Got a link? The only thing I can find is Shearings Coach Tours or Shears Bros down here in Dorset Bournemouth Airport. (that would be handy)
Get yourself a few hours one afternoon & drive around the industrial estates around southampton etc. Knock on lorry drivers doors who are taking a driver break (not curtains closed) even at the local services & talk to them. They will recommend companies & explain the good & bad points of driving work. I paid for my training as I'd done a few years of 7.5T delivery work & wanted the comfy air-cushion seat & A/C. Larger vehicles means you can use less roads & usually less loads to deliver. I did HGV general haulage, dropping car-parts off twice a day to companies (which is how most companies operate), food materials & currently doing bakery deliveries either one hit or double hit deliveries. Most HGV or coined now large goods vehicles roles are one delivery jobs covering 8-10hours of a day.
Move to Felixstowe.. Buy or rent a mobile home on a perminant park by the sea and work for the largest port in Britain.. You would travel plenty! Just the advantage is you will never get stuck on M25 etc.... Basic pay £30 per year with O/T and there's more than you can wish for £50k a year, every year.. You can train for other positions if you wish eg crane driver.. Plus you can walk to work each day... X
Luck is something this industry doesn't use. Knowledge & awareness of your surroundings & defensive driving techniques are prerequisites to successfully avoiding plebs in cars doing all manner of mental weekend/bank holiday antics to get 3-4 meters ahead in queues & off ramps from motorways. A calm composure & tolerance of peoples innate ability to make mistakes & let it go are however. One gentlemen I met some years past said to me "..the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.."
was a hgv mechanic for 28 years and gave it up last year due to back surgery(surgery twice) first 18 years was with a haulage firm, myself and one of the other mechanics shared trips a couple times a week with class ones and I enjoyed it(200 mile round trip doing change overs), full time I couldn't handle though, spent a load of time in company of drivers and not one of them complained infact I don't know one that didn't luv there job, money wasn't the best but just depends what the job is, I do know that the local construction/ building contractors pay a good rate of pay if you would like to be a driver on say a tipper etc, that's the type of driving that would appeal to me, not so boring imho
i have very little time for hgv drivers,,, belligerent selfish and often ignorant and show no great level of competence ,, one big grievance i have with them is their seemingly willfull determination not to use headlights in poor visibility conditions,, to see one with its headlights on is the rarity instead of the norm, bunching up and not being willing to let other cars / bikes in in front therefor causing / contributing to ques, ( often long ),,, there are other grievances. i accept there are exceptions.
I shall be a new class of HGV driver. I'm a biker for a start - the best grounding for any driving. I don't eat burgers and chips and I listen to Radio 3.
we will expect / accept nothing but the best from you !! i agree, biking is an excellent grounding for any road user .
