Iv been in transport since school 1995 and passed my test at 21 and away I went down the road now after 19 year driving and 24 year in the industry why are am I still driving and not moved up the ladder.
Iv applied at ever firm Iv been at for office roles apart from where I am now because we don’t have an office 
,every time I was knocked back and some clueless clown brought in.
One manager at one firm actually admitted I didn’t get the role because they didn’t want to lose a good driver 
Now is it just me or is career progression for drivers just not there,
I’m quite happy in my current role but It annoys me when I look back at some of the clowns Iv worked under
yorkshire terrier:
Iv been in transport since school 1995 and passed my test at 21 and away I went down the road now after 19 year driving and 24 year in the industry why are am I still driving and not moved up the ladder.
Iv applied at ever firm Iv been at for office roles apart from where I am now because we don’t have an office
One manager at one firm actually admitted I didn’t get the role because they didn’t want to lose a good driver
Now is it just me or is career progression for drivers just not there,
I’m quite happy in my current role but It annoys me when I look back at some of the clowns Iv worked under
A. Your not man enough to show inntiative.
B. You are happy with the money.
C. You havent got the ■■■■■■■■ to tell them to ram it and go try something new…
Answers on a postcard.
PO BOX no one has balls nowadays. Why the industys ■■■■■■.
yorkshire terrier:
Iv been in transport since school 1995 and passed my test at 21 and away I went down the road now after 19 year driving and 24 year in the industry why are am I still driving and not moved up the ladder.
Iv applied at ever firm Iv been at for office roles apart from where I am now because we don’t have an office
One manager at one firm actually admitted I didn’t get the role because they didn’t want to lose a good driver
Now is it just me or is career progression for drivers just not there,
I’m quite happy in my current role but It annoys me when I look back at some of the clowns Iv worked under
It depends if you look at working in a transport office as a ‘‘moving up the ladder’’ personally I don’t,.I see it as more of a side step.
You obviously wanted to be a driver from Day 1, if not you would have seeked work in an office, I mean,…kids who have just left school are in transport offices, and others with no transport background or knowledge …it seems to be the main qualification for the job these days. 
Once over (deffo not now) owning your own transport business was a ‘step up the ladder’ , I’ve been there myself, after 3 yrs experience at 23 yrs old, it was the right time to do so as it was then, but I would not dream of it today if I was the same age now as I was then.
Imo the only ‘‘Step up the ladder’’ is to get tf out of the job, as it’s totally Donald Ducked to what it once was, for many reasons I’m sure you are aware of, if you have 20+ yrs experience.
The other alternative is to remain a driver, no shame in that.
cgscott:
yorkshire terrier:
Iv been in transport since school 1995 and passed my test at 21 and away I went down the road now after 19 year driving and 24 year in the industry why are am I still driving and not moved up the ladder.
Iv applied at ever firm Iv been at for office roles apart from where I am now because we don’t have an office
One manager at one firm actually admitted I didn’t get the role because they didn’t want to lose a good driver
Now is it just me or is career progression for drivers just not there,
I’m quite happy in my current role but It annoys me when I look back at some of the clowns Iv worked underA. Your not man enough to show inntiative.
B. You are happy with the money.
C. You havent got the ■■■■■■■■ to tell them to ram it and go try something new…
Answers on a postcard.
PO BOX no one has balls nowadays. Why the industys [zb].
Believe me mate I have balls to tell any company to ram it,
cgscott:
yorkshire terrier:
Iv been in transport since school 1995 and passed my test at 21 and away I went down the road now after 19 year driving and 24 year in the industry why are am I still driving and not moved up the ladder.
Iv applied at ever firm Iv been at for office roles apart from where I am now because we don’t have an office
One manager at one firm actually admitted I didn’t get the role because they didn’t want to lose a good driver
Now is it just me or is career progression for drivers just not there,
I’m quite happy in my current role but It annoys me when I look back at some of the clowns Iv worked underA. Your not man enough to show inntiative.
B. You are happy with the money.
C. You havent got the ■■■■■■■■ to tell them to ram it and go try something new…
Answers on a postcard.
PO BOX no one has balls nowadays. Why the industys [zb].
D. Like me, you ■■■■■■ about at school and didn’t listen.
robroy:
yorkshire terrier:
Iv been in transport since school 1995 and passed my test at 21 and away I went down the road now after 19 year driving and 24 year in the industry why are am I still driving and not moved up the ladder.
Iv applied at ever firm Iv been at for office roles apart from where I am now because we don’t have an office
One manager at one firm actually admitted I didn’t get the role because they didn’t want to lose a good driver
Now is it just me or is career progression for drivers just not there,
I’m quite happy in my current role but It annoys me when I look back at some of the clowns Iv worked underIt depends if you look at working in a transport office as a ‘‘moving up the ladder’’ personally I don’t,.I see it as more of a side step.
You obviously wanted to be a driver from Day 1, if not you would have seeked work in an office, I mean,…kids who have just left school are in transport offices, and others with no transport background or knowledge …it seems to be the main qualification for the job these days.
