Just popped out the noob pit here…
There is no shortage at all, its being spouted so as to flood the market and ultimately force wages/standards down as it seems haulage rates ain’t gonna change so how can you lower costs…exactly.
If there is such a shortage why are there little to no options for funding/training…exactly.
Dolph : illegal immigration has nothing to do with driver over supply . these people dont have licences !
Iillegals are because EU doesnt implemen rules properly , as we have no borders with these countries they can only get here through confounded EU .
Driver over supply has EVERYTHING to do with east europe , at our place there are NO french , germans , dutch , swedes etc . there is 2 spanish , and literally dozens of ex soviets . they are the people who have kept our wages on the floor .
And the only reason ex sovs are here is a political stitch up we werent party too .
Benjie83:
Just popped out the noob pit here…There is no shortage at all, its being spouted so as to flood the market and ultimately force wages/standards down as it seems haulage rates ain’t gonna change so how can you lower costs…exactly.
If there is such a shortage why are there little to no options for funding/training…exactly.
When i started driving there was a shortage . we still had to pay for our training etc , but because there was short supply of drivers it was easy to get a first job .
One thing insurers should do is ask for UK driving experience . then there would be no advantage in employing foreigners , because they would have no experience either .
Sorry to tell you , but u have joined one of the worst industries in the country .
boredwivdrivin:
Dolph : illegal immigration has nothing to do with driver over supply . these people dont have licences !Iillegals are because EU doesnt implemen rules properly , as we have no borders with these countries they can only get here through confounded EU .
Driver over supply has EVERYTHING to do with east europe , at our place there are NO french , germans , dutch , swedes etc . there is 2 spanish , and literally dozens of ex soviets . they are the people who have kept our wages on the floor .
And the only reason ex sovs are here is a political stitch up we werent party too .
Great Britain Governments were the main reason Eastern European countries were accepted into EU, so yes you were party of!
How your idea of replacing EE drivers with west Indians is any better then the current situation.
When you gonna drop this BS about ex soviet, we are independent countries in the East each one with her own identity. And for the record most Eastern European countries were never part of USSR, but I doubt you know or care about it.
I certainly dont want to replace ex soviets with west indians .
But i dont like them being discriminated against in a racist way by saying they are more foreign than romanians .
They should be treated equally with any other non english
boredwivdrivin:
I certainly dont want to replace ex soviets with west indians .But i dont like them being discriminated against in a racist way by saying they are more foreign than romanians .
They should be treated equally with any other non english
Discriminated in racist way, how, UK has more Indians then the whole of Europe combined.
No they can not be treated equally because you are in EU and second because England is not independent country in a sense of sovereign state.
boredwivdrivin:
I certainly dont want to replace ex soviets with west indians .But i dont like them being discriminated against in a racist way by saying they are more foreign than romanians .
They should be treated equally with any other non english
So you are equally racist? 
albion:
Winseer:
Putting my Devil’s Advocate hat on for a minute - Has anyone considered that what we refer to as “The Management” (Ie what are really middle management) are merely a buffer zone between the real management (rarely leaving their Ivory Towers) who make the policies that we all hate so much as drivers?(1) A driver is expected to work more than 40 hours per week as standard without paid meal breaks, or in some cases - unpaid POA too. Management class would be expected to work 35-40 hours per week with paid breaks, fully paid sick, and no penalties for failures.
I pay through breaks and POA. On a ferry guaranteed 12 hours if it’s a full day sailing, thats 8 hours standard time and 4 hours overtime. I self-insure for my sick pay, I can’t remember the last time I did less than 50 hours, often more. If I fail, I lose my house - that’s my definition of a penalty.
