Thinking about becoming a truck driver 7.5 tonners or artics.......anybody have any info that might be of use to me regarding doing the training or pros and cons of the job and how much can I expect to earn????? Any info would be appreciated. Cheers.

 

Done your research? Passing both tests will set you back over a grand, for starters. Class 2 is around the £600 mark. ADR can be another £500

Then, when you start looking for the 40,000 jobs that are out there, you get: "Love to take you on, mate, love to, need drivers badly, but it's the insurance, see? They'd screw me into the ground if I took on anyone with under two years experience, see? (And anyway mate, we took on six Poles and three Latvians, who'll work for next to nowt, last week, so we have to see how they pan out, see? Sorry mate."

So now you're into at least two years of "Agency" work: £7 an hour up here for class 2, (my niece gets £6.50 an hour in KoT, working unqualified, part-time ) And your wage WON'T include the hour you have to travel each way to work and back.........and as you can see, your fuel will take a nice bite out of it. Yeah, OK, everyone is in the same boat there, (except those with company car), but £7 an hour? £280 a month before o/t, (and don't expect lots of that from an agency job), or well under £1000 a month take home. It'll take you two months to make what it cost to train with ADR on top

Agency work: what can I say? The agency will look after you, but you get to work for a few w@nkers, let me tell you. Firms whose driver has pulled a sickie, 'cos he hates the work/place. Firms who encourage you to "beat" the tacho, and jobs like you never imagined to places you'd not want to put a saloon car. All good fun.

So think carefully. It's certainly NOT all roses.............

Alcazar

 

Are you prepared for the early starts, long hours and maybe being away from home all week.
The job aint what it use to be and the roads are so bloody busy, more ******** than ever on them too.
As Alcazar says, the Pols, Lithuainians etc are working for nowt, but when you pass your test I`m sure you`ll find work.
Good luck, but I`d rarther be doing something else - a steady 9-5 sounds ideal

 

To make it easier to get a job get things like hazchem and lorry loader licences first.
THere are a lot of driving jobs that are local whick pay OK and give lots of O/T as well.

Chip

 

I used to drive class 1 part time and weekends when i was in the army.The wage on its own wasnt very good and it eventually got very tedious.Put that together with ****** car drivers,lazy slow people unloading your lorry and arsehole security blokes youve got a pretty **** job.

 

you could also look into getting a grab or hiab ticket.
will only need a class 2 for that.
or go the way i did went down a local grab firm got chatting to the owner, he needed a driver i wanted a grab ticket sorted.
money is anwhere between 90 - 150 a day depending on how good you are. (be prepared to start on the lower figure) plus as much overtime as you want. then you got your privates working out on £110 for a full load or slightly less for a part load. pay the mush in the tip £20 to tip it bobs your uncle.
1 a day is about what you want but will take ages to get your own little network.(and pay for your scoob)
clear about 2000 without overtime or bonus's work local (5 miles from my house)
happy in my work and earning enough money

 

Yeah the grab drivers who contract to our place work on £110 a shift and shift-and-a-half on weekends. They always seem to be mega busy because they can’t seem to get any more drivers how ever much they advertise.

Think not many drivers fancy it because it’s not point to point driving. They have to help with backfilling of holes (sweeping and shovelling), loading of signs and barriers and being called every 5 minutes.

 

Excuse my ignorance but what is a grab or hiab ticket?

 

grab





hiab

 

ticket as in license to operate

 

Plenty of Class 1 jobs going, I can name firms that pay £7 p/h and others that are on £15 p/h. I have a full time job on Steel contracted 39 hours p/w, money does me job suits, thats fine. Young lad needs cash start Sunday get home Friday if lucky. If single go on the Continent spend 6 weeks away longer if you wish, watch the pennies and you will be ok. If you can hack here to-day there to-morrow Agency work is fine, as said you will get Siht jobs and wagons, but that will gain you experience of you will need plenty to survive. Good luck -- its what you make it

 

some of the smaller firms don't really care if you have the ticket or not.
hunt around you might find 1, if thats the way you wanna go.
you'll need the class 2 lgv though.
and you can poke the shovelling and sweeping bit i dont carry anything like that, i only do muckaway at the moment.

 

Cheers guys, so I would find it hard to make approx 2 grand a month then as a newbie to the job for say 2 years??? Someone told me I would clear £ 500 a week easily. What does everyone think?

 

Slagmagnet.

Ive been class 1 for 25 years now (Started young ). Ive carried everything from Round timber to petrol Tankers. I would think seriously about the expenditure for your licence. The good days have gone. You have polish like others have said in previous threads, you will need 2 years experiance unless you go Agency. Couple that with the Rules and regs, tachos, WTD (working time directive ) the mighty arm of VOSA whoi pull u for spot checks, tacho etc, unsociable hours , i question if its worth it in all honesty. Im 45 and at present on Tankers, i can start anything from 2am , you can legaly work 15 hrs a day , 3 times a week . Im on £35,000 a year, king of the road they used to say. NOT ANY MORE. The company i work for is large, very large . We arent allowed to run illegal, in any form. We even get reported for not wearing our seat belts. They had red ones installed so they can be seen easily by any of our managers throughout the country. If i had my time over again would i do it again . NO. Get yourself a trade mt8. Train as plumber etc. My opinion i know , but thats my opinion .

SG

 

depends if you get lucky
i would say it would be quite difficult, yes.
tipper drivers make about 100 a day round here and are always lookin for drivers. but the work can be short term, which is fine if your only lookin to gain experience. and most aint that bothered about it as long as your no wrecker.
i got lucky.. sort of..
worked on the dustcarts and they paid for my lgv, had work for 2 years at crap money but really really good hours (bout 5 per day gettin paid for 10).
went to local grab firm got chattin with the owner over a pint, he offered me a start and got my grab ticket for me, so i paid for nothin.
been there 3 years now and i've been gettin offers from other firms coz i got a good rep and GOOD grab drivers are FEKKIN hard to find.

don't know a lot about long haul stuff, a mate of mine has jus started doin it self employed makin a fortune but he's had to buy his own truck and find his own work. workin for somebody doin long haul is not very good according to him.

 

my advice would be get yourself down to a local tipper or grab firm and have a chat with them, before you lay out the cash.
find out how much experience they would need to give you a start. how much you'd be earnin etc...
ask more than 1 jus to get an idea

 

Cheers for the input and honesty guys, gonna have a think about it but it seems that there are more negative than positive replies to what I thought would have been a solution for me (the grass is always greener) the hours dont put me off its just that its a lot of money for me to layout if I am going to regret it and there are no guarantees I guess.

Any more info would be appreciated should you think of anything. Cheers.

 

im a trucky and ive got to say winter its ****e summer ok delivering animal feed round n.wales anglesea some of the roads you havva go down gets your hole twitching been there 12years and you get into a rut because you couldnt work in a factory or other you need to get out and about its a double edged sword you love it and hate it at the same time oh and trying to stick to 40mph is sooooo hard to do on main roads with idiots trying to overtake in risky spots arrrrgh!!! and sticking the finger at you for going to slow they dont understand its the law. im on shift so some fecking idiot has left the lorry in a state or worse had a bump and not reported it,or a breakdown loose time but they still expect you to do all the work but £355 take home for 48hrs a week isnt to be sniffed at pays the mortgage and pays for me car