Punchy Dan:
Don’t be put off Geoff ,with the right driver and good rates/ job it’s easy however I have to add for a good while you will be pulling your hair out feeling stressed comparing what you’d have done / got done with what the driver has done or not done after that once the driver has settled in take it steadier you self and let the slave/s earn you some money .
^^^this^^^
Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
chaversdad:
Careful how you come across in your post mate,im a 50 yr old owner driver who after 20+ is more than happy with my 1 truck, your no Eddie Stobart yet and your Barronwood days arent that far behind you
Fair point well made. Didn’t realise quite how dismissive of the 50 year old O/d I came across there. Nothing wrong with being happy with where you are, I just:
a) am looking for an exit strategy from driving.
b) am a sucker for punishment who should quit while ahead, or at least level.
Delete as appropriate.
kcrussell25:
Out of interest why can’t you get an orangutan/driver? I assume it is the money you are paying? Does it really then work out cheaper to train a driver up, what happens if he fails the test? Then pay the likely extra damage you get with a new driver (voice of experience) rather than put an extra quid or 2 on the hourly rate to get an experienced driver and save the damage and delays? Thats before you get your van driver his new licence, a few weeks experience and he buggers off and you have to start again. To be clear I am just a driver but am curious is all
I don’t think its the money. We are paying a decent wage for full time truck drivers.
Driver 1 dumped the truck at the yard on the Thursday of his first week having reported two defects on the Monday. One was a blown headlamp bulb which I told him where the tools and spare bulbs in the vehicle were so he could change it. He refused to do it but didn’t tell us that it was still out and used that to justify walking. The other defect was an ABS fault with the trailer. I asked him to swap out the suzie with the spare we carry and he refused to do that too but again, didn’t tell us so we didn’t know it hadn’t been resolved. Funny enough though when I got in the wagon on the Friday morning, the bulb was fine, just that the connection to the bulb terminals had been taken off so there was no electricity getting to it and the ABS fault was nowhere to be seen, the spare suzie is still sealed in the plastic bag it was bought in.
Driver 2 walked after 7 weeks. He just picked up the vehicle from inspection, took it back to the yard and cleared his stuff out. Blocked out numbers, ignored letters. We don’t even know if he is still alive, let alone why he left but I think it was that I couldn’t take the truck to inspection for him as I was still working on my own work that day and he didn’t like it. He was back fairly early on the Friday but he had to drop the trailer at the yard at Junction 31 before running up to the Renault dealer at 35. He told me to do it but I had a broken down van I had to deal with so had to get firm with him. I don’t think he liked not being able to boss me about.
Driver 3 didn’t like doing bricks. We explained that bricks are usually a small percentage of our work, its just that because he started late on his first day and the previous driver had come back empty so he had to go and load, (not to mention the vehicle had stood for a week before while I was driving the other one) we started late and couldn’t get back in line, we kept missing loading or unloading times at builders merchants because we were running 3 hours behind all week and were stuck in queues all the time. He was with us for four days too though that was our decision. We brought him back to the yard on the Thursday, told him to go and have a talk with SWMBO and make a decision when he said he was wanting to take another offer. I cut short my week to collect and load his trailer for the next week in case he said he would stay so we could hit the ground running in week 2 but he never came back. He had the decency to call us at least.
One of the drivers didn’t like the fact we had Renault Ts, which is crazy given the fact he is now driving a Mercedes Atego wagon and drag! One applicant also opened the conversation with, “So when are you getting rid of those bloody Renaults?” He didn’t like it when he didn’t make it to a face to face interview. Maybe drivers are a little put off by the diamond but they don’t seem to understand that the fact the truck is £5000.00 a year cheaper than a Scania is part of the reason why their salary is £3200 higher than the average for our area. Our package matches what the agency I last drove for pays, there aren’t many full time jobs that offer the same money as Agency!
I spoke to the insurance company with a view to speaking to all the HGV training companies in our area saying we will take a new pass. They agreed, subject to a higher excess, so I called around and a month later we still hadn’t heard from anyone. So we decided to train one of our van drivers and one of my brothers friends had been asking for a while about becoming a driver so we took him on and paid for both of their training. They are contracted for two years and one months salary equates to the cost of the training, so if they do walk in that time, the contract agrees that we keep their last months salary to pay the cost of their training. I see it as a lower risk way of getting drivers in, and with the van driver, (who already thinks we are pretty good,) the fact that we have paid for his training and given him a qualification he wouldn’t have been able to afford to do himself has boosted his loyalty to the company.
