The issue is its the nature of logistics. They have work that needs doing but they dont have full-time positions available year round. A company may need an extra 3-4 drivers in a particular month sure. But other than that they only need the extra drivers for cover or for large orders.
The issue with this is although there may be work for say 50k drivers throughout the year there is not 50k driving jobs going. If we got that extra 50k drivers than what would the incentive for those drivers who could not land a fulltime job to just stick around?
And as Mazzer said, many agencies have made promises to companies that they will have extra drivers at the ready at short notice, in case they are needed.
I think everyone here has signed up with an agency who has promised non-stop work only to be told that it is ‘quiet’ at the moment.
The mob I’m working for need another 8 agency drivers on the site I’m at, as the client has got a seasonal peak and need those drivers to cover work, this includes Saturday and Sunday work, which is why I’m working this Sunday
Why pay a full-time workforce when you can hire in staff and then lay them off when things are slack?
Anywhere that operates a full time staff system will become un-competative. Robots will do the majority of day to day tasks and the few people needed will be agency or contract only.
Why pay a full-time workforce when you can hire in staff and then lay them off when things are slack?
Anywhere that operates a full time staff system will become un-competative. Robots will do the majority of day to day tasks and the few people needed will be agency or contract only.
Gig economy here we come.
That’s a bleak and stark picture of the future you paint. With great sadness I find that I can’t disagree with a single word!
Why pay a full-time workforce when you can hire in staff and then lay them off when things are slack?
Anywhere that operates a full time staff system will become un-competative. Robots will do the majority of day to day tasks and the few people needed will be agency or contract only.
Gig economy here we come.
Not if you have a need for specialised HGV drivers.
For example in the portacabin world you just cannot get an agency driver with HIAB ticket, ability to drive wide and long loads into London without smashing every lampost on the way and the skillset to bolt together a string of cabins whilst getting soaked in the pouring rain!
Why pay a full-time workforce when you can hire in staff and then lay them off when things are slack?
Anywhere that operates a full time staff system will become un-competative. Robots will do the majority of day to day tasks and the few people needed will be agency or contract only.
Gig economy here we come.
Not if you have a need for specialised HGV drivers.
For example in the portacabin world you just cannot get an agency driver with HIAB ticket, ability to drive wide and long loads into London without smashing every lampost on the way and the skillset to bolt together a string of cabins whilst getting soaked in the pouring rain!
Hiab ticket , I did loads of portacabins out of wincham into London & never had anything other that wide markers , thank Christ I never got stopped !!!
yourhavingalarf:
Why pay a full-time workforce when you can hire in staff and then lay them off when things are slack?
it would be financial suicide for an operator to have vehicles stood and not earning money, when they have operational standing costs that would quickly bankrupt them
I don’t see the picture as bleak as some, at least for those who take an interest in and give quality work.
In the years i’ve been doing this job these things have always gone in cycles, if there’s a glut of good drivers or some form of dowturn or the job itself changes as it will in a changing world then the more short sighted employers see it as an opportunity to revise the good terms they might have had to pay in the past, ok they succeed up to a point for a few years but invariably the lower pay or worse conditions they impose results in less able employees so their costs rise dramatically and/or they find (depending on the sector) that their customers demand better service/quality so it goes around again, they have to offer better terms and attitude to recruit the quality they previously had.
Insurance will be the next major headache for many, it’s already happening for some operators who lost sight of what made them successful who find themselves struggling to insure at all, but the easy and wrong recent answer to that was the driver facing camera, which is fine in theory but even if you pointed 30 cameras at a chump he’ll still be a chump till his dying day, they’ll have to sort themselves out or lose their businesses.
Electronics and making the vehicles semi drive themselves hasn’t helped our industry at all, it’s only served to deskill the job and insult the good drivers out there, the first mistake they all made was to do away with the manual gearbox (yes i know most wouldn’t want to go back), that alone allowed a whole new swathe of non lorry drivers to get behind the wheel and from that major error they’ve had to fit ever more electronic tat and fail safe devices to prevent chumps from doing their thing, but no matter how much tat they bolt on these fools are still ramming each other up the arse and turning the whole outfit over on perfectly straight roads and wrecking vehicles gates and buildings due to incompetence/negligence when maneuvering, that’s without the ■■■■ heads druggies and monkeys doing what anyone with half an ounce of common would expect which all too often results in carnage and destruction of innocents, the good drivers never needed any of this ■■■■■■■■ but one size fits all mentality is rife in industry management currently, hopefully it’s reaching its lowest point about now.
What industries always forget is that if the suits all vanished the job itself would continue to run, but if the workers whether drivers packers stackers operators machinists forkies cleaners maintenance etc failed to turn up the depending on the industry the job stops within minutes or hours at most.
It’s really simple. Firms within any area that offer something tend to retain drivers or don’t advertise often if at all. That something can be security, speciality, terms etc etc. How often do the likes of asda etc set on?
For the rest its borderline if its worth it anymore. More and more regulation with onus in the driver means that come May when my CPC expired I’ll most likely be leaving HGV/PSV industry which is all I’ve done in various roles for 20 years.
That might change, after all it’s in the blood, but I honestly struggle to see any reason to stay in the industry. Kinaxia have done that to me, but realistically it’s not just them as far from being new and innovative they’re actually the same as the rest if not worse.
“You know where the gate is” they say. That’s right. I hope more use it.
toonsy:
It’s really simple. Firms within any area that offer something tend to retain drivers or don’t advertise often if at all. That something can be security, speciality, terms etc etc. How often do the likes of asda etc set on?
For the rest its borderline if its worth it anymore. More and more regulation with onus in the driver means that come May when my CPC expired I’ll most likely be leaving HGV/PSV industry which is all I’ve done in various roles for 20 years.
