Hello Kikidude.
Welcome to the forum. I hope it gives you lots of good and useful advice.
You said
kikidude:
I have 6 points on my licence (2 offences, “speeding” “running red light” and as most people would probably claim, both were severely unjust!)
Why are they both severely unjust??
Were you speeding or not?
Did you cross the stop line whilst Red or Amber was showing - or not?
Would you do this in my wagon or not?
(Theoretical question as I don’t have a wagon, but surely you get my drift)
Wow, im not going to lie, im extremely overwhelmed at the ammount of help/advice from you guys, seriously, big thank you to everyone! now I’ll try and reply/answer in turn. Here goes!
iDriver, Thank you, very positive reply. In all honesty, I find it difficult to not to be negatively honest and say “I’m only 23…I dont have any expereience” etc. It will definitely help to sell it in my advantage as you say and youve given me some valuable pointers!
Unfortunately moving isnt an option for several reasons, above all being financially. Im currently working every month to cover my debts (I say debts nstead of going through a bloody list 
) and am actually coming up short and relying on help from parents untill I get my foot in the door!
With regards my dreadlocks, I totally appreciate the views of everyone, even if you were to say “they look horrible. get rid.” I dont take it personally, some people dont like them! I personally love them. However, one thing I should have stated is it took me 4 years to grow my hair and have had them for 2 years. They take a lot of care and it is a very personal topic for many people with them. THAT BEING SAID. I would be more than happy (if the situation arises) to remove them, luckily I didnt use wax so I could keep my long hair or, I could just get rid of them completely. In fact this is one thing I bring up when I visit/contact firms is that I would be more than happy to remove them if they so desire (I feel this shows initiative and dedication to finding a job!).
W/ regards University - I did psychology. 2 years of it. It just wasn’t for me. I left purely because in order to become a professional clinical psychologist you would study for a total of about 10 years and have absolutely no guarantee of a job. It was unfeasable at the time for me to carry on because, well, I thought it was a bit of a farce!
Animal. Yea i contacted containerships and they told me the same thing. Like the majority of the “Big Boys” in the area - no experience? on your bike.
Also the CPC. Whilst doing my 2 practical driving tests, I did my modules 2 and 4 in between. I passed my mod 4 on 9th jan this year. In effect I have my CPC card, valid until 09/01/2017. As i say i have done an additional 7hrs training. This goes towards my next 5 year “block”, so essentially I have until 09/01/2022 to do a further 28 hours of training (or at least that is how I understand it)!
Kian
Peter Smythe:
You’re wasting your time ringing round. The way to do it is below:Identify companies running trucks
Then phone and find out the name and job title of the person who deals with hiring and firing drivers
Send that person a letter on Friday so it arrives Monday, personally addressed, enclosing your CV and letting them know you will be contacting them on Wednesday.
Call on Wednesday as you promised. Don’t take NO for an answer. Don’t ask if they’ve got a job. Simply suggest you’d like to call in and introduce yourself - tomorrow. (This is Thursday because no-one wants callers on a Friday).
Turn up, smartly dressed (not a suit) and clean and tidy. No dreadlocks - sorry.
Having had the meeting, make sure there is an arrangement for you to contact him every, say, Tuesday.Do that enough times and mathematics dictate you will get a start.
Very good tactic, the only question is, Would this not come across as overly…erm… aggressive? If I was to approach a company and they have no jobs, would it affect my chances if I seemed to be pestering them? - excellent advice though as I say, I will definitely take this on board.
Truckulent - Yea i figured as much, thats why I stated that on here, to get a general idea, all I can do is follow iDrivers advice and say that I learned from my mistakes!
Dan1986 - Appreciate it man! Its good to know there is still hope haha! I know that some companies (not necessarily trucking)dont mind dreadlocks as it shows they are… how can I put it?.. more liberal? Possibly that they are willing to hire people with Dreads, visible Tattoo’s, Piercings etc? There are bits and bobs that I wont go into about police with these that are being used as an ice breaker with the public etc… anyways I digress!
Welder (Iain) - Man, must have been tough! Bravo. Good to know that you were willing to go that extra mile, as I say thats what I would like to project. As I said before dreadlocks are personal, in a way that people without them cant understand. But, everyone has their views on them and I think in the trucking industry, getting rid of them would definitely improve my chances, its not like im selling my soul! 
Sam Millar:
Pete, your technique, what do you say us people that live in small places should do. Example, I live in a small place called Kilmarnock, about 20 miles from Glasgow City Centre, I can’t afford to travel to lots of different companies all over as I’m only on £106 fortnight. I rely on yell.com and a map pin pointing transport companies locations.Also, for those of us with only Class 2 licenses, how can we be sure we aint phoning a class 1 only company?
Thats what I’ve been doing, relying on Yell.com, and I’m in a similar financial state! Without knowing the industry as well, a lot of research has gone into it. I compiled a list of firms and phoned a fair few a day to try and get a feel for who would potentially take me on. with ocmpanies saying “no, we need experienced lads” I just ask them, what kind of experience would I need to get ideally, to be able to come and work for your company? This seems to work as I have C+E, not sure of the best way to go about it with just class 2.
