Finally decided with the support of my better half to go ahead with the journey.
Been working in Admin for the last 6 years since leaving school, just turned 22 and feel like I’ll be stuck in a job I don’t want to do forever if I stay here.
I’m based in Falkirk so I assume there are a good few options between Falkirk and Grangemouth with all the industrial estate and warehouses.
Start of my journey, awaiting my address to be updated by DVLA then sending away for my provisional.
Going to go around Grangemouth and just get chatting/look at a cost uple assessments.
I’m looking for any general advice that springs to mind for a newbie, especially if it applies locally.
Trucking is something that has alway had an appeal to me. Probably mostly a “grass is greener” scenario, but I have my reasons. And as long as it pays more than £18k a year, it beats my current job which has no chance of progression.
My Papa drove trucks and for the most part of his working career Tankers for Shell. I grew up listening to his stories and reminiscing and I loved it. He loved his job.
One story I always remember was him being woken up by a phonecall to do a run on a Saturday as someone had called in sick, the get up and go. I just love it. And it was also nice to know he made more on that day back then than I do in a week currently! Haha
20k plus is easy for a newbie to get, lots of places now will take on fresh passes if you aren’t picky about what you do. There are lots of jobs you can do in this industry, night or day work, tramping, Euro and that’s before we start talking about what sort of job you want. If you can hack the stress part and this job can be stressful then you should be fine.
As long as you prepared to do some long hours some days ( unto 15 as you properly know ) try to stay stress free it does have some good points but also some bad like all jobs & as you say up there in Falkirk is not a bad place for jobs just done expect the best straight away
There is not much in the way of climbing the ladder as a driver either
You wil need a medical theory & HPT look at local companies for your training avoid brokers like the plague go & visit several before you decide also there are some out of your area that do residential courses less pressure on you
very similar situation as you but a bit further along the road and a bit older. 29 living in falkirk and im doing cat c practical this week. ive also got a former colleague at the same stage as me from falkirk! ive chosen to go with Ritchies in glasgow - only about 25 mins to get there in the morning as its in the north of the city. he choose ctts in bathgate and starts in a few weeks.
I couldnt find anywhere cheaper than ritchies for a medical that wasnt 6+ weeks away. mine was £60. i booked all 3 of HPT, Theory and Case studies for the one day in stirling test centre. the only revision i did was to use the app called LGVtest on my phone. i bought the full version for about a fiver and i got 97% on theory so works for me! the app doesnt cover much specifically for the case study, but i found that knowing the answers for theory and adding common sense got me through the case studies without any issues.
@Radar19
That’s promising to hear. I’m going into it with no preconceptions. I really want to try as many different types of trucking as I can.
I already work in a pretty stressful job so I like to think is manage, but we will see haha!
@animal
Thank I will do.
The long shifts don’t bother me and are actually something I am weirdly looking forward too!
I’ve got no issues getting the funds needed, but just out of curiosity, do companies pay you through your tests, but in return you say work for them for a year or two to pay them back at a percentage of your wage? Or does that just not happen?
@elniniol999
Haha that’s well weird!
Will have a look then.
Good luck with everything let me know the good news when it comes.
