Many drivers I have spoken too or heared about are hanging up their keys from September. WTD is restricting hours for those that remain.
Haulage companies have cut wages to the bone for years and there is nothing much left to reduce costs on.
A large number of foreign drivers have gone home, very few young drivers are coming in to the job and those that do quickly become disillusioned.
I see serious problems in the supply chain, increased prices and as usual, no action from Govt. until its too late. When will they understand that transport is our lifeblood?
Maybe it could be good for us in that we will once again be treated as valued and professional workers.(yeah right).
I wonder what would happen if all drivers went on strike and how long it would be before we became a third world country.
This should be a chance for Hauliers and drivers to finally earn a proper living as long as we stood together instead of clambering over each other to get the scraps.
There seems to be a change coming that may have some far reaching implications and I am curious to know what you guys think will happen.
Nothing.
Best not to have an ‘opinion’ - it could get you slated for being ‘awkward’ or even sacked.
It’s been happening for some time now in transport, forward thinking companies haven’t gone the cheap route, not because they are charities but because it doesn’t work as those who buy cheapest think with their short sighted policies.
They have been quietly cherry picking the best staff, and offering them class leading terms and conditions, and they’re ready for whatever the future brings, no knee jerk reactions going to happen there.
The government is a waste of space so expect nothing from them (you, the electorate, voted them in so look in the mirror for the blame), if they resigned tomorrow and were not replaced no bugger would notice except the leeches wouldn’t be claiming for Christ knows what, the country would continue taxing its own working population till the pips squeak, whilst bribing dictators in other countries with £billions in foreign aid, and paying the feckless and those who have never contributed a penny to do nothing other than sit on their fat arses and breed the next generation of scroungers, meanwhile we’re still ruled by foreign powers without a shot in anger being fired, traitors have signed our sovereignty away and millions of brainwashed turkeys endorsed it happening by voting for their own Christmas.
We’ll still be importing more than a quart of people to fit in this pint pot country, and then wonder why house prices are still ballooning, and hospitals schools doctors etc can’t cope, and the roads are grinding to a halt.
And please ignore the lying leaders when they talk bollox about reducing immigration…they can’t from the EU because unless we leave the EU (and lib lab con have no intention) we have no border control from EU countries, and we won’t have.
We wonder why we have a terrorist threat, Jesus Wept, we imported millions of people yet never asked them to integrate or prove loyalty to their host country, then we bombed the crap out of their brothers and mercy me our politicians are surprised that they don’t like it, you really couldn’t make it up, our political class must be as thick as two planks if they think we can’t see through this crap…but never fear we’ll spy on the millions of our own countrymen who are loyal to the place, unlike our leaders, Dave’s going to make sure MI5 and Cheltenham are able to continue spying on us.
Whats going to happen?..more of the same because you, the voter, will elect the same bunch of crooks wide boys and con men/women into office next time and wonder why the end result is the same, as last time and the time before that…a truer definition of lunacy i have yet to see.
Left hand down!:
Nothing.
I do believe you may correct.
But consider this. If Wayne Rooney went on strike for 6 months how would it effect us? and he gets something like £150.000 a week!!!
How much would an actor get paid for pretending to be a truck driver? Solicitors charge £200 an hour. If they went on strike would there be riots and who would starve? When wars start what do we need most? actors, solicitors, footballers, H&S managers? No, drivers, doctors and real leaders not the stuffed shirts we have today.
agree with most of what Juddian says. I reckon though that there will be a fairly big shakeout in the industry and rates and wages will have to rise, simple supply and demand but it will take a year to 18months to work through.
Drivers have already started leaving the industry to work elsewhere and I reckon some company bosses will wake up on 15 Sept and wonder why their trucks are still parked in the yard and where all the drivers have gone. A hell of a lot of bosses seem to be sleepwalking into this and still think there’ll always be a queue of drivers desperate to take their sheds out for near minimum wage. ■■■■ them!!
Nothing has change much apart from numerous regulations that are implemented into the lives of the Drivers,routes and loads are now done by computer rather than Traffic Clerk and Driver knowledge
Now retired after spending my working life on the road it seems the same old things are still being said since I started driving on 6/4p ph and £1 n/out,jobs “gone to the dogs” jobs f***** time to get out of it.Times I have said and heard those words over the years,it paid the bills and gave me a good living so I stuck it out to the end.
Same job different just different ways of doing it.
chicane:
agree with most of what Juddian says. I reckon though that there will be a fairly big shakeout in the industry and rates and wages will have to rise, simple supply and demand but it will take a year to 18months to work through.
Been there before in 2004. The big wage rise we were all expecting to happen when the WTD came into force never happened. Haulage companies just gave us more paperwork to do and had another law they chose to bend/break.
Drivers saying they’re hanging up their keys won’t without anything else to go to because the dole don’t give you money when you’ve made yourself unemployed which is what you do if you refuse to do the DCPC. I expect from the middle of August there will be a lot of full classrooms.
Thing is lolipop no-one can afford to shell out the £3,500+ it costs to get to class 1 now and even if they do they have little chance as it is now of getting any work for 2 years and then the chances are it will be at less p/h than for flipping burgers, expected to max hours quite often through the night. Who in their right mind would come into the industry now?
viking7000:
Left hand down!:
Nothing.I do believe you may correct.
But consider this. If Wayne Rooney went on strike for 6 months how would it effect us? and he gets something like £150.000 a week!!!
How much would an actor get paid for pretending to be a truck driver? Solicitors charge £200 an hour. If they went on strike would there be riots and who would starve? When wars start what do we need most? actors, solicitors, footballers, H&S managers? No, drivers, doctors and real leaders not the stuffed shirts we have today.