LandyLad - Thanks! To be honesy with you, yes I was caught speeding (speed limit changed on a local bybass from 60-40 - totally my fault! 
) and yes I was caught going through lights on amber (boy racer behind me would have hit me if I didnt go through, was distracted by his speeding/tailgating)
Allthough I have given “Excuses” these are in no way me claiming that they weren’t, at the end of the day, my fault. I do take responsibility for them and both happened a few years ago! The thing is (and again most people would say this) I’m actually a very safe driver, I know it doesn’t look it given my track record, but I have always been an aware, safe and reliable driver and just got caught out through stupitity!
Wow, got there in the end. Thank you all again for your replies. Hope I haven’t bored you all with the extra long posts, but felt I had to get some of this down!
Take care guys! Kian.
Hey guys, just had to let you know very quickly, I just got a call back from Reed Boardall - initially they had issues with my location but they are willing to give me a try! Literally been trying for a couple of months to get a job, I post asking for advice on here and I get a call back!
I have to go for an assessment drive and interview on Thursday. Pretty happy with that, I hear good things about them! I’ll keep you guys posted!
I’m going surfing to celebrate 
Yaay! Cheers guys, Kian.
You said
" and yes I was caught going through lights on amber (boy racer behind me would have hit me if I didnt go through, was distracted by his speeding/tailgating)
"
The law makes a provision for this circumstance.
If you went through on Amber, then the prosecutiuon MUST have been due to a police officer witnessing you going through and he/she would also have witnessed the potential for a crash if you had stopped.
You could have argued this in court and been found not guilty. The police office was bound to have agreed with you or comitted perjuy.
alternatively, if you were snapped by a camera, then you went through on red and were either speeding or would have had time to stop.
As a driver, you can control the vehicle behind you by gradually slowing down when they are too close to you. This means you can react to a problem in front with a lot more time available to be able to stop safely and the vehicle behind has already been slowed down (by you) so they dont ever go into the back of you.
I would concentrate on trying to get jobs driving vans, probably through agencies. Or maybe you could do a job as a volunteer charity driver a couple of days a week. That could help your cv.
LandyLad:
You said
" and yes I was caught going through lights on amber (boy racer behind me would have hit me if I didnt go through, was distracted by his speeding/tailgating)
"
The law makes a provision for this circumstance.If you went through on Amber, then the prosecutiuon MUST have been due to a police officer witnessing you going through and he/she would also have witnessed the potential for a crash if you had stopped.
You could have argued this in court and been found not guilty. The police office was bound to have agreed with you or comitted perjuy.
alternatively, if you were snapped by a camera, then you went through on red and were either speeding or would have had time to stop.
As a driver, you can control the vehicle behind you by gradually slowing down when they are too close to you. This means you can react to a problem in front with a lot more time available to be able to stop safely and the vehicle behind has already been slowed down (by you) so they dont ever go into the back of you.
I would concentrate on trying to get jobs driving vans, probably through agencies. Or maybe you could do a job as a volunteer charity driver a couple of days a week. That could help your cv.
I was considering taking the matter to court. It was a police van that was at the front of the queue, waiting to go through who claimed the lights were on green for him. This was not true and I had witnesses that were willing to state this fact. At the time though, I physically could not go to court as I had modular exams from Jan culminating in end of year exams in April/May. And assessments due in periodically as well. It was a very busy time of year and could not afford the time/money to take it to court. There were 3 policemen in the vehicle (1 of which was in training) and they made an example out of me in front of my passengers/the trainee cop. Because of this i figured why would the court believe 3 students over 3 policemen? i couldnt risk it. So, in short, I agreed with the court to pay in monthly installments showing them my finances and they accepted. At the time this was the easiest/quickest/most hassle free way of doing it.
Regret not going through with this to the day!
As I say, I managed to secure an assessment with Reed Boardall. So, fingers crossed for that! Depending on how that goes I thing the best course of action would be to, as you say, look into vans, agencies or even charity work (which isnt something i’d even considered!)
Thanks man,
Kian.
Kian,
what you’re saying about the 3 coppers sounds about right to be honest. They do like to raise their own egos by standing on the egos of others. And who can argue with the police? They are always right. Sounds like it was an easy opportunity for them to teach the Learner copper how to fill in paperwork.
Good Luck with the assessment!
LandyLad
So how did it go with reed bordell?
if your after tramping work could you not travel to somewhere like eddie stobarts at sherburn? they will give new drivers a go if they have vacancies and from teeside its not too far to travel once a week?
kikidude:
Also the CPC. Whilst doing my 2 practical driving tests, I did my modules 2 and 4 in between. I passed my mod 4 on 9th jan this year. In effect I have my CPC card, valid until 09/01/2017. As i say i have done an additional 7hrs training. This goes towards my next 5 year “block”, so essentially I have until 09/01/2022 to do a further 28 hours of training (or at least that is how I understand it)!
You have until 09/01/2017 to do a further 28 hours of training - that covers you for the period 09/01/2017 to 09/01/2022