Terry T:
They also made me answer this question
ROG:
If there was a real driver shortage then newbies would be offered a full time permanent job the moment they passed
Exactly. I’m struggling to find my first driving job.
Terry T:
They also made me answer this question
I don’t get it. Where is that shift pattern illegal?
Harry Monk:
Terry T:
They also made me answer this question
I don’t get it. Where is that shift pattern illegal?
It’s not.
muckles:
discoman:
cgscott:
Sad state of affairs.I see where the old timers are coming from. Days gone by when people looked up to you as you flung a 46 tonner about.
No merely a slave to the trade.
Im 38 will keep my liscence up to date in the hope wages rise and hours drop. No one should be allowed to work 15 hours.
Loads of jobs work 15 hours, many many moons ago, I was a prison officer in a London jail… if you were unlucky, you would do roll call at 7am then do your days shift until 17:30 … then had a 30 min break, then carry on to do evening duties… and finish at 21:00, if the roll was not correct you would stay until it was correct that could be 23:00 etc, then you would be back in at 7am or 7:30 m the next day, no guarantee pd 9 hours rest, is if a prison needed to go to hospital, you might get them back to the nick at 3 am still expected back in at 7:30am … 10 hour shifts were the norM… had to work every other weekend no extra rates etc … work public holidays for time off in lieu etc … was the wages great … in London no, only 33k a year… still had to do payment plus to get extra income… and 16 hour days were regular in the jail …
And how is Prison Officer recruitment and retention these days?
Same issues maybe?
To be fair, I don’t know, I left the job, and been in Australia since 2011… he retention was good, when I was in the job … only one’s who left was not because of the age or hours it was because of some of the things you dealt with see etc … in 2009 they made new officers take a 50% pay cut and you had 2 level of officers, but I believe now it’s approx 27/29k a year … but it’s only a 39 or 41 hour week. … was a great job and a good team who worked together was a shame the union was about as much use as a wet kipper on the beach.
I’ve applied to ten jobs in the Midlands, I’ve got all the license groups, clean, good references, even advanced driving, I didn’t get any offers of an interview, and yet there is 50000 shortage, I don’t get it
AndieHyde:
Hey, I have a class one.
I heard someone mentioned £50k■■?What time do you want me in the morning?
0300
There is no drivers shortage…Firm I do a bit for had units parked up for a couple of weeks, they increased the wages to the regulars and the newbies, no more trucks parked up and everyone a winner…Not difficult to understand is it?
Once wages are increased there is no shortage, funny that innit? 
commonrail:
AndieHyde:
Hey, I have a class one.
I heard someone mentioned £50k■■?What time do you want me in the morning?
0300
For 20 quid an hour, I got to admit, I would be tempted to get back into the job.
And I will bet fair money against fine words that there would be a que at the yard gates as I wont be the only one.
If transport companies can only pay drivers £9/hour else they would go out of business, then it time let them go.
No driver shortage, just an abundance of exploitative chancers inside the industry.
AndieHyde:
commonrail:
AndieHyde:
Hey, I have a class one.
I heard someone mentioned £50k■■?What time do you want me in the morning?
0300
For 20 quid an hour, I got to admit, I would be tempted to get back into the job.
I wouldn’t get out of bed for that. ( )
the nodding donkey:
There is no absolute shortage of drivers. If there was, and transport companies had trucks parked up because of it, recruiters would be trawling industrial estates, truckstops, and outside transport firm yards, with sign on bonuses, massive permanent contracts, and a choice of wagon. There is, a SURPLUS shortage, of drivers desperate for work, that the industry can use to keep wages and conditions down. As long as Owens can advertise full time work at £9 per hour, (straight through too), in an area where there are many transport companies, there is no driver shortage.
There is 2 signs outside the pidu in Dunkirk and probably at others as well. Obviously they’re in every language but English and possibly French (cant remember) and if you ring the number given with an English accent they just put the phone down.
R420:
AndieHyde:
commonrail:
AndieHyde:
Hey, I have a class one.
I heard someone mentioned £50k■■?What time do you want me in the morning?
0300
For 20 quid an hour, I got to admit, I would be tempted to get back into the job.
I wouldn’t get out of bed for that. (
I would
Terry T:
I’m embarrassed to say this but I applied for Stobarts a few months ago. I know I know, shoot me now. I’d had a bad day.
Truckers version of an AA meeting, don’t worry Terry this is a safe place, sound like a small relapse, did you phone your sponsor?
cgscott:
Sad state of affairs.I see where the old timers are coming from. Days gone by when people looked up to you as you flung a 46 tonner about.
When was that then? I’ve been doing it over a quarter of a century and it certainly wasn’t the case back then.
truckyboy:
in 2002 i was taking home over £600 a week, and that was 5 days, good tackle, and 100% legal.
So did I. Today I still can. Difference is though that in 2002 I’d be out all week maxing out hours. Today I’m not even doing 12hrs a day and home every night.
dieseldog999:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
where does working 15 hours come into it?
mostly you sit on your hole driving which nowadays is effortless,the rest of the on duty time is sitting on your hole waiting.
if your paid by the hours,then its money for nothing.
different case if your daft enough to be on salary. What full time jobs ARE there these days that pay by the hour though?
if your tramping or trip dosh,then you get held up and delayed enough to give you all the boredom you can handle.
i prefer trip dosh as 6 or 7 hours kip a night is way more than enough to keep me going. Yeh, I never fancied being legally required to take “only” 9 hours daily rest - and then not being paid for the other 15 hours potentially “at work” huh? Tramping jobs should be paid imo 15 15 15 13 13 13 and 15 15 15 13 13 week two, on a fortnight rotate BY THE HOUR… Watch the rates rise - when no one is prepared to work that set of hours already for a “Salary”…!
apart from getting your tea at night,and a cuppa when you wake,the rest is just a waste of time.(obviously this formula does not apply if your parked in la jon or similar)if i was on day work,then 11 is fine,but for tramping is just boring.everyones different and if your not happy with your wages,just go elsewhere till you are.
theres a driver shortage dontcha know,the world is your lobster…( this applies if your a driver,and not a cabbage in a hi viz)
My wife sits on here hole as you put it 9-5 mon - friday for £37,500. Hour lunch break daily no weekends and plenty of holidays included.
