A Telehandler is a type of forklift https://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/steve-ball-recruitment/jobs/Cpcs-Telehandler-Driver-4fef16770743c9fb?q=Telehandler+Driver
https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/GetJob.aspx?JobID=40306883
Which is one way ex drivers have gone according to the link from EddieMD
There is and there isn’t. The firms that are experiencing a fall in recuriment are the ones that pay poorly and run their drivers hard. Take our place for example, not naming names at the moment but we have been struggling to get bums on seats for Class 1 for well over a year if not longer.
Its gotten so bad they had to “relocate” the Operations Manager to Italy because drivers were leaving in droves and he didn’t seem to care. The big wigs upstairs are now getting all jittery so they brought in someone new to sort the mess out and to be fair she is trying to mend the bridges between the drivers and office. She’s taking suggestions from the drivers and everything is getting looked out, including the pay. We have a repuation as a poor paying for the amount of hours you work. Its not “that hard” of a job but when you earn £468 take home for a 55+ hour week including overtime on Nights, down the road you get £600 take home for 4 on 4 off again on Nights.
They are so desperate for drivers, they took a Class 2 driver who came to the company back in September with only 2 days of driving a Class 2 truck. Fast forward to two week ago, they put him through his Class 1. Not knocking the lad, he’s been listening to the senior drivers, learning how to the job safely but it does shown how bad things are at our place.
1% of drivers are now under the age of 23.
No shortage. I’ve yet to encounter a truck on the road that had no driver behind the wheel.
the maoster:
No shortage. I’ve yet to encounter a truck on the road that had no driver behind the wheel.
However, some would be safer without a driver behind the wheel. . .
Radar19:
There is and there isn’t. The firms that are experiencing a fall in recuriment are the ones that pay poorly and run their drivers hard. Take our place for example, not naming names at the moment but we have been struggling to get bums on seats for Class 1 for well over a year if not longer.Its gotten so bad they had to “relocate” the Operations Manager to Italy because drivers were leaving in droves and he didn’t seem to care. The big wigs upstairs are now getting all jittery so they brought in someone new to sort the mess out and to be fair she is trying to mend the bridges between the drivers and office. She’s taking suggestions from the drivers.
This is the case in many firms, the days have long gone (or at least you would think) where it is acceptable to treat their drivers with contempt and like ■■■■ , as your moved on manager seems to have been doing.
I work for a Northern branch of a Southern co.
I would not work for the main ■■■■ depot down there at any price. Drivers there are numbers, and I have personally witnessed the boss bawling in some of the guy’s faces like a RSM…and they stood there and took it 
. 
I just avoid the guy when I am down there as I know what would happen if he had an unjustified pop at me…(.visit to jobcentre via Police cell. 
)
They do seem to have a lot of different drivers, although tbf, a few are long serving but who started with the ‘old regime’
In contrast our depot do manage to keep their drivers, and many leave other co.s in the area to start there.
The depot boss is ok tbf, but pushes the ones who allow him to…(.but they all do that)
I just do my own thing in my own style and he leaves me alone as I DO get the job done whilst doing so, so on the whole I’m kinda sorted there now. (although originally it was a temp step until I got back with a firm over the water again.) so the fact that I am virtually settled says a lot for the co.
Ok, It aint Transport Heaven there by any means, but is in comparison to the main depot and a few surrounding firms.
So …same co, same pay, same everything, but different depots, different scenarios , that are down to fairer treatment of our depot’s drivers by fairer boss.
It aint complicated is it. 
If a firm offered £12.00 per hour for class 2 and £15.00 per hour for class 1 they would find plenty of drivers who would be reliable and also bring down operating costs .
alamcculloch:
If a firm offered £12.00 per hour for class 2 and £15.00 per hour for class 1 they would find plenty of drivers who would be reliable and also bring down operating costs .
Plenty firms pay that.you need to look at the local firms ,Not agencies.Most do not advertise either.
Radar19:
There is and there isn’t. The firms that are experiencing a fall in recuriment are the ones that pay poorly and run their drivers hard. Take our place for example, not naming names at the moment but we have been struggling to get bums on seats for Class 1 for well over a year if not longer.Its gotten so bad they had to “relocate” the Operations Manager to Italy because drivers were leaving in droves and he didn’t seem to care. The big wigs upstairs are now getting all jittery so they brought in someone new to sort the mess out and to be fair she is trying to mend the bridges between the drivers and office. She’s taking suggestions from the drivers and everything is getting looked out, including the pay. We have a repuation as a poor paying for the amount of hours you work. Its not “that hard” of a job but when you earn £468 take home for a 55+ hour week including overtime on Nights, down the road you get £600 take home for 4 on 4 off again on Nights.
