Grandpa:
I think the change is a lot more recent. In the last decade you got a huge influx of foreigners who said we can do anything for three times what we get paid in our own countries and employers obviously took advantage of that. The ‘runs’ then became tailored to break neck levels and over time have now become normal. The same in the warehouses, where you barely now get an English native speaker and they all work at minimum wage, with target levels on long hour shifts.We can all remember when a trunk meant delivery/collection, which has now turned into multi-drop and un/load yourself as normal. I often explain to agencies that I can’t do the physical labour involved and I’m almost guaranteed not to hear from then again because what was normal previously is an admission that you can’t do the add-ons which is now standard practice.
I’m looking at adverts and I’m constantly seeing sentences such as and I quote, ‘Must be comfortable with the physical nature of the role’ or ‘Ideally, you will be used to moving heavy loads’ and ‘Must be comfortable working on your own’ which translated means if a one ton pallet spills you pick it up on your own because there will be no one at the delivery point to help you. As long as there are people who will do these jobs the workload will continue.
Trust me my Grandfather would have been more familiar with that environment in the 1920’s than obviously us.It’s what happens when the road transport industry is relegated to being a third rate local delivery and collection service.In which the aim of using HGV’s is no longer moving large amounts of freight over long distances as economically as possible.Because those economies of scale have been deliberately defeated in terms of fuel taxation for political reasons.Now it’s all about how many local deliveries/collections can we do with one driver and one vehicle.Or the false economy of hub systems.In all cases the non driving aspects of the job increase exponentially because the political climate doesn’t want to see full or at least bulk truck loads of freight being moved from one end of the country to another or at least any considerable distance.Ironically I really did feel like the last of a dying breed in that regard doing one of the last ever real distance Feltham-Luton-Dewsbury-Luton-Feltham direct trunk run within my employers’ operations which just involved trailer and/or demount box swapping.At which point fate decided that was the end of it all for me so at least I went out on a high note.
Far better than the hub system work which most of the job had degenerated into.As I found to my shock almost over night with the end of the Feltham-Charnock Richard Scottish changeover which I’d been doing for around 5 years previously to that and then put on Feltham to Nuneaton hub run.2 hours each way and the rest of the shift working in the hub loading and tipping during the resulting transhipment operation.All handball. 
