Well im looking at doing my class C within the next few weeks. Im thinking of going through Hindley HGV or Redrose training school.
Im tired of sitting in an office 9-5pm and enjoy being on the road hence the need for a career change. Looking on jobcentre plus, agency sites etc it appears that everyone is wanting experienced drivers. If this is the case, how on earth do newly qualified drivers get work? Is it a case of luck getting a job with a company looking to take new drivers on or are there companies out there within the North West that are looking for new drivers and who would train them up?
It appears there is plenty of work out there, noted the majority of Class 2 is around the £7 an hour mark but still it worries me that spending all the money getting my license maybe a waste of time if I cant find any work at the end of it.
Hi Stu, your right in that there is work out there and a lot of firms are looking for somebody with between 6 months to 2 years experience and over 25 years old. I know this for a fact as I have been looking to find a driving job since passing my Class C in May. Registered with many agencey’s and sent out letter/ CV’s to local company’s, most of it to no avail. Although I’ve had some interest but as yet they have not come back with anything.
But as of Tuesday last week I did start a job as a HGV driver with a local builders merchant driving their truck mounted hiab around the south lakes area. I heard about this job in a chance meeting with somebody last week and as it happens the accountant for this company is friends with the wife and her husband is the yard man/ plant mechanic. We’ve known them for a number of years.
So the up shot is to keep the faith and if you want to do it as a new career (I was a Construction Manager in my past life fitting out retail stores). It might take a little while to find work so give it a go. I paid for my training myself so it was a leap of faith (wife thought I was having a mid life moment)
I agree, you’ve got to be prepared to persevere. I think I was lucky, passed C in December, offered 2 full time jobs by February. Both multidrop, both involved a longish commute, both companies have quite a high driver turnover due to the crap hours, but do take on noobs as a result.
You’ll have to be prepared for crap hours & crap pay to start with, but as your experience grows, I’m sure the opportunities to progress will come. I certainly hope so, as that’s my plan!!!
Doing my my C+E next month, will then be doing the whole thing again trying to get a job on artics. I hope my 8 months on rigids will count for something