(2) A driver is expected to answer the phone from the office/planners whilst out on the road. If a hands-free kit is not installed in the cab by the company - then presumably, one is expected to pull over (not always possible) and answer one’s own mobile phone. Looking for somewhere to pull in every time the damned phone rings - is stressful to say the least. A lot of the time it’s going to ring with all those bull messages about PPI and whatnot. Surely a better, safer, and legal option is to switch the damned thing off, or don’t even take one with you? - Think back to what we did when we HAD no mobiles as part of our daily clothing…
I rarely ring the drivers. Sometimes when they are abroad, I ring them just so they know they are being thought of!
(3) If a driver seriously injures or kills someone - all too often the firm attempts to cut them loose, resulting in a floundering driver sometimes bringing down the company with it - no one wins. A driver can expect to go to jail or be heavily personally fined for their sins. Not so anyone behind management policy that might have “institutionalized” a serious risk into common work practice, eg. “planning” drivers to work 15 hour shifts…
If a driver were to seriously injure/kill someone ( *touching wood here), we’d stand by them. Never having been in that situation, we don’t have any experience. However, when we had 18 migrants int he back of a trailer and the drivers said, ‘are we going to get done’, the first words out of my mouth were, ‘don’t worry, we’ll cover the fines’. In theory if someone is killed, I can face Corporate manslaughter charges).
I had two drivers on an overnight run once that finished around 08.00 in the middle of France when it was hot weather. They did their 9 hours off and one rang somewhat grumpily, ‘it’s been too hot, I’ve had no sleep’. so i told them to go and find a hotel and kick off in the morning. I’ve no interest in a driver driving tired. I don’t underestimate the sometimes brutal hours, I’ve done a ■■■■ sight more in my mis-spent youth.
(4) How often is a driver pestered on their daily rest or even weekly rest? - Who makes that decision? Is a driver in trouble if, they for some reason, "cannot be contacted when off the premises?
Rarely. when we do, its’ because something has changed that is out of our hands.
(5) Why has so much encouragement gone into employing drivers with foreign licences (often obtained with a much lower standard of driving than uk drivers) - but too little effort is made in training up full time staff to C+E standard, especially female staff - all whom have good car driving records…?
i don’t employ any foreign drivers. From a small hauliers perspective, I like the idea of giving a youngster a chance, but shelling out for training and a licence and then facing them leaving, is too expensive for us. Doesn’t matter how many clauses you have in a contract about them staying, they may not and recovering the money would be hard work. i don’t think that many women want to go into haulage - and I say that as a woman with a large circle of female friends - they just don’t fancy it.
(6) Why are we not going to our own docks more to pick up imports/take export stuff to? Who made that decision? - Bet it wasn’t “middle management”!
(7) Trampers should be paid a lot more than £25-£30 “night out money” for the inconvenience of “inputting their entire life” into the job. Why are trampers paid less than weekday night drivers in so many places? - If middle management could chuck THIS kind of endemic policy into the bin - I’m sure they’d have a lot less bother recruiting and retaining drivers… Once again - I suggest this idea had nothing to do with “middle management” - It’s Ivory Tower Policy, and political in the way that decision was originally made…
As I said on an earlier thread, we spend a lot on hotel bills ( admittedly a quirk of our work). I’m not sure where I stand on this. It never bothered when I was driving, I’d wander off if i was in an area I could do and go for a mooch, and the night out money more than covered any costs. I do see your point, just not sure what the answer is.
(8) Why have laws been made to severely limit the power of a striking driver - but not to limit the unsafe practices of a manager who may well have a lapsed licence - if that - who is expected to jump into a cab they are “rusty” with driving at best - at full danger to themselves, company property, and the public alike? - All to make sure that striking drivers “never achieve anything” by their already emasculated actions?
No issue with limiting unsafe practices, I run legal. From a purely personal perspective, my drivers can go on strike if they want. I’d finish the firm though. On the other hand they seem pretty content, so it’s unlikely to happen. i don’t like bullying management, I don’t like bullying drivers - at least I’m consistent.
