Okie, I have a question this wonderful forum may be able to help with...

A friend of mine finished uni in the last year and currently works in a not-too-bad, comfortable job related to his degree in an office but is a bit tired of spending most of his life cooped up in a room for 8 hours a day, cos there's a world out there...

He's thinking about some kind of job involving driving/being outdoors a fair bit that pays a similar wage (it's the typical just-out-of-uni wage outside London) with a clear progression path but doesn't really know where to look... The options he's looked at are:

- Delivery (courier etc): Not paid much more than retail jobs from what we heard?
- Black Taxi: Worth a look, a lot of commitment - do you still need to do The Knowledge to drive a black cab outside London (most towns have a black cab service)?
- Highways Agency Traffic Officer: The most tempting but sadly not recruiting...
- HGV: A lot of commitment for fairly poor pay unless you're fairly experienced in a major haulage company (again, from what we heard)?
- Driver training (on or off road): Seems you need some kind of race/ADI experience, there's no "entry level"?

All your advice and opinions on careers which involve driving will be hugely appreciated

I work in the transport industry as a supervisor, one of the contracts I control offer a HGV salary of £32kpa for a "4 on/4 off" shift pattern that consists of 12 hours each shift. Although shifts are generally 10 hours, which gives a worked average of around 36-39 hours per week.

I'd personally say that's not bad, however it would be easy to fall into and live off, sapping ambition.

Cheers,
Doyal

Falling into and living off 32k sounds alright!

That sounds pretty ideal in theory, long hours aren't a problem for him, 4 on 4 off would be perfect as weekends are busy and suck as days off anyway... What's the "starting" wage say for someone who's just done their HGV/would any company hire a "newbie"?

Your friend studied at a Uni for an office job, then doesn't want anything to do with an office?

Easy fella...

It's more a design degree and job than an office job, it just happens to be in an office and the current job/environment/pay isn't as stimulating as he expected... Hence the "soul searching". I'm sure if it paid enough or was challenging enough he'd put the thinking aside and happily take the money doing what he's good at, mind...

I'm sure he's not the only one who's had a "oh ****, what do I actually want to do" moment after finishing university.

I think you'll find it hard to get an HGV job atm - loads of people have already got the entitlement on their license but there just aren't enough jobs for them all...

Quote from TiJay :

Falling into and living off 32k sounds alright!

That sounds pretty ideal in theory, long hours aren't a problem for him, 4 on 4 off would be perfect as weekends are busy and suck as days off anyway... What's the "starting" wage say for someone who's just done their HGV/would any company hire a "newbie"?

The company I work for will not employ somebody with less than 2 years driving experience (C+E), or with >6 points on their licence.

As a newbie, although most companies will want expeirence, there are businesses willing to employ new HGV drivers after a driving asssessment. The salary would not differ much from the above. However there are quite a few people wanting/trying for these jobs. So they generally have a high turnover of staff, with managers who will treat them like dirt, because they can.

Btw, the 4/4 shifts are rolling over 7 days, including bank holidays. Although bank holidays worked are repaid with lieu days.

Becoming a roving prostitute!

i currently work at a car rental company. my job is mainly picking up new cars from the dealer picking up clients etc and occasionaly washing cars. For me it suites me perfectly because most of the time i can use any car that is on the lot. for example the car i used the most today to bring clients here and there was an infinity g37x...the pay isn't too bad either i started only 3 months ago and i'm at 15$ an hour + bonuses.

Quote from TiJay :

is a bit tired of spending most of his life cooped up in a room for 8 hours a day

- Delivery (courier etc)
- Black Taxi
- HGV
- Driver training (on or off road)

So he fancied being cooped up in an even smaller room for 16 hours a day instead?

I'd like to do something involving driving street cars too (won't be a paid racing driver for a little while yet ). Ferrying cars for a dealer/rental company sounds swell, but there's basically nothing I can find about it on the net. The only thing I could find is organ delivery for the local hospital. Don't really jive with live organs sharing the cabin with me...

getaway driver for bank robbers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... =mfu_in_order&list=UL

Quote from MadCat360 :

I'd like to do something involving driving street cars too

Same - i'd love to be in fleet / rental management, moving cars (no matter how crap...) around, but alas there just isn't any real openings for it, and when there is it always wants someone >25...

Quote from Crashgate3 :

So he fancied being cooped up in an even smaller room for 16 hours a day instead?

That man speaketh the truth!

While not having a "driving job" per se, I do have to drive about 500 km per week for my job (commuting not included, which is another 300).
And even though I do enjoy driving and especially enjoy driving long trips (like from my place to hamburg in one go, which was 1100 km), driving for a living takes the joy out of it and is just tedious. A nice office chair and a window is much better than any car.

Car Salesman. You get a comfy office and strive to sell. More intrigued customers, more test drives=driving job given that you insist that you drive the car back to the dealer and take a few shortcuts here and there

Quote from Sueycide_FD :

Car Salesman. You get a comfy office and strive to sell. More intrigued customers, more test drives=driving job given that you insist that you drive the car back to the dealer and take a few shortcuts here and there

The only problem with that (if he's young) is that a dealership will want someone 25+ and with sales experience. I've tried applying for jobs at a hire companies, but they said they didn't employ anyone under 25, not even to wash the cars.

Cheers for the replies, car moving/rental looks quite promising if the pay is alright.

Madcat: Over here we have a blood delivery service, the "Urgent" service involves a hot hatch and blue lights. Again tough to find openings.

Coleus: What job do you have, some kind of sales/account management? What you described (travelling, meeting clients etc) also seems intriguing but it seems difficult to find a job which involves driving simply because one wouldn't know where to start looking.

Everything blue light = very hard to get into.

Don't know if it's that hard in terms of driving ability if you've passed the IAM test - I think paramedics are trained to IAM standard + an additional "blue light" course?

If you've done IAM then it's that a bit (well quite a bit) more. But were talking "proper" IAM, not the one day courses.

The blue light course itself isn't easy - iirc pursuit drivers do a 3 weeks of solid training before they can use the blue lights in anger...

The IAM box is ticked so that's one problem out of the way But yeah, not diminishing the extra effort it takes to learn blue light stuff.

Took a look on Enterprise Rental's site earlier - it doesn't list a salary for their driver jobs. How the **** is someone meant to make a decision about whether they want a job if the pay isn't listed? I'll never understand that...

Wow a whopping 3 weeks

Quote from rich uk :

Wow a whopping 3 weeks

3 weeks of full time intensive training is quite a lot, especially as roughly half fail...