Hi chaps/chappesses,
This time last year I had a brand-new provisional license, money in my pocket for training and a whole lot of nerves. Here is a brief account of how I did it.
After hearing those magic words “I’m pleased to tell you you have passed” I was walking on cloud 9. I went home and got drunk. A week or so later my new, shiny license arrived.
Step 1- Start contacting agencies. Take time look at maps and read up as much as you can about driving before you go to see them. They will ask you questions about driver hours, as well as “You are in such a place, how would you get to somewhere else?”. A bit of geographical knowledge will pay! I came clean if I didn’t know, and said I would be OK if I could have a quick glance at a map.
Step 2- Get your stuff together. Get a decent map. I have a large scale trucker’s map with low bridges and weight limits on it, and a cheapo AA map for a rough idea of which towns are where, and how the motorways connect them together. Sat Nav is ace, a truck one if you can afford it, but a cheapo jobbie is fine if you don’t follow it without common sense. Check your map and see if it tallies with what GPS thinks. The best Satnav in the world is no match for a decent map when you need to find a way around a shut motorway or the lighter socket in your agency scrapheap doesn’t work.
Chances are you will be skint after shelling out on your training. A stainless Thermos is a tenner in Asda, so will pay for itself after a day or so if you like a brew compared with MSA prices.
Carry a copy of the driver’s hours regs for reference.
A couple of screwdrivers will come in useful for changing bulbs. Get cheap ones from the pound shop, that way it doesn’t matter when you loose them or leave them in a cab and they ‘go missing’.
Step 3- Wait for the phone to ring. I was lucky to find an agency that was sypathetic to new drivers with no experience. I explained what I lacked in experience I made up in enthusiasm. Be prepared to go out on a night run at short notice. Yes, you may be just sitting down to have your tea, but if that load to Coventry needs to go right away, you need to jump through the hoops. Slowly you will work up from the last grunt they phone who needs the work to a golden driver who gets decent jobs. In theory, anyway.
Step 4- Out to work! Show up to your job a bit early. Be polite, try and dress smart, if you show up in clean, pressed gear you will look ace compared to the other guy who is wearing joggers with 5th wheel grease all over them. Don’t get tangled up with slagging off the last place you worked at conversations. You don’t know who might be listening, and they might wonder what you will be saying about them tommorrow, if that makes sense?
Speak to the regular drivers. Just a simple “Alright mate, have you tipped at such-a-place?” will give you an idea of where you are going. Lorry drivers give directions like you know where they are talking about. Just nod, try to remember what they said, then as soon as he has gone, grab your map and figure it out.
Don’t say “I am a brand new novice and I can’t work my digi tacho” but “I am used to analogue tachos, any chance of showing me how this works?” After a couple of shifts you will have it figured out.
Step 5- Keep at it. If you are lucky, the agency will keep sending you in to the same places. The planners will notice the smart, polite young driver who turns up on time, keeps his head down, doesn’t knock the wagons about too much and gets on with the job.
Step 6- Temp to Perm. You are almost there. Suddenly you realise you hardly ever look at your satnav, you have your “own” motor to clean and leave your gear in and you will be searching ebay for a numberplate with your ‘handle’ on it and a confederate flag for your bunk.
This is what happend to me. I appreciate I was increadibly lucky and that many folks are grinding along never getting decent jobs from agencies, but I am an example that it can be done, reasonable jobs are out there for novice drivers. I am currently trunking/tramping, decent kit and reasonable money. I love it.
politeness & good professional manners help to give a good impression, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression! ! 
perseverance, and common sense are excellent qualities to have & cost nowt, ,go a long way.