Good for Drivers.....Bad for Haulage Firms

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I’ve never really believed that there was a driver shortage…until now.

As I work only 4 x 12 hrs nightshifts every week at my firm, some weeks I work an extra night for agency somewhere else…if I’ve got enough
driving hours left. Last week I rang both agencies that I’m still registered with…and between them they offered me a choice of nightshifts
at no less than 7 different firms!!

Spoke for several minutes to each agency, who both told me that they hadn’t got enough drivers to fill the shifts that they were being offered…
and who both believed that we are seeing the start of a genuine driver shortage…particularly in Class 1 night drivers, and Class 1 weekend drivers.

When I turned up at the Firm that I chose to work for in Warrington, they were relieved to see me and TM told me that they had already had to
cancel/Fail 4 trunks that night due to lack of drivers.

My next door neighbour who shunts for Wincantons, told me that loads are being cancelled/Failed every night due to lack of drivers at the Heinz
site in Wigan.

My own firm are currently very short of nightshift drivers and have been subbing out work to all sorts of other firms…due to not having enough of
their own drivers.

Have also noticed that in recent months, a lot of firms and agencies that used to demand a minimum of 2 years experience …have now reduced this requirement to 1 year minimum, 6 months experience…or they are even taking new passes…when previously they would not have entertained them.

I only passed my Class 1 in May, and already have a permanent job, and have been offered other permanent jobs despite being a newbie in Class 1.
Two other guys I know who are also newly-passed in Class 1 had multiple job offers…within days of passing their tests. This would not have happened a few years back.

I’m a cynic, and maybe this is only happening in the North-West of England (where there are a lot of firms and a lot of vacancies)…but it is looking like we could be seeing the start of a genuine driver shortage.

With CPC renewals due in 2019…and a lot of guys in their 60’s won’t bother renewing them. Also Brexit (hopefully) and an end to the tide of EE’s to
fill the gaps. Things look to be finally changing in Drivers’ favour. Firms will have to increase wages and improve conditions to keep their drivers.

Does look like we are beginning to see the start of a real driver shortage.

2

Lancsdriver70:
Does look like we are beginning to see the start of a real driver shortage.

Lancsdriver70:
every night due to lack of drivers

Seems as though many do not like driving nights

Perhaps the solution is to have more day jobs

3

If your firm is short of drivers why aren’t they asking you to work a 5th shift?

Or they are but you get more money on the agency. If that’s the case there is no shortage of drivers just rubbish pay at some full time jobs.

4

ROG:

Lancsdriver70:
Does look like we are beginning to see the start of a real driver shortage.

Lancsdriver70:
every night due to lack of drivers

Seems as though many do not like driving nights

Perhaps the solution is to have more day jobs

I think you’re probably right.

When you look on internet at the Class 1 job vacancies…75%+ are for night drivers.

At my firm there are no current vacancies on days, but we are short of at least 20 drivers on nights!

5

mrginge:
If your firm is short of drivers why aren’t they asking you to work a 5th shift?

Or they are but you get more money on the agency. If that’s the case there is no shortage of drivers just rubbish pay at some full time jobs.

Because of WTD?

6

TiredAndEmotional:

mrginge:
If your firm is short of drivers why aren’t they asking you to work a 5th shift?

Or they are but you get more money on the agency. If that’s the case there is no shortage of drivers just rubbish pay at some full time jobs.

Because of WTD?

As I’m a newbie to Class 1, I get bored doing the same trunk every night for my firm, so I do an extra shift some weeks for agency because it’s
a change… get to drive different trucks, drive to different places and experience something different.

Pay is similar for an agency shift to what I get at my firm.

7

TiredAndEmotional:

mrginge:
If your firm is short of drivers why aren’t they asking you to work a 5th shift?

Or they are but you get more money on the agency. If that’s the case there is no shortage of drivers just rubbish pay at some full time jobs.

Because of WTD?

Correct.

We’re not allowed at my firm to work more than an average of 48 hrs per week…which I already do.

8

This has been the case for years.

Any uncovered loads get subbed. Why does anyone think we have so many foreign lorries here covering domestic work?

If they were pinching our work there would be unemployed drivers…

If anyone thinks that Brexit will mean an end to foreign lorries on our roads, they are living in some strange parallel universe…

Big business and governments will not let the country starve.

9

Lancsdriver70:

TiredAndEmotional:

mrginge:
If your firm is short of drivers why aren’t they asking you to work a 5th shift?

Or they are but you get more money on the agency. If that’s the case there is no shortage of drivers just rubbish pay at some full time jobs.

Because of WTD?

Pay is similar for an agency shift to what I get at my firm.

Fair enough. Normally it seems the worst payers complaining the most about not having enough workers.

10

Firstly even in the darkest depths of the mid 1980’s recession it was night trunking which was the only real opportunity that I found in the day and which got me away from the low paid council driver job which itself had saved me from the dole since 1980.So night trunking being one of the jobs which many don’t want is nothing new.Although it’s obviously a much better option than local building deliveries or multi drop and the other dross out there which is why I stuck with it for 15 years.While hub system operations and speed limiters mean that night trunking no longer even has the upside of relatively short job and finish shifts paid at a premium.Then to add insult to injury the possibility of being ‘asked’ ( ordered ) to work in the warehouse while you’re not driving on many operations.

