It beggars belief… 
Reef:
It beggars belief…
Promote women drivers in the hope it will encourage lecherous males into the industry haha
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“An RHA luncheon…” FFS
If they haven’t got a clue as to why they haven’t got drivers the real question that beggars belief is just how stupid are these RHA members. Either that or not a single one of them are actually self confident enough to stand on their own and say it’s because they are failing in their positions.
People will argue they have purely the shareholders interests at the forefront. This is correct and as it should be.
Perhaps they will soon realise the value of the business will plummet (affecting their shareholders) when they can’t manage the very thing their business relies on for revenue. Transportation of goods by vehicles driven by employees. Employees they can’t recruit and/or retain.
They have plugged the dam using cheap and/or expendable labour, be it from Eastern Europe or agencies, they actually have no idea other than that of how to obtain a workforce worth anything.
The sooner a few sizeable firms go to the wall from this issue the better. At the very least some CEO’s/Directors need to be chopped for failing.
I’ll be sorry for the employees but I actually think it’s the only thing that will get them twitching.
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Just another…
PR exercise by people who actually believe their own propaganda and think they do some good. I must say I’d feel good too if was back slapping all my mates on the golf course whilst doing absolutely nothing to help the haulage industry.
Any one who can’t see that people don’t like/want to work 60+ hours every week just to earn an average wage, whilst living in a small tin box by the side of a busy A road is clearly deluded.
‘Hey nipper, wanna spend all week away from home, not shower for days, eat out of tin cans, pay for your own pointless training every five years, get points on your licence (that affect your personal car insurance) for going over the limit by 3 mph, widdle in the bushes and work 60 hours a week?’ ‘Oooo yes please, where do I sign?’
Like everything else the RHA touches, nothing will change.
We still have the dinosaur operators who say"no experience no job,goodbye".Why should a young person invest £4000. in training with no guarantee of a licence or job with a career structure at the end of it.
yourhavingalarf:
Just another…PR exercise by people who actually believe their own propaganda and think they do some good. I must say I’d feel good too if was back slapping all my mates on the golf course whilst doing absolutely nothing to help the haulage industry.
Any one who can’t see that people don’t like/want to work 60+ hours every week just to earn an average wage, whilst living in a small tin box by the side of a busy A road is clearly deluded.
‘Hey nipper, wanna spend all week away from home, not shower for days, eat out of tin cans, pay for your own pointless training every five years, get points on your licence (that affect your personal car insurance) for going over the limit by 3 mph, widdle in the bushes and work 60 hours a week?’ ‘Oooo yes please, where do I sign?’
Like everything else the RHA touches, nothing will change.
Well said Sir!
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“…dearth of drivers”
Sure there is - that’s why some outfits offer barely more than the minimum wage and use night money to bump it up to make it more palatable. 
When are the chumps who run the UK haulage industry going to wake up see the real reason for driver recruitment and retention problems, instead of coming up with gimmicks?
Or maybe they already know what the problems are, but are using the gimmicks as a smoke screen to avoid actually change the industry for the better, as that would mean spending money and reducing shareholders dividends and senior executives bonuses’.
We need to storm one of these lunches and tell them few home truths.
So, it’s ‘‘A puzzle’’ is it, as to why young people today are not queing up to work 70 hours for what in real terms is 50 hours pay, and suffer abuse and needless over regulation for 9 quid an hour is it?
Don’t make me ■■■■ laugh. 
What planet do these people live on. 
Driver shortage crisis? Where exactly is the driver shortage. Possibly in Eastern European countries only as they are all over here. Our new drivers are turned away from firms that are insisting on experience that they are not willing to give to them. Plenty of drivers to choose from although their English may not be so great. Seems logical to me to create a real driver shortage and we should start refusing to work for agencies and firms that actively recruit Eastern European drivers. Then instead of umbrella companies we should all become owner drivers. Then see these so called haulage contractors having to offer real pay and conditions instead of treating us all like we are as desperate as they consider we are!!!
Young people don’t want to become Truckers for a number of different reasons, some real and some just perceived:-
(1) The media says “We hate Truckers - they kill Cyclists and Prostitutes don’t you know?”
(2) The media talks about pie-in-the-sky wage levels without explaining that at the top end of Trucker’s Pay - what actual work is involved, where to get such work - and of course who actually pays the top dollar for it.
(3) The Media covers extensively any Trucker “fails” - but doesn’t hail the occasional “Trucker Hero” when they arise.
(4) Making the licence for C+E available to 18 rather than the former 21 means that more employers are going to shy away from youngsters - because they are now going to be even MORE inexperienced with regards to ordinary driving prior to moving on to C+E training.
