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Anything work related is classed as other work.

Apart from voluntarily attending DCPC during your Rest Period.

where I work it's classed as other work even if it's day off.

What your company chooses to do, is up to them. That is not the law though.

To get back to green you need to have clear encounters with the DVSA. Make sure that your defect reporting process is as good as possible because you may get stopped more often now. If you get stopped and nothing is found your average score goes down and you become or get closer to being a green operator again. If issues are found, you score points and you will get stopped more often. The only other encounter that you will have is MOT, so consider if you want to continue using your maintenance provider to do your pre MOT inspection.

I have one, 1.5 diesel great little van, fantastic on fuel and ULEZ exempt. Takes a Euro pallet no problem although did squeeze a blue pallet in once, caused slight dent to the interior wheel arches but it's a work horse not a show car at the end of the day. I do always keep it clean though as it represents my business.

I've got mine getting delivered on Monday mate the look like a solid little van and as you say a work horse to not a show car so as long as it squeezed in with min damage happy days thank you for your response.

l forgot to mention, mine has the ‘stop start’ feature which helps fuel consumption big time!

If 50% of the bays in London weren't removed to cycle lanes and Boris bike docking stations this wouldn't happen. Well it never use too. Maybe if companies paid for parking instead of drivers expected to just find somewhere that would also probably help. I feel your pain Sharo but Nothings gonna change.

Any industry you work in has some form of CPD or work based training, CPC is just that for us. It’s only 7 hours a year, if you work 50 hours a week it’s less than 0.004% of your working year. Just need to find yourself a trainer that rings brews and biscuits. If you take one thing away from a course that keeps you safer or keeps money in your pocket rather than that of the police or DVSA it’s worth it in my opinion. The driving schools are busy, but you can’t pay for experience. I’m not on mega money as a tramper but it pays far more than many other roles in the sector. It puts food on the table and gives me and my Mrs a decent home etc. That’s why I do it, plus I enjoy it.

By all means charge what you want for t nd e hours you do, as a verbal contract, it’s all negotiable.
Can we guess that as well as no written contract, you have no insurances in place as an ETM!!

Click it on, let it flash once, click it off. Simples.

Just stop elsewhere then? Not worth the aggro, especially when you're expecting it. Especially if you're on ding dings, that jobs sh** enough as it is!

Not easy for our passengers though, having to walk into the middle of the road because certain coach drivers can't read or be bothered to do the job properly.

On Saturday I did flix service from London, I got to bond street 45 minutes before departure... the bays were full of megabus so I did encroach on the local stop a little bit and did put my tacho on break but as soon as the 2 megabus coaches behind me went I did reverse back to get off the local service bus stop... I know what it's like I worked for stagecoach for 18 years... we are all in the same sort of industry and should help each other out, but I've encountered the sort of people you've mentioned...

Majority of the Flix drivers park outside the hotel or, like you did, Bond Street but there are one or two that park in the Cabot Circus stop (outbound) and block tue...

Don't know why people insist on co loading f**ks me off especially when you see loads on here openly admitting to co loading if that's the only way you can make money then obviously you doing something majorly wrong, coming up to 4 years on cx never co load bad for reputation, and on the few occasions I have it's been my own customers or people I subby for and it's all been above board and explained even to customer on cx, sick of hearing cx is back load site too, I've a mwb vivaro and regularly get work on cx around 85 - 95plm not alot less then what I charge my own customers.

For the ones that say you need 30min, you only need 15 after 6hrs. It's a 6-9hr working period. 30min after a 15 break clears driving and working. No point clearing driving time off you've only driven say 2hrs, so you take a 15 run another 3hrs (up to you're 9th hour) then take a 30 to clear it all. 9 times out of ten your 4.5 driving comes before your 9hr period. Once cleared you can only work 15hrs in a day. If you've cleared your driving and working at 9hrs, you can run the rest of the day without a break. 9 - 15hrs is 6.

You've just committed a driving infringement ... 2 + 3 = 5 hrs driving with only 15mins break. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Stop giving advice fella.

Never lost a job, and that what you have explained is why this industry is in the state it is, take a good long look at yourself not me, I bet you've tipped whilst having the tacho on break as do many others. The only winner is your boss and who you deliver too. Get on with it, I'm retired now, so don't give a toss, your welcome to it, work yer 60 odd hours, stacking the shelves in Aldi or Lidl pays more for less hours, and they go home after 8 hours, you don't.

