Making the switch from Transport to Commercial

[pkw111]

Hi all,

My first post. Im 22 and work in newcastle as a transport refrigeration engineer and have 5 years experience but want to do commercial refrigeration and air conditioning full time. I have been to northumberland college and have got NVQ level 2 and F-Gas 2079. I was just wondering if anyone has made the same switch and wether anybody has any suggestions on the best way of doing this i.e. improver role?

[charlie patt]

what transport do you mainly do? carrier tk gah hubbard

[pkw111]

hi charlie,

i work for a tk dealer but we work on everything! carrier, frigoblock, gah and quite alot of hubbards even zanotti!

are you transport or commercial?

[charlie patt]

always been transport but started on me own in 2003 and do both when i started but a real shortage of good transport engineers down here, so as the firm expands i take on commercial engineers and sort the transport myself to be fair if you can work on tk and carrier the commercial sector is a walk in the park on provision you have a good electrical knowledge, the beauty of commercial is you open the elec panel and its all there contactors overloads etc it aint tucked away in a loom or tucked away somewhere the other advantage is a cold room does not drive of on its own, i love commercial but transport is in the blood and for some reason engineers dont cross over much, if you work on a vector its basically commercial situation but harder to work on/ less access / the commercial market i find has far better back up with technical support and far cheaper parts.but born and bread transport till i die which at the vast amount of hrs at mo it wont be long

[cadwaladr]

commercial is a lot easier,as said once you get to grips with the electrical side will this company just let you loose or help you to get acustomed [break you in]

[pkw111]

I am still doing transport at the moment but I have a nvq level 2 in commercial refrigeration. plus the money up here in the north is alot better for commercial lads. I was just after some advice about how to get into the commercial side i.e. whether to ask companys for an improver role

[charlie patt]

what commercial is better than transport what rates are they?

[pkw111]

yes commercial better than transport. average for transport up here 12-13 an hour commercial 14-15

[charlie patt]

12 to 13 for transport they should move to the sw mate a real shortage down here i no the gah engineers aint on a lot but that aint a lot of money down here we pay the other way around because a good transport guy is a rare commodity why is transport less/ its dirty work useually out of hrs in the rain, this is the sw remember in devon it rains 6 days out of seven and all that. can you do both to keep your hand in