Hi all I’m new to the forum and also a new driver so it’s interesting reading this as I have banged into the same brick wall as the original poster, it is so demoralising ringing agencies just to hear the same old story time after time. The most annoying thing is whilst training all I heard was “driver shortage” yeah right!! More like job shortage.
I will take the advice of others and start visiting firms with my cv and hope something turns up. Wish me luck!! Cheers, Martin.
I’d advise that you go and sign up with as many agencies as you can be bothered with and make your own contacts. The sad fact is that although many companies wouldn’t ordinarily entertain you because of a licence with wet ink on it, when they are up ■■■■ street with a no show driver and the agencies can’t produce someone else, chances are your phone will ring.
Ultimately a lot of unbreakable principles tend to get junked at the last minute, suddenly they realise that getting the job with a new driver is better than not getting it done.
Also I’d do a lot of legwork and go and speak to skip, bin, vac tanker type companies. Not very desirable work but probably not oversubscribed by drivers looking for work either. Also consider companies that run a smallish fleet and may not use agencies.
When you do get the chance to do some work, be the most helpful temporary driver they’ve had. Doing the job well without complaint seems like an odd thing to say but there are plenty of agency drivers who wouldn’t do this or won’t do that. Good drivers tend to get remembered and asked back.
At our place we have a couple of agency plant operators that we’ve been hanging on to for about 6 months, a couple of times we’ve had a couple of our own blokes spare for a day or two but they don’t want to leave the agency guys available to be reassigned to someone else.
Seafields recently took over the transport at Tata or the old Brunner Mond soda ash plants at Northwich and have been taking on new drivers. Could be worth a call, i think they base a lot of lorries at Winsford.
seafield.co.uk/site%20details.htm
Newly qualified class 2 in Crewe, Bargain Booze is by far your best bet.
Hello Martin, welcome to my world. Thanks for the info guys on Seafield and Bargin Booze. Just rang Bargin, and they said the transport team will be in tomorrow. Will call Seafield on Monday.
I have been going around to premises that run class 2 vehicles, and intend to do visit more, further away from where I live. Will try all the quarry firms in Cheshire, skip hire, animal feed, etc
I wish there were more firms that would give us newbie’s a chance, and not go with the easy East European driver option.
Braveheart1984:
Hello Martin, welcome to my world. Thanks for the info guys on Seafield and Bargin Booze. Just rang Bargin, and they said the transport team will be in tomorrow. Will call Seafield on Monday.I have been going around to premises that run class 2 vehicles, and intend to do visit more, further away from where I live. Will try all the quarry firms in Cheshire, skip hire, animal feed, etc
I wish there were more firms that would give us newbie’s a chance, and not go with the easy East European driver option.
If I was you mate I would go for class 1 as soon as you can, love them or hate them Stobarts do give newly qualified drivers a chance, from what I’ve heard and this is from people who are newly qualified and landed jobs with them they look at the person and not how long the entitlement has been on your license.
Good Luck.
Thanks for the advice.
Hello mate, sorry about your job difficulties. The only way to go really is down the agency route. By that I mean you should be willing to take 7.5 and even van work just to indicate your willingness. Also, don’t be picky about work, and start times ect. It’s a long and rocky road to getting the perfect job, if that perfect job exists, that is.
I started my driving career 12 years ago. The place where I was working at the time got me working weekends only, leaving me 4 days to find something else to do, so I approached a couple of agencies, and started driving 7.5’s and vans. It soon got so that I was looking forward to Monday coming round to see what new experience that week would throw at me. All was fine till my main firm put me back on Monday to Friday again. Of course, I was addicted to the driving by then, although I still did a regular Wednesday night job for the agency till that contract finished. Then I saw an advert for part time recovery drivers which suited quite well as I was doing 6-2 on a more or less permanent basis. The thing with that was that if I wasn’t turning a wheel then I wasn’t on wages, so there were some quite big differences in pay packets! There would be as little as hours work for the week (very very rare), and up to 40 hours plus others, again a bit rare. I decided to go for my ‘classes’ during quite a turn down in the recovery work, hoping to get more and more regular money, and eventually getting out of the factory work for good. That was back in 2004/5. I got my class2 but never really used it per se, as the recovery work was better paid, and fitted my day job better. One agency told me to go and get my class1 and they’d get me working, so said, so done. I got my class 1 on the Tueday and on the Friday afternoon started my shift as a class1 driver, that was almost a perpendicular learning curve for the first few months. The class1 work quickly supplanted the recovery work, and so for 2 and a half years plus, I carried on doing the factory work, and driving part-time. I applied for what I considered were reasonable permanent driving jobs but got the usual ‘not enough experience, too old’ stuff, and later still I applied for and got my present job driving wagon and drag with a local recycling company. I better than doubled my salary, and haven’t really looked back.
