Hi lads(maybe ladies?)
For a long while now I've want to be a truck driver, started to sort things to do it when I was 21, did theory, got provisional and had the money saved, but I had to use the money for more important things, and since be told by a few to leave it till I was 25, well now 24 and able to save more than enough to do it again, Im kinda hoping to stay working in marquees/events. Can I do my C licence in jan when im 25 and jump into a ridged 26tonne 27" flatbed? or do I need to do C1 and C1+E, then C and then after Ive done the right amount of experience to mover to C+E?
Also so a direction Id like to move towards is lowloader work mover plant and ect, how would go about getting up to 150tonne? do you need a ticket to drive every machine you may mover?
Do I need to apply for a digital Taco card or is that give once you start driving?
Cheers all!

 

i did mine in 2007, i was able to do my class 2 (rigids) then jumped staright to class 1(artic) i didnt do the 7.5t test however i think thats recently changed but im not 100%.

you will have to re-take the theroy as they were only valid for 2years so yours has expired.
once you have passed your test you can apply for the digi tacho card.

my advice would be choose another career as truck driving is shite and money isnt fantastic.

just out of curiosity what marquee company you work for as i work in events and exhibitions, may have come across you in the past.

we mainly work with owen brown and arena structures

 

Owen Brown!!! but my tshirts say Snowdens, just got back from regents park back on a take down. I was chatting to owner driver the other day driving for browns tell me he was on 60 an hour for snowdens and 70 for owen brown. I know he got fuel and insurance ect but that in my mind is still a far bit.
Ive always want to do it and I love driving.

 

so you were doing taste then?
i work with snodens at burley horse trials.
you may have seem our trucks, THORNS or CAMDENS we are the furniture guys that get on your tits

 

dont forget to run your own truck you need to have an o licence which isnt easy to obtain

 

Why so hard to get o licence? also guessing that mean oppertaters licence?
yeah the take down for taste was nasty, quite a bit of manky food about.
well if you see my tranny about its reg is ng08lwb try and find me.

 

as far as i know you need atleast 10k in the bank to obtain one plus you need to do the full cpc, oh you will need to do the drivers cpc training now aswell, another new thing just brought in.


you ever do the twickenham build up or aintree?

 

you seen these trucks about im sure

 

I was on the take down for twickenham, doing a lot of take down as most of my gang is all first timers so we get take down to learn all the different frames.

whats a cpc? dont think im going to be a owner driver for a while then. do you need a O licences to lease a wagon to drive for your self?

 

Yeah Ive seen these wagons on site, mostly on builds. why is that truck there, doesnt seem to be parked lol? is it yours?

 

Im 24 and have just passed my Class one, im well happy and cant wait to start doing some driving soon for RM on the weekends.

 

How long have you been driving wagons in all? how hard was it to find work?

 

I was chatting to owner driver the other day driving for browns tell me he was on 60 an hour for snowdens and 70 for owen brown.

I would'nt believe everything an owner driver tells you my friend

 

Only just passed two weeks ago, im a commercial technician for RM so I needid my full licence for road testing and Mot's etc.
As I work for RM I can do some overtime on weekends driving for them, I wouldn't find a job that easy else where because ive only just passed, I think to do agency you need two years experience. ?

 

your operaters license will depend on what goods you carry(not your dcpc) you can have a pink one if your carrying your own goods or the blue to carry offer peoples goods for hire and reward.digi card is easy to get the dcpc you will have to get and again is very easy imo.but it is a shitty place to be at present imo.got made redundant late last year.was workshop/transport manager for a haulage company.

 

that was the vehicle i was driving when it decided to chew its alternater belt,
it happend on chisick round about,
where its parked was the only place i could get it so it wasnt causing an obstruction,
plus it was opposite a cafe.

if you do twickenham build up do you do the scaffold site? now known as the storage place,

i put a trailer in there on build up and collection. good fun getting in there.

is big Trev your boss by any chance?

Bono dont work for you guys anymore does he?

 

i agree, our subbies get Ł300-Ł400 a day dependant on where we send them,
some are paid by the mile though,


Ł60 an hour is ridiculas. if it was that good we'd all be doing it

 

finding work just after passing will be difficult as most companies wont touch you unless your over 25 with 2 years experience, best advice i can give you is see if you can stick with owen brown and drive their trucks for 2yrs or do agency work.
once you've had the licence for 2yrs your free to move on

 

all im saying is its shit and dont bother,id be here all day listing the reasons.

 

I don't think i could go back to UK truck driving, now i've done proper trucking in America, no traffic at all, open roads, no tacho, no speed limiters, 75mph speed limit in a lot of states and the trucks are aloud to do it even with 2 or 3 trailers!!!!, as you can tell, i don't miss the M25 or any of the uk roads, if you got no ties to the uk or can get away for a year or so, its well worth it, PMme if you want details of how to get out here.

my truck, although i should be getting a different one next week

 

Hi mate that dose sound well good I will pm you tonight for more info.

 

Out of interest lad what could I expect to earn week or month, driver rigid wagons, like 32ton tippers? Or any wagon?
Also any hgv recovery truck drivers on here?

 

Agree with you there wish Id done something else lorry driving is fucking shit even more so for me as I drive sewage tankers lol!