(9) Why don’t haulier firms provide state-of-the-art health care to staff? - Having a driver collapse at the wheel often has collateral damage on the public too, as the Glasgow Dustcart case demonstrated. Free BUPA-Style health care would have picked up any dodgy ailments early - and pensioned that driver off, rather than encourage them to keep stumn lest they just be given the boot for being unlucky enough to develop a dodgy medical condition…
Not enough money in the job. I don’t take care of myself.
All in all, I’m sure very few suits would put up with the bull they hurl at the footsoldiers in this, and some other businesses too.
If the shortage continues unabated, in a few year’s time this entire body of people may well be far more militant foreigners with an axe to grind - that won’t be so easily ignored by the very people that employed them over the incumbent, but outgoing drivers currently doing the job, average age 54 by this point…
FWIW, I think drivers are underpaid. The shortage may see pay being pushed up, it should do. On the other hand, if we get another crash or a period of deflation, there may be more drivers than work available.
I appreciate what you’re attempting in trying to run it straight, do the right thing, be a good boss AND make some money for the firm - I can’t see how you can reconcile all these factors in though, the business being what it is nowdays. In my mind, it should not be the marketplace that a small yard pushes back against - it’s those who bring in the daft rules that stop one kind of corner cutting, but fully allow another, far more dangerous thing to endemically take place. Eg. if a driver gets held up on their way to the docks (let’s say Calais) they might well end up weekending on the wrong side of the channel in a layby where they’re likely to get mugged - because EU law says you can’t drive on the roads at all at weekends? So the driver is in mortal danger and the haulier running up higher costs - because of a stupid rule of the EU?
Meanwhile… Some other driver has done 3 15 hour shifts on the spin, is about to reach his 13 hour limit on the 4th, before pulling up, and popping their card. They ask for someone to come out and get them, rather than take a 45 weekly rest in some middle of nowhere place for which they are not prepared for (not a tramper!) - Does the yard send someone out to taxi them home? - I would argue that it’s not enshrined in law to do so, so it doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should - all the time.
All in all, I would argue that the hauliers that are struggling with the daft legislations already in place - are the most likely to fail over the next decade.
The Ivory Tower Masters of the Universe (this type clearly isn’t yourself as a small yard boss) are not only making money, but manage to keep their distance from falling foul of the law when things go wrong, and EVERY policy as made by them is designed to “resist paying out company money for anything” whilst at the same time “cut as many corners as legally possible” to get that revenue stream maxed out at all times.
I suspect the firm Maritime of being a strong contender for this kind of thing btw. Another firm such as Salvesons used to have a good reputation with drivers. The taking over by Nobbies - the thing seems to have gone to “Neutral” and now Nobbies have been taken over by XPO - I’ve yet to hear any “Reputations” at all so far… I have misgivings about “Bigger being better” you might say, so remain suspicious.
Firms may attempt getting quality staff on salaries with open-ended hours OR high hourly rates with flat shifts all the time - but rarely the best mix of the two which is a high hourly rate that rewards you for being stuck - but continuing to play it straight. Not so much “Hanging it out” - but just “Not bloody rush rush rush all the time to make some deadline that really should not be being pushed upto so close all the time.”
I first got my C+E licence in 1991. I was told I could not drive for another firm after they paid for the training for five years. Wasn’t a problem, as at the time I was viewing my place at Royal Mail as a “Job for Life” as we did back in the 90’s recession, when RM was the best job around to be had… After five years, I did a bit of agency work in my holidays, but that was stamped out when the RTD came into force. RM made you sign a chit saying that you were “not driving anywhere else” this week past and future… Restrictive perhaps, but at the same time - sensible - so everyone went along with it.
I reckon yards such as yours need to stop feeling vulnerable to their drivers having been highly trained - and then leaving for more money at the end of say, the training and 2 years experience having been gained.
STICK IT IN THE CONTRACT! - and more importantly, don’t offer these contracts which effectively guarantee work for 5 years as well - to the “always off on sickie” or “sidestepping the unpopular job” kind of drivers to start with… 
In these days of ever diminishing Union power - wouldn’t it surely be better for all small yards and their drivers to enter into some kind of covenant where they look out for each other? Drivers that like their boss and would do anything for them in the name of flexibility except run bent - and bosses that would only make a reasonable request of a driver who’s in the best position to solve the problem at hand…?