I used to drive 60+ hours a week and stressed out my nut. Never matched her pay once. Unkess you add up all the buckshee stuff you could do before trackers and cameras came in.
Hence why i left.
Dont get me wrong diesel. Im sure there are boys out there that cant see past driving a lorry but believe me there is a lot cushtier jobs out there for better money that even a monkey could do.
And before you say it. Maybe i am a monkey. Who knows.
[/quote]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
i totally agree with you there bud,but its not what else you can do,or what other professions pay,its about the snowflakes collapsing with the thought of a few 15 hour spreadovers.
if you want more wages,then do a different job,if you want to drive a truck,then just do it,stop moaning,and just get on with it if your happy enough with the wages and conditions.
i wouldnt be working as a lorry driver as i do quite allright with my other business interests having made my money for the rest of my life,but i do like to do the odd panic trip that i can do in a hooked up gruntmobile in my own way.
i like the craic,and a day or week now and again.
in the past ive employed 50-70 folk which is stressful and have had a lot of commercial and private properties and now im quite ok financially to play at a couple of hobbies,( one of them battering a trip now and again ,but if your penchance is to drive a truck,then its meant to be a mans job despite what the stobart/tesco snowflakes are turning it into with generally crap wages for the hours you spend in it working or not.
driving a truck is a great job,but 99% of every other aspect of it from wages to vosa is nothing but torture and id advise anyone to get out of it unless you want a job similar to those youtube legend embarrassments.
[/quote]
muckles:
Winseer:
Harry Monk:
How many more times does this need to be said?If there genuinely was a driver shortage, then the wages wouldn’t be low in the first place. That’s how supply and demand works.
That’s how supply and demand SHOULD work - but we have a corrupted state of price discovery in the HGV jobs market alas…
In a proper capitalist system - drivers would be paid a sliding scale of rates, according to their
(1) Age and years of experience
(2) Number of yards worked at (wider experience!)
(3) Tickets held
(4) Shift bonus for Friday Nights, First thing monday mornings on top of usual saturday/sunday premiums
(5) Better retention “perks” for those drivers with clean licences/good H&S and sickness records…That’s not a capitalist system, that sounds like something a state controlled system would come up with.
A capitalist system is the supply and demand system that Harry mentioned, if you have more workers than jobs you pay the lowest rate they’ll accept, if you have more work than jobs, you put the money up until you have filled the vacancies.The capitalism is the “Price discovery” bit. That is, if you cannot fill a shift at a price - you up the price, rather than import some bodies from overseas, put them in legally questionable “safety standard” accommodation, and bypassing the free and open market process of “price discovery” altogether… That circumvention is “Anti Capitalist” and it is Blair’s Nu labour we have to thank for that. Is there anyone on here who doesn’t think that the golden age of agency work ended in 1997 for everyone except NHS agency workers, it seems?
Winseer:
Let’s see an end to UNPAID and UNINSURED inductions/assessments then - across the industry…I seem to recall the Labour party suggesting the same thing.
truckyboy:
Driver shortage my arse, shortage of good quality drivers, who will work for a fair days money yes and i know this for sure…I had the misfortune to go to a mates funeral this week ( truck driver ) and my old boss was there too ( we both worked for him at one time, anyway boss was saying hes got 6 motors parked up, cant get drivers yet pays em £800 a week take home with a start at 0600, and mostly finishes at 1400…hows about that.
Condolences for your friend there TB.Would be interesting to see the number of pm`s you receive for this 800 a week gig.I’ll bet it’s pretty extensive 
Got to agree with the sentiments that there is in fact no driver shortage. There are plenty of people picking and choosing when to use their driving entitlement, which is entirely their prerogative. In my experience most drivers are perfectly capable of doing other types of work and will do so if they are not being paid or treated properly.
I understand because Joe Bloggs goes and spends his money getting his entitlement to drive and goes to an agency, and their attitude is: “we own you, your entitlement and your life”. It is not really surprising that Joe Bloggs decides, right I will stick to my previous trade and take the odd shift driving when its suits Joe Bloggs.
I also think that some people will decide after six months of applying for appropriate jobs to sack the whole thing. These people are qualified drivers who are willing to work, so the problem is not a driver shortage.
As has been suggested, put the wages up, improve conditions, give people the prospect of a career and bang, overnight there is no driver shortage.
Tude:
There is no drivers shortage…Firm I do a bit for had units parked up for a couple of weeks, they increased the wages to the regulars and the newbies, no more trucks parked up and everyone a winner…Not difficult to understand is it?Once wages are increased there is no shortage, funny that innit?
Case in point (I always wanted to say that) company I worked for got rid of a lot of long time drivers and wanted to replaced them with new lower paid drivers. They only got a couple of applicants, they stayed away in droves as they say. So they put the pay back to what it was and ‘hey presto’ plenty of drivers falling all over themselves to get in.
ezydriver:
Harry Monk:
Terry T:
They also made me answer this question
I don’t get it. Where is that shift pattern illegal?
It’s not.
It is,5th line down, while doing the 2 hours driving you will go over the 6 hours without a break wtd rule