I’ve been reading the forum for a while so thought I’d best say hello!
When I was a kid, probably about 11/12 I remember our teacher asking what job we want to do when we’re grown up. I remember clear as day saying that I either wanted to be a businessman or a long distance lorry driver!
I’m 39 now and have spent the last 23 years as a “businessman”, ie, working in sales, doing deals, pitching for business etc etc. I’m currently an estate agent (boooooo!!!) and have well truly had enough of the pressures of this type of career (I’m not naturally pushy or competitive so it really doesn’t suit me).
That “lorry driver” itch has always been there, I enjoy driving and I enjoy working alone, and I’m now at the point where I think I need to do it. Got a lot of research to do and tests to pass obviously! My main concerns are:
Will I get a job with no experience
Is there enough work out there
Are there companies out there who would put me through the training
If not, can I afford to even go for this career change as I haven’t got a spare coupla grand!
Anyway, that’s my story and would welcome any advice at all…apologies that this type of thread has been done before, but I guess we’re all a bit different!
I’m making a career change too, to realise the same childhood dream.
Seems pretty scary, but if you want it, you can get it.
There are companies out there who take on new drivers, some of the big ones do, others are smaller and harder to find. Lots of people start off with Class 2 work, then move into Class 1. Some people go straight into Class 1 work. I’m aiming for the latter, as I’m lucky enough to have a very patient partner and a little bit of money so that I can have patience. Any job we do get first off is likely to be fairly yucky for a while, but the way I see it is that I’d rather be soaking up the stress and yuck in the class of lorry I spent all that money time and effort to drive.
Knights of Olde is the only company I know of (there must be more!) who offer a earn-while-you-learn scheme.
If you don’t have the money spare for the licences, you’re a bit stuck! Some training companies offer finance, you could use a credit card and play clever with 0% balance transfer deals… but with both of those options you’re ■■■■■■ if you can’t keep up. I’ve struggled my way into having just about enough to get both licences and all the associated faffing, and have a small cushion for when I’m going to be stuck without work. It’s not worth putting yourself into a financially risky situation, for a career where it will take you a good while to find your feet, IMO.
It has been done before , but don’t ask don’t get.
There have been a couple of lads on that have done their HGV at a later age than you, so I reckon 39 is not too old at all.
Yes you will get work as a newbie with no experience. The quality of that work will probably be pretty poor, unless you are lucky. However, you do have age on your side, ie, not under 25 and having experienced sales side, you’ll be better than many at selling yourself.
There are some driver schemes/firms out there that help put you through your license, sure someone with more knowledge than me will give advice on that.
Is it worth it? There’s a big disparity in pay between £8.50 - £12.00+ seems to be the range, with the North and rural areas paying the least and the South East the most as a rule. You need to think what sort of work you want to aim for - night trunk, general haulage, hiab, UK or Euro. As I’ve said before on here, I’ve taken on lads of 23 and 24 on Euro work and they earn in the 38-41k range. Obviously they are out and you need to think about your family circumstances if you look at being away from home. To go back to the is it worth it - well you can go to uni and spend £27k + on a degree and still earn an average wage of mid 20k. Within a couple of years, you should be able to earn around the 30k mark if you are in a populous area with a debt of around 3-3.5k.
albion:
It has been done before , but don’t ask don’t get.
There have been a couple of lads on that have done their HGV at a later age than you, so I reckon 39 is not too old at all.
Yes you will get work as a newbie with no experience. The quality of that work will probably be pretty poor, unless you are lucky. However, you do have age on your side, ie, not under 25 and having experienced sales side, you’ll be better than many at selling yourself.
There are some driver schemes/firms out there that help put you through your license, sure someone with more knowledge than me will give advice on that.
Is it worth it? There’s a big disparity in pay between £8.50 - £12.00+ seems to be the range, with the North and rural areas paying the least and the South East the most as a rule. You need to think what sort of work you want to aim for - night trunk, general haulage, hiab, UK or Euro. As I’ve said before on here, I’ve taken on lads of 23 and 24 on Euro work and they earn in the 38-41k range. Obviously they are out and you need to think about your family circumstances if you look at being away from home. To go back to the is it worth it - well you can go to uni and spend £27k + on a degree and still earn an average wage of mid 20k. Within a couple of years, you should be able to earn around the 30k mark if you are in a populous area with a debt of around 3-3.5k.
