How long did it take to get your first HGV job after passing your tests?
Braveheart2009:
How long did it take to get your first HGV job after passing your tests?
Got offered 1 before my licence came back and 2 more within a couple of weeks of getting it (they wanted to see my licence rather than pass certificate for the assessment drive)
I already worked in the warehouse so when I passed the TM said off to Hyde Park then. So im guessing hours after passing as I worked nights 
In the forces so started driving right away.
The company I worked for driving 7.5’'s , sent me out the day after passing.
Then I left and got a job within a week, just lucky I suppose.
bobbya:
In the forces so started driving right away.
Same here, after I left the forces went door knocking on the monday, had a job on the wednesday after being inducted and assesment drive on the tuesday, been there ever since.
2 weeks after passing, got a start at Bees transport Feltham depot.
A week or so. But that was an internal transfer.
I left a few months later after taking time to choose my next job after that
Back in the early 70’s I was between jobs driving a three tonner which was classed as a three (A) for Louis Reece at Wigan then a roof felting job up at Blyth power station, Had to give that the heave ho as I found out I was scared of heights 
I saw that the dole office was offering class one training courses so I applied for that and the guy said this class three (A) (It was a Leyland Terrier) qualified me to go straight in for my Class l instead of going the Class ll route first. Fine by me 
I trained at a small yard down at Mort lane (Bongs) Tyldesley in a Dodge/Renault 300 series unit and flatbed trailer. Passed first time and I went out asking at haulage companies before I got my licence (passport style ones) the manager at Intercity transport in Lowton said come back when you’ve got your licence back & we’ll talk, He was the only one who would give me a start straight from passing my test.
The week after I went back and started on the Daventry Ford spare parts contract driving a ‘D’ series unit & flatbed trailer, No tautliners then
The very next day. Was driving 7.5t for the same company (Fitzmaurice Carriers Norwich) graduated onto a 2817 D series 
passed test in livingston at 10-30 in the morn.back to glasgow and was loading timber for 5 drops south coast england at 1pm…1st drop 8 a.m next morn.
.hadnt a clue,no idea how to tie a dolly or rope and sheet.never been further than blackpool for my hoddilays.
180 gardner,5 gears,no power steering,no heater,no alternator,4 batteries in the passenger pit and use the lights/wipers sparingly.
bigger mirrors on my budgies cage.
slept over the hump with my legs dangling down,and when it was cold,open a sheet over the roof/windscreen t save time scraping the ice off the window…oh them good old days.
Following day. P&H Haydock.
3 days, fish from Peterhead and Aberdeen for Boulonge then up into Holland for frozed chips back for the UK …
Two weeks before I got my 1st class one drive…
3 years. Passed at 21 started with Nolans at 24. Found it very hard to get a start despite the fact I was driving coaches all over Europe. Nolans was a baptism of fire but I learnt more in a year there than I would have a whole career at a big corporate type
I already worked for a haulage firm doing long distance on a Ford Transit pick up, so I knew my way around a bit.
They upgraded me to Class 3,.and soon after Class 1, so I just continued my job driving bigger vehicles.
Passed in 1999 got first hgv job 2007 .Did not try to get job until 2007.
switchlogic:
3 years. Passed at 21 started with Nolans at 24. Found it very hard to get a start despite the fact I was driving coaches all over Europe. Nolans was a baptism of fire but I learnt more in a year there than I would have a whole career at a big corporate type
best way…jump in at the deep end and wing it…that way itl cure or kill you. 
Passed my class 1 test in the morning at Kilmarnock test station in 1981, phoned into the company to let them know all was good, they asked me to go the SAI works at Ayr & rebuild a failed hub reduction unit on our rigid 6x4, ERF 150 gardner with DB box, once completed the driver had run out of time & jumped into the company car and said your be okay lad, so there I am fully loaded with 14t of bagged fertiliser on my first road legal HGV trip heading down the A77 to Stranraer.
About an hour! Was already working for a company on a 7.5 tonner equivalent. (In those days non HGV was under 3 ton unladen and you could go straight for class 1). Got back to the yard, they asked had I passed, said yes. Good they said, the driver of that artic has phoned in sick, off you go!