sammym:
eagerbeaver:
I am as truthful as they come and I am suggesting that potential new drivers consider their options before jumping in. £3000 is a lot of money to outlay and as far as I am concerned, if I was in my twenties or thirties I would do something else entirely. If you are happy to simply take the £28k and not expect too much it’s fine. But if you are looking for something better I would encourage folk to get a trade.As am I. No matter what anyone says - and I’m still up for meeting up with anyone on the forum.
I’m younger than you in my late 20’s.
I got my class 1. And since have earnt over £20/hour for some shifts on some jobs. Not the £10/hour you sell it as. I’ve been doing it well under a year.
Do I want to drive trucks forever? Nope. But I think it’s about the cheapest/best insurance policy a young person can have in their life. Once you can reverse a bendy truck you will find work.
Invest around £2k and you can earn a grand a week fairly easily. I’m not special - more special needs if anything. But (and I can say the names now I’m out) Eurocarparts were willing to pay £22/hour with no assessment, and Sainsbury’s were willing to pay £21/hour for me to practice on their vehicles - including paying me straight through when I fell asleep and had a ‘night out’. Other companies were about 13/14 an hour. That was for limited.
I only quote these figures to show young lads/girls how quickly they can make their money back. Frankly I don’t care what people do. But with the right attitude/drive work is out there. It might be crap - but as an investment, a class 1 licence beats any ISA including stocks and shares options.
Can/should the industry improve? Totally. But does that mean we should put young folks off from training - nope in my opinion. I know you have more than a few brain cells kicking about. But ultimately if you can stick an artic on a bay you are good to go in this game. If you can do the blindside rubbish that comes with supermarkets you are basically employable no matter what else.
I’m in agreement with sammym. You look at around half the courses at unis that cost 27k and lead to very average jobs. Shelling out 3k for a license for which you should earn late 20s at least as a newbie seems a good deal. As Pete has said, if you interview well, you should have no trouble getting that first job and with a year under your belt, the job market opens up.
If you aren’t sure how you interview get some brave soul to give you honest feedback. From an employers perspective, they are letting an unknown out onto the road in their expensive truck to interact with their customers, so you need to look clean, smart, trustworthy and pleasant. Driving is only half of it, if you are going to wind others drivers up, alienate customers and produce a rash of calls from road users, I don’t want you despite your ability to do a blindside reverse in the dark in one go.
I’d say most, maybe all my drivers, do the job because they like it. I’ve taken new drivers on and we only take by recommendation and they’ve all stayed for years. Earnings wise it ranges between 45-54k, which is part Euro, part UK and around half of that is back in your own bed at night. I know we aren’t necessarily representative of the industry, but neither am I unique, you just have to kiss a few frogs first.