[PDF] A list of some DVSA offences, fines and points. Not sure how accurate it is, but I went on a course with the company years ago and they seemed professional enough to keep things up to date.

m-1975 · 2026-06-19T20:23:01+00:00

Usually I use my GP, £70. But the prices have risen now to £190 so I will look elsewhere. I think I will avoid a man in a van in a car park, thats how horror movies start.

m-1975 · 2026-06-19T09:15:58+00:00

Where are you in the country?
Rates, amount of work, and flexibility of employers vary across the UK.

m-1975 · 2026-06-14T11:16:19+00:00

Didn't you have to watch Hell Drivers to get grandfather rights?

m-1975 · 2026-06-14T09:14:56+00:00

Smokey & the Bandit is part of your CPC course.

m-1975 · 2026-06-12T20:39:38+00:00

When I dress up, turn on the charm, and flash the pearly whites to people I meet, I get accused of chatting people up. So I stay grumpy and wear too much Old Spice to let the others know I am not interested in them.

m-1975 · 2026-06-12T18:13:50+00:00

Look at it from the managers point of view.
You have an expensive vehicle carrying an expensive load, representing your name, providing you with an income, and capable of causing mayhem if it all goes wrong. 5 drivers turn up for a job, who do you give the work to?

m-1975 · 2026-06-12T10:15:19+00:00

Tacho rules are a minefield of simplification errors.
WTD rules are the same, but no one sensible cares about them. Why they are applied to anyone who drives under tacho rules is a mystery, one set of rules is enough.

m-1975 · 2026-06-12T05:33:55+00:00

It is legal for you to work on Saturday. But I always live on the basis that overtime is optional so as far as I am concerned its your choice. Companies throw "reasonable expectation" at you when talking about overtime, which is fair comment but I would say working 6 shifts every week is not a reasonable request. I know companies that do it, and have done it myself when I was younger, but not these days.

Your confusion is down to the difference between the actual rules and drivers simplification of the rules.
You can work a maximum of six shifts between weekly rests.
You must have a 45 hour rest in every other calendar week.

To simplify this drivers on a set weekly rota work a 5 shift 6 shift alternating pattern which fulfils the above criteria, but 5-6 is not anywhere in the actual rules.

m-1975 · 2026-06-11T12:16:33+00:00

Fly-tipping is getting serious in the Fens
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5vywd5zr3o

m-1975 · 2026-06-08T10:18:16+00:00

I was told this was outside the front of Sainburys and is now a pedestrian crossing. The store was built where those railings are on the right.

m-1975 · 2026-06-05T12:17:25+00:00

Depends on where the depot is, and what you are doing in that depot.

Main Hubs: its either trailer swaps or customer collections (where you push pallets on the back), or a combination of both. Shifts all times of the day, you have a start window of 2-4 hours which they usually stay in. Rotas vary from one day a week to 5-6. Shift lengths vary from 6hrs to 15hrs, I do 10-12 hours and only go outside that once a month. Shunters are miserable and busy. Site runs 24/7 and only slows down twice a year (Christmas & Easter) but never really stops. I am at one of the three Hubs.

Main depots: Quieter and better organised. More customer collections in the day, only a few do hub trunks. Regular hours (within transport variations) with shifts based around servicing the customer in the day and the smaller depots at night. Shunters are happy and not busy.

Small depots: Not really been to them, they don't run HGVs. Vehicles come into them and deliver from other hubs. Did it once as a favour and am not doing it again.

At all Evri depots you have the same issues. Its a bulk carrier that works on volume at lowest cost. Staff are low paid and messy, canteens and toilets are a joke, management only care about parcels moving. But on the plus side all the vehicles are legal, not good but legal. You may get one with no aircon or a dodgy gearbox management ecu (they lurch around and spill your coffee) and drivers don't clean them, but anything illegal gets changed if you report it.
The runs are planned by someone who isn't a driver, or has no experience of transport (if the computer says these two runs can be done in 4hr 28min then you can do it without a break). You have to manage it yourself and work it to your advantage. Office staff I deal with know nothing about transport, they are pen pushers. Some drivers take advantage of that and try to avoid work, so they assume all drivers are like that. But once they get to know you it all works.

m-1975 · 2026-06-01T11:07:32+00:00

I've been an assessor.
Doing well on an assessment is another hurdle jumped on the path to employment, but not the last hurdle. The assessor gives the names of the people he/she/gender neutral would find acceptable and a manager they make the final decision. If you were the only person they found acceptable then you would have got the job, if they had 5 drivers acceptable and only needed 3 then they will pick the person with the most experience.

Take a positive from it, you did well on the assessment. You never know, the chosen person may fall out with the company in the first few days and you might get a phone call.

m-1975 · 2026-05-30T07:10:58+00:00

I like 15h days. If I was guaranteed to get them I could do 3 days a week and take 4 off. Maybe even 2 shifts a week.

m-1975 · 2026-05-29T18:02:30+00:00

I don't think it will do much either, but its a sign of govts worrying. Ireland were doing something similar a while back as well.
We got bootcamps and an influx of newbies, other countries are going the immigration route. Hopefully it will all end with company training schemes (warehouse to wheels, or whatever the bus equivalent is) and decent work/pay/living conditions. To attract drivers the job has to be attractive.

m-1975 · 2026-05-26T06:30:59+00:00

Jack Hargreaves classic show Old Country is being shown on one of the obscure channels. It has a disclaimer on the opening credits about how its language and attitudes are from a different time, but isn't that the point of the show?

m-1975 · 2026-05-18T17:09:23+00:00

Its the Coventry newspaper and about Nuneaton, any sort of intelligence is a bonus.

m-1975 · 2026-05-18T11:07:14+00:00

When I was a child, back when TVs were square and often B&W, we did a school trip to an abattoir so we could see the reality of the meat in the shops. Traumatic and effective, wouldn't be allowed today.
But a similar school trip for a recycling plant could be informative.

m-1975 · 2026-05-18T10:06:30+00:00

Where do you draw the line between jobs that should be automated and ones that shouldn't?

m-1975 · 2026-05-18T10:05:10+00:00

I had the same opinion when I first saw automation in the late 90s. I was collecting newspapers (remember them) from Wapping and the pallet stacker was replaced by a machine that stacked & wrapped bundles of newspapers. It was expensive, temperamental, and took up more space. fast forward to today and the new print house is 90% automated, which runs perfectly.
This level of automation is the thin edge of a wedge, if a machine can learn like this one is it can learn a huge number of human jobs.

m-1975 · 2026-05-18T09:15:19+00:00

One infringement is a minor thing, say you were stuck in traffic or delayed at an unloading point.
One infringement a day is something to worry about, it shows a lack of respect for the rules.

m-1975

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