I am 22 years old, until a few months ago I was undertaking my pilot training, unfortunately as a result of the COVID crisis the industry has completely collapsed and recruitment look set to be closed for the next 4 years.
One of my pilot friends was formerly an HGV driver prior to training; said this would be a good earner for a few year’s; with a scheduling system 5 on 3 off which would provide me time to complete flight training parallel to work.
I have enough savings to cover the cost of both classes of driving licenses, would you advise in doing them back to back?
I live on the south coast in between Bournemouth Salisbury and Southampton, looking around on the job sites seems to be ample work available at generous pay ~32k in some cases if anyone has a better insight I’d really appreciate it.
TLDR
-Should I do both licenses back to back
-Employment and salary prospects on south-coast
Welcome aboard Trucknet, at Bournemouth international airport there is Shears Brothers transport ltd and Wyvern Cargo ltd both long running and reputable companies, all I can suggest is driving over there for an informal chat with the transport manager on the options of them paying for your training , but visit at a quiet time and not peak hours .
As you said the airline industry is on it’s knees and numerous CPL and ATPL holders are driving for supermarket delivery on vans to 44 ton lorries to pay their bills.
The option is asking for training funding from the Government via Universal Credit of which they have a pot of 22 million that they keep quiet unless you ask for funding, that also covers travel expenses to and from interviews, safety equipment and PPE , and if you’re lucky funding for LGV training.
On finding a job, expect to be sharing an untidy and smelly old lorry until they get to know you and allocate your own dedicated truck after time spent and no damages or insurance claims.