Totally agree with you on that. I'm retired and only live on my state pension, but, short of starving nothing would persuade me to shop in those stores on principle, besides, overall they aren't that much cheaper than Tesco or Morrisons.

I think there are quite a few of us with the same stance King, and tbh, I myself don't think there is that much of a saving. I also have a preference to eat what I was brought up on, where taste beats cheaper alternatives, and my pension covers that. Its standing for my principles here,...

I failed even before go on road but apart from that I would of passed got to close to the wall leaving the yard you gotta be in a rush to get on the road from the yard because it’s a 40mph road and you don’t have much time to mess about with.

Just bullsh**! Keep at it. You will get it, the test is useless, don't let it get to you. Book another and get back on that horse.

Gonna book test in next week or so seen as I've just had 10 months away from it and one full day lesson don’t think I've done that bad seen as my nerves was all over place ill get it sooner or later.

Pulling out of Bassetts does look a nightmare but as someone else said maybe try a different instructor, I passed at SID’s which is about 4 miles away from Bassetts.

It's all about practice and experience the more work you do the more experience you gain. People can tell you till they are blue in the face, doesn't mean it's gonna sink in but do it yourself and learn from it every day is a school day on the roads keep at it and I'm sure other drivers will give you help and advice along the way.

All exhausts exit away from the kerb depending on which country the truck is sold in. RHD exits to the right, LHD exits to the left. So this post is an extremely large fail.

If you mean for the car. Maybe possible. But if the truck, whatever RHD LHD, all use the same exhaust designer.

Yes except that they don’t. The tailpipe of the exhaust points to the middle of the road in the market they’re sold in. I’ve driven both LHD and RHD and that’s how they all were.

I'm confused by these responses, this is a public office and they have a duty to process applications in a timely manner. Why are your expectations so low? I've known desk based assessments to have very short deadlines with no exceptions - if the shoe was on the other foot would the assessor have the same attitude - I think not yet we should accept a laissez faire attitude to matters processed by the otc? Its no wonder they get away with it.

The standard processing time is 7 weeks for correctly completed applications. An interim only means they don't wait for the objection period to elapse before granting the licence at interim. The OTC's KPI for completing applications in 7 weeks is 85%. (Failing 1 in 7 is OK). As your application had queries, it is judged as incomplete, so there's no rush anymore. If your case worker goes absent through holiday or sickness no one will look at your application or responses to queries for up to a month, and there's nothing you can do.

That's...

When stopped by DVSA and it is a clear encounter the driver should ask for a PG35EC form which will show all items checked. The examiner may try to resist issuing the form basically as it means having to enter the clear encounter onto the computer which in turn will weaken his prohibition rate, but he has to give it if it is requested. THIS IS STRAIGHT FROM A DVSA OFFICER!

Prices have been good lately on cx. Wouldn’t it be good to see how many bids have been placed on a job next to the post (not good for the shipper).

Prices people bid are all over the place. I wanted lwb today 114 miles this job want on Thursday morning. Price ls from £130 to £220 for a Luton. Was over Dartford as well.

When I price jobs I don’t go on pence per mile - I ask as many questions about the job as I can, then look at the chances of a back load and then price the job. The other day I was sent into a place to pick two jobs up then meet drivers in supermarket car parks - hardly any English spoken and you should have seen the state of the vans - shocked if they have a mot never mind ins - I was sent in because I have a nice van. 🙈

Sign up with an agency, you only need a conditional offer of work to do the course, all the agency have to say is that there’s work for you when you pass.

How do I go about that?

Ring an agency tell them what you’re planning to do, you might have to go in for an interview explain you need a conditional offer of work when you fill out all your details to do your training it will ask what agency or employer your offer of work is from, fill out the agency you choose and bobs your uncle.

I drove humanitarian aid convoys for 4 years in Bosnia during the war. It’s not the easiest work to get into, in the UK the main route is with the DFID and they used to use an agency called Crown Agents. You can register with the UN on their website, you can also search for NGO jobs and register with those NGO’s for current and upcoming vacancies. The salary ranges from being provided with food & accommodation plus a per diem to cover incidental costs to a fully salaried package.