Sorry if this has bored you, but I’m just trying to show you that there is a way forward but you have to really be quite single minded.
All the best with your ‘journey’
I go with what papermonkey has said as I had a career change a couple of years ago and passed my class C. Signed with a couple of agency’s but got only a little work from them. Last year I got my class C+E and for the 3 months after passing I applied all over, zip, nowt came in. But then I picked up some class C+E work and that has been all I have been driving since. Some weeks I only had one day in but others I’ve had 5. On average its been a regular 3 day week which has been tough but I’ve got through it. I have driven for some big companies and the experience has been worth the struggle.
Now I’m doing 11 weeks holiday cover for a local haulier doing C+E tramping. There is a very small possibility that at the end of the holiday cover their could be more work on a full time basis, fingers crossed.
The moral of my tail is you have to be focused on your end game/ big picture. It will be tough but if you want it bad enough then take what you get given and soon you will get more calls for additional work. You will get there. 
8wheels:
I’d advise that you go and sign up with as many agencies as you can be bothered with and make your own contacts. The sad fact is that although many companies wouldn’t ordinarily entertain you because of a licence with wet ink on it, when they are up [zb] street with a no show driver and the agencies can’t produce someone else, chances are your phone will ring.Ultimately a lot of unbreakable principles tend to get junked at the last minute, suddenly they realise that getting the job with a new driver is better than not getting it done.
Also I’d do a lot of legwork and go and speak to skip, bin, vac tanker type companies. Not very desirable work but probably not oversubscribed by drivers looking for work either. Also consider companies that run a smallish fleet and may not use agencies.
When you do get the chance to do some work, be the most helpful temporary driver they’ve had. Doing the job well without complaint seems like an odd thing to say but there are plenty of agency drivers who wouldn’t do this or won’t do that. Good drivers tend to get remembered and asked back…
+1
I sighed up with a couple of agencies and waited had the odd day and then nothing… after a few months thought I’ve got to get my finger out and stop waiting on promises, so I sighed up with as many as I could and put a cv together even though I had nothing to put on it ! and said I’m willing to start at the bottom and I’ll even ride a bike with a basket on if they’ll pay me.
My confidents was at a all time low, one day when passing I even driven my old test route to remind myself I did it… Then
this last week or so I’ve been turning down work, why is it you get nothing and then about 4 calls in a hour ! been doing class 2 work a mixture of multidrop and night trunk work. lt’s been said i might be able to go in on my days off and go out on the artics to get my hand in.
So as they say stick with it and don’t give up.
Good luck
Saying about 4 agencies ringing in the space of an hour. That reminds me of how it used to be with me. And more often than not they were all offering me the same job because the employer was so desperate they’d ring every agency they had on their books to get someone.
dar1976:
Saying about 4 agencies ringing in the space of an hour. That reminds me of how it used to be with me. And more often than not they were all offering me the same job because the employer was so desperate they’d ring every agency they had on their books to get someone.
I wondered if thats what it was. Also I get the days training after I’ve done a day !
I took the advise of what the guys on here said to do, keep knocking on doors then when you knocked on all doors start again, if you got a Turners near you they take on newbies as they have their own insurance I have just finished a weeks training with them scary as ■■■■ learning so much but give them a look as they got a few places.
most of all GOOD LUCK.