I can’t help feeling that Overtime payments and “friendly duty rotas” would go a long way to achieving such a bond between firm and driver.
Winseer, I always like your posts, they’rd reasoned through and articulate.
I completely agree that too many regulations are enacted by people that have no idea of the impact of their pen pushing. We had one stuck on the road in Calais, not double-manned, spent 8 hours standing about 5 mile out of Calais, then the gendarmes had him shunting through the night to the tunnel. Finally pulled over this side with 24 hours on the card!!! So I can very much relate to your example.
I pretty much loathe the big companies for the way they grind rates down. I’ve said before, if you are Stobbies, Wincanton, XPO, whoever, your diesel, your trucks, your admin costs are going to be much the same; the only thing you .can try to manipulate is wages, so they do and once the benchmark has been set, everyone else is tied to it.
Unfortunately the consumer led trend of supporting the local coffee shop over Costa hasn’t translated to business. Big business increasingly likes to deal with other big businesses, they speak the same MBA language and they have a uniformity they find comforting.
As for training new drivers, I hear what you say, but we haven’t had problems getting people and secondly I feel I did my bit when I took a 23 and a 24 year old on. Sleepless nights ensued, though they’ve both turned out really well. There is another reason, but it’s not something for a public forum.
albion:
Winseer:
Putting my Devil’s Advocate hat on for a minute - Has anyone considered that what we refer to as “The Management” (Ie what are really middle management) are merely a buffer zone between the real management (rarely leaving their Ivory Towers) who make the policies that we all hate so much as drivers?(1) A driver is expected to work more than 40 hours per week as standard without paid meal breaks, or in some cases - unpaid POA too. Management class would be expected to work 35-40 hours per week with paid breaks, fully paid sick, and no penalties for failures.
I pay through breaks and POA. On a ferry guaranteed 12 hours if it’s a full day sailing, thats 8 hours standard time and 4 hours overtime. I self-insure for my sick pay, I can’t remember the last time I did less than 50 hours, often more. If I fail, I lose my house - that’s my definition of a penalty.
(2) A driver is expected to answer the phone from the office/planners whilst out on the road. If a hands-free kit is not installed in the cab by the company - then presumably, one is expected to pull over (not always possible) and answer one’s own mobile phone. Looking for somewhere to pull in every time the damned phone rings - is stressful to say the least. A lot of the time it’s going to ring with all those bull messages about PPI and whatnot. Surely a better, safer, and legal option is to switch the damned thing off, or don’t even take one with you? - Think back to what we did when we HAD no mobiles as part of our daily clothing…
I rarely ring the drivers. Sometimes when they are abroad, I ring them just so they know they are being thought of!
(3) If a driver seriously injures or kills someone - all too often the firm attempts to cut them loose, resulting in a floundering driver sometimes bringing down the company with it - no one wins. A driver can expect to go to jail or be heavily personally fined for their sins. Not so anyone behind management policy that might have “institutionalized” a serious risk into common work practice, eg. “planning” drivers to work 15 hour shifts…
If a driver were to seriously injure/kill someone ( *touching wood here), we’d stand by them. Never having been in that situation, we don’t have any experience. However, when we had 18 migrants int he back of a trailer and the drivers said, ‘are we going to get done’, the first words out of my mouth were, ‘don’t worry, we’ll cover the fines’. In theory if someone is killed, I can face Corporate manslaughter charges).
I had two drivers on an overnight run once that finished around 08.00 in the middle of France when it was hot weather. They did their 9 hours off and one rang somewhat grumpily, ‘it’s been too hot, I’ve had no sleep’. so i told them to go and find a hotel and kick off in the morning. I’ve no interest in a driver driving tired. I don’t underestimate the sometimes brutal hours, I’ve done a ■■■■ sight more in my mis-spent youth.
