What the words actually mean

HGV · Heavy goods vehicle

The old name. The law now says LGV, large goods vehicle, and everybody on site still says HGV. They are the same thing and nobody will correct you.

Class 1 · Category C+E on your licence

An articulated lorry: a tractor unit and a separate trailer. The best paid ordinary driving work there is, and the hardest to reverse.

Class 2 · Category C on your licence

A rigid lorry, where the cab and the body are one vehicle. Usually multi-drop, usually more physical than Class 1, usually paid less per hour and often more hours.

7.5 tonne · Category C1

The small lorry. If you passed your car test before 1 January 1997 you probably already have C1 on your licence and have never noticed. Check the back of your photocard: it is worth money.

CPC · Certificate of Professional Competence

TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS SHARE THIS NAME, and it causes constant confusion. DRIVER CPC is the qualification you need to drive professionally: 35 hours of training every five years. TRANSPORT MANAGER CPC is a management qualification for running an operator's licence, and it is a different exam entirely.

DQC · Driver Qualification Card

The plastic card that proves your Driver CPC. Code 95 on it, with an expiry date. Without it in date you cannot legally drive for a living, however good your licence is.

ADR · The agreement on carriage of dangerous goods by road

The ticket for tankers, chemicals and anything with a hazard plate. Worth having, but check the money before you pay for it: on many jobs the difference in pay is smaller than people expect.

Tacho · Tachograph

The device that records your driving, your breaks and your speed. Your digital card goes in it. It is not there to catch you out; it is the evidence that protects you when somebody claims you had time you did not have.

POA · Period of availability

Waiting time you knew about in advance, at a dock or a curtain. It does not count as working time, and whether it is PAID is a separate question from whether it counts. ASK WHICH, before the shift.

WTD · Working Time Directive

The weekly limits on how much you can work, averaged over a reference period. Separate from drivers' hours, and both apply at once.

Trunking · Depot to depot

Same route, same two places, usually nights, almost no handball. The easiest driving work there is, and the first to be asked for.

Multi-drop · Many deliveries in a shift

Twenty, fifty, a hundred stops. Physical, weather dependent, and where the hours run over. Paid by the shift almost everywhere, so a bad day costs you and not them.

RDC · Regional distribution centre

The big supermarket warehouse. Strict booking-in times, long waits when you miss one, and the place most Class 1 work goes to or from.

Curtainsider · A trailer with sliding curtains instead of solid sides

Also called a tautliner. Loading from the side rather than the back, and you will be strapping and roping more than in a box.

Reefer · A refrigerated trailer

Food and pharmaceuticals. The unit runs and it is noisy. Temperature records matter and getting them wrong ruins a load.

Moffett · A truck-mounted forklift

It rides on the back of the lorry. A separate ticket, and it puts pounds on the hourly rate almost everywhere.

Walkaround · The daily vehicle check

The one before you move. It is your legal duty, not the company's, and the defect you did not write down is the one you are answerable for.

PCV · Passenger carrying vehicle

Bus and coach: categories D and D1. The Driver CPC for passengers is a DIFFERENT one from the goods CPC, and holding one does not give you the other. This is where a lot of applications fall over.

FLT · Forklift truck

Not one job. There are five common tickets and they are not interchangeable, so an advert saying only FLT is telling you nothing.

Counterbalance · The ordinary sit-on forklift

The one most people mean by forklift. The commonest ticket and the lowest paid of them.

Reach · A forklift that reaches forward into racking

You work at height and you are sitting sideways. A better paid ticket than counterbalance almost everywhere.

VNA · Very narrow aisle

A man-up truck that rises with the forks, in aisles a few centimetres wider than the machine. The best paid forklift ticket there is, and the one people are most often not really trained on.

LLOP · Low level order picker

You stand on it and pick at ground and first level. Sometimes called a PPT or a pallet truck. Physical, and the pick rate is watched.

MHE · Mechanical handling equipment

Everything above, as one word. An advert asking for MHE experience should say WHICH, and if it does not, ask.

RF · Radio frequency scanner

The handheld gun. Almost every warehouse job uses one now and almost nobody needs prior experience: it is half an hour to learn.

