Im sorry guys, but Im going to have a rant now… But I would like feedback on my point.
I have been a truck driver now for a little over six months, having moved careers from Agriculture. I have met loads of you over my many years of work, both early on, and more recently as one of you. Im proud of what we ( collectively ) do, and I am proud to be considered as one of you. We are portrayed as devils who hold up the traffic, polute the environment, and in the case of Fuel tanker drivers - holding the country to ransome. Nobody - present company accepted, sees what we go through from the LOW wages, the LONG hours, the abuse from car drivers, and shocking facilities - both on the road, Service / rest areas and RDC’s.
We have to watch as our many hauliers diminish through often no fault of their own, Joseph Rice, Derek Linch the list goes on, and on.
Back to me. As I sit here writing this - at home I am reflecting on my career. I am a fully qualified HGV C+E driver whose career path has not lived up to expectations. I have a wealthy father in law who owns a quarry, and some trucks in Bulgaria. When I told him that I was unable to get a drop driving class 1 on Supermarket deliveries, or class 2 on general haulage he asked how many points I had on my licence. When I replied none and it was all about experience, he was astounded and asked me how I was to get experience. I nearly cried. Iv been asking this myself for weeks… So do I throw in the towel now - or do I sit it out and see what happens?
unfortunately, you are caught in the vicious circle, without experience, you cannot get a job, and without a job, you cannot get the experience
stick it out fella, there are companies out there that will give newbies a chance, mine is one of them, but there are no vacancies at the moment, these companies are unfrtunately, few and far between, but they are there
Norbert Dentrensangle (sp) is another that will give newbies a chance
If the father in law owns some trucks why not drive one of his and gain some more experience, surely he wont see his daughter go short of a bob or two ■■
i dont know what work your after and jobs are getting harder to come by but from my own experience when i passed my test at 21 i found a job on an 8 wheel tipper, its all go but it got me a start.
Next post: Bulgaria bound for a bit of nepotism.
I’m sure he’d pay you a premium as he be happy to see his daughter regular and you’d probably get a tidy pile of bricks in Bulgaria for reasonable money.
i,m afraid if i had a wealthy father in law the last thing i would want to do is sit my arse in a truck all day
I was in your situation many years ago, I ended up working for a cowboy outfit(I recall once the diesel card was on stop and I had to write cheques out to fill the tank to get home). It did however gain me vital experience and a foot on the ladder. The firms out there that will hire without experience are few and far between, you are trying to get a job where there are people with far more experience than you and they are struggling to get a job! So my advise would be to take a job for any old dodgy company out there, just don’t run bent! Its always easier to find a job when you’ve got a job in my experience? Good luck.
It is a numbers game as several newbies on here have shown. You must be proactive in finding driving work. The more you contact the closer you’ll get to the firm that will offer you a start. In the meantime take any driving job you can get and ask any lgv drivers you bump into if they know of anything going.
Try Stobart’s at Alcester. If you can drive and they have vacancies they will take you on as a Newbie.
I know for a fact that they took on a guy that had just passed his test just 2 weeks before. He turned up and passed the assessment - Fair play to him I reckon
chaversdad:
i,m afraid if i had a wealthy father in law the last thing i would want to do is sit my arse in a truck all day
But does that mean wealthy in Bulgaria or in Blighty?
You can more than double your money as soon as you step off the donkey cart 
“and in the case of Fuel tanker drivers - holding the country to ransome.”
What does that mean?
lightning:
I have a wealthy father in law who owns a quarry, and some trucks in Bulgaria.
Ok to get you really thinking, ask your father in law what wages he pays his drivers in Bulgaria 
You’ll sharp go back to agricultural work.
Its a catch 22 situation over here in Bulgaria, property dirt cheap if you buy away from the holiday resorts, I paid £3200 + £700 in taxes and Legal fees for 2 bungalows on half acre of land, but then spent £7k fully modernising them and joining into one building.
