OilyNutz:
Just a thought, have you ever followed up on your sent job application? Sometimes it shows you are more keen than others who never bothered…Best of luck!
Yes i have followed up a lot of them and it’s the same issue of cannot have insurance cover for no experience.
Anyway, i have registered with a few companies directly. So will see if i’m called in for an interview. Thanks OilyNutz.
Dead easy,just tell lies even if they find out you’re gaining experience all the time,win win.
kuku:
OilyNutz:
Just a thought, have you ever followed up on your sent job application? Sometimes it shows you are more keen than others who never bothered…Best of luck!Yes i have followed up a lot of them and it’s the same issue of cannot have insurance cover for no experience.
Anyway, i have registered with a few companies directly. So will see if i’m called in for an interview. Thanks OilyNutz.
Sooner or later someone will give you a break, pretty much everyone driving a truck had your problem to start with. Jan and Feb are probably the worst months for new starts .
edd1974:
eagerbeaver:
Beetlejuice:
Get used to it .No shortage exhists they simply have to keep rates low by constantly advertising the shortage ,Over supply decreases demand hense low pay and dreadful long hours .It is not just the UK ,it is a world wide scam.Correct answer.
Pick any prize off the top shelf
But I can’t reach the top shelf and I havent attended the health and safety course on how to use ladders yet
A good point 
No point in doing your H&S ladder course yet mate, risk assessment hasn’t been carried out 
eagerbeaver:
edd1974:
eagerbeaver:
Beetlejuice:
Get used to it .No shortage exhists they simply have to keep rates low by constantly advertising the shortage ,Over supply decreases demand hense low pay and dreadful long hours .It is not just the UK ,it is a world wide scam.Correct answer.
Pick any prize off the top shelf
But I can’t reach the top shelf and I havent attended the health and safety course on how to use ladders yet
A good point
I’ll volunteer. As someone who rarely uses a ladder I’d be perfect to carry out a detailed risk assessment.
On a serious note in my old job I had the job of going around England, Scotland and Wales and risk assessing every Megabus bus stop.
Then I had to do the same in France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg (■■■■ and booze), Belgium, Holland and Germany so all in all a nice waste of two months with no interference, a hire car and a company credit card.
Traditionally, transport companies have never had the common decency to acknowledge written job applications. Even now, when it is all done electronically and a brief reply by email costs them nothing, they still don’t do it.
It’s a form of free vocational training. It lets you know how much respect you can expect to be treated with when you do eventually start working in the industry. 
Jamm:
There is no driver shortage whatsoever just a shortage of decent jobs
Yup i agree, i was accused of shouting at a HR manager from for a large national company on Monday night when i pointed out maybe rubbish wages and conditions contributed to qualified drivers not doing the job.
Harry Monk:
Traditionally, transport companies have never had the common decency to acknowledge written job applications. Even now, when it is all done electronically and a brief reply by email costs them nothing, they still don’t do it.It’s a form of free vocational training. It lets you know how much respect you can expect to be treated with when you do eventually start working in the industry.
Spot on 
The only jobs I ever heard back from via Indeed were crap ones that judging from the constant adverts, have a revolving door for staff.
My current one I got by walking out on previous, going home to change and then walking in and getting job. Unemployed at 11am employed again by 1pm.
kuku:
Hello everyone.
My first post. Passed my class 1 hgv a month ago after passing my class 2 a month earlier. So no hgv experience. Applied to 15 adverts that say newly passed considered in the past three weeks in Birmingham and not a single response. Is this driver shortage real i wonder? Or is it because i’m 52 and considered a risk?
There is no shortage and relatively few companies will take new hires.
Of the companies that do take new hires, they generally have appalling conditions or some other feature that make them aversive to experienced guys (especially if it involves a lot of physical work, rule-breaking, or working patterns inconsistent with a private and family life), and they are hoping to attract fresh meat that will be more malleable for a while (before they become a disgruntled experienced worker).
At 52, you probably fall between stools, being inexperienced in the game, but too mature and experienced generally to be perceived as fresh meat.
And employers who are known to take on fresh passes, invest in training, and hope to retain them for years and decades, will be wondering whether you’ll be there for the long haul without increasing medical issues.
if you havnt a job right now id go and do multi drop van work and pick the brains of anyone and everyone even a broom pusher its suprising who might know someone who can make a phone call to get you in. another place/person worth befriending is a guy who washes trucks .
Wanting to come back after 15 years out of the business, i was treated as if i was a new pass. managed to get a start driving a roadsweeper for goplant,(although much smaller than a curtainsider they are still a class 2 vehicle, so it works for all these that state must have driven 180 days etc) did that for a few months and tried again, then i managed to get a start with a general haulage business. Word of warning though, drriving a roadsweeper is as boring as ■■■■ 