That might change, after all it’s in the blood, but I honestly struggle to see any reason to stay in the industry. Kinaxia have done that to me, but realistically it’s not just them as far from being new and innovative they’re actually the same as the rest if not worse.
“You know where the gate is” they say. That’s right. I hope more use it.
Asda, Rarely at my depot. We have a few regular agency to cover sickness spikes, holiday and busy times not covered by rest day workers. In the last 2 years we have had zero drivers taken on from outside of the company.
All of the new drivers we have had come from the Warehouse to wheels program and they have to have been with the company for at least 3 years with an impeccable record for sickness, disciplinary, time keeping etc. to get on the program.
Cant even remember the last time somebody actually left, all the warehouse to wheels replacements have been coming in for people retiring or going part time 2 or 3 days a week.
toonsy:
It’s really simple. Firms within any area that offer something tend to retain drivers or don’t advertise often if at all. That something can be security, speciality, terms etc etc. How often do the likes of asda etc set on?
For the rest its borderline if its worth it anymore. More and more regulation with onus in the driver means that come May when my CPC expired I’ll most likely be leaving HGV/PSV industry which is all I’ve done in various roles for 20 years.
That might change, after all it’s in the blood, but I honestly struggle to see any reason to stay in the industry. Kinaxia have done that to me, but realistically it’s not just them as far from being new and innovative they’re actually the same as the rest if not worse.
“You know where the gate is” they say. That’s right. I hope more use it.
Asda, Rarely at my depot. We have a few regular agency to cover sickness spikes, holiday and busy times not covered by rest day workers. In the last 2 years we have had zero drivers taken on from outside of the company.
All of the new drivers we have had come from the Warehouse to wheels program and they have to have been with the company for at least 3 years with an impeccable record for sickness, disciplinary, time keeping etc. to get on the program.
Cant even remember the last time somebody actually left, all the warehouse to wheels replacements have been coming in for people retiring or going part time 2 or 3 days a week.
I got a call back from Lutterworth CDC but I missed the call and when you redial it goes to an automated switchboard where you can’t get hold of anyone.
Fuzrat:
All of the new drivers we have had come from the Warehouse to wheels program and they have to have been with the company for at least 3 years with an impeccable record for sickness, disciplinary, time keeping etc. to get on the program.
Just another sign of the cluster zb that supposedly passes as a ‘career progression’ regime in the industry.
Obviously using the carrot of being parachuted into the job of a driver to fill warehouse jobs.
The reason why most people want to be ‘drivers’ is precisely because they don’t want to work in a warehouse/factory.Good luck with counting out that pool of career drivers.Just another reason why any new entrant to the industry would say why bother.Might as well look for a job driving cars for the local car dealership.
yourhavingalarf:
Why pay a full-time workforce when you can hire in staff and then lay them off when things are slack?
it would be financial suicide for an operator to have vehicles stood and not earning money, when they have operational standing costs that would quickly bankrupt them
That equation goes out the window with the combination of fuel costs + wage costs.
Also depreciation costs and maintenance costs all in large part based on mileage not just the age of the vehicle.
It’s a fine margin regarding rates that can actually make taking on work putting the firm in the red faster than turning it down.
At best they take work involving the least amount of mileage.Then they try to reflect that in the driver’s wages and/or putting the driver to work doing ‘other duties’ while the truck is parked up going nowhere.
That’s exactly what the government’s road transport policy is based on.They want to minimise the mileage involved in freight journeys and they are using financial disincentives to enforce it.
Then they all whinge about the industry being unnattractive to new entrants.
Juddian:
the first mistake they all made was to do away with the manual gearbox (yes i know most wouldn’t want to go back), that alone allowed a whole new swathe of non lorry drivers to get behind the wheel
To be more precise the constant mesh manual box.
I recently asked one of the resident synchro fans surely even with a synchro box they don’t just ram though a downshift using the synchros and re engage the clutch against an idling engine.At which point why bother with the synchros at all.The clutch and flwheel faces still need to be rev matched either way.
So overnight they removed the required skill set required to slow and stop a truck correctly which the constant mesh box enforced no ifs no buts.
Curtain siders without rope hooks so generations of drivers without any roping skills.Etc etc etc.
So here we are from drivers who could rope a load and drive properly to cynical ‘warehouse to wheels’ recruitment policies using what should be the trade of a driver, as a carrot to fill warehouse operative vacancies.Who would have thought it.It really is an out of touch suits driven idiocracy.
Why pay a full-time workforce when you can hire in staff and then lay them off when things are slack?
Anywhere that operates a full time staff system will become un-competative. Robots will do the majority of day to day tasks and the few people needed will be agency or contract only.
Gig economy here we come.
That’s a bleak and stark picture of the future you paint. With great sadness I find that I can’t disagree with a single word!
" Build it, and he will come " Field of dreams 1989
" Offer dog excrement, and they will still come " Beaver pallet sales 2021
Current agency driver Mon - Fri days (Min £11 per hour or don’t call me) and retailer of every pallet I can get my hands on. Seek and ye shall find. Find some pride & stop working for pennies…
eagerbeaver:
(Min £11 per hour or don’t call me) and retailer of every pallet I can get my hands on. Seek and ye shall find. Find some pride & stop working for pennies…
It’s not how much money per hour it’s type of and/or how much work required per hour.I’d happily take 2 quid per hour less for a few palletised drops/collections all forklifted on/off or direct trailer/box swap trunking.
surely even with a synchro box they don’t just ram though a downshift using the synchros and re engage the clutch against an idling engine.At which point why bother with the synchros at all.The clutch and flwheel faces still need to be rev matched either way.
