Becoming a HGV driver?
Discussion
fttm said:
Agree with this ^ , but take it one step further and look for own account companies . Too many are contracted out to third party carriers nowadays , Hoyer etc , and the pay rates are mediocre at best .
I'd get your hiab then pimp out to all the local agencies. We've all got national contracts for Jewsons etc etc and heads are in demand....NMNeil said:
I'm not a truck driver but know a few and their advice is that after you get your CDL (Commercial Drivers License) don't stop there but get certified for Hazmat transports, by that it means you can transport petrol, chemicals etc. and other items classed as hazardous.
Same as every occupation it's supply an demand, plenty of CDL drivers but fewer with a Hazmat endorsement, and that's where the big money lies.
Does the UK have anything comparable to a Hazmat endorsement?
No. It's typically £1 per hour more than non-haz. Not worth the expense to get the tickets when you consider all the extra aggro from DVSA pulling you in whenever they're out and for a lot of chems you have to get dressed up like the michelin man to discharge. For the petro-chems I've seen the Hoyer rotas and they are crazy - constantly swapping from days to nights to afternoons to nights to days to nights etc. Same as every occupation it's supply an demand, plenty of CDL drivers but fewer with a Hazmat endorsement, and that's where the big money lies.
Does the UK have anything comparable to a Hazmat endorsement?
r3g said:
No. It's typically £1 per hour more than non-haz. Not worth the expense to get the tickets when you consider all the extra aggro from DVSA pulling you in whenever they're out and for a lot of chems you have to get dressed up like the michelin man to discharge. For the petro-chems I've seen the Hoyer rotas and they are crazy - constantly swapping from days to nights to afternoons to nights to days to nights etc.
An extra pound an hour!!Defiantly not worth it then.
r3g said:
No. It's typically £1 per hour more than non-haz. Not worth the expense to get the tickets when you consider all the extra aggro from DVSA pulling you in whenever they're out and for a lot of chems you have to get dressed up like the michelin man to discharge. For the petro-chems I've seen the Hoyer rotas and they are crazy - constantly swapping from days to nights to afternoons to nights to days to nights etc.
Quite the opposite in N.America regards pay rates too . I'm on for a fortune 500 corporation hauling cryo tankers and we tend to be left alone by the ministry , we have a great safety record and failing a road side inspection is unheard of , green lights at scales all the time .fttm said:
Quite the opposite in N.America regards pay rates too . I'm on for a fortune 500 corporation hauling cryo tankers and we tend to be left alone by the ministry , we have a great safety record and failing a road side inspection is unheard of , green lights at scales all the time .
On a sidenote what's your opinion on the move to have semi trucks in the US limited to 65mph?NMNeil said:
On a sidenote what's your opinion on the move to have semi trucks in the US limited to 65mph?
Company policy is 62 , in any vehicle , that’s what we’re limited to . No issues with that , we also have all speed limits pre programmed into the OBC so any speeding gets red flagged to management. fesuvious said:
Just to (kind of) add to the conversation.
Category C license holders can earn £28000-£32000 in the moving and storage sector. That's the standard salary.
Overtime would classed as weekends and bank holidays. Likely optional. And it's still an industry that gets tips. Oh, and often all of Christmas off.
At fairly normal hours overall. Finish times are likely to vary from 3pm to 18:30 and start times between 8&9am but it's a normal Monday to Friday week
You gotta be fit though.
Generally a happy industry though for those it suits.
The very good firms for overnight work book hotels, and pay for dinner and breakfast.....and it's infrequent.
Given the comments above about what's demanded at £40k I thought it might be worth mentioning this.
Points accepted, but £28,000-32,000 is far from great. The higher end is pretty much entry level (10hrs a day paid through at £12.50ph)Category C license holders can earn £28000-£32000 in the moving and storage sector. That's the standard salary.
Overtime would classed as weekends and bank holidays. Likely optional. And it's still an industry that gets tips. Oh, and often all of Christmas off.
At fairly normal hours overall. Finish times are likely to vary from 3pm to 18:30 and start times between 8&9am but it's a normal Monday to Friday week
You gotta be fit though.
Generally a happy industry though for those it suits.
The very good firms for overnight work book hotels, and pay for dinner and breakfast.....and it's infrequent.
Given the comments above about what's demanded at £40k I thought it might be worth mentioning this.
