Hire and reward in general haulage terms is now almost at the lowest its ever been, except for in a few jobs which buck the downward trend, it’s been deskilled and made too easy (physically and vehicle handling/operating skills), this has been done so literally anyone can do it, but that makes the supply and demand balance of staff no good for the employee, but has also disillusioned those who want to take a pride in their job who have either found something else in transport (and treasured it) or got out of the industry altogether.
If you want to get out of the race to the bottom…which you’ll in most cases have to join for a while to get some road experience and history…then you either specialise into one of the many more intricate aspects of the industry where usually a combination of skills nous muck and bullets is to be found, where you’ll work harder than in general transport but the rewards will be there.
Or you go work for one of the few remaining own account operations where you carry or service the company’s own product, the top line may be no more appealing, but you often find the hours are sensible (though 24/7 operation) meaning the average hourly rate is high, and you get treated a whole lot better, supermarkets such as Asda are one suggestion but there are still some companies out there not so obvious where good staff are valued as they should be.
If you are lucky enough to land such a job, for God’s sake look after it, don’t do what so many do ie take the ■■■■ out of the sick pay, do your best to make sure the company becomes market leader or help get it there or stay there, cos if you don’t then sooner or later the directors will wash their hands of transport, as so many have done, and put the job out to tender to the usual logistics hyenas, and what was once a good job becomes another ruined in the race to the bottom.
I personally believe we are heading for another serious downturn, so my suggestion to anyone wants to listen is to find something as bomb proof as possible, something people can’t do without or a side of the industry that requires skills, and get yourself a good reputation there, give yourselves as good a chance as possible to weather the coming storm.