I think its a win-win for them and us.
I hope it works out for you, I think you’ve had a run of bad luck there with drivers. It is very hard to work out at an interview if they are a superstar or a muppet.
My opinion- Never Again. [emoji12]
I know one bloke who I would consider but he swaps jobs more often than a ■■■■■ steps out of her pants.
That’s a sad thought that after 40 odd years in an industry I love, I feel like this. How about you talking to a couple of owner drivers to join you but you keep a percentage for admin and office facilities?
Wheel Nut:
That’s a sad thought that after 40 odd years in an industry I love, I feel like this.
I think it’s an age thing Wheel Nut. I have genuinely loved my time doing it and if I was young would do it all over. However the last two years have been difficult due to a shift in corporate culture with my main customer from having a family feel despite it being a big firm, to hard corporate with a good dollop of bs served on the side.
Not so much an age thing in itself, more a case of time served I reckon. I’ve had drivers most of the time I’ve been in business, when I started out first time around in 93 I took over the haulage for the company I was driving for and inherited a driver, who promptly left as working alongside him I knew all his fiddles!
Then I got into hire and reward stuff and had drivers, different times then and I had lots of cash in hand casual drivers, never had a problem getting a driver to work a shift, then the company I was working for was bought out and I had some history with the new owners, it wasn’t good history as I ended up in the back of a police car and the owner’s son ended up in casualty, so that resulted in 6 lorries working hard on Friday and parked up with nothing to do on the Monday. I managed to find work going over the water and that lasted a couple of years until the law changed in regard to running home in France on a Sunday. That killed the job and I sold the lot in a tantrum and got a job. Unbelievably it was for the firm whose son I had the problem with, we had kissed and made up obviously. Then a spell road testing and writing for TRUCK magazine before taking the plunge again.
Boy was it different second time around, decent drivers were hard to find and I went through a lot of animals until I got a decent crew. I bought new lorries and paid a little bit more than the competition and the drivers I had made life easy for me, every one of them was the type of driver you would send out on a first job for a new important customer. Then the big green machine came along and took my best work away, so in another tantrum I wound things down and sold the lot.
This time instead of getting a long term job, I did a few things to keep busy until I emigrated, I bought another lorry when my immigration status allowed me to and the second one soon followed. I’ve got a decent driver on that one, not perfect, but I’m happy with him and wish I could clone him. I can get plenty of work, so could easily put more lorries on the road and I would like to, I’m not getting any younger and would like to work less, plus I would earn more money, but it’s such a gamble nowadays and it’s all about getting good drivers, the wrong driver will cost you dearly and the cost of a lorry these days means you don’t have the luxury of parking it up while you find a decent driver for it. My current philosophy is to find the driver first, then get the lorry.
Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
No matter how long you have been a transport manager, boss, or company owner, recruitment of drivers is one of the hardest parts of the job to get right. Some candidates interview very well, but turn out to be not as impressive when doing the job. Others might not interview at all well but actually prove to be very good. Even recommendations from other employed drivers can be “iffy”. I set one candidate on last year who came with a file full of every conceivable certificate for any and every aspect of the job, and driving, you can think of, including a full Transport Manager’s CPC. Aged about 50 he had done traffic office planning, the lot…but he was completely hopeless and went within a month.
I don’t believe that any employee comes to work to deliberately cause damage or be incompetent, but some people are accident prone, careless, ham-fisted, call it what you will. Many years ago I had a driver who was helpful, pleasant, and a nice chap, but he was accident prone. Always having minor bumps and scrapes, nothing really serious until one morning in the new depot we had recently moved into I heard a crash and a bang outside the traffic office and this driver had been spinning round in the yard and the back of his trailer had knocked over a lamp post and demolished a fuel pump on the refuelling island. He had to go after that one incident too many. A few months after that mishap I learned that he had been involved in a double fatality accident for which he was eventually held to be responsible for.
^^^ for these reasons i’ve always wanted a drivers insurance claim record to be linked to the driving licence, so available to all potential employers just as the driving licence inspection is.