(4) How often is a driver pestered on their daily rest or even weekly rest? - Who makes that decision? Is a driver in trouble if, they for some reason, "cannot be contacted when off the premises?
Rarely. when we do, its’ because something has changed that is out of our hands.
(5) Why has so much encouragement gone into employing drivers with foreign licences (often obtained with a much lower standard of driving than uk drivers) - but too little effort is made in training up full time staff to C+E standard, especially female staff - all whom have good car driving records…?
i don’t employ any foreign drivers. From a small hauliers perspective, I like the idea of giving a youngster a chance, but shelling out for training and a licence and then facing them leaving, is too expensive for us. Doesn’t matter how many clauses you have in a contract about them staying, they may not and recovering the money would be hard work. i don’t think that many women want to go into haulage - and I say that as a woman with a large circle of female friends - they just don’t fancy it.
(6) Why are we not going to our own docks more to pick up imports/take export stuff to? Who made that decision? - Bet it wasn’t “middle management”!
(7) Trampers should be paid a lot more than £25-£30 “night out money” for the inconvenience of “inputting their entire life” into the job. Why are trampers paid less than weekday night drivers in so many places? - If middle management could chuck THIS kind of endemic policy into the bin - I’m sure they’d have a lot less bother recruiting and retaining drivers… Once again - I suggest this idea had nothing to do with “middle management” - It’s Ivory Tower Policy, and political in the way that decision was originally made…
As I said on an earlier thread, we spend a lot on hotel bills ( admittedly a quirk of our work). I’m not sure where I stand on this. It never bothered when I was driving, I’d wander off if i was in an area I could do and go for a mooch, and the night out money more than covered any costs. I do see your point, just not sure what the answer is.
(8) Why have laws been made to severely limit the power of a striking driver - but not to limit the unsafe practices of a manager who may well have a lapsed licence - if that - who is expected to jump into a cab they are “rusty” with driving at best - at full danger to themselves, company property, and the public alike? - All to make sure that striking drivers “never achieve anything” by their already emasculated actions?
No issue with limiting unsafe practices, I run legal. From a purely personal perspective, my drivers can go on strike if they want. I’d finish the firm though. On the other hand they seem pretty content, so it’s unlikely to happen. i don’t like bullying management, I don’t like bullying drivers - at least I’m consistent.
(9) Why don’t haulier firms provide state-of-the-art health care to staff? - Having a driver collapse at the wheel often has collateral damage on the public too, as the Glasgow Dustcart case demonstrated. Free BUPA-Style health care would have picked up any dodgy ailments early - and pensioned that driver off, rather than encourage them to keep stumn lest they just be given the boot for being unlucky enough to develop a dodgy medical condition…
Not enough money in the job. I don’t take care of myself.
All in all, I’m sure very few suits would put up with the bull they hurl at the footsoldiers in this, and some other businesses too.
If the shortage continues unabated, in a few year’s time this entire body of people may well be far more militant foreigners with an axe to grind - that won’t be so easily ignored by the very people that employed them over the incumbent, but outgoing drivers currently doing the job, average age 54 by this point…
FWIW, I think drivers are underpaid. The shortage may see pay being pushed up, it should do. On the other hand, if we get another crash or a period of deflation, there may be more drivers than work available.
Wow you actually sound like a good employer unlike the rest of them out there, as a driver its rare to feel that your boss actually cares for you! Your always pushed to your limits and boarder line legal!
albion:
FWIW, I think drivers are underpaid. The shortage may see pay being pushed up, it should do. On the other hand, if we get another crash or a period of deflation, there may be more drivers than work available.
