Hello Rob K,
I appreciate your advice and certainly take it on board. I do realise that this will most likely be the way it’s going to be but I was hoping to strike it lucky this time, landing on my feet from the word go.
I’ve started to phone round the hauliers, the usual household names in the area, only to come up against the 2, 2+ years barrier because of insurance problems. An agency in Cardiff City centre was a little bit more hopeful but the word ‘refuse’ surfaced and I’ve seen this word crop up on the forum time and time again. So I’ve set my minimum hourly rate at £7.50 and I’ll see what comes of that. To get my licence it has cost somewhere in the region of £5,000+ over the last three months - the loss of earnings whilst training, the training costs, tests, retests, books, a medical, an eye test, a good map or two, safety boots, overalls, a high visibility jacket and waistcoat plus decent gloves, an ADR course and HIAB training plus all the running round and the upheaval in daily life. So having invested a substantial amount of money in myself I’m not going to give in too easily just yet. I haven’t mentioned the stress involved or the names that the instructors have called me along the way - but when the examiner climbed in the cab yesterday I thought I’d gone deaf, it was that quiet; and he called me by my real name too and that was a novelty, a real novelty.
Now, if a decent employer comes along and puts his cards on the table, explains the situation clearly and gives me some hope for the future then maybe I’ll bend a little but until then . . .
I have a small ray of hope from a tidy outfit working out of Barry Docks, they’re willing to give me a trial of sorts and maybe, just maybe, something will come of that. There seems to be plenty of work in this area as the Jobcentre vacancies for Class 1 and 2 appear to be well in excess of 100, unfortunately a lot of the rates are really low and in some cases you’d be better of working as a checkout operator in your local superstore. The industry, as a whole, is supposed to be running with a shortfall of some 100,000 drivers, now surely that would bump the rates up a little or at least make the newbie look that little bit more attractive. From what I can see though it has only opened up another set of floodgates whereby immmigrant workers come along to fill these roles and would seem to be looked after handsomely by some employers - I cite Tesco as an example.
My previous employment was destined for Bangalore and I got out quickly to do what I should have done a long time ago. It’s not easy to rebadge yourself late in life, especially when you’ve past the 50 mark but I’m determined to make a go of it and get some enjoyment out of my work for a change, hopefully right through to retirement age.
So thanks for the advice Rob K, it is appreciated. If there’s anyone else close to home that is more familiar with the South Wales area, particularly South East Wales then maybe you’d like to come on board and give a helping hand here.
Keep 'em coming.
