania said:
Snip

Are you the guy who used to have his reg plate as username?

OnTopic: Good luck to you, one thing I'd like to do in the future.

Scania · 16 Apr 2013 at 07:24

Hyburnate said:
Are you the guy who used to have his reg plate as username?

Yes, that's me.

It wasn't the reg, it was the model (as stamped on the chassis plate) of my old Scania R420.....

. - in the recent username change thread I decided to simplify it.

Hyburnate · 16 Apr 2013 at 07:25

Scania said:
Yes, that's me.

It wasn't the reg, it was the model (as stamped on the chassis plate) of my old Scania R420..... . - in the recent username change thread I decided to simplify it.

Ahhh right

You're the one that maybe last year sometime said the guy on the TV Program that everyone loves is actually an absolute ****? I may be mistaken xD