Once over (deffo not now) owning your own transport business was a ‘step up the ladder’ , I’ve been there myself, after 3 yrs experience at 23 yrs old, it was the right time to do so as it was then, but I would not dream of it today if I was the same age now as I was then.
Imo the only ‘‘Step up the ladder’’ is to get tf out of the job, as it’s totally Donald Ducked to what it once was, for many reasons I’m sure you are aware of, if you have 20+ yrs experience.
The other alternative is to remain a driver, no shame in that.
Not just talking about working in the transport office,but iv seen complete bell ends go in to the office and be transport manager in three years,baffles me
Moving from the cab into the office isn’t a step up, in terms of pay alone it is often a fairly big step down.
Career progression does exist as a driver, but usually not by staying in the same place and in the same role.
If you’re looking to increase your pay then increase your skills. Specialist roles (HIAB, ADR, PDP, car transporters etc) usually come with better pay than general haulage, pallets etc.
Other than that, if your company has a fair turnover of drivers then you could look at driver training, showing newbies the ropes or doing driver assessments for potential new recruits
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CookieMonster:
Moving from the cab into the office isn’t a step up, in terms of pay alone it is often a fairly big step down.
Career progression does exist as a driver, but usually not by staying in the same place and in the same role.
If you’re looking to increase your pay then increase your skills. Specialist roles (HIAB, ADR, PDP, car transporters etc) usually come with better pay than general haulage, pallets etc.
Other than that, if your company has a fair turnover of drivers then you could look at driver training, showing newbies the ropes or doing driver assessments for potential new recruitsSent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Driver trainer was one of the roles I was thinking of in my original post.
Worked at 2 firms now where they have picked the most awkward arrogant drivers they could to work in this role,
Having (sadly) been in this industry most of my life (nearly 40 years working), as a driver,owner driver, transport clerk and transport manager - if you asked me where I was happiest I would say driver, admittedly this was a long time ago, but earnings wise, you may do less “booked” hours in the office, but you can never switch off and eventually dealing with the same crap day in and out, grinds you down (at least as a driver its someone elses problem), i am finally getting out of this ruined industry (country) soon and doing something completely differnt in Vietnam. my advice is dont think going “up” the ladder is all is cracked up to be
Or look at it from another angle.
Do you really want to work in the same environment, at close quarters,as some of these bellends?
Office politics, PC brigade etc.
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DF40:
Or look at it from another angle.
Do you really want to work in the same environment, at close quarters,as some of these bellends?Office politics, PC brigade etc.
Sent from my moto e5 play using Tapatalk
Your probably right but it’s the lack of a chance that’s always got to me,never been given the chance to give it a go.
Won’t happen now as I’m at a small haulier with 4 trucks,
Drivers happy being drivers, and this is still the case for many of us despite the doom and gloom voiced so often here.
Management not wanting serious competition for their role.
Drivers don’t always make good managers for a variety of reasons, i have worked under superb planners TM’s and area managers who started out as drivers, equally i have worked under managers who were useless as drivers so were promoted to where they could do less damage, others were poachers turned gamekeepers who were basically bullies.
For most good drivers it would take years, even if their career progressed fairly rapidly, to get back up to a good drivers salary level.
Mainly though good drivers are in short supply and have been for many years, you don’t effectively get rid of your most productive staff for them to become yet another expensive ornament as most managers are…quite serious this point, if all the gaffers disappeared for several weeks or months the job would still go on, but if the front line staff (all the blue collar people in our industry, and i include immediate planners as blue collar) didn’t turn in nothing would be earned by the company and it would case trading in a matter of hours or days, too many white collar bods forget this simple fact.
If you make the jump you might not like what you find, if you are an honourable person whose word means something, you might be quite sickened at the lies the higher ups expect you to tell in order to con the blokes you previously worked with, some of us can’t do that hence back on the road.
I know others who climbed the greasy pole to fair heights and didn’t like what they found and went back behind the wheel.
I suspect YT that you’re a driver at heart, that’s what you are and nothing at all wrong with that, its an honourable decently paid job, there’s plenty of scope within to earn some decent money for reasonable hours and still stay behind the wheel far away from the office politics ■■■■■■■■.
Juddian:
Drivers happy being drivers, and this is still the case for many of us despite the doom and gloom voiced so often here.
Management not wanting serious competition for their role.
Drivers don’t always make good managers for a variety of reasons, i have worked under superb planners TM’s and area managers who started out as drivers, equally i have worked under managers who were useless as drivers so were promoted to where they could do less damage, others were poachers turned gamekeepers who were basically bullies.
For most good drivers it would take years, even if their career progressed fairly rapidly, to get back up to a good drivers salary level.Mainly though good drivers are in short supply and have been for many years, you don’t effectively get rid of your most productive staff for them to become yet another expensive ornament as most managers are…quite serious this point, if all the gaffers disappeared for several weeks or months the job would still go on, but if the front line staff (all the blue collar people in our industry, and i include immediate planners as blue collar) didn’t turn in nothing would be earned by the company and it would case trading in a matter of hours or days, too many white collar bods forget this simple fact.
