I’ve recently passed my class 1 and have just signed up with an agency and was told that I could take out insurance so that companies who stipulate 2 yrs experience would take me on. Anyone heard of this before?
I think it basically means their insurance says 2 yrs experiance needed but you can take out your own insurance and pay it yourself. For a sky high,eye watering premium. Personally id just try local firms and one will take you on with no experience. Stick it out then you can go to any company you want as you now have the experience needed
That’s what I was thinking, it’s not going to be cheap to insure myself to drive any class 1 vehicle is it!
I doubt you would be insuring yourself to drive any truck.
Usually the only thing that changes on the insurance for younger or inexperienced drivers is the amount of the excess increases rather than the premium going up. I would hazard a guess the insurance they are trying to flog you is just to cover this extra excess.
Ask them what it would cost then come on and tell us how much they wanted to con you out of
They weren’t flogging insurance, they just said I could take out a policy myself to have a better chance of getting into places that stipulate 2 yrs experience for their insurance. They said they had drivers that had recently passed that have done this. I’ve never heard of it myself like and can’t find anything online about it…
I’d say that sort of policy would cost you at least £500pm based on the fact you will be driving a vehicle + load worth anywhere from 50k upwards!
Yeah I think I’ll swerve that as an option!
Go to another agency, and keep doing so until you find one who has a client that’ll take inexperienced drivers. Things may be a little quiet right now, but if the fabled driver shortage actually exists then opportunities should certainly open up for you.
If there are companies willing to go overseas to bring sub-contractors in to cover their work then surely the risk of the excess on a rookie is no more expensive.
I would say forget agencies and go straight to source, ring or visit all local haulage firms. I rang a dozen agencies and got nothing, after just a handful of firms I was taken on as a newbie and was out in a truck (on my own from day one) less than a month after passing (and actually only 10 days after actually starting to try for work). That was Easter, Easter is coming and is often a busy time… 
Thanks for the advice guys, am just getting together a list of firms in the area and will contact them directly and see how I get on.
Try to inject plenty of confidence on the telephone and offer to ‘shadow’ another driver or to come in for an assessment, just put forward willingness and availability, you’ll get there!