Hi Guys, just wanted to ask how hard it would be for me to find a job. Im 18 in march and want to do my lorry license as soon as i can (im going to do it even if i dont find a job straight after) but im not sure if i will be able to find a job in the lorry driving industry at such a young age.
My car insurance is around £3500 so i wouldnt be surprised if a company didnt want me because of insurance reasons. I would like to hear some of your guys’ opinions or experience with starting at a young age. Every single job i tried looking at i.e van driver is atleast 21 years old upwards.
Thanks in advance for any comments everything is much appreciated
You wont find it easy to get a job. If I were you, assuming you can afford it, go for your driver training and get the tests passed. At the same time, look for work either driving a light van or even working in the traffic office or warehouse. Make it known that you have your licences. At some point, something will go wrong and there’s your opportunity to prove yourself.
But be under no illusion that it will be very hard. Not impossible, but hard.
I’ve trained a number of 18 year olds. I know some have work (often in a family firm where they are part of the family). I dont know about the others as they dont normally keep in touch.
By getting you licence and “sitting” on it, you’re avoiding future price increases in training/testing. More importantly, you’re gaining what some employers look on (stupidly) as experience. eg apply for a job at 21 and you will be judged to have 3 years “experience” by some.
I won’t argue with anything Pete has said.
You’ll need a good bit of luck to get a truck driving job at 18. If a lucky break come a your way and you’ve got your licence, you’re in. If that same break comes along and you haven’t bothered getting that licence…
Have you got a biggish airport near you?
They might be more lenient on age since you’re not on the road as such when driving
I remember, admittedly a couple years ago now, there was a chap that had been driving Class 2’s since he was 19/20 ish at Gatwick but all his driving was airside - Not on public roads.
Franglais:
I won’t argue with anything Pete has said.
You’ll need a good bit of luck to get a truck driving job at 18. If a lucky break come a your way and you’ve got your licence, you’re in. If that same break comes along and you haven’t bothered getting that licence…
100% agree with this, just get your licence, cpc and digicard sorted out then as soon as an opportunity comes up, you’re ready to go. Even if you sign up with a few agencies and just pick up whatever work you can,
there’s nothing saying that 6 months of experience has to be 5 days a week every week, even if you only get a day or two a week it’ll make you a better driver, it gets you some experience using a tacho, time management, finding yards, driving without an instructor next to you etc.
If nothing comes to you then as Pete said try and get a job in a warehouse or something like that in a company that has a fleet of trucks making it known that you have all your cards.
The lad i did my class 2 with was a drivers mate for a dairy company, he had words with some of the managers and basically bagged himself a class 2 job as long as he passed which he did, he was 19 and knew the job inside out before he even started having been a drivers mate going on a year at that point.
Thank you guys for the input.
I have decided that i will do my licence as soon as i turn 18 and wait for an opportunity.
My dad is a class 1 driver and said that he could try to get work for me because there was many times that the agency was begging him to go to work and payed even upto £25 per hour.
This makes me think that if they are this desperate around September time then that might be my chance to get a job.
One more thing i wanted to ask is if you guys know of any other driving jobs.
Since i was little i loved driving and passed my category B 2 months after my 17 birthday, the thing is that i would like to get a car but insurance with a black box is £3500 for me.
Are there any companies that could hire me as even a car driver or a van driver. I dont mind what the pay is and what i drive i just want to get into driving to get more experience and do what i love.
Most driving jobs i looked at were 21 and over and to my surprise ive read that people had more of a chance of being a lorry driver than a van driver.
Thabk you all
It might be worth calling a couple of big national driver agencies (Manpower, Pertemps, The Best Connection, ExtraStaff etc) to see if age would be a problem in getting you work/experience in the category of vehicle you are interested in.
I’m not sure how insurance works with an agency if they have their own insurance, since they have their own crash forms from my experience, or if you’re driving on the agency’s client’s insurance…I would assume the latter but; touch wood, I’ve never had a crash while on agency to know for sure.
I’ve had this same problem when I was younger. I started off getting my PCV license but the issue with finding a job was tough. My advice is to take the old school route. Start knocking doors and speaking the local companies. Put together a decent cv and covering letter making a decent account of yourself. I emailed countless firms telling them how keen I was to get a start. In many cases it’s your attitude and how you conduct yourself that will yet you a start somewhere.
The market for prospective drivers looking for work has never been better. Show that you’re are keen and that you have a bit about you and you’ll be surprised how well you do. Good luck
If you can read write and speak English well and do arithmetic and are honest you may find a job where that’s important and someone will give you a driving job. Try a small family firm and offer to work for your wages minus the insurance excess.
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I think you are so lucky to be 18 and have the money and ambition to get yourself into lorry driving at such a young age.
I often, and i mean often wish i got into lorry driving at a very young age and didn’t wait until the age i was until i started driving lorries, especially since i KNEW i wanted to be a lorry driver from the age of 4 years old yet i wasted so many years.
If you have the money, and you have the ambition, and you have the motivation then you should definitely go for it, and i then can’t see you ever regreting it in the future.
Am not sure how easy you’ll find it right away to find employment, probably extremely, extremely difficult but not impossible.
The date in which you passed your test will always be on the back of your license so in 5 years time when you are 23 every employer is going to know you’ve already been a class 2 licence holder for 5 years and that’s a good thing.
Plus a lot of companies regulations are " driver must have HELD his licence for at least 2 years " most companies don’t say anything about using it in the last 2 years so you could possibly walk straight into a job easy as pie in a few years.
And it might be extremely difficult to get a lorry driving job at the age of 18 but it’s not impossible, there is a girl called Jess Stubbs working for Bliss Bedding and she is the youngest female lorry driver in the country by all acounts, go onto youtube and search " Jess Stubbs Bliss Bedding " or youtu.be/IguIej1AV3g
Good luck with your future, you have all of it ahead of you.
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