Pick rate · How many items an hour you are expected to pick

Ask what it is and what happens if you miss it. A site that will not say the number has told you something.

FIFO and FEFO · First in first out, first expired first out

How stock is rotated. FEFO is food and pharmacy, and picking the wrong pallet is a bigger deal than it looks.

Goods in · The receiving end of the warehouse

Unloading, checking and booking stock into the system. Usually earlier starts than picking.

Banksman · The person guiding a vehicle or a load

A real role with real training, not somebody waving. If you are asked to do it untrained, that is a near miss waiting to be written up.

PPE · Personal protective equipment

Boots, hi-vis, gloves, glasses. YOUR EMPLOYER MUST PROVIDE IT FREE. Nobody may charge you for it or take it out of your wages, and if anybody tries, that is the thing to tell somebody about.

PAYE · Pay as you earn

You are paid through a payroll, with tax and National Insurance taken off before you get the money, and your holiday builds up. This is how HIRING UK pays, always.

Umbrella · A third company in the middle that employs you

The agency pays them, they pay you, and their fee comes out of the rate somewhere. Legal, common, and it is not what we do. If anybody offers you a rate that only works through an umbrella, work out the take home before you agree.

KID · Key information document

The one page you must be given BEFORE you agree to anything, showing who pays you, what the rate is, what comes off it and how holiday works. It is the law, regulation 13A. If you have not been given one, you have not been told what the job pays.

AWR · Agency Workers Regulations 2010

After twelve weeks in the same role at the same place, you are entitled to the same basic pay and conditions as somebody the client employs directly. Twelve weeks, not twelve weeks in a row without a gap: the rules on what breaks the clock are specific and worth knowing.

RTW · Right to work

The check every employer must do before you start. A share code if you are not a British or Irish citizen, a passport or a birth certificate with a National Insurance number if you are. NOBODY MAY CHARGE YOU FOR THIS CHECK.

DBS · Disclosure and Barring Service

The criminal record check. Only lawful for certain roles, only at the right level for that role, and never at your expense for agency work.

NLW and NMW · National living wage and national minimum wage

The legal floor, by age band. It applies to every hour you work, including some you might not expect, such as time spent on a compulsory induction.

Rolled-up holiday · Holiday pay added to your hourly rate

Lawful again for irregular hours and part-year workers, and it must be shown as a SEPARATE LINE on your payslip. If your rate looks high and there is no holiday line, check whether the holiday is already inside it.

Charge rate · What the client pays the agency per hour

Different from your pay rate, and the gap is not all profit: employer's National Insurance, your holiday and your pension all come out of it before anybody's margin.

Temp to perm · Being taken on directly by the client

Allowed and normal. The agency may charge the client a fee or offer an extended hire instead, and the rules are in regulation 10. NONE OF IT IS EVER CHARGED TO YOU, and nobody may stop you taking a permanent job.

Assignment · One booking with one client

Not a job in the employment sense. It has a start, and it can end, and the notice both ways should be written down before you start.

Self-certification · Telling your employer you were ill, in writing

For the first seven days of sickness you do not need a doctor's note, and nobody may ask you for one. After seven days you do.

ASAP · As soon as possible

Used in adverts to mean today. In practice it means the employer is short-staffed right now, which is usually good news for you.

KYC · Know your customer

The identity checks a bank or a payment company must do before opening an account. Not about you as a worker, and you will only meet it if you start a business.

SLA · Service level agreement

The promise a site has made to its own customer, usually about time. It is why a shift suddenly gets urgent at four in the afternoon.

PSL · Preferred supplier list

The list of agencies a company will use. Being on it is most of the battle, which is why a new agency starts with the companies that do not have one.

EAS · Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate

The regulator for agencies, now part of the FAIR WORK AGENCY, which also absorbed the GLAA. If an agency treats you unlawfully, this is who you tell, and you do not need the agency's permission.

GLAA · Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority

Licensed labour providers in food, agriculture and shellfish. Now part of the Fair Work Agency. If somebody supplies workers to a food factory without a licence, that is a criminal offence.