Shortage of HGV Drivers?

[Smint]

I see your point and to be fair the very first session was conducted at an outside provider, the trainer of which i managed to have a good argument with due to him insisting brakes to slow gears to go was how trucks should be driven (like a car)...there were young drivers there listening to and taking in this garbage so felt i had to explain why proper lorry drivers keep the brakes cool as much as possible utilising all those expensive auxilliary retard systems that truck makers spend £millions fitting.
We only used that provider once, hmm, which might have been due to feedback from one of our supervisors who heard that discussion (we run full weight tanker fleet), no BTSGTG chimping encouraged here.

Later we used another provider, far better but as you say much depends on the trainer, the annual sessions are all now in house so geared to what we do.

[the-norseman]

What is the going rate for a online cpc these days seen some people claiming £35 some claiming £75.

[Glenn63]

Best paying companies are usually self hauling companies that don’t make their money from the haulage, supermarkets etc and most parcel companies like Royal Mail, UPS etc always have decent pay.

Usually have benefits also like payed CPC, on going training, discounts off shopping, meal allowances etc.

I’m north west general haulage about £13 an hour, my mrs works at Waitrose think her basic is £15:50 and hour with lots of premiums for working between certain hours/ weekends etc. I’m Royal Mail which I think l will be £19:50 basic from April.

General haulage are battling it out to win contracts which leaves minimal pay for the drivers. Watch out for day rate adverts that sound alright at say £150 for 10 hours but then have you running 15 hours with no extra pay.

Also depends if you want to spend nights out or not. I did heavy haulage on the cranes for Ainscough for a bit which was a lot of working away certainly not for everyone but adding up pay for 7 days and 7 nights out soon adds up a decent amount extra pay over 5 day shifts say.

[Smint]

Glenn63 said:

Best paying companies are usually self hauling companies that don’t make their money from the haulage, supermarkets etc and most parcel companies like Royal Mail, UPS etc always have decent pay.

Agreed, i work for own account.
Not many left now, when you have a good job its paramount to look after it so it lasts, ie just because they pay full salary sick pay from day one doesn't mean its a licence to take the piss, its stupidity like that that has helped see so many of the really good own account jobs get put out to contract barrel scrapers.

[nismocat]

the-norseman said:

What test, CPC?

No, HGV test.

Got to resit.

[Stussy]

Atlas Training do 35 hours of CPC for £190 online, they’re very good too

[rallye101]

Stussy said:

Atlas Training do 35 hours of CPC for £190 online, they’re very good too

Very cheap!!

[towser44]

rallye101 said:

Stussy said:

Atlas Training do 35 hours of CPC for £190 online, they’re very good too

Very cheap!!

I've booked one with HGVCPC online, £32 per course (so £160 for 35 hours). Split over 2 nights 6.30pm until 10.15pm both nights. We get CPC at work, but to be honest I hate sitting in a classroom with a load of whinging drivers lol, so thought I'd sit on my sofa instead.

[Its Just Adz]

Glenn63 said:

Best paying companies are usually self hauling companies that don’t make their money from the haulage, supermarkets etc and most parcel companies like Royal Mail, UPS etc always have decent pay.

Usually have benefits also like payed CPC, on going training, discounts off shopping, meal allowances etc.

I’m north west general haulage about £13 an hour, my mrs works at Waitrose think her basic is £15:50 and hour with lots of premiums for working between certain hours/ weekends etc. I’m Royal Mail which I think l will be £19:50 basic from April.

General haulage are battling it out to win contracts which leaves minimal pay for the drivers. Watch out for day rate adverts that sound alright at say £150 for 10 hours but then have you running 15 hours with no extra pay.

Also depends if you want to spend nights out or not. I did heavy haulage on the cranes for Ainscough for a bit which was a lot of working away certainly not for everyone but adding up pay for 7 days and 7 nights out soon adds up a decent amount extra pay over 5 day shifts say.

That's a great rate at Royal Mail!
You on days or nights?

[Glenn63]

I’m on afternoons shifts between 3pm -2am ish. Most work is evenings/ nights really we only have a handful of morning shifts.
There’s an afternoon premium and night premium on top but it’s fixed rate not based on hours.
It’s by far the best job Iv had for work/pay/home life I can’t see myself leaving here unless I stop driving hgv’s completely.