You sound like you run a tight ship. Got any jobs going? :L (ignoring the fact I’d probably be travelling 2 hours to work)
htmldude:
albion:
FWIW, I think drivers are underpaid. The shortage may see pay being pushed up, it should do. On the other hand, if we get another crash or a period of deflation, there may be more drivers than work available.You sound like you run a tight ship. Got any jobs going? :L (ignoring the fact I’d probably be travelling 2 hours to work)
I’m not allowed to take anyone on until Benjie has a job with us! 
It’s fairly rare anyone leaves Tbh, and we expanded a bit last year, I don’t think we’ll be looking to grow this year.
albion:
Winseer, I always like your posts, they’rd reasoned through and articulate.I completely agree that too many regulations are enacted by people that have no idea of the impact of their pen pushing. We had one stuck on the road in Calais, not double-manned, spent 8 hours standing about 5 mile out of Calais, then the gendarmes had him shunting through the night to the tunnel. Finally pulled over this side with 24 hours on the card!!! So I can very much relate to your example.
I pretty much loathe the big companies for the way they grind rates down. I’ve said before, if you are Stobbies, Wincanton, XPO, whoever, your diesel, your trucks, your admin costs are going to be much the same; the only thing you .can try to manipulate is wages, so they do and once the benchmark has been set, everyone else is tied to it.
Unfortunately the consumer led trend of supporting the local coffee shop over Costa hasn’t translated to business. Big business increasingly likes to deal with other big businesses, they speak the same MBA language and they have a uniformity they find comforting.
As for training new drivers, I hear what you say, but we haven’t had problems getting people and secondly I feel I did my bit when I took a 23 and a 24 year old on. Sleepless nights ensued, though they’ve both turned out really well. There is another reason, but it’s not something for a public forum.
I wonder if we should be pushing the envelope more on Business culture rather than making the media mis-report it as some kind of racist conspiracy - to push back against the EU dictats that are basically ordering us to do anything and everything to hurt ourselves, waste money, be less efficient, and of course - blame it on everyone else other than the EU machine.
Perhaps the biggest thing we get out of “leaving the EU” is that once the “labour reversal” commences, some young folk who are good drivers, but cannot get a look-in as it stands - may well come forward for this, their new chosen career path.
When I was aged 16-23 - I had no inkling that I would later be a pro driver for example. I couldn’t get a job in science and computing circles to last though, and I didn’t decide on pushing my employer to “put me through HGV training” - until I was happy to make that committment to stay on the five years as requested. I was working on the trains when I first joined RM, and had no car licence until I could afford to put myself through THAT on my first few wage packets… The appeal of working at RM at the time was that for the first time - I was earning the same amount as the other people working around me. I was fed up to the back teeth of “Youth Opportuntiy Programme” contracts (6-12 months, then you’re let go) and “Block Release” jobs where you did a 14 hour day at college, only to find a month later that your wages got docked for the time you was at college! 14 hours out of a 35 hour week factory job was a 40% reduction before you had tax & insurance amounting to another 35% taken off THAT. It made a £88pw job in the 80’s look like just another YOP £25 a week job - put it that way. Disillusioned City. 
If people like yourself had been around back then - I would have been beating a pathway to your door. TRAINING that is PAID whilst WORKING at a firm is a priceless thing - when you are being paid the same as everyone else, and you know you’ve got an ongoing job at the end of it…Even written into your contract that way!
Is a lot of your work in the Trafford Park area btw Albion? 
Everyone wants a job with Albion or many would if circs were different, this Albion that is, not the other one… 
no offence the other Albion… …luv CoCo… 
It would be interesting to know who the good Albion would employ from here on postings alone, or more interestingly who wouldn’t be employed from postings alone.
This could be quite entertaining but i doubt the good Albion will bite… 
Juddian:
It would be interesting to know who the good Albion would employ from here on postings alone, or more interestingly who wouldn’t be employed from postings alone.
This could be quite entertaining but i doubt the good Albion will bite…
More likely liquidate the company!
But my heart is yearning for her to say PimpDaddy!
