A sub-title would read, ‘Thank goodness for that.’
I passed my test back in 1988 on my second attempt, but I was involved in education at the time so didn’t immediately use it, but it was another string in my bow for future use.
A few years later I found myself on agency p/t night shifts with the unenviable position of packing crisps, because still in education it had guaranteed 10 to 6 night hours and fitted in with my university day life. One day the manager approached me and asked what I was doing packing crisps with a HGV1 licence. I explained and as a result I was given a night trunking job with the same guaranteed hours and I began my HGV life.
Over the following years I worked for a variety of companies, always trunking as that’s what I enjoyed and there aren’t many people who enjoy the job they do, whilst also getting paid to do it.
As the 2008 economic storm clouds approached and the East Europeans began to flood in you’d have to be blind not to see what was coming and along with many others I reverted back to my educational skills and emigrated.
I returned nearing official retirement in the summer of 2019, renewed my expired licence, did the full CPC, the medical, booked a morning’s private refresher course and realized I’d made a big mistake. I soon discovered I’d earned more 20 years ago than I was earning now. On hindsight, I’d walked into a collapsing minimum wage gig-economy and that was even before Covid arrived. During the latter half of 2019 I must have had half a dozen low paid stress jobs, both from agencies and companies, each one worse than the one I’d previously left. The driver had now become a labourer who just happened to have a licence and from a minimum wage to impossible multi-drop deadlines and un/loading; I finally realized why the general transport industry now has a critical shortage of drivers.
The supermarkets or Postman Pat aren’t complaining they can’t get drivers, it’s the bottom end general haulage sector that is collapsing. That’s because for years they used foreign labour who would work themselves into the ground and do anything they were told for wages that to us were a pittance. They worked so hard they eventually worked themselves out of a job and created the present day ‘mission impossible’ workload. Meanwhile, the same companies are now scratching their heads and wondering where their former home grown drivers have gone.
The general transport industry is full of ‘grafters’ and those who own the businesses are more than happy to keep that mentality alive as it gives them an executive lifestyle and pays their mortgages, while their drivers exist from week to week. As an aside, the idea of ‘grafting’ to make others a profit arose from the protestant work ethic that we were all ingrained with and is still alive and kicking today. Is that a little Bolshie? Be very sure that as you lie in a hospital bed with a slipped disc, or in an ICU with a heart attack, the visitors you get will not include the director of the company you worked yourself into a near death situation for.
As we age, the days of pulling back heavy curtains four times a shift, throwing straps 14 feet into the air and the constant calls to go faster becomes a test of endurance and mental stress, not a job. One of the best videos I’ve come across is a 10 minute one that hits the nail on the head regarding pay, but doesn’t address the job itself. It’s the 21st century; there are few people left prepared to risk their health for a basic income whilst treated as an updated version of slave labour.
I’ve never been able to adopt the mind set of being grateful to be allowed to work and that my main concern should be how much work I can do for the least amount I’m paid. In less than two weeks I won’t surrender my licence, but I’ll let the C&E component expire until such time as a) I’m still capable of working and b) I’m not going to risk injury or worse multi-dropping for a near minimum wage. As we head for the predicted biggest recession since the 1600s, I doubt very much that will happen and I’m glad I’m out of it.
.
: