Bosses at Gist in Crewe say they are tackling the ongoing HGV driver shortage with its first cohort of newly qualified drivers.<\/p>\n
The company is running an in-house HGV driver academy, launched last month.<\/p>\n
And its first graduates are now on the road driving across its network, transporting chilled products for customers including M&S.<\/p>\n
Aaron Venables is based at Gist’s Crewe depot and began a career in HGV driving with a Class C licence in 2003 but was yet to obtain his Class C+E licence.<\/p>\n
He enrolled on the scheme and passed his Class C+E examination on Friday 15 October.<\/p>\n
He said: “I have always wanted to get my Class C+E licence but never had the money to put myself through the course.<\/p>\n
“So when the new training and testing centre was announced, my manager signed me up straight away.<\/p>\n
“I thought the course was really good. It had a very relaxed feel to it, with no pressure.<\/p>\n
“My tutor was very knowledgeable and really made me feel at ease.”<\/p>\n
The programme, fully-funded by Gist, is open to aspiring HGV drivers who will be trained and examined at the academy in Spalding, Lincolnshire.<\/p>\n
“I feel a lot more confident having done the course,” added Aaron.<\/p>\n
“To anyone thinking of becoming an HGV driver, I say go for it. If you love driving, it’s the job for you.”
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\nGist anticipates its driver training and testing programme will deliver up to 300 newly qualified HGV drivers for the business each year.<\/p>\n
The overall support package is expected to save individuals approximately \u00a33,000 when compared to self-funding. <\/p>\n
Julian Bailey, Managing Director Temperature Controlled Logistics, Gist, said: “The Government is taking steps to support the industry, which is a welcome move.<\/p>\n
“However, the reality is more still needs to be done and fast.<\/p>\n
“That is why we have launched our in-house accredited training academy so that we can produce home-grown talent and train the next generation of drivers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bosses at Gist in Crewe say they are tackling the ongoing HGV driver shortage with its first cohort of newly qualified drivers.<\/p>\n
The company is running an in-house HGV driver academy, launched last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7089],"tags":[8149,7727,8087,8147,8148],"class_list":["post-54509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-academy","tag-driver","tag-gist","tag-hgv","tag-shortage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n