doubledeclutch You’ll find a job alright! They are taking on old hands @ 65.in UK . But where you live a lot of the slack has been taken up by our new EU brothers.
The bit about experience has always been the case. I remember it from my time starting in the 60s, very frustrating, but you just have to find the ■■■■■ in the wall. Sooner or later there is always someone willing to give a young’un a go. Otherwise none of us would have got started.
But the big difference for me is the cost of getting behind the wheel. I paid nothing of course but would have taken a test and paid for it if necessary, but only a reasonable fee. I seriously doubt if this would have been my chosen career if starting now.
But Austin is right
Yep, no matter how crap the conditions are, there is still a pride to be taken in what we do
that is exactly how I always felt about the job. Not sure it applies to everyone nowadays though.
Nice to see you here again Austin BTW, we don’t meet up at the same places much anymore. 
Does anyone remember the early 1980s, when the DHSS & job centers where giving class one driving courses to anyone who asked for one, and in most cases people did not get a choice, take class one or lose benefit .They flooded the driver market with drivers but where no jobs for them…
Who really wants to come into an industry where you can pick up big fines for forgetting to turn a mode switch, or trying to follow the rules only to be told by some moron transport manager, “I don`t care what the law says, you can get home from Dover to Liverpool in two & half hours”. WHY should anyone want to be a HGV driver ■■?.
hal56:
to be told by some moron transport manager, “I don`t care what the law says, you can get home from Dover to Liverpool in two & half hours”. WHY should anyone want to be a HGV driver ■■?.
That says it all!!!.
Sphincters sat in offices who know it all but have never been behind the wheel!!!.
I have 2 children and I will be bdead before I let either of them go in to truck driving for a living its an industry thats very easy to get in to if you have little or no qualifications in anything else but I WOULD NOT recommend it to anyone.
If there was a way out for me I would have done it I have tried but cant earn the money in anything else but if I could believe me I would .
im 22 passed when i was 17 in the army got out at 19 and have been driving since then i have only seen one other person my age in this industry and that was one of the lads from stobarts training scheme when i was at crick
hal56:
trying to follow the rules only to be told by some moron transport manager, “I don`t care what the law says, you can get home from Dover to Liverpool in two & half hours”. WHY should anyone want to be a HGV driver ■■?.
Thats when you have to put you’re foot down , fair enough some drivers won’t do it and take all the crap thrown at them by bully boy managers .
I don’t ,won’t and never will.
I had a situation last night that got my back right up .Cut a long story short a depot manager and planning routed a load onto me i had waited about 3 hours for it when another driver rolls up for it .Complains because i have it and more so because the next trailer won’t be ready until 5am .(now 2.30am)
My cab phone goes and is the shift manager back at base , drop that trailer and wait for the next one will yer !
Er no i’ve been here 3 hours with it already .
I don’t care how long you have been there drop the trailer .
No ,Planning have routed me for this trailer after being here for 3 hours already and faced with the prospect of maybe another two then there is no way i’m dropping this trailer to let someone else have it , that takes the (sp).
I’ve told the other driver he can have it .
Listen maybe you don’t care how long i have been here but i do , planning have routed me this trailer back , if you make me drop it i’m coming back to base and someone else can pick that 5am trailer up .
I have no-one else .
Not my problem !
Next thing the other moaning driver see’s how much unneccasary trouble he is causing and then asks for the phone off me and then tells the shift manager he will wait for the 5am trailer and leave it at that .
Why bother causing trouble in the first place , god knows why the shift mannager phoned me with such a stupid request , he knows full well i would have disregarded his ridiculous decision.
The full prospect of waiting for that next trailer would have been a 15 hour night shift , nice if you are hourly and not so nice if you are salaried like i’am .
I thought i would get that in before people that haven’t read it properly jump in with the usual "whats the problem it’s more money init " reply .
Thats beside the point no-one swipes a trailer off me , no-one 
It’s had to take a back seat recently with one thing and another, but I’m going to be looking into the YDS in more detail very shortly, being as I am 19. As said, I’m always hugely impressed by our delivery drivers fitting in past roadworks, parked cars, and cages that “someone” may not have ensured were static when they were put out.
I then think “I could do that”… one day, soon.
im 30 been driving hgvs since i was 25 i love the job wouldnt change for world.is annoying sometimes but i work for a good company (langdons) use to drive for coop out of halesowen that was hard but were i learnt to drive some of them stores are tight…i used to drive a fork lift in rover for years was so glad to get out of factory warehouse work…
Heading towards the big 50 myself ( far to rapidly )
Think the expense thing is a real put off for a lot of people nowadays.
As was said above a realistic figure has to be around 2k to get through both class 1 and 2 and then there is the experience problem once you have passed.
My advice would be to those who want to do it but lack the funds is to work and save the money doing anything. If you really want to be a driver then you should be prepared to do anything to get there. Like anything else really.
The experience thing can quickly go away if you just plague the life out of every transport company in your area. Send them a letter even if you called them, and make sure you keep sending letters. Drive around every part of your area and find those companies that no one seems to know about. Eventually it pays off.
One thing about letters: Make it professional and make it the truth. No bull, if you just passed tell them in the letter. There are lots of companies out there that would rather you be happy and interested to do the job properly than have 20yrs experience and moan about every job you get.
I took my class 1 and 2 together and was driving an artic full time within a week. On top of that during my 1st week 5 other companies called to see what my situation was.
After you get that 2yrs experience you can write your own ticket…problem is you gota find it
As so many others I love my job and although it does not happen enough I get a real thrill out of someone saying " Hey nice job getting in there" or such like.
harry:
doubledeclutch You’ll find a job alright! They are taking on old hands @ 65.in UK . But where you live a lot of the slack has been taken up by our new EU brothers.
Whilst I get by in Spanish, I am far from fluent and I would job search in the UK, hopefully tramping with the odd long weekend off now and then to fly back home for a few days. Who knows, I could be one of those guys in the RDC (groan) that Edward T in his openining post talks about. (Except he would think I was a 28 year old with my youthful looks )
Spardo:
Yep, no matter how crap the conditions are, there is still a pride to be taken in what we do
that is exactly how I always felt about the job. Not sure it applies to everyone nowadays though.
pride in the job? my job is about the only thing i take pride in although possibly too much. working with Kikat this week has been an eye opener. multi drop with 6 axles was always my worst nightmare. it was bad enough with only 2 axles. i am enjoying it though. long days, hard work, im knackered and sore but i am getting some real job satisfaction out of it. you dont get much of that with shop deliveries or trunking
Well i do trunking because i’m lazy .
I would never go back to anything else if i didn’t have to .
Doubledutch perhaps you need a new mirror 