50,000 driver shortage myth

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

ROG:
We will know when there is a real driver shortage because those passing the test will be immediately snapped up into full time permanent jobs

Those just passing the test right now, are not being taken on by firms worried about the “2 years experience” thing, not to mention the prospect of taking on 18yo passes rather than 21yo like the days of old.

Also, from the days of old - but not THESE days, you don’t have so many “grandfather rights” 7.5t drivers of decades experience prior to passing their C+E test.

This means the “shortage” is actually of experienced drivers prepared to work for crappy low hourly rates - as it always was imo.

Because of the “must have two years experience for insurance purposes” is the proverbial piece that cannot be moved, the only bar a prospective empoyer wanting to get away with as low a rate as possible can then lower to suit is the “6 points OK” on licence…

What DOES surprise me though - is that the better payers out there don’t ask for “clean licence holders only need apply” when they could and in my mind, should put that on the job ad, to thin out this daft concept we see at present, where a mediocre-paid job has hundreds of applications each time, many of them already working somewhere else in the industry, rather than being flat unemployed (even right NOW) and looking for a job they’d be surely desperate to get…

22

What gets me keep.hearing there’s a shortage of 50,000 drivers.
But where are all.the trucks there supposed to be driving then?
As There not parked up in yards due to having no one to drive them

23

edd1974:
What gets me keep.hearing there’s a shortage of 50,000 drivers.
But where are all.the trucks there supposed to be driving then?
As There not parked up in yards due to having no one to drive them

The Tories and bosses’ associations like the RHA just count job adverts as “full-time vacancies”.

The fact that in reality you might have 20 agencies advertising for one ad-hoc shift is intentionally ignored, because it doesn’t fit the lie they are trying to tell about shortages.

24

I suppose another angle we could put on all this is that "Of those thousands of trucks you see on the trunk roads every day,
How many of them are being driven by the person who actually holds down that job?

Some will be on holiday, being driven by agency/sub
Some will be permanent agency, as they can’t recruit anyone full time at the rates they’re paying
Some will be “contractors” doing the job months on end with the same bum on seat - but the job is actually seasonal or temporary, Eg. delivering to a building site that will be finished at within a few months…

If there were “no shortage” - then all jobs and trucks you see out there - would be full timers going about their daily business - Right?

25

I used to do work around the north west as class one. Anyway the agency I was with I thought I’ll try a few others so I went online. Usual ■■■■■ ad-hoc work guaranteed shifts bla bla bla. So I rang a few usual crap can’t tell you who till you register anyway three of them let me do it online and by what’s app. Finally found out the three agency have obviously gone into the firm asked them do you need drivers we can supply.

So technically three agency were supplying for the same one company, therefore the agencies each said they needed ten drivers for this firm that equals obviously ( I know your not thick) 30 drivers. But in actual facts the company only needed the odd driver here and there so the government has now allowed on the job site to create 30 imaginary positions. I think this is where this 50,000 driver crap comes from.Its all fake jobs that don’t actually exist apart from covering holidays or little billies doctor appointment.

26

Truthsetyoufree:
I used to do work around the north west as class one. Anyway the agency I was with I thought I’ll try a few others so I went online. Usual [zb] ad-hoc work guaranteed shifts bla bla bla. So I rang a few usual crap can’t tell you who till you register anyway three of them let me do it online and by what’s app. Finally found out the three agency have obviously gone into the firm asked them do you need drivers we can supply.

So technically three agency were supplying for the same one company, therefore the agencies each said they needed ten drivers for this firm that equals obviously ( I know your not thick) 30 drivers. But in actual facts the company only needed the odd driver here and there so the government has now allowed on the job site to create 30 imaginary positions. I think this is where this 50,000 driver crap comes from.Its all fake jobs that don’t actually exist apart from covering holidays or little billies doctor appointment.