They are so desperate for drivers, they took a Class 2 driver who came to the company back in September with only 2 days of driving a Class 2 truck. Fast forward to two week ago, they put him through his Class 1. Not knocking the lad, he’s been listening to the senior drivers, learning how to the job safely but it does shown how bad things are at our place.
And how do they plan to keep him when he gets some experience under his belt? Fiddling while Rome burns…typical!
I see Evil’s poll is sat at 60/40 ish now
I still can not see it myself, and stand by the opinion that this ’ driver shortage’ thing is a fallacy.
Honked:
A shortage? Maybe a dying breed more like…
That report paints a grim picture of how they see a tramper’s life.
Tbh it is like difference between black and white to what it was when I started 79/80,.and how/why it was an attraction to me to want to do it.
Before that I used to go off with my mates, loved it, the social life side of it was great, town and city centre truck parks, meet up with mates, or more often than not lads you did not know but doing the same job and hit the town. 
I still tend to try and have a social side in the job even today, but not to the extent that it used to be.
Many trampers today succumb to pressure too ■■■■ easy, and
park up on 8.59 in somewhere totally unusuitable, and off again after 11 or 9 off all the week.
Where is the possible attraction in that endurance test/rat race lifestyle to any young guy wanting to start ffs
So even if they do express an interest in driving, getting home deffo sounds a better option than all that type of ■■■■■■■■.
You can not dwindle away a quality of a job up to zero attraction, where there is no parking, no basic facilities, be actually EXPECTED to park in a ■■■■ lay by, no social life, no real enjoyment due to being pressurised, and then expect young lads to be queing up to be trampers.
Guys like me with exp can tell them to politely go and ■■■■ themselves, where as with a new lad it aint so easy.
If I was just starting off today based on what I have listed, there is no way in hell I would want to be a tramper.
eagerbeaver:
:mrgreen: Stop it…some wee is coming out…
That’s why us old ■■■■■ smell of wee all the time - we’re laughing at life just too damned much! 
When there was “no shortage” and “no glut” of drivers - you had to be over 70 to be an old ■■■■. Now it’s over 50.
eagerbeaver:
:mrgreen: Stop it…some wee is coming out…
Laugh as much as you like, I was a picker in the same Amazon depot on 9,01p/h for 40hrs. week 4 on 3 off, a Bulgarian guy started forklift training(moving from another department) on 15p/h. Overtime was 1,5 time for the first 10hrs, if you work above 50hrs(max was 60) you get paid 2 times normal rate(18p/h). Easy 450 home take per week. I quit Amazon as I found permanent job, I was thru agency in Amazon. Read all kind of horror stories about the place, nothing could be far from the truth in my opinion.
My whole tirada is to bring a different prospective to the discussion - there is no point of driving truck in UK, a lot of hours for low pay, crappy service station, expensive licence and on and on.
My working day now is 9.00-9,30 hours max including commuting and I make more money in warehouse then I would have driving class 2, even if I was hired by the company where I went for assessment last summer. I cant see what on Earth will motivate young British national to spend thousands of pounds to obtain licence in order to do long hours for crappy pay.
Had to change my undies because of you Dolph, they were soaking wet :lol
Edit to add; Just noticed that the first 10 hours is time and a half, so your Bulgarian mate was on £22.50 an hour driving FLT’s for Amazon?
Now I am ruining another pair
if it’s 15p per hour then surely it’s 22.5p for time and a half?
That “easy take home of £450” should read “£4.50” shouldn’t it? 
Keep laughing guys, you know what the doctors say: laughter is better for the health.
I really do wish some of these people that are saying there is a shortage, why they believe there is…
“What we believe” and “what’s accepted to be the case” - are two different things. “Faith” over “Knowledge” if you like. The difference between the two is what drives people to decide to enter a certain career thought to be in decline - instead of chasing one that’s known to be dead.
When I struggled to get a technical job back in the 80’s for example, I took a new path that would get me trained up to be a HGV driver at firm’s expense. “A job for life” was what I was after then - and regardless of what people think will happen in the next 50 years - “A job for life” it still looks like being. There’s no shortage of work on agencies for truckers. So many truckers despise agencies - that the shortage there really IS “Endemic”.
Winseer:
eagerbeaver:
:mrgreen: Stop it…some wee is coming out…That’s why us old ■■■■■ smell of wee all the time - we’re laughing at life just too damned much!
When there was “no shortage” and “no glut” of drivers - you had to be over 70 to be an old ■■■■. Now it’s over 50.
You only have to be over 30 to be classed as old in the north…■■?
‘Happy 30th Birthday GRANDMA!!!’ 