Clarky:
Give me £500 quid and I can point you in the direction of a job or 2!!!
I’ll take you up on that, i’ve got money to waste like it was going out of fashion…actually no money is going out of fashion isn’t in so i appear to be in dire straits!
there was a shortage
but there aint one know
shortage was taken care of by our eastern cousins yonks ago
so can anyone tell me why so many east european drivers were brought here and are occupying so many jobs if there wasnt a driver shortage? If say for example a company has 40 east euro drivers and they all suddenly decided to go home would those 40 vacancies be filled even with people out of work?
my take on it,
i don’t really think there was a driver shortage as such, i didn’t see yards up and down the country with trucks parked up, as the firms couldn’t get drivers. i think it got very tight though, this meant agencies could get away with charging more, supply and demand an all. which meant agency pay went up, which meant more people left full time employment to work on agency, all these companies now have vacancies - desite all of there trucks rolling out every day.
anyone who wanted a full time job knew they could have there pick, it also meant that companies were far more willing to give people with no exp a chance aswell as putting people through the tests. this makes it feel like there’s a shortage
i’d be surprised if the day by day jobs, to working drivers ratio was outside 95% - 105%. all thats happened now in the downturn is working on ageny has pretty much died off and the agency drivers are now company drivers.
stevie
I was fortunate enough to get my job within a month of passing my cat C. When I had my interview I hadn’t even got my licence back from DVLA. I applied direct to the company and got an interview and the manager didn’t mind giving me the chance. I suppose it didn’t hurt that my stepbrother works at the same site but their philosphy seems to be that if they give you the chance they can teach you to be a good driver rather than taking you on after two years of “experience” with a dodgy agency. My training school was a small family run one recommended to me by a friend who did his PSV with them. I would happily recommend them to anyone who asks, Eastern LGV Training. They are based next door to Garrets Green test centre in Birmingham.
scaniav8power:
so can anyone tell me why so many east european drivers were brought here and are occupying so many jobs if there wasnt a driver shortage? If say for example a company has 40 east euro drivers and they all suddenly decided to go home would those 40 vacancies be filled even with people out of work?
Because the cheapskates among our employers could get away with paying them below minimum wage. They claimed that the difference was made up by paying for accommodation and return flights. Aye, right then.
What was below minimum wage to us, was to them a quite considerable wage upgrade. They were surviving fairly comfortably here and sending home more than a local average weeks wage. Due to world economics, that is no longer the case.
If 40 of these drivers left to go home, then those vacancies may well not be filled. Would you work for minimum wage, no OT rate?
In general, the companies who do this sort of thing are the same companies who quote rock bottom rates for work. The only reason they can make a profit is because their wage bill is lower than anyone elses. These cheapskates are also keeping your wages low, because your boss has to pay your wage but still keep competitive with the cheapskates to stay in business.
I would have to be very desperate, to take a job with those conditions.
Yes, I have turned down job offers with laughable wages.
Simon:
scaniav8power:
so can anyone tell me why so many east european drivers were brought here and are occupying so many jobs if there wasnt a driver shortage? If say for example a company has 40 east euro drivers and they all suddenly decided to go home would those 40 vacancies be filled even with people out of work?Because the cheapskates among our employers could get away with paying them below minimum wage. They claimed that the difference was made up by paying for accommodation and return flights. Aye, right then.
What was below minimum wage to us, was to them a quite considerable wage upgrade. They were surviving fairly comfortably here and sending home more than a local average weeks wage. Due to world economics, that is no longer the case.If 40 of these drivers left to go home, then those vacancies may well not be filled. Would you work for minimum wage, no OT rate?
In general, the companies who do this sort of thing are the same companies who quote rock bottom rates for work. The only reason they can make a profit is because their wage bill is lower than anyone elses. These cheapskates are also keeping your wages low, because your boss has to pay your wage but still keep competitive with the cheapskates to stay in business.
I would have to be very desperate, to take a job with those conditions.
Yes, I have turned down job offers with laughable wages.
I agree entirely with the above. It is an unfortunate fact in this country that the quality of management is abysmal. A UK managers fist port of call to increase profits is always to pay lower wages (but not to themselves of course).Capitalism is not that far removed from Serfdom or Indentured Servitude, in that it strives to pay the minimum and extract the maximum with no regard for the health and welfare of the worker.
As with some European nations, it is about time that there were minimum wages set for particular professions. We as professional drivers with vocational licenses are skilled operatives and that should be recognised in law, as it should for others with skills.