I’m not disagreeing with Albion, but I’d like to stress that 38-41k is the high end of the market, or absolutely stupid hours. So please don’t set that as your benchmark figure, as you’ll probably end up disappointed. In Hampshire for a 48 hour week, 30k is about the average.
As for age, I’m 45 and started last year. For a brief overview of what I’ve done look here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=140686
Better not disagree with me Evil , otherwise I’ll be stamping my high heels
I did say that within a couple of years he should be able to earn about 30k. You’d be surprised by the amount of weeks they turn in timesheets with less than 50 hours on and still achieve that pay, but then some weeks will be maxed.
Two of mine are doing silly hours after missing the Hebs ferry due to an accident on the A9. I’m calling them silly cos would you want to sit in the middle of nowhere for 24 hours waiting for the next ferry
Edit: They say they don’t mind, they’ve got telly and food and they’re getting paid. It’s what you’d call a holiday
Sorry boss!
I just wanted to ensure people didn’t get a unrealistic figure in to their heads, focus on that and find that jobs like that were not ten a penny… I’ll earn over 30k in my current job, and there are jobs in my area where I could earn more. But for me it’s not all about the money, it’s what I’ll have to do for that money and my job is a doddle… Although it’s not as good as getting paid to sleep or watch telly.
P.S. You wouldn’t employ me for long, I’d always end up getting delayed and missing the ferry!
In terms of pay, I’d be looking to earn 30k+ eventually but realise I’d have to work my way up a bit first. I could survive on 25k for a while, get some overtime in when I could.
I’ll have a look into financing the lessons and tests, I defo haven’t got 2-3 grand knocking about!
In terms of type of jobs, I’d be open to multiple drops a day or 1 long drive up and down the country, I’d probably take what I could get to build up some experience and then maybe look to go into whichever one I liked the most (if the chance came along!)
Has anyone ever tried contacting a load of companies just asking for a job? My experience of recruitment websites is that most of the jobs don’t exist, just a way of agencies registering applicants; maybe that’s just in sales though?
Do you know anyone that drives or even works in the warehouse of a haulage company? Certainly we dislike advertising jobs, and pretty much all of our drivers have come to us because they are a relative, or an ex work-mate, one arrived with us because he was doing some casual in another yard and we thought he was a decent worker and offered him a job.
Old school says put your kit in the boot of your car and go knocking on doors early, you might stumble on someone that has a driver that hasn’t turned in, you pop your head round the door, ready to go and they are desperate enough to give an unknown quantity a chance.
Like I said before, you’ve been in sales/estate agent, you know the value of looking smart/professional and that alone can put you ahead of a fair few drivers.
good luck and sorry for taking over your thread, it’s that Evil leading me astray again!
albion:
Depends on what girls you’ve got in what ports…otherwise known as motivation
At my age I’m immune, or rather worn out!
And that’s rich isn’t it, a woman accusing a man of leading them astray!
Best of luck with your decision OP, yes it can be a bit of a graft. But as I tried to show in my thread, it doesn’t necessarily take that long to find something better… I didn’t really go knocking on doors much, I just used agencies to get me in the door at places to gain experience, as I pretty much knew the best gigs were not going to be open to a newbie with zero experience. Plus as a newbie you make mistakes, so you wouldn’t want to screw up on the better gigs and make them unavailable to yourself later…
Timd77:
I definitely haven’t got the minerals to go and knock on a door and ask for a job, I’m rubbish at sales!
It’s virtually the same as selling a product.
You are selling something they not only want but need.
The thing is convincing them the “product” is worth spending money on. That’s where your presentation skills come in.
It’s not an unusual method of gaining employment in this industry unlike many others. In fact it’s one of the best. So don’t worry about them thinking your a cheeky get. You won’t be the first and you won’t be the last asking.
Best job I ever had, I rang them purely because I kept seeing one of their lorries on the way home and thought I’d chance my hand and see what they were about. They weren’t advertising but we had a chat and it made them think about expanding by one truck on a particular contract. So 24 hours later I get a call back despite the initial answer being nothing going.
I’ve been doing a bit of research into training tonight and have come across the potential for government funding. More info on this link gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan/overview but basically it’s a government loan for training (not just for hgv) that you only pay back when you earn over a certain amount.