If you make the jump you might not like what you find, if you are an honourable person whose word means something, you might be quite sickened at the lies the higher ups expect you to tell in order to con the blokes you previously worked with, some of us can’t do that hence back on the road.
I know others who climbed the greasy pole to fair heights and didn’t like what they found and went back behind the wheel.I suspect YT that you’re a driver at heart, that’s what you are and nothing at all wrong with that, its an honourable decently paid job, there’s plenty of scope within to earn some decent money for reasonable hours and still stay behind the wheel far away from the office politics ■■■■■■■■.
You probably sum it up there juddian,
Just when you see blokes get a chance of progress who you have seen to refuse jobs and be an all round awkward employee and Iv always tried to help out be flexible etc it wrangles a bit.
It will never happen now but was sat thinking about it earlier and all the positions I didn’t get and the clowns I lost out to.
Having said that I always miss out on the top driving jobs applied for Royal Mail 3 times,no points,good references etc and not a look in
If you call moving up the ladder going into the office it ain’t I have been in jobs where the driver earned more than the shift manager now the driver’s hours would be 48 includes brakes and the shift manager would be 40 hours but the difference was huge for the driver
As has been said the upward is owner driver or was the money some of the people earn in a office is shocking
yorkshire terrier:
Juddian:
You probably sum it up there juddian,
Just when you see blokes get a chance of progress who you have seen to refuse jobs and be an all round awkward employee and Iv always tried to help out be flexible etc it wrangles a bit.
It will never happen now but was sat thinking about it earlier and all the positions I didn’t get and the clowns I lost out to.
Having said that I always miss out on the top driving jobs applied for Royal Mail 3 times,no points,good references etc and not a look in
Id argue the point with you about RM being a top job.
I know i say it here often enough, but somewhere there is a niche for everyone, and unless you have someone who can open that door it’s a case of knocking on doors and selling yourself.
Worked for me and i don’t have the gift of the gab, specialising is where the money’s.
Juddian:
yorkshire terrier:
Juddian:
You probably sum it up there juddian,
Just when you see blokes get a chance of progress who you have seen to refuse jobs and be an all round awkward employee and Iv always tried to help out be flexible etc it wrangles a bit.
It will never happen now but was sat thinking about it earlier and all the positions I didn’t get and the clowns I lost out to.
Having said that I always miss out on the top driving jobs applied for Royal Mail 3 times,no points,good references etc and not a look inId argue the point with you about RM being a top job.
I know i say it here often enough, but somewhere there is a niche for everyone, and unless you have someone who can open that door it’s a case of knocking on doors and selling yourself.
Worked for me and i don’t have the gift of the gab, specialising is where the money’s.
Now that’s a different direction altogether is it to progress into mangement or just to get a better job with better conditions in a good paying company
In truth you really have to be in the right time and place even me i sometimes wonder how did this happen i have had loads of jobs but most were very good paying jobs and some were also great benefits also
You have to do a lot of research if you want a job that’s good and then keep going for it you would have agency drivers here working for good company’s for years and never getting in the door
It’s all about how good a reputation you have and most of all how much confidence in yourself comes into it and pristence you have
Iv have never had a problem getting into any job i ever wanted
Was on the road in one form or another for 50 years before retiring.Time after time potential “office bods” thought it was a step up the ladder only when they achieve their goal they found wearing “office gear” was not so well paid. A better salary sounded very nice but it meant any o/t was part and parcel of the job,meant they lost out compared with being a driver
my mate done a stint in the Transport office last year,and couldn’t wait to get out of it and back on the road! was on the verge of quitting when they reluctantly released him.the office ‘politics’,gaffer breathing down his neck,listening to pointy shoes no marks slagging off drivers was too much for him.
The same (business related) saying about turnover and profit applies to this.
Being a simple driver is SANITY
Working in an office wearing a suit is VANITY.
Ie…If it’s only because you want the neighbour’s seeing you leaving for work dressed up carrying a briefcase, (but with your sarnies in it ) crack on…Or
You could go wearing your casuals (or overalls whatever floats your boat) to pick up your truck, and be financially better off, …and more than likely happier in your work. 
Self perceived status is for snobs and/or the insecure.
That just about sums it up I reck.
I went from driver to management. The own-account company I drove for moved from London to Birmingham and I moved with them, but not as a driver. They offered me a job in the Export Office (maybe my 5 ‘O’ levels helped) and after a couple of years doing that, there was a crisis in the transport department and I was put forward to sort it out.
Ten years later, the firm went bust (not my fault - honest) and after a spell in the office of a car delivery company (horrible place) I moved to the NHS in a newly created post as a TM.
If I had not had a fairly good education (and certificates to prove it) and a good deal of luck, none of this would have happened.