The basic national minimum wage should only be for unskilled workers, for jobs that require no extra qualifications or entitlements. By doing this it will stop the undercutting of wages by workers from our fraternal eastern members of the EU. It will not prevent mythical vacancies being filled, but it will ensure that UK drivers maintain the standard of living they deserve.
There will obviously be a few loopholes to iron out with such a concept, but it is definitely achievable.
Before I was a bus driver I was a baker when did any of you last see a bakers job advertised,The trade is pretty well a closed industry now and if you cant speak Polish you wont get a start.
Lorry driving is going the same way ,the standard is becoming sleep in a flop house with a dozen other men all ■■■■■■■ after a plate of cabbage and beetroot soup.The standards should be getting better but we are being dragged down to Eastern ways.
alamcculloch:
Before I was a bus driver I was a baker when did any of you last see a bakers job advertised,The trade is pretty well a closed industry now and if you cant speak Polish you wont get a start.
I thought bakers went when all the shops closed, and was nothing to do with speaking Polish. Infact i can’t recall many bakeries about even before 2004 when we where opened up to an Eastern European workforce?
alamcculloch:
Lorry driving is going the same way ,the standard is becoming sleep in a flop house with a dozen other men all ■■■■■■■ after a plate of cabbage and beetroot soup.The standards should be getting better but we are being dragged down to Eastern ways.
If thats true, then what you are seeing is not us being dragged down into anything. You are witnessing exploitation of migrant workers.
alamcculloch:
Before I was a bus driver I was a baker when did any of you last see a bakers job advertised,The trade is pretty well a closed industry now and if you cant speak Polish you wont get a start.
Lorry driving is going the same way ,the standard is becoming sleep in a flop house with a dozen other men all ■■■■■■■ after a plate of cabbage and beetroot soup.The standards should be getting better but we are being dragged down to Eastern ways.
The man to blame for the lack of highstreet bakers jobs was born in Whitechapel in the East End of London on 6th October 1898, the son of Avroam Kohen, an immigrant Polish-Jewish tailor, and his first wife, Sime Zamremba. He later married the daughter of an immigrant Russian-Jewish tailor. They then had 2 daughters, one of whom now lives in Israel.
alamcculloch:
Before I was a bus driver I was a baker when did any of you last see a bakers job advertised,The trade is pretty well a closed industry now and if you cant speak Polish you wont get a start.
Lorry driving is going the same way ,the standard is becoming sleep in a flop house with a dozen other men all ■■■■■■■ after a plate of cabbage and beetroot soup.The standards should be getting better but we are being dragged down to Eastern ways.
Funny you should say that, ive got to know a few polish lads (no women unfortuntely - arent polish women usually rather nice 
) and a few of them worked as bakers, coincidence i thought but maybe not reading what you’ve posted.
And you know what they were very sound really nice lads which makes me feel bad for being anti-immigration because i am. It really is not the migrant workers fault for this immigration mess we are in.
To the poster who said the IT wonder job ads are in similar ■■■■■■■■ vain to the HGV wonder jobs ads, yes you are right! What does it say, average wage £37k… yeh right maybe in 2000. I work in IT and still want to get into driving.
christianh:
alamcculloch:
Before I was a bus driver I was a baker when did any of you last see a bakers job advertised,The trade is pretty well a closed industry now and if you cant speak Polish you wont get a start.
Lorry driving is going the same way ,the standard is becoming sleep in a flop house with a dozen other men all ■■■■■■■ after a plate of cabbage and beetroot soup.The standards should be getting better but we are being dragged down to Eastern ways.Funny you should say that, ive got to know a few polish lads (no women unfortuntely - arent polish women usually rather nice
And you know what they were very sound really nice lads which makes me feel bad for being anti-immigration because i am. It really is not the migrant workers fault for this immigration mess we are in.
To the poster who said the IT wonder job ads are in similar [zb] vain to the HGV wonder jobs ads, yes you are right! What does it say, average wage £37k… yeh right maybe in 2000. I work in IT and still want to get into driving.
I have nothing against people on grounds of where they were born,I wonder if they were told the truth when they signed up to come hereI dont like a raw deal either for me or any one else.
I wonder what with the strength of the pound against the Euro if any of you will be looking for work overseas?.
Maybe in Poland? LOL.
jammymutt:
I wonder what with the strength of the pound against the Euro if any of you will be looking for work overseas?.Maybe in Poland? LOL.
The way the Pound is going, even the Ukraine will start to become attractive soon