Any thoughts on this? Seems too good to be true!
It says you need to get a ‘learning and funding information letter’ from the training provider, which goes along with your application. So my next question is does anyone know of any reputable driving schools in the Black Country and surrounding areas?
Timd77:
I’ve been doing a bit of research into training tonight and have come across the potential for government funding. More info on this link gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan/overview but basically it’s a government loan for training (not just for hgv) that you only pay back when you earn over a certain amount.
Any thoughts on this? Seems too good to be true!
It says you need to get a ‘learning and funding information letter’ from the training provider, which goes along with your application. So my next question is does anyone know of any reputable driving schools in the Black Country and surrounding areas?
From your link:
"If your course starts on or after 1 August 2016
You must be 19 or older on the first day of your course.
Your course must be:
a Level 3, 4, 5 or 6 qualification, eg A Levels or graduate certificate
at an approved college or training provider in England
Ask your college or training provider if you don’t know if your course is eligible."
As I read it the course must be A-level or higher, and from an approved provider. Does driving training qualify?
You are pretty much where I am in life at the moment at school hgv driver was the dream job for me then I got into cooking and wanted to be a chef, a few years doing various jobs and eventually ended up working on the rigs in catering eventually realising the chef dream.
However after sixteen years offshore and coming close to being made redundant early in tge year I decided maybe offshore life has run its course for me.
Currently I can clear near 50 k a year and only work away half of it but still not enough to make me stay in this job.
Yes I know the time off and money won’t be as good but with a wedding to pay for and csa killing me every month my disposal income has never been great anyway.
Just got my class 2 and will been hopefully getting some work in my leave period to fund class one can’t wait to get on the road.
Timd77:
I’ve been doing a bit of research into training tonight and have come across the potential for government funding. More info on this link gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan/overview but basically it’s a government loan for training (not just for hgv) that you only pay back when you earn over a certain amount.
Any thoughts on this? Seems too good to be true!
It says you need to get a ‘learning and funding information letter’ from the training provider, which goes along with your application. So my next question is does anyone know of any reputable driving schools in the Black Country and surrounding areas?
From your link:
"If your course starts on or after 1 August 2016
You must be 19 or older on the first day of your course.
Your course must be:
a Level 3, 4, 5 or 6 qualification, eg A Levels or graduate certificate
at an approved college or training provider in England
Ask your college or training provider if you don’t know if your course is eligible."
As I read it the course must be A-level or higher, and from an approved provider. Does driving training qualify?
There are vocational training courses as well, C&G courses etc. I’m gonna ring them tomorrow for a chat, just wondered if anyone had already looked into it.
I’ve been reading the forum for a while so thought I’d best say hello!
When I was a kid, probably about 11/12 I remember our teacher asking what job we want to do when we’re grown up. I remember clear as day saying that I either wanted to be a businessman or a long distance lorry driver!
I’m 39 now and have spent the last 23 years as a “businessman”, ie, working in sales, doing deals, pitching for business etc etc. I’m currently an estate agent (boooooo!!!) and have well truly had enough of the pressures of this type of career (I’m not naturally pushy or competitive so it really doesn’t suit me).
That “lorry driver” itch has always been there, I enjoy driving and I enjoy working alone, and I’m now at the point where I think I need to do it. Got a lot of research to do and tests to pass obviously! My main concerns are:
Will I get a job with no experience
Is there enough work out there
Are there companies out there who would put me through the training
If not, can I afford to even go for this career change as I haven’t got a spare coupla grand!
Anyway, that’s my story and would welcome any advice at all…apologies that this type of thread has been done before, but I guess we’re all a bit different!
ADR Network have class 2/1 jobs and take on newly passed drivers, Might need to go LTD or use Umbrella mind.
Loads of work out there. I’ve had around 10 calls in last 2 weeks offering me class 2 work mainly agency but all ongoing work. I turned a lot down because I was employed but now I’m not lol.
Drivers direct advertised a job for Malcoms who where taking on class 2 drivers and sticking them through their class 1 however the pay was crap £10 ph and was nights iirc.
If you can’t afford the class 1 take some class 2 work on and save up. Few class 2 night work in midlands paying over £11ph. Had one that was 8-5pm and paying 12ph mon-friday which I turned down was agency paye as well.
, but don’t ask don’t get.
, otherwise I’ll be stamping my high heels 