ROG:
It generally not 2 years EXPERIENCE but 2 years of HOLDING the category on the licence
Which we all know is ■■■■■■■■.
Sitting at home for 2 years after passing your test does NOT make you an experienced or better driver.
Surely one is as good as can be straight after passing your test!
My son passed his class 2 two years ago,now he’s been told as he’s only managed some agency work that he requires two years continuous experience!.
bestbooties:
ROG:
It generally not 2 years EXPERIENCE but 2 years of HOLDING the category on the licenceMy son passed his class 2 two years ago,now he’s been told as he’s only managed some agency work that he requires two years continuous experience!.
I disagree. I ve been told many times in Agencies in London if I hold the licence for 2 years I can start work straight away. Its all for Insurance purposes. They just paying less for Insurance , simple as that.
All agencies come up with different excuses after signing you up,as to why they can’t give you a job,be it “Not enough experiemce” or “Must have held that group entitlement for two years” or “must have two years continuous experience”.
Once you are on their books,either there are no jobs available ,or you just don’t quite have the necessary requirements.
Seems like that generally held opinion that agencies get government grants for the number of people they are intending to “Find employment” for could be true?
How many times do you see an agency advertising a job,even if you are signed up with them,why haven’t they rang you to give you first refusal?.
Hi all, I though I would update you on how things are going. I went for an informal interview, after phoning up CVL who do the driving for Bargain Booze. Tom Bailey told me to come in, and I filled in the application form, and then he took me for an assessment drive. He drove the DAF down to junction 16 of the M6 from Crewe, and said I could drive it back.
I said that I might be a little rusty, having not driven a truck since August last year. The DAF CF rigid had a really smooth ride and manual gearbox, compared to the old Y Reg Scania rigid I trained in with Gatewen. It all went smoothly, except for slightly missing my gear change right near the end, as it was a different box to get used to.
Tom said not too worry, as I was slightly nervous, and he had seen newbie’s do it before, and that we were all new drivers once, and I deserved a chance.
He offered me a trial for a week next week as a drivers mate, so I can see what the job entails(all hand balling crates of beer, boxes of wines other goods for the shops etc). He’ll put me with one of the really experienced drivers. Then if I like it, and they like me, I’ll be taken on as a driver. I know they deliver all over the country, and I said I don’t mind long distance, as it’s all good experience for me. I will get myself the Tom Tom Trucker’s Sat Nav, once I know I am going to be driving.
If I learnt one thing, I now know what Ad Blue is(pig ■■■■ was the word Tom used) and what it’ used for. He also said that you don’t EVER put it in the diesel tank, otherwise it’s 5000 pounds to wash your engine out!
I can’t wait to start!
Braveheart,
I live in the Cheshire area and when I got my Class C at 19, really struggled to get work. I sat it out and eventually got regular work with DriverHire in Crewe over last summer, pretty much full time. Sharon and Martin work hard there and give them time and keep speaking to them and they will eventually find you something.
Most of the problems with the agencies comes with Drivers Neg insurance that many firms have with the agencies, not the firms themselves.
Edit- Just seen your last post, I did a few days work for CVL through DriverHire last summer, it is extremely hard work, often the trucks will be loaded to full capacity and it will be left to you and the driver to handball it all off the truck and stack it in the stores for them. Granted the vehicles are nice 6x2 DAF’s but the work is hard.
Rob
Just an update. I have had my second day with CVL. The hand-balling is hard work, but it doesn’t put me off. I’ll get used to it very soon, and I don’t mind the exercise 
The early starts don’t bother me either.
I am out with a different crew each day, and today I drove back from Bury for the first time. The DAF’s are pretty simple to drive. The cab’s could be a bit roomier. Only really suitable for 2 people, which is the norm.
This morning(Wednesday) we had to offload 8 pallets for the Whitchurch branch, which took a couple of hours. The staff at the Bury shops were very helpful, and helped us unload. I was told yesterday that some shop owners will help you, while others won’t.
I have told them in the office that I am enjoying the job, and I would really like to work for them full time. I plan to do my class 1 in 12 months time.