Sorry if it’s been posted already, but thought this might interest some
The minister urges people to encourage their children to take up a career in haulage. I wonder if his lads a lorry driver. Ha!
Strange that there’s a shortage . Coz the pay is brilliant , and where treated like royalty at the rdcs
There can’t be that much of a shortage, I haven’t had a days work this week and still nothing tommorow, bloody agencies promising you the earth
Typical government parasites, instead of changing the rules to get more young blood in they start bleating about getting your christmas shopping done early. They have done nothing to try and stem the flow of drivers leaving, the hauliers are also to blame for this mess. Driving down wages, treating drivers like crap. Someone who is freshly turned 18 with a choice of going to uni or joining the haulage industry…
The politicians have re started the Xmas shelves shortage story again.
Full time jobs available are low pay. Who’s gonna want to put themselves through the £3500 training only to be told “It’s a near-minimum wage full time job - or nothing. You’re not qualified for agencies until you’re over 25, and have 2 years experience.” Yeh. That “experience” comes from being thrown in at the deep end, low pay, for 2 years at least. They’ll even try and claim the apprectiship subsidies from the government, despite not actually giving you any nationally recognised qualification whilst you work there…
Who thinks this is just a ruse to try and con people into coughing up their hard-earned for pretty much sod-all? 
dailymail.co.uk/news/article … warns.html
apparently there is a shortage of lorry drivers. well with cpc, low wages, and being treated like ■■■■ its no doubt
Big Roy:
There can’t be that much of a shortage, I haven’t had a days work this week and still nothing tommorow, bloody agencies promising you the earth
You’re right there is no shortage, never has been one & never will. I think this report is just scaremongering, get people panic buying etc.
Don’t expect anything less from the Daily wail, the CPC training is a load of balls. If it was just one off training then I don’t think it would of caused much hassle, it doesn’t harm anyone to have a refresher but every 5 bloody years? oh and lets not forget the training is done by someone who has most probably never drove a truck for a living.
love how the dcpc improves the standard of driving!!! what a load of ■■■■ how does sitting in a classroom make you a better driver?
My objection to the DCPC was always it being “too easy to get”, and yet must be paid for by those outside of full-time.
I won’t be paying for the next one though. 
The “Shortage” is among drivers wanting full-time jobs - who’ll select one of the many “multidrop delivery” or “filth” work on C2 that are out there.
As for class one - Supermarket work is probably considered the “lowest” - but is it?
Some people don’t like transporting animals, whilst others don’t like the dirty danger of general haulage for example…
As for me - I never liked Palletliner work - no proper breaks, too much time sitting in stop-start queues, no chance whatsoever of working a normal “flat shift”, despite getting flat shift money on it - as a full timer on a salary. No thanks. 
Do your shopping early? Wonder who that would benefit the most? Not retailers, surely not!
Winseer:
and yet must be paid for by those outside of full-time.
I have bee surprised to see plenty of bookings coming through via the job centre ad DCPC being fully funded including travel and sometimes a B&B as well. Tis has all been since he September deadline.
My company I now registered with the DWP as an approved supplier and orders come through via their online system so people are getting the DCPC paid for.
Create an attractive employment arena and people will come.
Simples.
Something else I’ve noticed “Since” the DCPC deadline is that in their desperation to recruit actual full time C2 drivers - Bods in their late 30’s (presumably still holding grandfather 7.5t rights) are being handed the keys to a rigid, given their 35 DCPC hours in a classroom - and then promptly crash the wagon in their first week out on the road, some of them quite seriously, involving third-party injury and/or property damage… Then there’s things like “bonking fences” back at base, or “ripping tail lifts off” or even “trundling cages off the back onto the floor” because some loads perhaps need some assistance with unloading…
Didn’t anyone consider the possibility that someone with a “old rights” car licence isn’t going to have a CLUE how to drive an air-braked rigid truck for the first time in their lives?
I found it harder originally adjusting from driving a car to driving a 7.5t vehicle - than I did adjusting from the 7.5t to an artic - and AFTER that, doing changeover on a 17t rigid, which of course, I didn’t need to pass a test on back then. Even now - I feel squashed in, and “restricted” in my vision when put into a small rigid… I hated driving those sherpa vans at RM as well, for similar reasons.
Why are employers so reluctant to actually TRAIN people properly to do the job? 
i fail to see how becoming a HGV driver could be made attractive to younger people?
who at 18 years old sits at home and thinks i know i will go and get a job where i am up at 4am as a norm work 12 hours a day and get £10 per hour?
not to mention spoke to like something you stand in at rdc’s, seen as a general nuisance by Joe Public and then to make it much better i have to pay for my digi card/dcpc and hope that the nice chaps at dsva dont want some of my wages too.
what a great arena to ‘want’ to work in.
Last night, sources close to Mr McLoughlin said the Christmas shopping warning was only a ‘light-hearted exchange’.
‘We don’t think there’s any real concern,’ the source said. ‘Driver training makes our roads safer, helping the delivery of presents on time.’Read more: dailymail.co.uk/news/article … z3J34KEd4F
Makes me think of this
war1974:
i fail to see how becoming a HGV driver could be made attractive to younger people?who at 18 years old sits at home and thinks i know i will go and get a job where i am up at 4am as a norm work 12 hours a day and get £10 per hour?
not to mention spoke to like something you stand in at rdc’s, seen as a general nuisance by Joe Public and then to make it much better i have to pay for my digi card/dcpc and hope that the nice chaps at dsva dont want some of my wages too.what a great arena to ‘want’ to work in.
If someone had offered me that when I started, I’d have bitten their hand off for it! 
Mind you, in 1988 that would have been bloody good money for a 24 year old - let alone an 18 year old!
Even though I’ve always hated earlies - the prospect of £10ph DAY RATE means that I’d merely shift into nights at the earliest opportunity (which I duly did in real life) and get “even more than that.” 
Radio 5 did a piece about this this morning