ramone:
Our firms got the message £112 pay rise per week or £2.50 per hour rise and the overtime rates up too
My lad has just got similar, he’s a mechanic and he’s a class 1 holder with experience.
Far sighted employers are keeping hold of what they’ve got.
I was told last week that a local (Leeds/Bradford/Wakefield area) distribution outfit are offering £200 per shift for Class 1 drivers. Five shifts a week and that’s £52k a year
If that’s the one I think it is near Asda, you’ll be doing 15s and 13s.
ramone:
Our firms got the message £112 pay rise per week or £2.50 per hour rise and the overtime rates up too
My lad has just got similar, he’s a mechanic and he’s a class 1 holder with experience.
Far sighted employers are keeping hold of what they’ve got.
I was told last week that a local (Leeds/Bradford/Wakefield area) distribution outfit are offering £200 per shift for Class 1 drivers. Five shifts a week and that’s £52k a year
If that’s the one I think it is near Asda, you’ll be doing 15s and 13s.
Not me, I’m 82 years old, I’ve done all the lorry driving I’m ever going to do…however much money they are paying.
Whatever time I have left is all mine.
windrush:
Some of my neighbours (five actually) have been working from home for almost 18 months now, they do get the job done and I can hear some of them on their 'phones when I am working outside. Next door the husband works in the small bedroom while his wife has her office in the loft. None of them enjoy it: they miss the interaction with the other employees and friends and now wonder if this will be their ‘working life’ for the future as some companies have already closed down their offices as they are surplus to requirements if folk can manage well on a laptop and telephone from home. Our local streets are almost deserted now instead of being filled with cars owned by the council office staff as most of them are at home now. I know that I would absolutely hate it, nothing better than having the daily ‘craic’ with other drivers and customers to hurry the day along which was what I missed most when I had to stop working.
Pete.
One of our Sons and his wife are both working from home. For son in a relatively new job role as part of a huge team it is sh 1 t. OK so no commute but no interaction and difficult to bounce thoughts and ideas. For D in L less so, although I think she would be happy to return to an office, at least for part of the time.
They don’t have children yet, but I can imagine it would be very difficult to both carry out a job efficiently with kids running around. Some of the younger folk early in their careers I know have found particularly difficult and in some cases isolating.
On the other side of the coin there are folk that I know of whom where furloughed for great chunks of time then took all their annual leave on returning to work. Mmmm.
Although now retired I worked in the shipping and transport business for over 50 years.
To my knowledge their a thousands of men that have class 1 licences in their pockets, over the last 10 years they have left the industry due to pay and condition bing driven down to near minimum wage, they could earn far more working in supermarkets etc.
I have watched one high profile business systematically drive down pay, maybe the drivers get new green vehicles every 6 months or so but that doesn’t pay the bills - I got involved with a very high profile tanker company transporting some of the most dangerous goods, their pay had just been changed from a productivity scheme to an hourly pay of £8.50 per hour - I was horrified.
The faviltilies for drivers on the road and access at customers premised denied is disgusting - no wonder they’ve left in their droves.
I am passionate about the transport industry and enjoyed my time which included employing driver in the UK and overseas in their thousands
Pay then them right rate £15/20 per hour
ramone:
Our firms got the message £112 pay rise per week or £2.50 per hour rise and the overtime rates up too
My lad has just got similar, he’s a mechanic and he’s a class 1 holder with experience.
Far sighted employers are keeping hold of what they’ve got.
I was told last week that a local (Leeds/Bradford/Wakefield area) distribution outfit are offering £200 per shift for Class 1 drivers. Five shifts a week and that’s £52k a year
If that’s the one I think it is near Asda, you’ll be doing 15s and 13s.