[r3g]

Glenn63 said:

I’m on afternoons shifts between 3pm -2am ish. Most work is evenings/ nights really we only have a handful of morning shifts.
There’s an afternoon premium and night premium on top but it’s fixed rate not based on hours.
It’s by far the best job Iv had for work/pay/home life I can’t see myself leaving here unless I stop driving hgv’s completely.

Think I've mentioned it before but I used to do them through a subbie at Wakefield NDC and we got parity. Either went to Leeds first then down to NN something (the new place off J16) then over to Atherstone and back to Wakey. Piece of piss, but used to really annoy me having to spend 30 mins trying to find an empty trailer at the start of the shift. I don't know whether it's something specific to Wakefield but they seem to use the trailers as mobile empty York storage.

[Glenn63]

r3g said:

Glenn63 said:

I’m on afternoons shifts between 3pm -2am ish. Most work is evenings/ nights really we only have a handful of morning shifts.
There’s an afternoon premium and night premium on top but it’s fixed rate not based on hours.
It’s by far the best job Iv had for work/pay/home life I can’t see myself leaving here unless I stop driving hgv’s completely.

Think I've mentioned it before but I used to do them through a subbie at Wakefield NDC and we got parity. Either went to Leeds first then down to NN something (the new place off J16) then over to Atherstone and back to Wakey. Piece of piss, but used to really annoy me having to spend 30 mins trying to find an empty trailer at the start of the shift. I don't know whether it's something specific to Wakefield but they seem to use the trailers as mobile empty York storage.

I’m more parcel force tbf so just trailer swaps. This weeks been start Chorley, empty to Leeds, swap for loaded down to Coventry, swap for another loaded back to Chorley.
Todays Chorley straight to Coventry and back.
Never an issue with trailers always just get a way bill with trailer number and bay number and 99% of the time it’s there.

[leggly]

You won’t beat Royal Mail/ Parcelforce for wages and a work/ life balance. The old saying, “ Paint doesn’t pay the bills” is still true. Don’t look for the best truck, look for the best wage.

[Glenn63]

leggly said:

You won’t beat Royal Mail/ Parcelforce for wages and a work/ life balance. The old saying, “ Paint doesn’t pay the bills” is still true. Don’t look for the best truck, look for the best wage.

Yep, and some of our old trucks really take that far slowly being replaced now though.
It can be boring tbf just the same runs/ places everyday day. The crane job was super interesting, different jobs in a different part of the country every few days and I did quite enjoy the extra ‘work’ of driving those. Although when you just want to get home and you’ve got Aberdeen to Leyland to do at a max of 40mph, down to <20 on hills there where some long journeys!

[markymarkthree]

leggly said:

You won’t beat Royal Mail/ Parcelforce for wages and a work/ life balance. The old saying, “ Paint doesn’t pay the bills” is still true. Don’t look for the best truck, look for the best wage.

I worked for RM as a driver for 27 years, then they offered me a nice big juicy EVR package.
I got a job driving a low-loader delivering plant, which i really enjoyed but i always said, "for 27 years i did bugger all, then i had to start working for a living".

[nismocat]

markymarkthree said:

leggly said:

You won’t beat Royal Mail/ Parcelforce for wages and a work/ life balance. The old saying, “ Paint doesn’t pay the bills” is still true. Don’t look for the best truck, look for the best wage.

I worked for RM as a driver for 27 years, then they offered me a nice big juicy EVR package.
I got a job driving a low-loader delivering plant, which i really enjoyed but i always said, "for 27 years i did bugger all, then i had to start working for a living".

I used to drive the Parcel Force 7.5T trucks, before they were limited and you could drive them on a normal car licence. They used to get abused but seemed to be very reliable, I think they were either the Ford Cargo's or the Iveco Eurocargo?

70mph down the A10 (now the A414 in St Albans) was interesting on a windy day!

I would look at the HGV artics with jealousy and envy!

As I was an agency driver the only time I even spoke to a full time driver was when I had to go and pick up the rest of a load when he broke down and get it delivered, to which he was very grateful.

The only image I could find is a toy, so looks like it was the Cargo I drove back then.

Edited by nismocat on Friday 8th March 03:24