muckles:
The company has found it difficult to recruit drivers, so they’re trying various solutions, such as in house training, recruiting ex forces, and 1 Romanian.But what’s the headline?
County Durham distribution firm imports drivers from Europe.
1 too many. 
So there’s a shortage of drivers, they don’t want newly qualified drivers and they can’t recruit experienced ones so they’ve hired European guy. Sounds like they want everything but not pay for it.
Captain Caveman 76:
So there’s a shortage of drivers, they don’t want newly qualified drivers and they can’t recruit experienced ones so they’ve hired European guy. Sounds like they want everything but not pay for it.
They clearly do want inexperienced/newly qualified drivers, they’ve set up a training program for them. They wouldn’t have set that up if they didn’t want them.
Stillers is still a family run firm they take agency drivers then after 13 weeks if you still there & everything ok they take you on they do use a couple different agency btw
The salary for full time is about £26k on nights which is quite easy pick unit & trailer up drive to said depot ( there are a few ) open curtains undo straps then wait till unloaded then reloaded driver back fuel up park up go home
It’s nothing new. DHL was recruiting in Poland last year for Sainsbury’s contract.
seth 70:
If i used stillers to deliver my stuff ,after reading that bollox im afraid to say id blow them out and find somebody else
Probably why you ain’t running a company, most of their customers won’t care less.
been done before didnt eurohaul in teeside do the same with turkish drivers as they could double man for half the cost of 1 uk driver.
They cant be the only company recruiting from the east for drivers. Considering a lot of them in europe are on between €300-€600 a month, and away for months on end, it comes at no surprise that they’d jump at a chance for £7.50ph and a lot better working conditions. I know of a company (next door) that has recruited 50 Hungarians to run concrete into the tunnels this year and there working for a lot less then i do.
if the money and job is that good they would have no problem recruiting.
if ramage transport and fergusons etc can get drivers why are they struggling?
Years ago when the only Polish drivers you came across were actually driving Polish registered trucks Stillers led the way in importing Polish drivers to drive their motors.Iirc they rented a few houses around the Darlington area to house them and they also charged these guys to attend English classes.
Foreign drivers in UK trucks was still a rarity in them days and as I was on tankers too I had quite a bit of interaction with them and found them without exception to be decent hard working guys, obviously they had a slightly different take on things as I once witnessed at Tees Storage when two of them had their gas cooker out between their motors making dinner! That went down well. 
Can’t blame the people coming here to better there living but the system stinks to allow firms to take advantage.
the maoster:
Years ago when the only Polish drivers you came across were actually driving Polish registered trucks Stillers led the way in importing Polish drivers to drive their motors.Iirc they rented a few houses around the Darlington area to house them and they also charged these guys to attend English classes.
are you getting mixed up with John Dickinsons as that was there setup? I worked as a subby for stillers and dont recall them ever doing that
Coffeeholic:
Captain Caveman 76:
So there’s a shortage of drivers, they don’t want newly qualified drivers and they can’t recruit experienced ones so they’ve hired European guy. Sounds like they want everything but not pay for it.They clearly do want inexperienced/newly qualified drivers, they’ve set up a training program for them. They wouldn’t have set that up if they didn’t want them.
Fair point, I misread that part of the article and skipped the next paragraph (which explained the training programme) because I was so annoyed at newly qualified drives being unwanted (which they aren’t).
But the point remains, if they can’t attract the experienced drivers they want, they should really be looking at the package they’re offering.
Captain Caveman 76:
Coffeeholic:
Captain Caveman 76:
So there’s a shortage of drivers, they don’t want newly qualified drivers and they can’t recruit experienced ones so they’ve hired European guy. Sounds like they want everything but not pay for it.They clearly do want inexperienced/newly qualified drivers, they’ve set up a training program for them. They wouldn’t have set that up if they didn’t want them.
Fair point, I misread that part of the article and skipped the next paragraph (which explained the training programme) because I was so annoyed at newly qualified drives being unwanted (which they aren’t).
But the point remains, if they can’t attract the experienced drivers they want, they should really be looking at the package they’re offering.
But they dont need to “look at the package”, they have an abundance of a cheap labour force from the East End of Europe.
Vote UKIP in May if you are unhappy with the above situation.
Harry Monk:
Instead of just bellyaching about it, get down the polling station in May and vote UKIP.
+1
Ken.
chaversdad:
the maoster:
Years ago when the only Polish drivers you came across were actually driving Polish registered trucks Stillers led the way in importing Polish drivers to drive their motors.Iirc they rented a few houses around the Darlington area to house them and they also charged these guys to attend English classes.are you getting mixed up with John Dickinsons as that was there setup? I worked as a subby for stillers and dont recall them ever doing that
Well I’m not sure of the general side of the business but it was definitely the case on the tankers. They started them off on that Billingham to Wilton acid shuttle and if they didn’t kill anyone they put them on GP tanks. I worked at Imperial at the time and one of there ex drivers, Peter the Pole (original eh?) was telling me how it all worked.
You are quite correct about Dickies though. Maybe Paul Stiller and him were mates and shared the idea?
Ah fair one then mate, i never had anything to do with the tanker side of things i was on the general side
Shoshaye:
yorkshire terrier:
I would bet that the Romanians are on the same money but to them it will be a fortune.
They have come here for one reason and that’s to work so they will work till they drop and not moan about it.
It’s a sad state of british transport.That’s bang on. The lazy British are at fault. If ppl worked there wouldn’t be any jobs.
Half witted statements like this really p me off.
If the wages are poor, then the “lazy British” won’t work there because it not worth their while. Similarly most Brits don’t want to work 15 hours a day everyday. Not because they are lazy but because there is more to life than driving a truck.
I drive a lorry because my kids need feeding and a roof over their heads. Your point is what?
Shoshaye:
I drive a lorry because my kids need feeding and a roof over their heads. Your point is what?
My point is you accuse the British of being lazy just because they don’t want to work for rubbish pay.