We can’t get mechanics GOM ours were on £45000 a year but have also had a pay rise since . Monday to Friday and alternate saturday mornings
ERF-NGC-European:
If the government scrapped the joke that passes for a driver’s CPC they’d double the number of drivers overnight. For a start, a lot of time-expired LGV licence holders would quite like to get back behind the wheel part-time. Perhaps we should introduce a ‘minister’s CPC’ for MPs aspiring to become Ministers of Transport and make them pay for their own training.
The DCPC is one of the problems , scrap it and put the onus on Transport Managers to make sure their drivers know their job. The probkem there though is that many of these modern transport managers haven’t got a clue ,
ERF-NGC-European:
If the government scrapped the joke that passes for a driver’s CPC they’d double the number of drivers overnight. For a start, a lot of time-expired LGV licence holders would quite like to get back behind the wheel part-time. Perhaps we should introduce a ‘minister’s CPC’ for MPs aspiring to become Ministers of Transport and make them pay for their own training.
The DCPC is one of the problems , scrap it and put the onus on Transport Managers to make sure their drivers know their job. The probkem there though is that many of these modern transport managers haven’t got a clue ,
Back in the day transport managers and haulage company owners had come up through the ranks, before I retired 8 years ago the dead heads had started creeping in, totally useless, glad I’m out of it.
Ramone wrote: We can’t get mechanics GOM ours were on £45000 a year but have also had a pay rise since . Monday to Friday and alternate saturday mornings.
This is a nationwide problem for the industry and had occurred a lot longer ago than a driver shortage. Many Goods Vehicle Mechanics, Technicians, Fitters whatever the current title is don’t have a C Licence never mind a C+E and when jobs are advertised few time served HGV trained guys apply, they are mostly car mechanics hopefully looking to gain the licence through the job. Again it was so low paid that side of the industry wasn’t attracting youngsters to then stick to an even poorer paid Apprenticeship. Companies that have decent Fitters will no doubt pay well just to ensure they stay. The whole Transport Industry is in a poor state and needs a complete overhaul! Franky.
Driver TOM REDDY a lorry driver for 15 years wants to switch careers despite receiving a 40% pay rise from £17.50 a hour to £24.50 a hour a 40% jump
I have never known anything like it he told BBC Wake up yo money program but they could pay me £80 .000 a year and it would not be enough [REALLY] I have just read this on GOOGLE not my words a Quote.
Just had a link from my favourite company (not) Movianto, they are looking for multiple van drivers, salary…£21,500 mmm wonder why they are looking for drivers? and as well as that they can expect to be messed around on a near daily basis, be treated like dirt, work anywhere up to 14 hours a day tearing around like a lunatic. I know what you’re all thinking, it’s very tempting thankfully this shortage of drivers is sorting out the rubbish employers.
Action needs to be taken against the DVLA, I am one who has to renew my class one licence every year with of course the medical attached to this process. After having the med exam done not my Doctor I may add as we have forgotten what he looks like now its been that long that one cannot get a face to face appointment, any ways an exam was arranged by an independent Doctor and all this done in plenty of time so sent it of for renewal at Swansea, here I am now two months later and not heard a dickie bird from them and no renewed licence coming forth.
They did send an Email telling me it was in hand at the beginning and they had received my application but two months later and nothing from them and all you get is the excuse that Covid is to blame for the delay. Now its not so important for me and I did take the precaution to photocopy both sides of my licence and stick them together so if stopped I had something to show, this being said it is only the class one bit of my licence that is out of date but as a company we have three drivers out of ten at the moment who cannot ship out as abroad unless you have the hard copy card licence it is not valid over the water which limits our work force on International work, no proper licence big fine, two have been waiting three months to date.
This does not help the driver situation at all when you consider that I bet all these Illegal immigrants coming to our shores do not face such delays, logged in, fed & watered any medical needs catered for somewhere to live all at our taxpayers expense, if they can do this why does it take so long to process a simple driving license.
The problem here is that if one rings the DVLA after waiting 20 minutes to get connected you get the same answer, we are dealing with a backlog and it will be processed asap, well not good enough in my book this should be sorted and stop blaming Brexit & Covid as these excuses are running thin, Buzzer.
