Selling lorries because they cannot get drivers…
Their drivers have left for “work life balance” which is something the company cannot provide.
Sounds like they constantly flog their staff and now nobody will work for them. Surely its better to offer good working conditions to secure your labour before giving in and selling your wagons?
msgyorkie:
Norfolk family firm selling lorries due to driver shortage - BBC NewsSelling lorries because they cannot get drivers…
Their drivers have left for “work life balance” which is something the company cannot provide.Sounds like they constantly flog their staff and now nobody will work for them. Surely its better to offer good working conditions to secure your labour before giving in and selling your wagons?
Quote from BBC article above:
‘Ms Wright said: "This year we have lost two drivers to work/life balance. Basically they want to be at home to spend time with their families which isn’t something we can accommodate.’
And there you go, why is there a driver shortage again?
She actually said that out loud, to the BBC no less.
Talk about tone deaf.
Yes, that line had me chuckling too. Utterly deluded they are. As I keep saying, chickens coming home for all these two-bit bottom-feeder £10/hr hauliers now.
it’s clowns like this that have ■■■■■■ people around for the past 30 years now getting a piece of there own medicine.
We can’t offer any work life balance.
we just make money ■■■■■■■ around with 6 people’s lives. basically 24/7.
ok I will give you a good idea. drive the truck your self.
DcPCfml your right these Mickey mouse £9-10 ph 70 hours a week are going to sink faster than the titanic. It’s quite enjoyable to watch as the have just run the industry inti the ground.
Bye then, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Gavv8:
Bye then, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Themoocher:
it’s clowns like this that have [zb] people around for the past 30 years now getting a piece of there own medicine.We can’t offer any work life balance.
we just make money [zb] around with 6 people’s lives. basically 24/7.ok I will give you a good idea. drive the truck your self.
DcPCfml your right these Mickey mouse £9-10 ph 70 hours a week are going to sink faster than the titanic. It’s quite enjoyable to watch as the have just run the industry inti the ground.
Indeed. I will be enjoying a celebratory beverage or 4 the day that perma-advertisers Shipley, Bannister, Joda and McDowell’s on the outer edge of my ‘woods’ all close their doors for good. Probably hoping too much for Expect, Downtons and Walkers to join them but they all thoroughly deserve to go under as well. Bottom-feeders the lot of them.
Can’t see why it is such an issue? Surely if a driver from Norfolk wants to spend time with his wife and time with his sister, this would only take up half as much time as elsewhere?
DCPCFML:
Themoocher:
it’s clowns like this that have [zb] people around for the past 30 years now getting a piece of there own medicine.We can’t offer any work life balance.
we just make money [zb] around with 6 people’s lives. basically 24/7.ok I will give you a good idea. drive the truck your self.
DcPCfml your right these Mickey mouse £9-10 ph 70 hours a week are going to sink faster than the titanic. It’s quite enjoyable to watch as the have just run the industry inti the ground.
Indeed. I will be enjoying a celebratory beverage or 4 the day that perma-advertisers Shipley, Bannister, Joda and McDowell’s on the outer edge of my ‘woods’ all close their doors for good. Probably hoping too much for Expect, Downtons and Walkers to join them but they all thoroughly deserve to go under as well. Bottom-feeders the lot of them.
Downtons have been bought out by EV Cargo
Harry Monk:
Can’t see why it is such an issue? Surely if a driver from Norfolk wants to spend time with his wife and time with his sister, this would only take up half as much time as elsewhere?
Stephenjp:
Downtons have been bought out by EV Cargo
There’s some management speak about that from EV Cargo here:
Oh look, I’ve just “leveraged” their website 
I’m not quite sure whether rebranding means “bought out” though.
Harry Monk:
Can’t see why it is such an issue? Surely if a driver from Norfolk wants to spend time with his wife and time with his sister, this would only take up half as much time as elsewhere?
Nice one, so sharp you can cut yourself on it
I’m surprised that it’s taken this long… but somebody’s got to say it.
