Scottish specialist training firm Ritchies HGV Training Centre has collapsed into administration with dozens of employees made redundant.
Michelle Elliot and Callum Carmichael at business advisory firm FRP were appointed as joint administrators to the company on Tuesday (28 May).
The Glasgow-based firm was founded in 1983 and offered training for lorry drivers in the haulage industry, as well as for construction plant and forklift operators.
Sad for those involved
Yes, but probably not unexpected. Most of the driving schools near me have been laying off trainers and selling vehicles for a while now.
Never having been to a training school, apart from BSM for my car licence, I have no idea why that should be. Does no-one want to learn any more?
Why is that? ![:thinking: :thinking:](https://emoji.discourse-cdn.com/twitter/thinking.png?v=12)
I was just talking about HGV schools.
Most HGV schools expanded when the government fairly successfully sold the idea of “the driver shortage”, plus there is the government “bootcamp” idea, so you’ve got a lot of people who kinda like the idea of being a driver but expect to get it for free.
Result is we’ve got a massive glut of new passes, many of whom are car-to-artic, many have little motivation to “cut their teeth” in the traditional way, most with their heads filled with unrealistic expectations of the available opportunities to work, the type of vehicle they will be offered to drive, and the remuneration that goes with it. Needless to say employers aren’t bowled over by this combination.
Consequently, word has gotten around now, mostly via FB etc, that many of these new passes are struggling to get a chance of a start anywhere and are not seeing the wages they were suckered into expecting because they believed everything they read.
In my area (north east) we’re stowed off with potential job applicants, anyone planning on doing their training now really needs some kind of guaranteed opportunity at the end of it. The school I have links to are now down from four full-time driver trainers to one, and have sold off more than 50% of their vehicles.
I had no idea, but thanks for that update.
There is another cause of my ignorance though and that is down to TN and its recent transformation. Before the original went into a tailspin I had just 4 or 5 categories that came up on my screen, now I have been plunged into every thread update going and the result has been a bit of an eye-opener.
![:rofl: :rofl:](https://emoji.discourse-cdn.com/twitter/rofl.png?v=12)
You for instance, I had never heard of (unless, like some, me included but 20 years ago, have had their pseudos forcibly changed) and I see you have been here for around 6 years whereas I thought most of my friends and acquaintences dated in some cases back to 2003, the start of the known universe. ![:rofl: :rofl:](https://emoji.discourse-cdn.com/twitter/rofl.png?v=12)