944 Man said:
Points accepted, but £28,000-32,000 is far from great. The higher end is pretty much entry level (10hrs a day paid through at £12.50ph)
And removals work is back-breaking - probably the hardest 'driving' job out there. Drive to customer, spend all day humping 1 tonne pianos and agas down 4 flights of stairs, then more driving while the rest of the crew sleep. The move is often long distance so you'll be overnighting and sleeping in a tiny pod with 1 or 2 other guys. They could offer £100k and I still wouldn't be interested. Removals driving work is advertised all year round and the above is the reason for that because for the same money you can do food deliveries (eg. Brakes) or pallet work without busting your gut. Food delivery work or fresh milk delivery work for Arla/Moran is a steep learning curve, but once you get the knack of it, it's reasonably good-paying for the class and generally no more than 10 hours once you get to know your run. Agency will pay more, but you'll be given whatever run they need covering - usually the ones that the full-timers hate doing.Smint said:
exelero said:
Large fridge company- probably Culina. Standard at Culina is 40k give or take plus overtime and night out money
People outside the industry looking in seeing these figures need to know that the £40k stated is most unlikely to be for a normal 40 hour week, nor will the working week be what passes for normal in other industries.Very often the hours for a salary are based around anything from 48 to 53 and can be spread over all 7 days of the week, including bank holidays.
Overtime rates may not be at proper x1.5 or x2.0, and the overtime rate may not kick in until 50 or 55 hours have already been completed and calculated on w eekly or even monthly basis, so its easily possible to work 14 hour days and then towards the end of the period get some short days which wipes out the overtime you may think you've already accrued.
Some salaried jobs carry no overtime rate at all, supposedly any extra hours are banked and you can take them off as and when, in practice this means in quiet periods when it suits the company.
The devil in this game is in the detail, don't take headline gross wages at face value, don't take general figures given at interview as the truth.
In balance some companies are still very good to work for and salaries can be extremely good for much more reasonable hours, but the chances are that anti social hours (even if shortish) are going to be a feature of most well paying jobs in transport.
For me personally any job that has contracted 50+ hours is a no go as you can be sure there will be a few ‘can you just’ jobs in there pushing you closer to 60 per week.
Same here, i'm personally sitting pretty and have been, give or take the odd hiccup, since 1986 when i was offered my big break and ripped their arm off.
Right place right time right introduction.
However i'd been in the game on artics 10 years by then flitting between various driving jobs and it was only pure luck i was offered what turned out to be one of the best night jobs of the period, never looked back.
This isn't the case for everyone, i had 10 years of general crap (which also taught me a hell of a lot which stood me in good stead later and now, so not knocking it) before getting my break into the better side of things, some drivers go through their entire driving life without getting such a break.
Its important that potential drivers don't get suckered in on false promises, which is why some of us tell the other side of things.
Its entirely possible to land on your feet as well.
Right place right time right introduction.
However i'd been in the game on artics 10 years by then flitting between various driving jobs and it was only pure luck i was offered what turned out to be one of the best night jobs of the period, never looked back.
This isn't the case for everyone, i had 10 years of general crap (which also taught me a hell of a lot which stood me in good stead later and now, so not knocking it) before getting my break into the better side of things, some drivers go through their entire driving life without getting such a break.
Its important that potential drivers don't get suckered in on false promises, which is why some of us tell the other side of things.
Its entirely possible to land on your feet as well.
fesuvious said:
You're extremely wrong on that.
Laughably so.
Every day spent having banter. A constant laugh with colleagues.
The job sites being awash with ads (many "urgently required") for class 2 removals drivers all year round indicates otherwise. £28k is a joke. Banter doesn't pay the bills or put food on the table.Laughably so.
Every day spent having banter. A constant laugh with colleagues.
The chances of a new driver having just spent £2k to get his licence opting to bust his gut humping heavy furniture around are pretty much zero when there's easier alternatives for more money such as food service delivery work or pallet network deliveries and collections.
r3g said:
No. It's typically £1 per hour more than non-haz. Not worth the expense to get the tickets when you consider all the extra aggro from DVSA pulling you in whenever they're out and for a lot of chems you have to get dressed up like the michelin man to discharge. For the petro-chems I've seen the Hoyer rotas and they are crazy - constantly swapping from days to nights to afternoons to nights to days to nights etc.
If I had to summarise the problem with ADR/PP work in one word, it would be HOYER. You can deliver petrol for those parasites with all the associated risks (existing plus terrorist mentalists etc) and earn what a Shell driver earned in 1986! That is about £38,000. If the Shell drivers earning had kept pace with the cost of living then it would be a shade onder £100,000 per annum.On top of this, the cheap b
ds expect you to have paid for your own ADR! They are parasites.944 Man said:
If I had to summarise the problem with ADR/PP work in one word, it would be HOYER. You can deliver petrol for those parasites with all the associated risks (existing plus terrorist mentalists etc) and earn what a Shell driver earned in 1986! That is about £38,000. If the Shell drivers earning had kept pace with the cost of living then it would be a shade onder £100,000 per annum.
On top of this, the cheap bds expect you to have paid for your own ADR! They are parasites.
