hello everyone im learning to drive a class 1,can you help me?from an fleet owner/company owner point of view,how can a man who has got no experience driving,someone who has just passed their test gain employment when everyone wants two years experience,i know the fleet is expensive and can understand the costs involved if the worst happened but everyone has to learn,what can i do to improve my chances?sorry for mithering but need some pointers,thanks in anticipation.
As far as I know a lot of the big firms have the 2 year policy, so that’s pretty much that. Might be easier to try the smaller firms where the owners are more hands-on and will make their own mind up when they see you. Suggest you turn up to interviews on time and look smart and any paperwork that you may need keep it clean and legible. Sorry if that comes across a bit patronising, but sometimes you see a driver who looks like he couldn’t care about himself so you think is he going to care about the load/customer/truck?
Most new drivers gain experience through agency driving though.
We once got a letter from a driver who had passed his test a few months before and he was still 21, but it looked pretty much that he had put himself through his test, passed the Class 1 about 2 months after his 21st, so we thought he must really want to drive a truck, we’d give him a chance. He was working agency. Rate of pay was better than the agency, it’s clean loading, and we cover from top end of Sweden down to Italy. Quite a bit of double-manning which some people don’t like but the reason he turned it down was that about once a fortnight he’d end up driving a van or a7.5 for the day. So the point of the ramble is that you may need to be flexible when you start out.
I read an article with Stobarts in CM and they stated that they don’t mind taking on new drivers, they would rather train somebody to their style of driving than take on a driver who may have already picked up bad habits form 2 yrs xp.
It may be worth a go, and it’s a great thing to point out in an interview.
Best of luck 
Dirty Hands you have PM