Cost of living is very cheap for me but thats only because I have private pension from UK, the locals struggle to live as the wages are really crap and I’m talking litterally £4.50 per day at the local cardboard factory.
Local Haulage companies in Svishtov about 5 miles away pay £15 per day for BG work or £25 per day for European work, i.e crossing over to Romania or Turkey or Greece etc
You can try to persuade the father in law to buy you a small place over here and gain the experience you need if things are that bad, personally I let my LGV licence lapse last year because the transport industry in the UK is just becoming to over regulated.
If you’ve got your license recently then you’ve probably paid a lot for it. Don’t give up. Walk into firms with a cv and when stuff doesn’t work out, take a break, have some angry ■■■ and then try again.
Applying for jobs is always depressing. It is even worse when you spend two grand getting your license.
Whatever you do as said above, don’t run bent. If your vehicle has any defects make sure you keep a copy of the defect report so that at least you are clean if you get pulled.
Good luck
as said above, pack your gear and knock on doors. we had a guy start recently who’d been made redundant from a local firm. he emptied his gear out of his truck, into his car, and set off round the area to ask at local companies. ours was the first one he tried and, as luck would have it, a guy had just left! his keys were still swinging on the hook!
get out there and keep looking, you might find yourself in the right place at the right time 
hi folks I’ll introduce myself properly in newbies section later.
Lightning, I’m in the same boat (apart from the wealthy in-law 
) divorce led to me having to sell everything and no way of making a living from what I had left so resurected my HGV licence and did my DCPC, ADR, tanker, FLT & HIAB tickets, looks like there’s sod all work out there just now. Have been in to see an agency (I know I know 
) but they were honest enough to say they’ve nothing just now until Aprilish when people start going on holiday. Best of luck anyway
Why not go and get your experience in bulgaria then come back .Or do what most will do lie about your experiance and hope thay dont check referances ,you will be suprised how many dont check
just sit it out mate and wait till 2014, when the dcpc is nailed on there should be loads of jobs coz me and quite a few arent doing it !
on a side note i have just sold my truck and decided to do something else for a living but while i wait for that to kick in i went and signed on at 2 agencies after they told me "yeah loads of work we`ll ring you "
im still sat by the phone !
good luck i wont try to pee you off too much but look forward to long hours low pay and being treated as everybodys ladys front bottom
shuttlespanker:
unfortunately, you are caught in the vicious circle, without experience, you cannot get a job, and without a job, you cannot get the experiencestick it out fella, there are companies out there that will give newbies a chance, mine is one of them, but there are no vacancies at the moment, these companies are unfrtunately, few and far between, but they are there
Norbert Dentrensangle (sp) is another that will give newbies a chance
The very best advice I’m afraid, and to think about throwing in the towel after only six months…thats just a run round the table and a kick at t’cat. Sign up with your local agencies take any and every shift your offered, build up your rep and eventually you’ll find the ideal job, or as near ideal as your likely to get.
I worked part time on agency, along with my full-time job for two and a half years before my present job came along, so, on my own experience, the race is really not for the swift.
All the very best with it anyway, and keep us all posted with your efforts, triumphs and failures.
I feel your pain mate, did my class 1 may 2010 and i’m in the same situation, lost count of the number of cv’s i’ve sent off, i’ve thought to myself a few times “why did i bother” so i’m just keeping plodding away at my class 2 job and sticking at the job hunt, theres one out there somewhere.
keep at it and best of luck
Please don’t give up!!! I passed my class 1 in aug '09, couldn’t get any work. Eventually an agency got me some class 2 for tesco. After about 11 months the agency gave me one day of a class 1 job for a freight company, I was nervous, I told the freight company I hadn’t had a lot of experience class 1 (didn’t want to look an idiot) they said no problem you’ve got to learn somewhere! Later I went self employed and I called into the freight company to give them my card, now whenever they need a driver they call me, yesterday I was driving a brand new MAN, only one month old, very spoilt indeed!!! If I can you can!!! ( oh and thanks to Shuttlespanker for giving me some experience…driving an artic I mean!!! Lol