I think you’ll find that shrek is on double that
Thing is this time unlike the WTD, it costs drivers money and the pay has stayed the same while the cost of obtaining an HGV license has gone through the roof.
Was talking to the agency last week, of the 6 drivers on his books he knows are jacking in driving, 2 have already gone to jobs outside of haulage and 4 are past retiring age anyway so jobseekers doesn’t come into it. The industry is propped up by part timers like myself and pensioners and its simply not worth the cost/hassle of doing the DCPC. When mine runs out in 2019 I will definitely not be renewing and if I look at my finances and reckon I can get by without driving sooner then I’ll be offski.
You’ll never get drivers to strike as there are too many with the “I’m alright Jack” attitude. Add to this the fact you’ve also got new drivers prepared to be exploited by bosses paying minimum wage just to “get a foot in the door” which, in turn, devalues the rest of us then you’re doomed. 
Drivers are their own worst enemy. Most are too blind to see that a national strike would bring the country to its knees in a very short space of time. Look at the people panic buying fuel when the tankers had the balls to strike! If the entire haulage industry learnt the meaning of solidarity - and had the cojones to do the same - perhaps we’d all have better T&C’s, wages that match the responsibility and more respect… Although I wouldn’t hold my breath as realistically we’d need a good, strong union… And therein lies the rub. 
Those in charge won’t allow a shortage of licence holders, they have form on this, they’ll just put even more doley boys or foreigners through the course and we will pay for it via our increasing taxes.
Agree with Conor, there might be dozens of blokes thinking of hanging up their keys, but the reality of minimum wage vegetating in a bloody security cabin or hanging around a B&Q store all day, when they’ve spent years out and about in lorry land, will soon have them DCPCing.
WTD didn’t make any difference, even apparently respected (by the unknowing public) companies have their staff booking umpteen hours POA in order to give them an almost liveable wage for two weeks work, every week…till lorry driver grow some, sort themselves out and say no to this it will continue for ever.
I don’t know why anyone’s calling for a strike, no ones forcing anyone to work where all flash no cash rules apply, you don’t have to work 80 hours to earn what 45 hours should pay.
The only way things will change is if we get out of the EU and we only accept immigrants if and where we actually need them
We have too many people and too few jobs so the solution can only be by increasing the amount of jobs (been tried and does not work) or by reducing the number of people - that is basic common sense and logic
Juddian:
Those in charge won’t allow a shortage of licence holders.
Too late Juddian, it’s already happening right here, right now. We can debate the reasons 'till the cows come home but it won’t alter the fact that right this minute haulage companies are (if not panicking) seriously worried about how they’re going to cover their commitments on Monday. All I hear is companies saying they can’t get or retain drivers, offering one off bonus payments or even rehiring previously banned off site drivers.
The shortage is here and it’s starting to bite. What we do about it is entirely in our hands ladies and gents.
the maoster:
Juddian:
Those in charge won’t allow a shortage of licence holders.Too late Juddian, it’s already happening right here, right now. We can debate the reasons 'till the cows come home but it won’t alter the fact that right this minute haulage companies are (if not panicking) seriously worried about how they’re going to cover their commitments on Monday. All I hear is companies saying they can’t get or retain drivers, offering one off bonus payments or even rehiring previously banned off site drivers.
The shortage is here and it’s starting to bite. What we do about it is entirely in our hands ladies and gents.
[/quote]+1
If they was a genuine shortage of LGV drivers then newbies would be snapped up the moment they passed the test and that is not happening
Back in the 80s a newbie could be in a full time perm job within a week of passing because at that time there was a driver shortage
the maoster:
Juddian:
Those in charge won’t allow a shortage of licence holders.Too late Juddian, it’s already happening right here, right now. We can debate the reasons 'till the cows come home but it won’t alter the fact that right this minute haulage companies are (if not panicking) seriously worried about how they’re going to cover their commitments on Monday. All I hear is companies saying they can’t get or retain drivers, offering one off bonus payments or even rehiring previously banned off site drivers.
The shortage is here and it’s starting to bite. What we do about it is entirely in our hands ladies and gents.
I know this is the case in the car transporter sector, but thats so specialised that it takes literally years to train up enough of those who can take to it, given the high drop out rate.
Is it really starting in the general haulage sector?, if so as you say its up to the boys and girls involved.
Companies like the one i work for don’t have retention problems because they treat all staff with respect (mutually returned in spades), as well as offering leading terms, in return they get absolute loyalty and genuine care about customer retention, who are after all our life blood.
I am sure most hauliers would like to have great drivers and pay them well along with new equipment and training regularly but we all know why they cant or wont.
To my mind if the EU want cleaner trucks thats fine but dont expect the Haulier to pay extra.
Want digital tachos?. Pay us to fit them. Stop charging us to park and give us proper facilities. Basically stop making our lives so difficult.
Transport of goods is a vital industry so stop charging duty on Diesel for us.
If measures are bought in for safety why should we pay? Use money from road fines to pay for it.
They want trained, professional drivers with a brain but if you use it you are a trouble maker.
But it wont happen because Hauliers just bend over then pass the costs on to the drivers one way or another.
Its time Hauliers and drivers said enough is enough. See how long your Govt. will last without us.
If we only could realise we have more power than pretty much any other industry but are afraid to use it.
Lots of you probably think I am in cloud cuckoo land but thats why we have this state of affairs…complacency.
viking7000:
Left hand down!:
Nothing.If Wayne Rooney went on strike for 6 months how would it effect us? and he gets something like £150.000 a week!!!
£300,000 per week, £1,785 every hour 