(5) Employers are reluctant to pay top dollar wages to mere 18 year olds. It’s hard enough getting them to pay top dollar for “Graduate Leaver Aged” 25+ year olds, which are in fact the most suitable age group to aim at with regards to “full time positions that need filling”.
(6) The HGV course is now so expensive, that many youngsters that are even interested - will hold out hoping for an all-training-expenses-paid Apprenticeship. It strangely never arrives though. Halfway House people, Fresh College Leavers, and incoming foreign nationals all seem to get the best pickings first - if there IS any actual picking and choosing among firms to be done of course!
(7) Truckers are nowadays targets for Terrorists, who wish to hijack their vehicles to use as deadly weapons in an attack.
(8) EU regulations make it hard to earn good money - WTD hours limitations have killed overtime combined with a high hourly rate at very least already. They also don’t protect you from being required to work excessively long hours for the same flat money - 48-60 hours per week is the NORM compared to 35-40 hours in other industries…
(9) Travelling to and from the EU with a truck is as dangerous as it’s ever been. Who’d want that for a career when you can do 48-60 hours a week stacking shelves for the same money?
(10) Traffic is bad. It’s always been bad, but each passing year just seems to make it get ever worse. Who wants THAT as a work environment, avoiding the hostilities of the Press, Terrorists, Other Truckers, and of course White Van Man who wants to take your business off you courtesy of Mayor Khaaan?
kjw21:
“An RHA luncheon…” FFSIf they haven’t got a clue as to why they haven’t got drivers the real question that beggars belief is just how stupid are these RHA members. Either that or not a single one of them are actually self confident enough to stand on their own and say it’s because they are failing in their positions.
People will argue they have purely the shareholders interests at the forefront. This is correct and as it should be.
Perhaps they will soon realise the value of the business will plummet (affecting their shareholders) when they can’t manage the very thing their business relies on for revenue. Transportation of goods by vehicles driven by employees. Employees they can’t recruit and/or retain.
They have plugged the dam using cheap and/or expendable labour, be it from Eastern Europe or agencies, they actually have no idea other than that of how to obtain a workforce worth anything.
The sooner a few sizeable firms go to the wall from this issue the better. At the very least some CEO’s/Directors need to be chopped for failing.
I’ll be sorry for the employees but I actually think it’s the only thing that will get them twitching.
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Ahh what a day it’ll be when the “Just In Time” business model is finally cosigned to the dustbin.
Meanwhile, the weak pound following the as yet un-enacted attempt to Leave the EU - has already brought to an end the stays of foreign nationals that now find what they send back home has dwindled, and is no longer worth “roughing it” over here for… I would imagine if the roles were reversed - a UK trucker would grab with both hands a chance to work in another country for £1000 per week, including accommodation laid on - but would lose heart if it fell to a mere £700 per week, and the accommodation now costs a fortune… Right? Let’s see it from the other side of the fence here.
Anything that sends the vast majority of shyster agencies (especially those that use words like “Recruitment” or “Nova” or “Umbrella” in any of their literature) - is a thing to be welcomed by the entire driver economy - right? 
Kids don’t want any working class job,nowadays.
Continually fed a lifestyle image that simply doesn’t include frugality.
Have you seen how much kids pay for a pair of jeans nowadays?
And with the knees and arse hanging out of them
Here no so much drivers shortgate,just big drivers turnovel.To many drivers jump from agency to agency without really good reason.
Andrejs:
Here no so much drivers shortgate,just big drivers turnovel.To many drivers jump from agency to agency without really good reason.
I think I’ve just touched on this in the “driver surveillance” thread.
It’s all too easy to get banned from site for backtalking some client firm management, so the driver finds themselves having to go to another agency to get the regular work somewhere else.
Agencies tend to have these major clients, which once you get banned from site at - make your continuing with said agency rather difficult…
Basically,
(1) Client firm treats driver like dirt, instead of a professional on call to do the job. Argument ensues, usually about some H&S aspect the driver is not prepared to breach (as if there were a Union there!) but alas, driver gets short shrift, and gets banned from site for simply “arguing with the gaffer when you’re only agency scum nobody”. I’ve been banned from sites over the years for things like “Refusing to use a visibly damaged, and unroadworthy vehicle” and “insisting I got paid for a shift I turned up for, that they didn’t want to pay for”.
(2) Agency doesn’t want to let you go (as prompted to by client!) because you’re actually more needed by the agency than they let on. They put you into another client instead.
If there is no such client available, then comes the time to move on to another agency with a fresh set of clientel on it’s books.
Thus, if a driver moves on seemingly “without good reason” - it’s down to the reason “The agency didn’t have a big enough book of clients to keep that driver in regular work once they’d been banned from site somewhere…”