Truck Driving with No Experience

SeanMur

Hi all,
I recently have passed my C license driving test and CPC and I am currently unemployed and seeking work, Im 28 years old and have spent the last 10 years working as a butcher mainly and since not being unemployed decided to retrain and do something that I would like (i.e Truck Driving).

I understand that there is not many jobs going in that trade also, but my problem is: (1) I don't know where is best to look for jobs and (2) any jobs that I do see require a few years experience at the min.

How do other driver break into this sector for jobs?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

zega

Go to the UPS depot in dublin.Any UPS driver i met hated it and they turned over drivers fairly quickly,it's a **** job but its worth a shot.

donkey balls

Years ago in the transport industry certain companies required the person to be over 25 for insurance purposes,Then when we opened the borders to the eastern europeans a lot of them came over with no experience and managed to get driving jobs during the so called boom years.
The thing is most of them could not drive a wheel barrow straight never mind a truck and now companies want drivers to have anything between 2/5 years experience driving on Irish roads,You could always try some of the agencies to see if they would be willing to give you a start and as for wages most companies pay just above the min wage.

SCOOP 64

Not easy at moment finding drivings jobs , a lot of experience drivers looking for work ,made redundant last year from a well known courier firm ,most of the drivers have still not got full time jobs ,just temp work and then sign on again.
pay is not great as said above, minimum wage or just above it.
I never see drivers jobs on FAS, most drivers jobs are got though word of mouth if you have been in the game a while.

triple-M

I was in the same situation although I had a full D licence with no experience,unfortunately the only "work" I could get was either voluntary or a jobbridge scheme and although it doesnt pay it adds to the cv and can be counted as experience,if you look on jobbridge.ie theres a few truck companies looking for free labour,i dont personally support the jobbridge scheme but its a step in the right direction if your desperate

aliceria

Most companies preferred experienced drivers but there are also number of companies looking for truck jobs with no experience. So keep trying..

KwackerJack

The biggest problem with truck driving is experience!

You will call a company and tell them you have said licence with all the cpc and loads more, the first question they will ask is how old are you then how many years are you driving!

No obviously if company's don't take on new drivers how can they build experience??

Do what I did, I drove trucks from 18 onwards that were as rough as a dying bears ass! Managers were complete a holes and wages were **** but that's what needs to be done, even pilots go through this with airlines so its across the boards so to speak!

I'm no longer driving trucks but after a few years of it I have a few good contacts and made friends who own/drive for other friends so I can get work with if I'm stuck, which is good because when I start college I will be back driving part time to get a few €.

You just have to start at the bottom and work up, company's will pay well if they know you are a good driver which means : good time keeping, keeping your truck in order,safe driving, getting good mpg, customer service