Here, just for Curryfart is the story of how I got my job at Kepstowe Freight Services.
In 1994 I had held my HGV licence for eight years, and had done continental work for about three or four years of that. I had driven across much of Germany and Italy but had never been to the Eastern Bloc. However, as a child of the Cold War I had always been fascinated by the slightly forbidding nature of the Soviet Union, and decided to get a job driving there- Communism had recently fallen and it was starting to open up.
I did some preparation- I went to WH Smiths and bought a “Teach yourself Russian” C90 cassette tape and phrase book. I played the tape over and over again. Sometimes I listened to it, sometimes I just let it play in the background. I learned the Cyrillic alphabet from the book. After two weeks I was ready to go in for the kill.
I knew that Kepstowe Freight Services were the main company running to Russia, so I found out where their office was (I can’t remember how I did this, this was before the days of the internet, but I found out anyway).
So one fine Spring day I had a bath and a shave, put on some clean clothes and caught a train from Ramsgate Station to Waterloo, then a suburban train to Wandsworth Town. I walked from there to Kepstowe’s office. I walked in completely unannounced and said “Hello, I’m looking for a job driving to Russia”.
This did flummox them a bit and they said “Er, um, we get a lot of applications” so I said “I speak Russian”.
They said “Do you?”
So I said “Yes. Not fluently but fairly well”. Then I said it again, only this time in Russian, which of course they all understood. I could tell they were impressed. 
So then they said “Well, we’ve not got anything going to Russia right now but we’ve got a roadshow going to Ukraine next week that we need a driver for, would you be interested in that?”
So I said “Yes, fine, I’ll see you next week then” and I went home to get my kit together. I worked there for the next four years until my twins were born and my work/life balance changed.
You see, there’s no “if your face fits” entitled elitism there. I just decided that I wanted something and I set out to get it. There was nothing stopping Curryfart from doing the exact same, apart from cowardice.
I had told them that I can speak and understand just about enough German,French and Italian to get me by let’s say anywhere much West of Russia and knew enough of the Cyrillic alphabet to not be totally word blind ( but still almost ) in those parts of the Balkans where I went on numerous road trips that used it.What I didn’t tell them is that,at that point,I didn’t have the slightest clue what a CMR form was or the finer points of all the other bureaucracy that goes with the territory of different types of international freight movements and customs status nor border protocols of same.Now I get it the guvnors were phsycic with telepathic powers they knew and that’s why,unlike you,I got a phone call afterwards telling me the deal was off after all.That was more or less the final straw in my almost 10 year + search for the job which I actually wanted in the industry in which I certainly had no intent on limiting the places I wanted to go,based on stupid idea that I would need to know the languages of all the different areas of the Eurasian continent where I might get sent to.With Dutch and Greek arguably being more difficult than Russian in that regard.Cowardice BS. 
when he sees the Transit sign at the relevant borders etc etc for the checking of seals/papers.So tell us what do these international job adverts mean by ‘able to deal with/sort out’ all the relevant ‘paperwork’ and why wouldn’t putting an International CPC on the table at least help to alleviate that issue.
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