BEVS

Hi Angpaul.
I've been keeping my eyes & ears open but not seen anything.

Does he do the big cranes and stuff? I just wonder about work on large commercial sites or roadworks and that sort of stuff.

angpaul

FGS! Luvwelly .I am a truck driver working in NZ at the present moment and I am very aware of the PR situation available for us .I did not come all this way with my bloody eyes closed.

southerner

Paul, I can't help you then - but I have a few company names if you change your mind. Honestly if I was in his shoes I'd be door knocking myself.

BEVS

FWIW I agree. I think door knocking is the way to go. This is what we did back in 2004.

PaulGent

OK I guess I sahould out my two penny's worth in here!

My wife and I came to NZ in 2005 and we got PR through her work, qualifications and experience. In Feb last year I decided that I wanted to fulfil a long-held ambition and drive a truck. I had never driven one before and I therefore took my class 4 and then class 5 licences. That was the easy part and in April last year I quit my job as a business consultant and started to look for a driving job. I started with the casual work route but ther was very little work around at that time.
The only way to get work is to pound the streets. I managed to get 6 weeks work carting Kiwi fruit and then after 2 or 3 weeks of visiting every trucking company in Tauranga I found one of the big coimpoanies who gave me a start carting container in Tauranga port. Within 2 months they had moved me onto log carting and now I am driving a very large US truck and trailer unit all over the top of the North Island. I am loving the work but you need to go in to it with your eyes open:-

The money is rubbish! I started on $16.50 and hour and I have now been given a rise to $17 an hour. The rate applies to all the hours I work - so no overtime or shift allowances!

The hours are VERY long. My average week is 65 hours at work and my days usually start at 3am and finish are 5pm. Add travel time to and from work and there is really only time to sleep. I am "lucky" I am home every night and only work Monday to Friday!

The work can be dangerous and it involves finding you way round forrests in the dark and driving up some VERY steep and extremely narrow roads. As an immigrant you can also expext to have a constant barrage of mockery and abuse from the forrestry workers and you colleagues. It's taken me mpnths to finally get their respect and to get used to what they are saying on the radio.

There is a heck of a lot to learn. Driving a 45 tonne truck and trailer unit in forrestry is hard enough but when the truck has an 18 speed road ranger gearbox and need to learn very fast how to use ALL of them. Add to that learning how to load 30 tonnes of timber and how to chain it up (in the dark) all add to the challenge. The police in the form of the CVIU are extremely vigialnt and are always stopping log trucks to weigh them and check them over. Overloading will mean that your employer needs to arrange for the truck to be unloaded - they get very unhappy about this! An unsafe load can cost the driver personally very large fines or loss of licentce.

So you may well ask why do I do it - Well the simple answer is that every day I get to see parts of New Zealand that almost everyone else never gets to see. I see some of the most spectacular scenery along with many other amazing sights. This morning I chased a very large wild pig up a forrest road at 4am. I guess that's something that most truckies in UK have never done!

So to the matter of where are the better drivers. I have never driven a truck in UK but I can assure you that whilst there are not many motorways in NZ the roads are very challenging to drive on. The trucks in general are bigger than in UK and by necessity need to be more primitive and more robust. I do know that Kiwi truckies are in great demand in Austrlia because they are prepared to work much harder than their Aussie counterparts and because they have driven roads that few othe truck drivers have.

Lastly - I know there is work available in the Bay of Plenty for truckers. This will include log truck driver and even includes the company that I work for. To get the job you would need to do what I did and get in front of every company you can. You will need to have a very positive attitude and be willing to learn. You will be expected to undertake an assessment and, if you join the company I work for, you will get anything up to 4 weeks training with the driver trainer.

I hope all this helps.

Paul

humper 74

hi,im thinking about coming over to auckland for a while next year,will i be wasting my time?