The thorny question of nights out might well depend on where you live in the country, if you are central..ie Midlands, London or major urban area then you should be able to get day work. If you live in more outlying areas then that's not going to be so easy for obvious reasons.

Rigid licence will not be much use to be honest unless you have an own account job in mind (own account...mainly transporting the companies own goods), you have a much better chance of getting work if you go the whole hog and get the artic licence.

Your big problem together with everyone else new is that few will employ people with less than 2 years experience, you'll just have to wing it as best you can in the early days, and accept anything that's going.

Remember to moan and complain about every single thing you can think of, that way you'll fit in with the majority of moaning licence holders that pass for drivers these days...and if you find the elusive job that pays a grand a week for doing naff all still winge till the cows come home about it....:-)

Agency work is usually no nights out, and is often better paid than the drivers directly employed by the company.

Worth perusing a few transport forums for up to date info, PDA and Trucknet are two to kick off with.

With a rigid,it'll be sand/gravel or skips.

I worked as an HGV driver years ago.

One question you need to ask yourself is:

"Do I get bored on long motorway journeys in my car?"

If the answer is 'yes', then how would you feel about doing long motoway journeys day after day, much of the time at a steady 56 mph?

I know conditions have changed since I was a lorry driver, but some things remain the same. Cargo handling is mostly mechanised these days but you'll still probably have to do handballing occasionally, which is backbreaking if your'e not used to it.

Having said that, an HGV licence is worth having and if you have an interest in lorries, haulage and roads, then lorry driving becomes a way of life. You also need to be able to stand your ground, when neccessary, against customers, bosses, mechanics and other lorry drivers as well as coping with traffic all day long.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 29/03/2011 at 18:16

If you really want day work perhaps you could just do your class 2 licence and suppliment it with another course such as ADR or Hi-ab for instance. There is plenty of class 2 day work out there (builders merchants etc) However it is of course a trade off with earning less money. Dont forget there are now additional costs involved in obtaining a licence. Since 2009 in order to drive HGVs for a living you will also need CPC certification. This involves a total of 35 hours of classroom work on top of your practical training and test. I think however it can be split into seperate day long modules. Not sure on the costs for CPC at the moment, perhaps someone else can enlighten us? It would also help enormously if you also already have a digital tacho card ready to show an employer. I think these are around £45? hope this helps and good luck for the future.

Best answer so far mate cheers, you'd be shocked how many forums I've asked the same question on to be met with answers such as "DONT DO IT" and "its really expensive yout know" and "you'll work 25 hours a day" and "you'll never have a social life" etc, none of which I asked about, I cant believe how many people dont read the question and start a rant about how much the hate HGV driving (yet spend all their free time on HGV forums) so thanks for actually answering my question.

same goes for the others on this forum. Cheers ;)

Pat, you and the ilk on the PDA forum didnt answer anything, a few good posters answered the question and I am gratefull for that but yourself and a few others seemed to thick to grasp what I was asking even though I made it clear, seems the good posters on this forum had no trouble doing such.

I've paid for my medical, sent of for my provisional but havent paid for my training course as of yet but will do as soon as and after doing my own research and after reading the replys of the people on here I am happy and confident of finding day work if the offer of day/night shifts falls thru with my uncles firm :) xx

Already did mate but I know alot of jobs advertised dont exist and are a ploy by agencies to get you on their books and a lot of the jobs advertised dont give much info with regards to hours . Since posting this thread though I've learned that the hours and jobs are there, I've done by medical and sent of for my provisional and am in the proccess of sorting my theory out now. Looking forward to my training :)

PCV is some thing I considered at great lenght at one point but dont think I'd have the patience to deal with students and school kids and packed buses on a daily basis and drunks on a friday and saturday night lol