There is a line between how low you can make someone’s pay, and how much extra it costs for that low-bidder worker to get the job done without too many balls-ups.
This would be perhaps in the form of “actual training” and “numerous second-chances” that one might not get elsewhere…
A question for TMs therefore:
How badly do “avoidable ■■■■-ups” by drivers rather than office staff hurt your business, when the pay cannot go down any more from where it is?
Can “Clumsy Keen” ever be better than "professional but with attitude" or "Tim, nice but endorsed" when dishing out the jobs?
There must be a trade-off between what’s affordable and what’s not I’m thinking here.
Is it also true that “the best training one can get is also among the lower payers in the industry”?
Winseer:
There is a line between how low you can make someone’s pay, and how much extra it costs for that low-bidder worker to get the job done without too many balls-ups.
This would be perhaps in the form of “actual training” and “numerous second-chances” that one might not get elsewhere…
A question for TMs therefore:
How badly do “avoidable ■■■■-ups” by drivers rather than office staff hurt your business, when the pay cannot go down any more from where it is?
Can “Clumsy Keen” ever be better than "professional but with attitude" or "Tim, nice but endorsed" when dishing out the jobs?
There must be a trade-off between what’s affordable and what’s not I’m thinking here.
Is it also true that “the best training one can get is also among the lower payers in the industry”?
it matters not, in this day and age of meat on a seat drivers wages are the only thing to suffer
Winseer:
There is a line between how low you can make someone’s pay, and how much extra it costs for that low-bidder worker to get the job done without too many balls-ups.
This would be perhaps in the form of “actual training” and “numerous second-chances” that one might not get elsewhere…
A question for TMs therefore:
How badly do “avoidable ■■■■-ups” by drivers rather than office staff hurt your business, when the pay cannot go down any more from where it is?
Can “Clumsy Keen” ever be better than "professional but with attitude" or "Tim, nice but endorsed" when dishing out the jobs?
There must be a trade-off between what’s affordable and what’s not I’m thinking here.
Is it also true that “the best training one can get is also among the lower payers in the industry”?
Well you have heard of the saying, Flog a willing horse, wells the sad thing is yes that really does happen. And ■■■■ ups by drivers and office staff really do effect profit margins.And when it comes to dishing out jobs TMs or Traffic Clerks, will sort out work that best suits what the driver can achieve. Back to the willing horse syndrome, I would never have give an important job to a driver that wasn’t reliable, and although it would lead to some drivers getting better work, then that’s the name of the game some might call it favouritism, but from my seat it was making sure the job got done. And yes its all a trade off to get into profit, if is not affordable then don’t do it.,.,
All depends on the type of work their drivers have to do.
I’m nothing but a driver now. But in previous employment I have given certain jobs to certain drivers, because I knew they could do it without smashing up the kit and or the customers premises. But I didn’t feel bad about that because they were all paid according to their ability/length of service anyway, so I didn’t feel that guilty.
I did exactly the same in an unrelated industry too. There were people I could trust with my life, there were people I could trust with other people’s lives, and lastly there were people I wouldn’t trust with their own lives. This lead to work being allocated accordingly. But I made ■■■■ sure my core group knew they were in the A team, as a result they had my complete devotion to whatever they wanted from me.
The thing I’m getting at, is that at both these jobs were small concerns, and had both difficult and easy work to complete. If the work was all easy, I wouldn’t have had the better staff to choose from because management would have deemed them un-necessary.
Equally with these massively huge firms, although I stress I have never worked for one, they employ too many people to be that discerning about all of them. As such we get the lowest common denominator syndrome, and as a direct result of that you get poor wages.
Best of it is, at these big companies, you still have some drivers who are very skilled/willing, and they will still be their TM’s favourites.
Being one of the reliable ones often sees you get the crappy end of the stick, just how it is…if the job needs nous they aint going to send a numpty…A he’ll whinge and cry till he gets his own way…B he’ll ■■■■ it up or throw a sicky if forced so one of reliable drivers still ends up doing it.
It might seem good planning to the planners, but you end up losing the good people when someone more enlightened poaches them, fine line to tread.
Bring back the good old days when we got paid extra for loading our own trucks, and got trained up to drive anything with yellow and black paint on it - so we could do just that.
“Dedicated Loaders” who are not drivers - all too often scarper when a handball truck turns up to be unloaded. How many times do you get "We’re just going on break now, so if you’re in a hurry, you are welcome to make a start yourself…
2-3 hours later, job done yourself, you wander around looking for someone to sign a docket, give you some paperwork etc. and the missing “loaders” are all playing cards in the rest room, manager included.
After that episode, I just tell anyone trying that one on now - “Oh take your time at break. I think I’ll overnight on your bay, if that’s ok by you.” or the more common “Fine, I’ll stick mine on 45 as well”.
Suddenly a manager appears and tries to tell you “You can’t take a break on a bay mate!” and you get some dirty looks from some returning loaders who’ve been “called back to the floor”…
At the end of the day, they either want your load - or they don’t.
drivers wages are the only thing to suffer 
