Juddian:
What’s changed is that the job is now so easy, and arguably so well paid for such little actual work/nous/skill/effort/muck involved, that is has attracted and allowed to flourish a breed of driver wholly unsuited to the job.
They simply wouldn’t be in the job if it was as it used to be.
No one’s saying either that all new drivers are rubbish and yes there were bad drivers in the past, what’s different is that one had to have some mechanical aptitude to drive the old motors where anyone can now get in a modern truck and take it out on the road, any who can’t see the standards have dropped rapidly is denying reality.No one’s arguing about wishing going back to those days, but you have to be careful how desirable the job becomes because it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the so called driver shortage and the subsequent well paid job its become can very quickly tip the other way if it becomes flooded with those who just see it as a route to a fast and easy buck, just be careful what you wish for.
this.
I have recently got my class 1 does that mean i have a clue what im doing yet… no it just means for that hour or so i was able to drive to a prescribed standered. Im am by no means an expert driver if i was shown a skelly trailer and told togo pick up a container i wouldnt have a clue nor would i have a clue if i wasgiven a truck with a gearstick. Thats not putting myself down its just i havent had the experience and been shown. Doesnt mean im not willing to learn.
however there is a big difference in my opinion between this and some of the people that turn up with a licence because the moneys good. For example i had someone with me that i was supposed to be showing the ropes as he had come from a car licence and was a new pass. So vehicle checks tacho operation how to check the load (if needed) he had a licence and was supposed to be able to point the thing.
vehicle checks took nearly 1.5 hours i swear if he had a torque wrench in the back of his car he would of checked the tightness of every bolt on the bloody unit he could get his hands on. every scratch, mark or dead fly he wanted to photograph and document. I had to show him how to couple up to the trailor as he wanted to wind the legs down before he had put the unit under it. On the road i said he needed to be in the right hand lane for the junction ahead and he swerved into the lane nearly taking out a car. When i asked why he didnt check his mirrors his excuse was “you told me to do it”. On arriving at the turn around point he had to pick up another trailer and missed the pin then proceded to try and drive 50 yards away from the trailer with the airlines still attached which luckely i managed to stop him. then on top of that decided that to disconect the airlines he couldnt reach one of them so rather than warlk around the unit to the other side he stood on the 5th wheel to reach it. His final silly question/comment to me was well how do i tell if the bridge is too low for me. and couldnt understand that if the marking on the bridge was x and the truck height was y and x<y it wouldnt fit.
turned out that the company he worked for went bust and decided that he needed to earn x to make his bills etc and lorry drivers were well paid (75k+) (his words) and it was an easy job so he decided to do that.
This is the difference that is being alluded to i think