This would stop the wreckers flitting about leaving a long trail of destruction in their wake, ok those incidents not subject to insurance claims might not be available but the very worst would be there for a potential employers info, if they then decide it’s worth the risk, well that’s up to the employer.
No i don’t suppose any driver starts off with bad intentions, but i’ve seen drivers end up hating a job (in some cases really good jobs and it’s them just being arses) so much they have no care about anything that happens, weird really if the job affects you that badly just bloody leave, and if its the industry find another, why put yourself through misery 
There’s a very very small handful of drivers i will recommend for a job, i work with one such and we’ve been mates and working together due to this since the 80’s, if a job goes ■■■■ up for some reason (usually redundancy) whichever of us lands on a good number gets the other in, i would only recommend someone who i would employ myself, this lad i probably the most professional driver i know, never had a bump since i’ve known him, never pulled a sickie either.
Wheel Nut:
How about you talking to a couple of owner drivers to join you but you keep a percentage for admin and office facilities?
I’m considering this.
Juddian:
^^^ for these reasons i’ve always wanted a drivers insurance claim record to be linked to the driving licence, so available to all potential employers just as the driving licence inspection is.This would stop the wreckers flitting about leaving a long trail of destruction in their wake, ok those incidents not subject to insurance claims might not be available but the very worst would be there for a potential employers info, if they then decide it’s worth the risk, well that’s up to the employer.
No i don’t suppose any driver starts off with bad intentions, but i’ve seen drivers end up hating a job (in some cases really good jobs and it’s them just being arses) so much they have no care about anything that happens, weird really if the job affects you that badly just bloody leave, and if its the industry find another, why put yourself through misery
There’s a very very small handful of drivers i will recommend for a job, i work with one such and we’ve been mates and working together due to this since the 80’s, if a job goes ■■■■ up for some reason (usually redundancy) whichever of us lands on a good number gets the other in, i would only recommend someone who i would employ myself, this lad i probably the most professional driver i know, never had a bump since i’ve known him, never pulled a sickie either.
I had a fitter once. Told me that I was paying him for what he knew and not to get dirty. The conversation after that comment was short and sweet.
They are among us sadly. A comment made on another thread was that it is like playing “whack-a-mole”. Once one clown has been beaten out of the place, another one steps up to fill his shoes.
Genuinely, I have never worked in an industry where grown men behave like babies. It’s an embarrassment. The best of it is - these morons think they are worth £20.00 an hour + 
I had an application from a driver by phone the other day. His opening words were ‘Alright Chap.’ Immediately put me on the no-go side of things.
Once he had ascertained he was speaking to ‘The man’ - His words, he immediately got to the important questions. Did he ask hours? Did he ask pay? Did he ask Holiday Entitlement? No, the first question he asked was, “So, when are you getting rid of them bloody Renaults?”
Of course I countered with the usual, “what would you rather have, a bit of chrome on the sun visor or £60 a week more in your pocket?” which got him listening to me when I said, “Ill tell you what, Ill get Martin in the office to give you a call, arrange a date and time, and if he can find a single redeeming feature in you, we might give you a try.” I think he realised then that he had blown his shot because he became rather apologetic.
This is the problem with drivers these days though, they figure out they are talking to the owner of the company so they come out with that sort of insulting bolix and still think they have a chance of a job.
nsmith1180:
I had an application from a driver by phone the other day. His opening words were ‘Alright Chap.’ Immediately put me on the no-go side of things.Once he had ascertained he was speaking to ‘The man’ - His words, he immediately got to the important questions. Did he ask hours? Did he ask pay? Did he ask Holiday Entitlement? No, the first question he asked was, “So, when are you getting rid of them bloody Renaults?”
Of course I countered with the usual, “what would you rather have, a bit of chrome on the sun visor or £60 a week more in your pocket?” which got him listening to me when I said, “Ill tell you what, Ill get Martin in the office to give you a call, arrange a date and time, and if he can find a single redeeming feature in you, we might give you a try.” I think he realised then that he had blown his shot because he became rather apologetic.
This is the problem with drivers these days though, they figure out they are talking to the owner of the company so they come out with that sort of insulting bolix and still think they have a chance of a job.
Never tell them you are the gaffer, either on the phone or on the road, you get a far better perspective when their guard is down, the ■■■■■■■■ flows if they feel on safe ground, or not if they are genuine & decent ….