 

it differs from firm to firm kid,i used to go nearly all week on a class 1 tipper and got paid 550-600 pw,delivren pallets now no nights out,7.30 starts and earn 400ish pw

 

we are on salary in a way,
we get just over Ł550 basic for a 45 hour week, if we do less we get our basic but if we do more we get paid extra at single rate, no time and a half like we used to.
we get double pay from 10pm through to 5am

weekends are paid at normal rate aswell.

money really isnt great.

ive just applied for a job with the co-op running out of thurrock in essex.

Ł32k a year so wish me luck

 

Now then kosman didnt see you other post!

Err im on hourly rate at the mo as a tenter, we do silly hours, last weeks I got 640 for a week, but that was friday thought to friday away mins 12 hours aday. sorry by you lot need your heads testing saying 400 to 550 for 45hours is bad or am i missing something? I know house, morgages and kids cost lots, I dont have any of those.

 

im a low loader driver... my advice would be dont be thinkin you can pass your test and get onto a 150tonner..

if someone is on the lookout for a driver, theres not a chance they will take on someone with no experiance of operating plant and first time with a low loader.

you'll have to start from the bottom poss a 7.5tonner for a plant hire firm and work your way up to 17t - 32t rigid then they may let you loose on the bigger stuff.

 

i dont do 45 hours anymore,i do less now,seriously though i would have packed up if i didnt fall over this job,even thought about being a hospital porter to tide me over

 

in the US i can only work 60 hours in 7 days, or 70 hours in 8 days, then 34 hours off, i'm working the 60/7 week normally, the 60 hours includes all breaks and load/unload times, although as the log books are hand writen on loose pages the 14 hour max day can be worked to get max mileage out of it and so the normal day is 500-600 miles, if you can work it, you can put in a 700 mile day but thats not common, maybe once a week, i think the legal max you can book for a day is 756miles in 11 hours, they say if you do more than that your speeding!!!!! but anyway, i'm earning about $3000 a month tax free as i'm visa'd as harvest crew i get $2500 no mater what, but i get 20% of load, if the 20% goes over the $2500 i get whatever its over as a bonus at the end of the following month, this month i've done 12000+ miles so i should get as much as $3500, the thing with where i am in the midwest America, its long straight roads with no traffic, so you sit the truck at 75 on the cruise for 11 hours, can get a little boring, but it beats sitting on the M25 for 11 hours going nowhere!!!

 

just got my provisional hgv through and got an assessment drive on thursday so will see how it goes looking forward to it

 

Never thought I could jump into a 44tonner let alone a 150, Was just interested in how to get there, same goes for Hgv recovery, for both is there a certain point the normal hgv licences are no good, and difference ones needed,or is a experience thing?
Any my other q was as you are a lowloader driver, do you have a certificate for all plant you have to mover or may mover?

 

I past my class2 a couple of months ago got my own tacho card,
but still aint found no one to take me on evan the agency's wont touch me.
& im 32 with a clean license,they all want 2 yrs experiance!!

 

as for your "tickets" for all the machines i have none lol, its a little bit of a grey area. never have a prob really about drivein the machines, but sometimes you get the odd idiot that wants to see tickets but at the end of the day if i had a ticket for ever single machine i put on the wagon it would cost a shed load and id forever be doin a course!

and far as im concerned i dont need a ticket to load and unload my wagon, its not like im useing the machine on site!

and once you have your class one your done, drive 44-80-150tonner.

 

if you really do want to do it and your paying for the training yourself make sure you chose the training provider carefully as there are quite a few cowboy firms out there.

make sure the company uses DSA registered instructors as at the moment you can be taught to drive HGV by anyone who has had their licence longer than 2yrs,
quite a few HGV training companies use instructors who have had no DSA training so if you want to pass 1st time pick the company well,


if you intend to do it down south i can reccomend ROADTRAIN they only use DSA instructors.
i passed my 1's and 2's 1st time with them.

 

In America if you fail its no hardship, a retest out on the road is just another $5, hows that for NOT ripping you off, the licence its self cost $10, and for anyone who wants to drive trucks and can't wait till they are 21, you can drive them at 18 over here so yet your arse on the harvest next year (think its 18 anyway) in fact, most the farmers and helpers don't even need anything more than a car licence if they are staying within 100 or 150 miles of the farm they work on, how mad is that.

 

i see aload of your boys down hampton court 2day, you werent there was you?

 

12650 miles this month, and getting a faster truck friday, the present one only does 70!!!, so even more next month, and i didn't get held up in a single traffic jam anywhere, god i love it out here

 

shit the bed! i had to re-read that.

thats some monster miledge

 

love that mileage!

i'd love to give that a go tbh, but am only cat 2 at the mo. work is tight at the min though for tippers i'd like to branch out abit.
I do 9000kms a month though, thats on tipper work around birmingham, all legal, breaks, limiter 56mph etc etc.

 

if i can get in a faster truck, one that does 75+ i will top that mileage, was supposed to be getting a different truck today, got all the way to colorado with a load, and get a call, sorry its not ready yet, bugger, stuck at 70 for another week, 5 mph doesn't sound much, but if you do a full 11 our day at 5mph faster (and it is possable over here) thats 55 mins, or basicly another 70 miles or an hours work, the biggest problem over here, is that places to load and unload don't stay open long enough, in general places open 7 or 8 am, but close from about 3 or 4pm, doesn't give you a big window, and with the slower truck it pisses you off when your 5 or 10 mins after they gone, when the faster truck would have got you unloaded, another driver on my facebook posted that he had done 15000+ this month, lets see if i can't top 16000 miles in a month