Passed my class c over a month ago, done the mod 2 + 4, & an extra 14 hrs cpc training, been to 6 interviews, singed up with 4 agencies, and still cant find a job in the Surrey & Hants area!
Every company I have tried are saying I need 2 years experince. I have said to them at interview and on the phone I am more than willing to take a pay cut to cover the extra insurance premiums, & that although I dont have the 2 years their asking for, I haven’t picked up any bad habbits or attitudes and I am very keen to learn and get a start.
Any advice is greatly recived!
Don’t offer to take a pay cut before you even start! That’s good advice
I’m not keen on you’re willing to take a pay cut bit to cover insurance but apart from that you seem to be making the right moves, you just need a good break to come your way, keep trying you’ll be in the right place at the right time one day.
Keep plugging away, but don’t ever offer to take a pay cut because you are just planting the subconscious idea in their heads that you are sub-standard.
Try smaller firms, have a drive round industrial estates looking for yards with a truck or two parked up in the week when they should be out working.
Thanks folks the only time I have said about a pay cut is at the point when they are about to ■■■■ me off out the door!
I’ve been on the road over 25 years and it was exactly the same when I started, except then it was in letters in Truck & Driver etc as we didn’t have any internets then.
Things are difficult at the mo, even for experienced drivers. There’s a recession on. No spending equals no trucks. Keep trying but even if you don’t find anything, two years will pass quickly enough and it’s having held a licence for two years that the insurance companies specify, not that you have been driving for two years.
Yeah I think another member said the best way to overcome this is to shove the license in a drawer for 2 years then start looking! Trouble is I have been out of work for 4 months now and things are getting desperate. Time to go door knocking!
Ring the agencies you’ve signed up for at about 13:30 every day asking if there is any work for the next day. After a week or so of you ringing every day they’ll give in and suddenly you’ll find yourself with more job’s than you can fit in your hours.
Agencies are probably the way to go at the start, a lot hate them but they give you a hell of a lot of experience very very quickly!
My first week on agency as Cat C, for the record: Day 1: 100 miles run to collect a MRI machine, then back to the yard, Day 2: 15 Drops in Central London, All handball off the side. Day 3: Delivery of gun cabinets to an RAF base. Day 4: Local Multidrop for a parcel firm, 20 drops and 4 collections. Day 5: Moving plant equipment between building sites and the hire firm.
Since then I’ve been scared of nothing (except mass delivering pallets!) and am thoroughly thankful for being chucked in at the deep end.
It had taken me 3 weeks of ringing up every morning at 0900 (asking if there was work for that day, what an idiot! I soon learned) before I got that and then from that first day on I’ve had regular work, whenever I’ve wanted it, ever since.
Keep plugging at it mate, it won’t be long. Just sign the next couple of weeks off as gone and get on the phone to them agencies.
hgvhgv:
Yeah I think another member said the best way to overcome this is to shove the license in a drawer for 2 years then start looking! Trouble is I have been out of work for 4 months now and things are getting desperate. Time to go door knocking!
Not easy but you have to get out there & go door knocking
Only 4 mth try being on the sick for 6 years 
hgvhgv:
Yeah I think another member said the best way to overcome this is to shove the license in a drawer for 2 years then start looking! Trouble is I have been out of work for 4 months now and things are getting desperate. Time to go door knocking!
Well, I’ve probably done no more than 12 months work in the last 24 and am out of work at the moment, and I’m pretty much experienced with most types of work so you’re not the only one in the same boat.
Keep looking, but everywhere you go, make sure you leave your contact details. Maybe take photocopies of your licence with you, with your phone number written across the top in marker pen. Every time you get a knock-back, just hand one over and say “Thanks for your time, here’s my number if you ever need something”. Then they will know who to phone when they are stuck.
One thing I have learned over the years, is that something always turns up sooner or later.
Don’t lose faith somthing always turns up when you least expect it
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Stick at it, 2 years will soon come and go this is the worst period I can remember for transport,try considering other work related to transport so if they need a driver short notice you could step in, warehouse or F.L.T for example.
Lower your sights, bin luggers builders merchants 7.5 tonne, vans anything that gets you behind the wheel. Have a drive around call in person first impressions count you will find something not a case of if but when.
Even experienced drivers are finding it tough, this may sound daft but you have become a driver at the worst time in history, but in many ways the best time.
when I go to work and I walk into the drivers lounge it looks like a doctors surgery I,m 44 and a good few years younger than the average and I don’t have the compulsory limp. Out of 230 drivers I doubt there are more than 20 under the age of 30, transport needs new drivers.
When he D.C.P.C kicks in and the economy eventually gets going I suspect you will be well placed to take advantage.
I was looking for driving work for ages, applying for approx 5 jobs a week.
Then all of a sudden, I ended up with interviews for jobs all at once. Some of the interviews were for jobs I’d applied for months previous. In the end I took a job wearing a green shirt.
Don’t give up though pal. A job will come along followed by a dozen more lol.
Experience with agencies always looks good on a cv as there will be plenty to list.
Good luck!
Do as exactly as i say and you willl get a job.
Go to your local large ish tipper firm. Ask if you can go out with one of there drivers and train for free with no obligation of a job. Make sure you turn up everyday on time and make friends with everybody. If turned down at one firm the next will take you.
You will learn a lot as tippers are big wagons. Make sure you stick at it and don’t drive like the other tipper drivers for now.
This worked for me in 96 when i started and has worked for many others. Let us know how you get on. 
What Pavarotti said, if there are no tipper firms near you try DHL ,Royal Mail And any one with any sort of road transport.like the local authority and firms that do road works.The skip firms sometimes take on without experience.As you know the economy is zb ed so its going to be tough.
hgvhgv:
Yeah I think another member said the best way to overcome this is to shove the license in a drawer for 2 years then start looking! Trouble is I have been out of work for 4 months now and things are getting desperate. Time to go door knocking!
Doesn’t always work, they ask for 2yrs licence + at least 180 days driving in last 2 yrs…
BUT, there’s companies out there willing to take a chance, Brake Bro’s, 3663 or bidvest or whatever they’re called, most airport companies, BTS up here take new drivers through agency - it’s even in their advert - but that’s C+E.
I know Brakes and 3663 (or whatever) aren’t the best jobs and don’t suit everyone, but it’s experience, and I’m sure 99% of us have done them 
I am in the same boat with class 1 work, been unemployed for nearly 6 months, got a start with a local Lone Ranger and sons company a couple of months ago,a totally unrelated job to the actual job i had applied for and also health and safety not a priority.
Called in at two previous firms i was laid off from , nothing doing their. Had two interviews last week with another one on monday just gone, they all said they had other people to see and will get back to me, heard that well over fifty times now
I have had class 2 for eight years now, its just those jobs rarely come up around here and when they do i am up against the "Sid Bloggs " characters with thirty plus years of experience.
Had a few people ring round to pull a few strings “no worries” they say if we had some work ourselves.
Just keep your chin - up and you are not alone.
keep trying have been there myself c if u can find a company thats bottom of the foodchain with crappy, poor pay its all time behind the wheel my first truck didnt have 7th gear good times lol
if you haven’t already, send a cv and application form (available online) to robert wiseman. They take on newbies have depots in amesbury and andover