Looking for a job? Have you considered driving a
truck?
What is involved? Driving, early starts and maybe night driving, lots of fast
food and little exercise.
What skills do I need?
- You need to have a full automobile driving licence.
- You need to be over 18, over 21 or even 25 in some cases. Check with the
licensing people regarding the minimum age for driving a truck.
- The ability to speak English. Many companies will not let you onto their
premises unless you can understand safety signs and directions written in
English.
- Patience. You will meet a lot of stupidity as you drive around the country,
largely from inexperienced drivers.
- The ability to work early mornings, or late evenings, without it affecting
your body chemistry too much
Where do you start? There are several routes into the job.
- You can start as a driver’s assistant, sitting in the cab, helping to unload
and blocking traffic when the driver is reversing the truck. The company will
hopefully contribute towards the cost of your truck driving training.
- You can pay a truck driving school to teach you the ins and outs of handling
different kinds of trucks.
Once you have a licence you can apply for driving jobs anywhere your licence is
valid, or you can buy a truck and set up a transport company. Setting up as an
owner-operator is best left until you have more experience of the business.
There are always going to be jobs for truck drivers. It's just a matter of
finding them. This is implicit in any distributed economy, where such a large
proportion of end-users are only reachable by road transport.
Owner operators have to actively seek out loads to carry. The Internet makes
this much easier. You can contact load brokers, who have access to information
on loads to be moved from one part of the country to another. No longer will you
have to factor into your quotes having to return empty, so you will get more
jobs.
Trucking companies are always looking for employed drivers and all you have to
do is to search the Internet, especially the specialist truck driving agency
sites to find opportunities in your area.
You will be able to apply for more jobs if your licence covers a wider range of
trucks and if you are prepared to travel longer distances or to consider night
driving.