The problem is people don’t see driving as a skill.
It is, just like anything that requires time and effort to learn. Some people can drive, some can’t. Some can knit, some can’t. Some can even build a house, others can’t these are all skills and should be paid appropriately for.
Just because someone has a driving licence that entitles them to drive an articulated lorry, doesn’t mean they can do it. It seems to me that a lot of jobs have lost their prestige because people just don’t understand how tough it can actually be. Lorry drivers are considered “professional drivers”, then why are they not treated as such
madmossy:
Who’s gonna want to spend £3k+ to get Cat C&E licences for £7/hour work.
No one.
Don’t think many of the people going into their tests are actually properly aware of the wage situation. They are just pursueing “the dream” which has been more than likely fuelled by the likes of Trucks & Trailers and IRT etc. painting a pretty picture.
So they will spend their £3K, start looking at jobs and then the situation dawns on them and they are forced into taking the £7ph jobs. Otherwise, they have no experience and no hope of moving onto better things. The crooks and agencies paying garbage wages are usually the only way into the industry for the vast wave of new drivers we have these days and they know it.
Without full time jobs, you can’t get into the industry under 25 because I’ve yet to hear of an agency that’ll fancy stomping up for the insurance involved.
As a young newbie, you might take the £7ph job whilst you’re still 21 and living with your mum, but what happens when you’ve got a girlfriend/wife up the duff and you want a place of your own maybe by the time you turn 30?
Not everyone has a “Bank of Mum & Dad”. More likely, this couple (if they ever became a couple) get to live with Mum until they’re drawing pensions themselves. With the lack of new company pensions, they might not even get that.
Perhaps the truck drivers of the future will seek to marry women with top jobs, and become “Kept Men”.
"Hiya. I’m Dave. I’m my QC Brown’s live-in whoreman"…
MY first job was with a agency a few days after passing my class 1 at 22, I moved 6 weeks later and started with a different agency.
There seems to be loads of P&H and HIAB work around here.
Now, if these people are getting class 2 licences handed out like candy floss at the DSS, then how come all these jobs ain’t been filled?
There’s clearly no shortage of drivers - just a shortage of those prepared to work around “superior” neighbourhoods for £8ph that’s all.
I’m avoiding getting a HIAB ticket like the plague, because once I got one, I’d find myself “only” being offered this crap I’m sure…
This is worse. £7.86 per hour = £307 a week basic for ADR night work. Then you need the overtime to make a living.
Rhys Davies Freight Logistics
LGV CLASS 1 DRIVER NIGHTS
Job description
We are currently looking for a self motivated and positive individual to join our team at our Cardiff Depot.
Candidates must possess a CE Class 1 licence. An ADR licence is essential. Monday - Friday, average 55 hours per week. All hours worked in excess of 40 attract premium payments of either time and a half or double time. Varied starting times to meet business needs, good basic rate of pay. Applicants will undergo a driving assessment as part of the recruitment process. This vacancy is covered by the Working Time Regulations.
No Agencies
Please ring our recruitment hotline 029 20815833 to request an application pack. CV’s alone are not acceptable.
rigga70:
thing is there is always a jam roll that will do it for £7.00 p.h
Yep there is but if your that desperate to feed your kids and pay your bills and there’s nothing else what do you do, I personally wouldn’t work for it yet if I had a couple off kids and a bigger mortgage and couldn’t find anything else id sooner do a days work then join the que off tax dodgers down the job centre it’s what theese company’s are preying on and they know they’ll get someone for it.
It be min wage after next year when the market with romanian and bulgarians coming over
Then the cabotage starts is this the beginning of the end for uk genral haulage like with the international gen haulage 20yrs ago
Govermant must expect the increase in foreign trucks here working to bring in the tax next year eventually
K5Project:
So how much would you do Class one work for?
in genral £10 standard hourly day rate [or more depending on the type of work ,generally adr work] is what other agencies who i work for offer ,however i also do direct work for £12 self employed.
more than that it is the “you should be gratefull for the work at any rate attitude” that realy grates with me.
in this job i always deliver a good days work with no pratting about and in return should be able expect a wage that reflects the cost of a modest standard of living ,nothing more nothing less.
You really work for £12 per hour as self employed and want to decry someone who wants to undercut your offered and accepted rate of £10 per hour as PAYE ? I can’t fathom you out at all. We where getting these pay rates over ten years ago. Then you say…
twozuluzlu:
just recently they were quoting £13.50 an hour for some weekend shifts, ive never been paid that by them regardless of when i have worked at the weekend .
says it all really
good luck in finding work.
regards tz
Well i always got more than that ten tears ago. So how come you’re doing that now?
Its a ■■■■■■■ joke at the moment, maybe when Sept 2014 arrives and hundreds of drivers spew the job there will be a shortage of drivers and maybe rates will increase but I doubt it
I am a waste of skin:
Its a [zb] joke at the moment, maybe when Sept 2014 arrives and hundreds of drivers spew the job there will be a shortage of drivers and maybe rates will increase but I doubt it
14 years time will be D day imo.
My thinking is that if the average age of a driver is currently 53, then in 14 year’s time it will be 67.
The public will resist being incrementally killed by bods still on the road over that age because their pension turned out crap…
Meanwhile, there’s few replacements coming in from the other end.