Too many glory boys wanting the perceived godly status of telling everyone they're a petrol tanker driver is mainly the cause of that. For them it's not about the money, it's the status. As a result, these companies can get away with paying what they do because there's a line of willing bums prepared to work for it.On top of this, the cheap b
ds expect you to have paid for your own ADR! They are parasites.I did it for a while working out of the Total inland terminal in Leeds 20 odd year ago. The novelty quickly wears off after having to kneel down on the ground in the pissing rain and wrestle with a bulky pipe trying to connect it up to the tank inlet 2ft down a manhole. H&S has changed a lot since then too. These days you have to stand outside and supervise the discharge in case of any problems. Standing out in the cold, wind and rain for 40 minutes with nowhere to shelter is not fun. And all your work kit constantly stinks of diesel no matter how many times you wash it.
The same could be said for many once lucrative jobs when they were own account, real dead mans shoes jobs.
Sadly in many cases the drivers themselves ended their own jobs, took the piss endlessly and failed to observe the golden rules of good jobs, ''give value for money'' and ''make yourself very difficult to replace'', and those jobs went the way anyone with any sense could have foretold, out the bloody door and into the hands of the cheapest contractor.
Sadly in many cases the drivers themselves ended their own jobs, took the piss endlessly and failed to observe the golden rules of good jobs, ''give value for money'' and ''make yourself very difficult to replace'', and those jobs went the way anyone with any sense could have foretold, out the bloody door and into the hands of the cheapest contractor.
fesuvious said:
By all means continue to slag off a whole heap of people and a trade you clearly know little about but I have no idea why you'd choose to do so.
Not slagging it off at all. I'm providing some balance (and a dose of reality) in response to your sugar-coated claims of it being an amazing, awesome, spectacular job. It's extremely hard graft and requires tiptop levels of fitness and core strength. That immediately rules out 99 in 100 drivers, hence why - when you factor in the poor basic pay on offer - is why job sites are filled all year round with ads for removals drivers.If the job was as good as you're making out then there'd be waiting lists. There aren't, because it isn't.
fesuvious said:
There are plenty out there who don't want to work on their own all day
Don't want to be peeing in a bottle, or a layby.
Don't wish to be treated like crap by people when making deliveries/collections, or indeed as an insignificant person not worthy of using the company toilet.
Don't want to work weekends or bank holidays
Don't want to be dictated to about when they can take holiday.
Quite like having all of Christmas & New Year off work.
Dont want to get fat, and out of condition.
Don't want to start at 4am or work odd hours.
If you're solely money motivated, fine. The world needs all sorts. Not everybody will take the highest paid position for the reasons above. Quality of life means different things to different people.
Focus on the 28k part all you wish, but that's plus tips, plus overtime and plus very generous overnight rates and accomodation in proper hotels.
And remember when you focus on 28k (my lower number) that this is for a working week that barely ever gets to 40hours, and often averages closer to 35.
By all means continue to slag off a whole heap of people and a trade you clearly know little about but I have no idea why you'd choose to do so.
TBH I don't meet any of your criteria for being a trucker, apart from working weekends and early starts which both suit me, nor did I bother taking my test twice (emigrated) just so I could hump furniture in and out of other peoples houses .I've worked the wonderful 4on/off since 07 which I class as part time , plenty of work life balance there and currently taking a shift off so I'm home for 12 days .There are quality trucking jobs out there but you have to actively hunt them out as they rarely get advertised .
Ironically we're short of drivers right across Canada/US , and we are advertising
despite the wage being triple what a house mover earns . Maybe people nowadays are happier tapping a keyboard for a living rather than spinning a wheel ?
Don't want to be peeing in a bottle, or a layby.
Don't wish to be treated like crap by people when making deliveries/collections, or indeed as an insignificant person not worthy of using the company toilet.
Don't want to work weekends or bank holidays
Don't want to be dictated to about when they can take holiday.
Quite like having all of Christmas & New Year off work.
Dont want to get fat, and out of condition.
Don't want to start at 4am or work odd hours.
If you're solely money motivated, fine. The world needs all sorts. Not everybody will take the highest paid position for the reasons above. Quality of life means different things to different people.
Focus on the 28k part all you wish, but that's plus tips, plus overtime and plus very generous overnight rates and accomodation in proper hotels.
And remember when you focus on 28k (my lower number) that this is for a working week that barely ever gets to 40hours, and often averages closer to 35.
By all means continue to slag off a whole heap of people and a trade you clearly know little about but I have no idea why you'd choose to do so.
TBH I don't meet any of your criteria for being a trucker, apart from working weekends and early starts which both suit me, nor did I bother taking my test twice (emigrated) just so I could hump furniture in and out of other peoples houses .I've worked the wonderful 4on/off since 07 which I class as part time , plenty of work life balance there and currently taking a shift off so I'm home for 12 days .There are quality trucking jobs out there but you have to actively hunt them out as they rarely get advertised .
Ironically we're short of drivers right across Canada/US , and we are advertising
despite the wage being triple what a house mover earns . Maybe people nowadays are happier tapping a keyboard for a living rather than spinning a wheel ?Edited by fttm on Saturday 7th May 02:29
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