Hello i’m posting this here on behalf of my father he has over 20 years of experience he is 52 years old at the moment he has a UK driving licence class 1 and class 2, blue card up to date and he is curently waiting for a UK digi card to come by the post he still has his greek one, he recently moved from Athens Greece here he lives with me in SE London and i find it hard to find him a job all the ads i find online are from agencys and when i call them they say to me that he must speak good English even for trunking jobs…
He used to work in all over Europe the last years he was mostly doing Greece Italy routes he also speaks good Italian but even when he was going to countries like Germany, France he didn’t knew the language but he was still making the deliveries i can’t understand why it is so hard to find a job as an HGV driver here without knowing good English even when they say they desperately need drivers because there is a big shortage…
Terrible attempt at winding people up.
David11:
… He used to work in all over Europe the last years he was mostly doing Greece Italy routes he also speaks good Italian but even when he was going to countries like Germany, France he didn’t knew the language but he was still making the deliveries i can’t understand why it is so hard to find a job as an HGV driver here without knowing good English even when they say they desperately need drivers because there is a big shortage…
Hi David11,
I had the same trouble when I worked for an Italian company doing national work in Italy, even with many years of international work under my belt.
Here’s how it works… When you go to any foreign country from your own country, you can always refer to your boss (in your mutually intelligible language) who can then sort any issues for you, usually via the customer. The customer usually has a contact in the foreign country in which the problem ocurrs, so it then gets sorted.
When the whole journey is in the UK, English is spoken at both ends of the journey.
With your Father’s language skillset, I can understand how he’d struggle a bit here because there aren’t that many people that speak Italian or Greek at the average freight company.
It might have been better if your Father spoke French or German, because I think there’d be a bit more of a chance of him being able to communicate to some extent.
I guess I’m saying that I don’t think that Greek or Italian are very high on the list of native Brits’ second languages.
Sorry mate, but that’s how I see it. 
So there is no way for him to find a job as an HGV driver? He can do whatever driving job there is he doesn’t mind also any recomendations on who he can ask will be really helpfull! Besides Greek and Italian he also speaks Albanian btw as far as English goes he understand a few things and can say a few words but not enough to make a conversation sadly
Can he read English ? - if not then that can have a multitude of issues
ROG:
Can he read English ? - if not then that can have a multitude of issues
Yes he can read English normally speaking is the issue.
David11:
ROG:
Can he read English ? - if not then that can have a multitude of issuesYes he can read English normally speaking is the issue.
That obviously helps but he would certainly need to be able to communicate verbally in English in whatever job he does. He could try skip hire companies they may not be so fussy but even that may prove troublesome at times.
In all seriousness, I’d focus on getting your father to learn English. When you are in a country, you have a huge advantage because the foreign language is all around you. Stop talking to your dad in Greek and speak to him only in English. He needs to speak to people in shops in English and listen to only English telly. If he really commits to it, within three months he’ll have a decent basic English.
Good luck.
albion:
In all seriousness, I’d focus on getting your father to learn English. When you are in a country, you have a huge advantage because the foreign language is all around you. Stop talking to your dad in Greek and speak to him only in English. He needs to speak to people in shops in English and listen to only English telly. If he really commits to it, within three months he’ll have a decent basic English.Good luck.
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the way it is nowadays,once he is here and speaks to people in shops,he should be fluent in polish and taliban by july… 
thats the only way to do it though.
or
once he has a grasp,he can sit on here 12 hours a day trolling for all he is worth.
im thinking of morcambe and wise now…whats a greek urn.40 drachmas a week… 
He has to get the basics of the language sorted.
Most jobs in our industry require absolutely spot on communications, imagine the situation if he needs to be contacted whilst out on the road, or even has a puncture or breakdown.
Juddian:
He has to get the basics of the language sorted.Most jobs in our industry require absolutely spot on communications, imagine the situation if he needs to be contacted whilst out on the road, or even has a puncture or breakdown.
He can call me and i will assist him i can even go with him on the road for a day or two if someone is willing to hire him until he learns the routes he has to do. He also can’t wait until he learns the language London is a really expensive place can’t afford comming here to learn English…
There’s a company around the Tilbury area who sub to Maritime who have a few a Greek and Cypriot drivers. Unfortunately their name escapes me. They use plain white new shape scanias and pull Maritime curtains
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Google translate, you can even speak the sentences and it will translate greek to english and english to greek.
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There are plenty of drivers out there with less than full grasp of the language, keep looking you will find something
El Deano:
Google translate, you can even speak the sentences and it will translate greek to english and english to greek.Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
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and so easy to search with when your sitting back in your full auto with adaptive cruise,lane departure and auto braking…you wouldnt be able to update your faaceache or watch movies though till youve worked out your reply and read it back.
Funny thing is you even see bus drivers in London not able to speak wich is a job that requires good English so that you can speak to your passengers but then again lorry drivers need to speak fluent English for the 2 minutes it will take them to handle the paperwork at a warehouse go figure 
I see you have only tried agency’s, perhaps knocking on some doors directly may work better.
I still maintain he needs to learn some English because it will make life so much easier and literally open doors for him. He doesn’t need to be fluent, but he does need to have some basics IMO.
albion:
I see you have only tried agency’s, perhaps knocking on some doors directly may work better.I still maintain he needs to learn some English because it will make life so much easier and literally open doors for him. He doesn’t need to be fluent, but he does need to have some basics IMO.
Thing is Albion i don’t really know what doors to knock i was being told that trunking jobs don’t require knowing English but even those jobs are connected to an agency and when you call them it’s a straitght no.
David11:
albion:
I see you have only tried agency’s, perhaps knocking on some doors directly may work better.I still maintain he needs to learn some English because it will make life so much easier and literally open doors for him. He doesn’t need to be fluent, but he does need to have some basics IMO.
Thing is Albion i don’t really know what doors to knock i was being told that trunking jobs don’t require knowing English but even those jobs are connected to an agency and when you call them it’s a straitght no.
I really appreciate your frustration and admire you for being such a good son and I admire anyone that is willing to up sticks and move to try and get a better job, especially at your Dad’s age. However, this language thing is not going to go away and there is only the one solution unless he gets really really lucky. It might not seem fair, but my number one philosophy in life is deal with what is, not the way you want things to be.
I’m an employer and we don’t do any trunking, but even if we did, I’d want someone to be able to speak some basic English.
The only other thing I can think of is to look and see if there are any Greek shipping companies around that operate their own trucks. Long time ago I used to work for a Greek Forwarder (no longer operating) that had an office in London, that might one route into work.
BTW, for all the mention of a driver shortage, the general opinion on here and one I agree with, is that there isn’t a driver shortage as such otherwise you would see wages rise.
Many years ago I was skipper of a cargo ship owned by a Dutchman and he noticed I had bought a linguafone course in learning Dutch, he said it were a waste of time because of the different regional accents and to sleep with a Dutch girl instead … well I did that but all I learned was that the the ‘oohs’ and the 'arrs are the same in any language …