Can anyone help, I am about to re-sit my CPC national. When I pass I would really like to get some experience but I am finding it difficult to get a foot in the door. I am coming from outside the industry after a career change. My other option is to go it alone but I dont want to give poor service through lack of experience!
Gives the agencys a go - they can give you varied experience of all sorts of trucks and jobs to then give you an idea of what suits you.
Thanks for the advice, but I’m not interested in driving lorries, I’m more interested in the Management aspect of things. Can you help on this matter?
get some on the road experience, then you’ll have a idea how to “manage” trucks
Denis F:
get some on the road experience, then you’ll have a idea how to “manage” trucks
Then forget it all, ideal route to management.
Oh you lot are all cynics, It all depends on if you want to become a Transport Manager i.e. dealing with the legalities of keeping a vehicle on the road, or a Traffic Manager, which is normally the imbecile asking the driver to do the impossible in a non existent time frame. If it’s the former then you will really just have to do some searching as as far as I know there is no agency etc that deals with them (the Traffic Commissioners would no doubt take a very dim view of it), most companies would only want to employ you to actually do the job so you might be on a bit of a long haul to do it your way!!!
smcaul:
Oh you lot are all cynics,
It all depends on if you want to become a Transport Manager i.e. dealing with the legalities of keeping a vehicle on the road, or a Traffic Manager, which is normally the imbecile asking the driver to do the impossible in a non existent time frame. If it’s the former then you will really just have to do some searching as as far as I know there is no agency etc that deals with them
several adverts in the back of Trucking mag
Transconsultare probably the biggest - and under the eagle eye of the TC’s
Not sure they’ll pay enough for it to be a full time job though
Well thanks for the cynicism, but unfortuneatly that wont help me to do the things I want to do. Maybe the industry needs to have people that dont want to drive to bring it into the 21st century. After extensive amounts of research and talking to plenty of people that i know who have worked in this industry for years, there are far too many people prepared to bend the rules, laws are changing as are the times it looks as if the industry is going to have to aswell. You may or may not have noticed that in a few short years there will be a gap in labour supply inclusive of management as attitudes change, school leavers no longer want to become lorry drivers as they did years ago due to the pay, hours and working conditions. You only have to look around the exam room to see that older drivers are getting wise and dont want to be behind the wheel forever.
So if I can help to make a safer and better working environment for all in the transport industry then it looks as if ill have to sift through the bad advice and thank those for the good. Times are changing my friend, good attitudes will encourage an essential industry to flourish, bad attitudes will help it die!
Thanks for your advice, buddy! This helps.
NJO, you have to realise that you are asking for something that does not at present exist. Transconsult employ CPC holders to act as transport managers on peoples operators licence, therefore you will need to know your stuff. There will be a finite limit to how many you will be on, which is determined by the Traffic Commisioners. At present Transconsult charge about £300 PCM to supply a TM, how much of that they pass on to the TM is anyones guess, but I cant see you earning more then about half of that. So you would need to be on about 20 licences to earn anywhere near a normal wage, this is way above what the TC’s would allow.
If you want to learn to be a TM then you will need to get that from a company, so starting at a junior level, but as has been suggested the best training is being a driver first!!!
It’s a tough job to get a start in if you have no or little knowledge of it - and if you do get a job easily it could be someone trying to exploit you, remember if they get hauled in by a TC then you will be as well!!!
Think about it armed with only your qualification you want somebody to pay you a living wage to ensure that their company is run in a safe and legal manor and if you get it wrong they can possibly lose their business.
Only the largest haulage companies could pay you just to be the CPC holder and they have their own people with years of experience and who understand the industry. You may get on with a smaller company, but then you’d need to do something else, like transport clerk and despite my tongue in cheek answer earlier, good transport clerks don’t just have to be ex-drivers, in fact some ex-drivers aren’t always the best transport managers. What makes a good transport manager is a good understanding of what’s possible and excellent people skills, because you’ll end up as piggy in the middle between what the driver can do and what the customer wants.
My advice is to get in to transport management and learn about the industry first hand.
That is what i want to do but i am finding it dificult to get a foot in the door. I want to become a transport manager, but I have no desire to drive lorries, surely that isnt so unusual?
njo220277:
That is what i want to do but i am finding it dificult to get a foot in the door. I want to become a transport manager, but I have no desire to drive lorries, surely that isnt so unusual?
Nope, Not unusual - in general, but not that common in the transport industry. You may have to look at jobs for office junior type rolls in a transport office first, not very exciting, but at least a foot in the door.
The other point to bear in mind is that most transport management rolls are actually traffic management rolls, with a bit of transport management thrown in on the side!
Some ex-drivers make great TM’s, some don’t - some non-drivers make great TM’s some don’t.
You haven’t mentioned from what field you are looking at jumping from, that may make a difference as to your suitbility. Taking your CPC is a great first step, but that’s all it is without the necessary experience, so I would suggest your only chance would be to start in a more junior position, such as scheduler or planner and work your way up.
Hi NJO, and Welcome to TruckNet.
First thing I thought when I read your post, was you’ll not get far with just a National CPC.
If you seriously intend to become a Transport Manager, you’re going to need an International CPC. The reasoning for this is because any road movement in the uk, which is part of an international journey must be carried by an
International O Licence holder. So any export or import freight, eg containers, shipments to or from any dockyard etc, will be run on International.
Second thing I thought was, who is going to put the control of a (potentially) multi million pound business in the hands of somebody who has no desire to learn about the industry? I know I wouldn’t.
The best suggestion I can make is to start the bottom and learn something about how the industry you wish to manage works. This doesn’t neccesarily mean driving, although it would help. Maybe a job as a Trainee Traffic clerk at around £ 12kpa, is about all you can expect at the moment.
How can a Transport Manager manage people, and positions, if he/she has no idea as to what those people actually do?
Best to walk before you try running. I assume your resit is in March? Although you don’t say which module you’re resitting, have you searched the forums for other posts about CPC’s.? Some good links kicking about if you take a look.
Sorry if this sounds brutal, it’s not intentional, I’m just giving my honest opinion based on a lifetime in the Road Haulage Industry.
Good Luck, and keep us posted.
A lot of places tend to promote from within. I drove a truck for years before I got a transport clerks job, then supervisor, then transport manager, then location manager which took me 7 years in total before I then realised I’d become an accountant. So I decided “screw this” and went back on the road.
They paid for me to do my CPC and trained me to do the job the way they wanted it done. Thankfully it was the right way.
Its similar to taking your driving test. Your given the information to pass a test. Once passed you can then go out and actually learn to drive. After 20 odd years im starting to get the hand of it.
You dont need to have have turned a wheel (although in my opinion it is an advantage), but experience is vital and this only comes by putting the hours in and starting at the bottom rungs of that career ladder. A Transport Manager also needs a good team of people otherwise it can be a lonely job. I certainly wouldnt want my name on an O licence fresh from passing a CPC.
Muckles comments are pretty much spot on.
Good luck to you though. I wish you all the best…
you’d be better off studying for an accountancy qualification, most large transport, sorry logistics companies are now run by them - they generally don’t have a clue about transport, just figures. you can imagine the outcome…