Could it be that Norfolk-er wants to work there?
Harry Monk:
Can’t see why it is such an issue? Surely if a driver from Norfolk wants to spend time with his wife and time with his sister, this would only take up half as much time as elsewhere?
As a ex Norfolk lad, I will rise above that remark 
Problem with this and many other firms in the area they rely heavily on work out of Felixstowe due no industry in the area. So to do that sort of work its tramping out 4-5 nights a week.
Dock work never been the best paid work either for the driver or haulier unless things have changed over the years which I very much doubt. It was one of the reasons I packed my hanky and moved to the Midlands 20 years ago.
drivers tend to want more of a home life than working and sleeping in a lorry cab, including myself.
I personally feel sorry for hauliers like w’s because I was one of these small firms trying to make ago of it (living the dream) but it’s a up hill battle. I had enough and packed it in and ended up a super market /high street chain driver and earned twice as much as a operator.
elsa Lad:
Harry Monk:
Can’t see why it is such an issue? Surely if a driver from Norfolk wants to spend time with his wife and time with his sister, this would only take up half as much time as elsewhere?As a ex Norfolk lad, I will rise above that remark
Dock work never been the best paid work either for the driver or haulier unless things have changed over the years which I very much doubt. It was one of the reasons I packed my hanky and moved to the Midlands 20 years ago.
Less and less drivers tend to want more of a home life than working and sleeping in a lorry cab, including myself.
I personally feel sorry for hauliers like w’s because I was one of these small firms trying to make ago of it (living the dream) but it’s a up hill battle. I had enough and packed it in and ended up a super market /high street chain driver and earned twice as much as a operator.
I guess that’s the crux of it, their work might suit younger drivers without families who are quite happy to be away all week, but you don’t see so many of those nowadays. I used to night-out all week for thirty odd years but I don’t do them any more and I very rarely work more than a 10 hour shift, I’m four years away from retirement and winding down towards it and I just wouldn’t want to do their type of work nowadays.
There are fewer and fewer drivers willing to leave home before the sun comes up on Monday morning and not get back home til late Friday/Saturday because the pandemic allowed them to finally get a taste of what they’d been missing. Lets be honest tramping is a single man’s game. It’s not fair on you or your family if you’ve a missus and kids and there’s many a tramper who has been divorced at least once, some more than once and all because of the job. My lad is a tramper and it worries and saddens me at how much time he’s missing out on his kids, age 6 and twins 11 months old. When he is home on a weekend when he’s got the full weekend off he’s often that knackered on a Saturday he doesn’t want to do anything and on Sunday he’s going shopping and getting ready for work for Monday. On the weekends he’s working a Saturday he may as well not come home because Sunday is lie in, go do the shopping for the week, wash work clothes, tea, bath, bed up at 4am.
Talking of vancancies his spot had one for 7 weeks that went unfilled. Meanwhile a company near me who used to be renown for being crap to work for with crap pay have had a massive wage rise and are advertising jobs where you can choose to do 3,4 or 5 week days or weekends only or basically whatever the hell you want. If even they have woken up and smelled the coffee there’s hope for the rest. I’ve also noticed other businesses doing the same and not just in haulage. I guess the more forward thinking ones have realised that people don’t want to live to work anymore.
I for one would not be sorry to see tramping die a death like many practices of old that long outlived their welcome have. I get the feeling that it may be starting to come to an end as more and more companies will have to re-evaluate how they work as tramping vacancies continue to go unfilled.
Quite agree. I remember one incident from my early days of HGV driving, just after my first child was born. I spent a day learning the routes with a guy at one company who was about to retire. I mentioned something about enjoying being a dad and looking forward to seeing him growing up. He said “I missed my kids growing up, I was away all the time.” A tragic thing to be reflecting on as you’re just about to have more free time than you’ve had for years.
^^^^
Probably never out the pub!
JeffA:
^^^^Probably never out the pub!
Probably not got a wife and kids he loves more than a job.