It’s a government department + they’re all playing the permie ping game (funny how this never seems to affect contractors :scratchchin: ), so on top of their usual glacial speed to do the simplest of tasks, 99% of them are sat at home “self-isolating” on full pay that you’re paying for through your taxes. It’s likely to get even worse as we head into winter with “cases” rocketing from seasonal colds, which naturally will be deemed to be a positive test for covid = permie ping = reset the self-isolation timer = backlog grows even bigger.
My last licence renewal took 11 months to arrive (that was back in 2018) so I wouldn’t worry yet. They sent a letter stating that I was ok to still drive LGV’s, however I hadn’t even sat in a truck since 6pm on December 19th 2002 so it wasn’t a problem!
Kempston:
Everyone everywhere is using covid and brexit as an excuse for poor service Buzzer, I wonder what they would blame if there was no brexit or covid.
Technology works well for me as an excuse! Although more often that not a REASON, not an excuse. I just had a ■■■■-up on PayPal this afternoon…
Kempston:
Everyone everywhere is using covid and brexit as an excuse for poor service Buzzer, I wonder what they would blame if there was no brexit or covid.
Technology works well for me as an excuse! Although more often that not a REASON, not an excuse. I just had a ■■■■-up on PayPal this afternoon…
When you get to a certain age you are allowed to blame technology I reached that age 20years ago
Kempston:
Everyone everywhere is using covid and brexit as an excuse for poor service Buzzer, I wonder what they would blame if there was no brexit or covid.
No Brexit in North America Kempston, and the industry is desperate for drivers here. You are right, along with Covid, it’s the excuse for everything including incompetence. Not getting a licence renewed in 11 months is appalling service and beyond comprehension. Yours is a critical business interruption Buzzer, that’s even worse!
It’s just the way some people are now , well alot of people, they are taking full advantage of the situation. Recently i have tried on numerous occasions to try and get through to my bank with no success my mortgage company with no success and yesterday a holiday company who i have just booked a trip with . No chance , all i get is “we are receiving a large number of calls so waiting times will be much longer try our website” which doesn’t work because the information isn’t there. Translated this means people are being paid to work from home but can’t be bothered answering their phone. I read in the CM last week that the head if Next isn’t happy with the government because they wont allow foreign workers in to take up the excess driving jobs, well why doesn’t he look at his own operation first and see why he is offering next day delivery and you can order up to midnight. Maybe the any 5 from 7 days he is asking drivers to do isn’t that attractuve either. The 5 from 7 usually means saturday and sunday at normal time . We are still persisting with the DCPC which needs scrapping and the latest idea is beyond a joke , reversing and the dropping and picking up of a trailer isn’t part of the test no more, and just a little kick in the teeth for all those who had to take their class 2 then class 1 that’s scrapped too . I wonder if they will give a refund to every driver that did both test … nope
Lawrence, what a excellent clip, i had forgotten all about that, what about the comment [they could take casual work on] maybe like your self you did as you were told.
I had been driving lorries for 4 years by 1969 cattle trucks,15 hour day was a good short one ,then joined BRS TO GET SHORTER WORKING LEGAL WEEKS. However there was no shortage of drivers then .
When i read the comments on some of the posts i just wonder WHAT GENERATION of drivers are here now [ex this and ex that] not men from working backgrounds, office merchants looking for a nice easy they want to work hours that suits them not the companies ,no nights away, shower every day. packed lunches ,that is the impression i get from reading newbies posts god help us all i will not be reading any more.
last week that a local (Leeds/Bradford/Wakefield area) distribution outfit are offering £200 per shift for Class 1 drivers. Five shifts a week and that’s £52k a year
and as well as that they can expect to be messed around on a near daily basis, be treated like dirt, work anywhere up to 14 hours a day tearing around like a lunatic. I know what you’re all thinking, it’s very tempting 