Is that the good Albion as opposed to the bad Albion…whistles nonchalently 
Winseer, our job has its negatives, double manning isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, work is very irregular in so far as one minute I need to clone my drivers, next minute I’m asking if their holiday plans might involve this week 
, New drivers panic when we go quiet, old hands just start a trilogy .
I will say for any operators thinking of taking on a youngster, to seriously look and see if it’s that difficult. Our insurers wanted another £500 on the excess, they are now both over 25 and we never needed it. They are both polite, smart, willing to work. Admittedly I had the luxury of putting them out with experienced drivers so I got instant feedback, but they have done themselves proud. Hope that recommendation doesn’t prove to be my undoing!
And no, we don’t do any work out of Trafford Park.
I think, Juddian, you could work that one out for yourself
Evil8Beezle:
More likely liquidate the company!But my heart is yearning for her to say PimpDaddy!
I fear your heart may yearn for some time, Evil… Sorry
albion:
htmldude:
albion:
FWIW, I think drivers are underpaid. The shortage may see pay being pushed up, it should do. On the other hand, if we get another crash or a period of deflation, there may be more drivers than work available.You sound like you run a tight ship. Got any jobs going? :L (ignoring the fact I’d probably be travelling 2 hours to work)
I’m not allowed to take anyone on until Benjie has a job with us!
It’s fairly rare anyone leaves Tbh, and we expanded a bit last year, I don’t think we’ll be looking to grow this year.
albion I’m young and impressionable, and I’ll start panting and pacing if you carry on, and I cant afford to replace any cushions at the mo
Gotta say albion the new driver point you raised is exactly my issue with all industry as a whole, how is an inexperienced lad meant to get a shot if no one wants to give them one… Very sad, and can from what little life exp I have, destroy a person before their even started which is something this government should be ashamed of.
It should be supporting the hauliers, hopefuls, Glad Churchill never kicked us in before our elders even started.
Albion I will be in touch before the decade is out, or before I run out if cushions…anyone know where NEXT keep their soft furnishings warehouse?
Benjie83:
albion I’m young and impressionable, and I’ll start panting and pacing if you carry on, and I cant afford to replace any cushions at the moGotta say albion the new driver point you raised is exactly my issue with all industry as a whole, how is an inexperienced lad meant to get a shot if no one wants to give them one… Very sad, and can from what little life exp I have, destroy a person before their even started which is something this government should be ashamed of.
It should be supporting the hauliers, hopefuls, Glad Churchill never kicked us in before our elders even started.
Albion I will be in touch before the decade is out, or before I run out if cushions…anyone know where NEXT keep their soft furnishings warehouse?
The new driver rhetoric is just sad. Complete catch-22, you need experience to get a job, but need a job to get experience. What frustrates me the most is when people say that you should do your LGV licence, and then “put it in a drawer and forget about it for two years, or until you’re 25”! It’s just ridiculous! I’ve driven a lorry nearly every day since September, and the amount of jobs that demand more experience than I have must be in the 70-80% mark. My dad passed his test in 1990, did one run, hated it, has never driven since, and he can apply for most jobs, purely because he’s held his licence for 26 years. I’ve driven more in a day, than my dad has in 26 years, and he still has the edge over me when it comes to applying for jobs: he could apply for almost anything, whereas I can only apply for maybe one in five jobs. The system is against you from the very start.
The point is, you can be as young as 19, and have the controls of a Boeing 737, carrying 200 people. You can be 24, and someone won’t let you drive their s*y Iveco, carrying pig s! If you look at it that way, it is absolutely mental!
Surely in 10-15 years time, when the bulk of Britain’s lorry drivers are reaching retirement age, and only a tiny handful of newcomers have taken the plunge, paid £3,000 for their licence, and decided to get into what is regarded as an “undesirable” career path, the real “shortage” will begin. Especially if Poland’s economy picks up, and a big percentage of Poles head home.
By the way, I know the exact location of where Next keep their cushions. Cough, Doncaster!
I’ve never had a problem with getting anything delivered.
