1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140 
TruckNetUKs Rikki Chequer discovers that there are still plenty out there looking for a way into road transport.
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
One recurring theme on the TruckNetUK forums is the amount of budding entrants to the industry researching driving schools.
Some schools are members of the forums, and interact with their students and potential clients in the 'New and Wannabe Driver' section.
It seems the schools that are seen to accept praise and respond to criticism are proving popular for those on the look-out for training.
Less popular are some of the national training schools. Some make fairly extravagant claims; some seem to use quite pushy telephone sales techniques; and some finance deals they offer look a little on the expensive side.
Potential students see advertising for some of these schools in the national press and on search engines and sign up, not realising that, in many cases, they'll be doing their training not with the named training provider, who is acting mainly as a broker, but with a local school.
If the student had gone direct, they might have saved themselves some cash.
In order to provide a national alternative, a website has been created that boasts an easy-to-use register of schools close to the potential student. Although it has only been around for the past couple of weeks, more than 25 independent training establishments have joined up, and the site's owners claim more are being contacted all the time. Log on to www.hgvIgvtraining.co.uk.
Still in the New and Wannabe Driver section, the rate of new enquiries and questions about the industry continues unabated. If anything, the recession has surprisingly made many consider our industry for the first time.
Older forum members do point out that road transport is one of the hardest-hit sectors, and with a fresh HGV licence, new entrants will be competing against the ever-growing line of experienced drivers for work, Despite these warnings, though, there are still many recruits passing their tests before hitting the "two years' experience required" brick wall.
The traditional route around this was doing agency work, but this sector is struggling just as much as everyone else.