I was once signed up with a pair of agencies and one night I turned down a shift being at too short notice (it was 6pm, and I’d been up since 7am) for a 8pm start doing a palletliner run, which I don’t like much.
Puts the phone down, having turned it down, and bugger me - the phone rings again and it is the other agency offering my exactly the same bloody shift at the same venue!! :open_mouth: :unamused:
They offered me an extra pound per hour “if I could do it”, but when I say “no” - it isn’t because I’m greedy for more money ffs…
Told them no as well, as I’d been up all day, and it wouldn’t be safe doing a run where you take a 15 on the derv pumps, and the other 30 doing your curtains in a stop-start queue just to avoid getting the infringement, take your “proper” meal eating break later, which of course if you diid - you got back late, and got moaned at…
Nope.

No meant no, and of course I never got offered another shift at said second agency after that. No skin off my nose though, as I had plenty of work from the first agency at the weekends, which does me. I don’t have to work 5-6-5-6 to pay the bills - even now… :sunglasses:

27

edd1974:
What gets me keep.hearing there’s a shortage of 50,000 drivers.
But where are all.the trucks there supposed to be driving then?
As There not parked up in yards due to having no one to drive them

I of late get a txt every day asking if I can do a extra shift ,so there must be a shortage somewhere

28

That 2 year depends. My friend only passed his test in March. He has just been offered a full time. job. It has to do with how the company sees things.

29

dozy:

edd1974:
What gets me keep.hearing there’s a shortage of 50,000 drivers.
But where are all.the trucks there supposed to be driving then?
As There not parked up in yards due to having no one to drive them

I of late get a txt every day asking if I can do a extra shift ,so there must be a shortage somewhere

No that’s because they’ve heard that you will do…

anything

for anybody

at anytime

whatever :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

30

pierrot 14:

dozy:

edd1974:
What gets me keep.hearing there’s a shortage of 50,000 drivers.
But where are all.the trucks there supposed to be driving then?
As There not parked up in yards due to having no one to drive them

I of late get a txt every day asking if I can do a extra shift ,so there must be a shortage somewhere

No that’s because they’ve heard that you will do…

anything

for anybody

at anytime

whatever :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Had anyone phone you up, and tell you they are “asking for you by name” to do that graveyard shift with about 30 minutes notice, just as you were putting your jimjams on… :stuck_out_tongue:

31

Agencies have glossy slick adverts offering good money & conditions.
You ring them, fill in a mountain of paperwork, send copies of all your licenses & then find that job has gone.
Get offered a lower paid job or get told they will contact you if anything comes in suited to you.

These days I trust agencies less than estate agents and they are very low life ion my radar!

32

HGV2M25:
Agencies have glossy slick adverts offering good money & conditions.
You ring them, fill in a mountain of paperwork, send copies of all your licenses & then find that job has gone.
Get offered a lower paid job or get told they will contact you if anything comes in suited to you.

These days I trust agencies less than estate agents and they are very low life ion my radar!

…That’s why it is important to tell the agency that “you won’t work for less than £■■.■■” when filling out the paperwork.

If you don’t tell them this, then they’ll offer you the low paid crap, because you didn’t tell them NOT to.
I fell for this once:
I signed up with an agency offering loads of work @ places like Yodel, Hermes, Fedex, RM, and UKmail. After I’d signed up without a limit stated by myself,
I was told "We’ve already filled the courier posts with drivers we took on a week before (this was mid-november for Christmas drivers in 2011)
“We’ve still got work at other venues, including courier night trunking, if that’s what you want, and general haulage work on days and nights too…”

The options I was given were DPD for £8.75ph, PolyPipe @ £8.25ph, Lehnham Storage @ £8.50ph, C&H @ £9.75ph

I ended up taking the latter, along with some £11 & £12ph supermarket work at the weekends. I only got odd shifts until the following summer, when I finally got entire weeks at the couriers I’d signed up for in the first place - Fedex & Yodel.

I never got a sniff of work out of UPS, UKMail, however, at any time, with DPD seemingly still paying rather below the odds, even these days… I think it is £11ph now, for Monday-Friday night trunks up to Spaghetti Junction hub…