Anyone else getting fed up with this industry? Or mainly the whinging employees? But customers/DVSA too?
Do drivers not understand how supply and demand works? After Covid when things suddenly took off, there was plenty of profit around. you couldnt fail to make money. Not huge sums, but at least a decent return on your time/effort/investment within the business.
Drivers were rewarded with pay increases. For those that struggled to get drivers, the money was there to offer £18/20+ per hour for a driver.
But now things have turned (well in the last couple of years at least). Drivers are still whinging about there money. But there’s very little decent work out there for hauliers, this is shown by how many have gone to the wall in the past 18 months.
Drivers moaning on in the other forum about working times/start/finish times, how little they get paid. Go on facebook on some of the professional drivers groups, if a company dares to advertise a position they get ridiculed if the wages aren’t mentioned, ridiculed if the wages are mentioned. You just can’t win.
So what’s the solution? We all know paying a driver (unless you’re in a very niche profitable market) £20 per hour isnt sustainable, hell even £15 per hour is barely sustainable at the minute.
Customers demanding ever better service, while being unable themselves to make enough profit to increase the rates by inflation once a year. Anyone still on the same rates as 2 years ago?
DVSA wanting better compliance continually. Laden brake tests for every inspection coming in next year. Everything needing to be checked, documented.
I’ve been in this game a long time, and it’s probably done the rounds a few times, things going good, then going bad, then good again. I’m still waiting for the “going good” bit to come around again but I’m getting tired waiting.
Anyone else feel like this?
Pretty much my view of things too; increasing pressures from the authorities and massive lack of realism from those within the industry (especially drivers).
Neither do I. But the area I move goods in isn’t affected too much by the big players. It’s just sht for everyone at the minute, and I can’t see the budget making it any better.
You might not have noticed but we’ve got a transport policy openly stated and dedicated to driving road transport off the roads.Its not drivers’ wages which are unsustainable.
It’s paying drivers 15 hours to trundle a few miles up the road with less than 50 feet of load deck and less than 30 tonnes of payload subject to laughable fuel taxation that’s unsustainable.
Compare that with New Zealand in terms of truck types and load capacity and if road transport was given the same red diesel use breaks as rail gets.
We all know the concept of a business is to make money and progress.
Thing is mate if you are struggling to pay your drivers an average wage as you say…(btw I fully understand why, I aint having a pop) customers are wanting the job done for nowt, and you are tired of the ott one step forward/2 back regs, and working for out of date rates into the bargain…Is the writing not on the wall to call it a day?
To sell up,.realise your assets (or cut your losses whatever) let somebody else have all the stress…
Especially as how you say numerous firms have gone down the khazi.
No shame in starting to work for somebody else, and having a realtively stress free life.
I did it but I also went down that metaphorical khazi, or rather my main customer did and I was flushed down there with him.
Job aint worth a ■■■■ mate…never has been, and yeah I also experienced those good times.
No regrets btw.
Its only an issue with trailers. Lots of places now test units loaded on 6 weeklys anyway, used to be just for mot.
Has there been a massive increase in trailer brake failure to go from 4 times a year to every 6 weeks? I don’t know
It’s an issue because unladen RBTs mean absolutely nothing in terms of real, at-work, brake performance when the truck is loaded. Just because a wheel locks up when the truck is empty does not mean it will work efficiently when the truck is fully laden.
The most recent update to Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness (you can find it on gov.uk) tells us that, from April 2025, a laden RBT will be the only acceptable measure of brake performance and must be done at every safety inspection (aka PMI, for most companies that tends to be every six-weeks).
It’s the modern reality of the industry, enforcement of regulations is necessary because far too many operators cannot be trusted to do what they need to do. Here is just one example of what I’m talking about, it is by no means an isolated incident:
No, it’s an issue for rigids and tractor units too. Technically tri-axle trailers are exempt from this (as are bin wagons), in reality the TC says “get them done too”
Ty for the info but sorry about the 2nd part, trying to evoke emotions to support any argument is pretty weak. Where do you see the top end of regulations? Lower speed limits to 10mph everywhere and you’ll virtually eliminate deaths on the road, why haven’t they done it yet???
If trucks have been around for 100+ years and tests for I don’t know, 50? how come only now they realize they’ve been testing it wrong all those decades?
You see my point you can pile up and up and up the regulations/limitations to infinity except you’ll drive plenty of drivers and operators out of business but hey what do you care you have a steady gov’t job and salary (not you personally zac_a btw but the people whose JOB it is to come up with more and more regulations else they’d be out of work themselves haha)
Have to disagree with you on this. Ideally you should have a mix of brake tests, loaded fully, part loaded and empty. Do your trucks run loaded 100% of the time? Mine don’t, I wish they did. So I test them unladen and laden, alternately ideally. I can show you trailers that will pass a laden brake test but brake abysmal unladen and vice versa.
So unladen testing does have its place.
And you give the example of the Bath tipper accident due to faulty brakes. I can’t think of that many more though where a trailers brakes failed resulting in a catastrophic loss of life.
How do they test loaded v empty unless the old school way on the move with a tapley meter and a chalk gun ?.
Is it confusing the the weighting apparatus just used to make sure that the wheels have traction on the rollers ?.In which case not weighting the wheels with down force will actually provide a worse reading by tyre splippage on the rollers.
What I meant by issue was for the operators. Easy enough to hook upto a test trailer but it’ll be an unnecessary faf about for operators and garages to test every trailer loaded.
So many variations on trailer brakes they all do their own thing. But I’m not the TC
@carryfast the best way to roller brake test a trailer loaded is to have an actual load on it, with enough weight to give at least 60% of the axle design weight.
Long ago when you took your trailer to the local Vosa station for test they used to put a weight simulator on it, a nodding donkey thing which pulled the trailer down simulating a load. But the tri axle trailers came about they couldn’t put enough down force on the axles to get a decent laden brake test so they said you could either bring it laden for test or test it unladen, so long as all 6 get over 3000 kgF and the all lock out. Or 5 locks and 3600 kgF.
Hence the unladen testing of trailers has been the same ever since.
I’m not “trying to evoke emotions” at all, I’m just giving you the perspective of DfT, DVSA and OTC. Badly maintained trucks should be put off our roads, Cowboy operators need to be put out of business. The haulage industry is changing.
As you said, you’re a driver: If you had your own time and money invested in your own company, you’d know it can all be taken away from you very easily.
I wasn’t asking anyone to “agree with me”, I’m giving more background of why things are going the way they are. If you want to disagree with someone you’ll need to direct your comments at DfT and DVSA; it’s pointless “blaming the messenger”
And, if you read the GTMRW, you’ll see “laden” equates to 65% of the axle design weight, not 100%.
