N ewly qualified HGV drivers often face a Catch-22. Companies they
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apply to tell them they need at least two years' experience before they can be considered for a driving job; many agencies say the same. But how can they be expected to get the required experience if no-one is willing to give them a break?
"That's your problem, mate," was the reply given to one prospective driver in the Vale of Evesham—he contacted us after a major reefer operator had turned him down for not having two years' experience.
This would-be driver, who does not wish to be identified, is 33; he paid £1,5oo to put himself through the HGV tests last February. So far he has approached three agencies and four hauliers without success; they all turned him down for lack of experience.
He is ready to travel up to 5o miles a day to get work and doesn't mind nights away. "I can get jobs that pay £4 an hour but that's no use to me, I have a fam
ily and house to support," he says.
He even tried for a job with a local haulier shunting trailers between its two depots 20 miles apart, but once again he was rejected for lack of experience. "I have passed my test and theoretically I should be qualified enough to drive lorries," he says.
Because he can't get a driving job legitimately he is now desperate enough to cheat: "I know a lot of hauliers through work and in two years' time I will get some fiddled references and try to get work that way."
Chris Goulding, who contacted
CM from Wigan, tells a similar story. He passed his Class 2 three years ago and got his Class r four months ago. He took the Class test instead of having a family holiday. "I had a week's holiday coming up and my wife Marie said 'we're not going anywhere, why don't you go and do your Class r? We've saved up the money and we'll pay for it' It was literally every penny we had in the bank," says Goulding. "I've seen in Commercial Motor that companies are desperate for drivers, and that an agency was turning down Soo shifts a week."
He registered with an agency but was only offered one day's work in three weeks. All Goulding is asking for is a fair day's pay for a fair day's work: "I've been trying for the past four years to get off
family credit I draw Inc, per week. I would love to be able to go out in the morning and come back with a decent wage.
"When I passed my Class s I thought the world would be my oyster. But it's not. They all want experience, even on the agency. The hauliers are screaming and saying they are lobbying the Government for 50% of the train
ing fees; I paid mine myself and I am still no good to anybody."
Lack of experience is not a problem for Malcolm Kerr from Renfrewshire: he has spent the past 13 years working as a coach driver, handling all sizes of vehicles including 77-seaters on runs from Dundee to Heathrow and Gatwick and articulated buses. He wants to move over to HGVs because the money is better and thugs are making PSV work unpleasant: "I enjoyed the longhaul experience but through the years the passengers were getting aggressive and I was regularly getting threatened so I came off the buses. I still really love the driving so want to go over to HGVs."
But the cost of taking the two tests has stopped Kerr from making the transfer. "It's all very well to 'buy' an HG V licence just because you can afford it," he says, "but companies will not take you on because you haven't got any experience on the roads, whereas I have got a vast amount of experience of driving but can't afford to take the HGV."
Any haulier willing to sponsor Kerr through his test would be getting a very experienced driver for his money. "A lot of bus companies take on drivers and put them through the test and ask them to sign a contract that says that if they leave before a two-year period they have to refund the money," he says. "If the haulage companies did that they would attract people into the job."
Any hauliers willing to put Kerr through the I-IGV test should contact CM and we will