I started my journey in late February with the medical and theory, Class C was done in March Class CE in April and I have just competed my CPC, Total cost £2200 and this included doing my MPQC which also gave me 7 CPC points as well as the Quarry ticket.
I have already worked 4 days as a relief driver driving 18tonne rigids so money is starting to come back in the right direction, I haven’t bothered with agencies yet, all I have done is go to a couple of local hauliers and offered my services as a relief holiday cover driver, both seem keen (although I have only worked for one so far) as it saves them paying a higher rate to agencies and plus they have the advantage of using a driver that gets to know their systems and paperwork.
A word to anyone thinking of doing the same, do it as a self employed person, companies will like this even more as they are not liable for the employers NI contribution which costs them more and plus obviously as a self employed person you can write some things off against tax as expenses, finally if you don’t do it self employed then what you will find is if working for a few companies you will be taxed on everything you earn which is not good.
That’s a great post. Glad it’s working out for you as you wanted.
Pete
Just to add that HMRC take a dim view of self employed persons working only for one employer (I know this isn’t the planned state of affairs for the OP). It’s best to have at least three different operators on your books so that it’s clear it’s not a scam to get around the NI rules etc.
Pete
Very good post. Just goes to show what a bit of application can achieve, although I doubt it has all been quite as simple as you suggest.
Well done though.