As for the so called driver ‘shortage’.Tell them that you’re looking for distance/international day work or bulk waste work and no multi drop.Then you’ll see if there’s really a ‘shortage’ of drivers.IE as ROG said the driver ‘shortage’ that you’re describing is just the same old same old of the less desirable jobs being difficult to fill.Which doesn’t fit the definition of a driver ‘shortage’ at all.

11

I guess the “driver shortage” might be different in different parts of the country.

I’d happily go back out driving again,did seriously consider it a few months ago,even applied for some jobs.
All of the jobs that was advertised through agencies didn’t exist.
All of the jobs advertised direct from companies with hourly rate promise of over £10 didn’t exist.

One company offered me £85 a day,no overtime rate,for up to 15 hour days.Doesn’t take a genius to figure out if that pay is legal.Oh,and that was night shift trunking or day shift multidrop…

Another company only took on new drivers as they wouldn’t pay anymore than minimum pay and had realized that experienced drivers would only take a job there as a quick stopgap.

When you don’t need a driving license,let alone HGV license,CPC,or any other qualifications to go and stack shelves in Lidl and get more than £10 an hour then the haulage businesses are sounding really unintelligent when they are crying out that they can’t get drivers to work for the same or even less than that…

I don’t think there’s a driver shortage,but there might be a shortage in companies paying enough to get employees…

I’m 40 years old,20 years driving experience,clean license,never had an accident.Sadly i think that was my downfall.

12

ROG:

Lancsdriver70:
Does look like we are beginning to see the start of a real driver shortage.

Lancsdriver70:
every night due to lack of drivers

Seems as though many do not like driving nights

Perhaps the solution is to have more day jobs

My thoughts exactly.

The idea that a wagon should be moving 24 hours a day is no more reasonable than that your home, or your bed, should be occupied 24 hours a day.

And there is no evidence of a shortage yet in terms of permanent pay or conditions improving appreciably. I might change my mind if curtainsider work starts paying as much as petrol during January and February, or if firms start providing proper planned rotas of work.

If there are still no drivers even once this game resembles a proper job at proper pay rates, then we will know drivers are short. :laughing:

13

If they can’t afford to pay a decent wage they should not be in any type of business or if they just don’t want to pay it then
It would be great to see lots of them go to the wall
It’s no more than they deserve

14

Wages at my firm are not bad at all. I get £592 per week (gross), that’s £30,784 p.a., for working just 4 x 12 hrs nights a week.

If I work a 5th shift some weeks for agency, I’m grossing well over £700 per week…yet we are still around 20 drivers short on nights!

15

I swear I was Cinderella in a past life, because I’m sure that if I’m ever in my carriage at midnight I swear it’ll turn into a pumpkin. That must never happen so that’s why I don’t work nights.

16

Lancsdriver70:
Wages at my firm are not bad at all. I get £592 per week (gross), that’s £30,784 p.a., for working just 4 x 12 hrs nights a week.

If I work a 5th shift some weeks for agency, I’m grossing well over £700 per week…yet we are still around 20 drivers short on nights!

This game has a warped sense of what is “not bad”.

To most people, nudging barely 10% over the average wage for working permanent nights, alone, and doing 20% more hours than the norm to boot, is not a cracking deal.

It actually sounds Dickensian or third-world now that I’ve written it down.

With the night work especially, it’s an exemplar of utterly crap pay and conditions.

17

I think its a select few who want to work nights anyway…i certainly do not…and its the same for weekend work…a lot of companies use a roster system or are salaried so that a new driver joining a company has to work weekends…i particularly do not…but here in the south, its possible to earn a weeks wage ( ■■ ) by working the weekend on agency…which sounds like a good proposition £15 per hour is quite normal with some agencies on day work.

18

Lancsdriver70:
Wages at my firm are not bad at all. I get £592 per week (gross), that’s £30,784 p.a., for working just 4 x 12 hrs nights a week.

If I work a 5th shift some weeks for agency, I’m grossing well over £700 per week…yet we are still around 20 drivers short on nights!

If that pay was for day shifts i’d say it wasn’t bad.For a night shift i’d say it’s appalling.
One thing is that it screws up your system when finishing a weeks work,but a whole different thing is how extremely bad shift work is for the human body.
If someone offered me £50 an hour to do it i’d still say no,simply won’t gamble with my health like that.

Anyone working nights,look in to what effects it has on your body,regardless of whether you feel fine or not.

19

truckyboy:
its possible to earn a weeks wage ( ■■ ) by working the weekend on agency…which sounds like a good proposition £15 per hour is quite normal with some agencies on day work.

back in the late 90’s and early 00’s the local rag was full of agencies offering £15/hr for saturdays and £20/hr for sundays - there were plenty of real shifts, mainly supermarket deliveries, I know it because i did it.
I took on a weekend only job direct with a tanker company which paid a bit less than those rates but without the hassle of shop deliveries and I could do 2 X 15 hour days with 2 nights out and run in for the day man to take over on monday morning. I felt I was on good money at the time and enjoyed the job.

The trouble is, that was 15 - 20 years ago and the cost of living has gone up but the rates haven’t (well they have but only back up to where they were).

if the rates today had risen with inflation or cost of living over the last 20 years then it is likely I would still be doing it but as it is I haven’t driven regularly for many years and it’s over 12 months since I last did any casual work or agency shifts.

If there is a driver shortage I’m pleased to be part of it, the industry deserves it.

20

The agency I use when I can’t find anything else has been begging me to work for them but money has always been the sticking point. They have upped it to £12 from £10 . Still got enough of my own though

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