I’m trying to figure out whether or not the HGV driver shortage is real or the same nonsense they’ve been bleating about for years.
The companies up the road from me are sticking up great big advertising banners outside there depots , I’ve never seen them before & cant see why you would do that unless you needed drivers
Also local jobs that were 26 k are now upto 33 k , again I can’t see why you would put the pay rate up unless you needed drivers
As agency the pay rates are through the roof , and phone never stops ringing ,offering you full time nearly every where you go ( turn them down as don’t pay enough
There certainly a shortage in my area , no idea elsewhere
Too early to say about my new place but they seem they seem he moving stuff quite well.
My last place though has virtually ground to a halt. Can’t even get agency drivers anymore.
I voted yes, but there’s more to it than that, as many other TN members have stated many times before.
I mix with a variety of other TMs who are all reporting that they can’t get drivers, and they’re giving work to guys who otherwise wouldn’t get any consideration.
It’s mostly an issue of not enough drivers who can be trusted to work in a suitably professional manner, rather than an actual shortage of people with HGV entitlement.
Some of these guys have spent their entire lives building up a reputable company, now they’re having sleepless nights in case some risky-prospect ruins all that work. And we’re not just talking about newly qualified drivers being the risk, old-hands with bad attitude are every bit as much of a risk.
Zac_A:
I voted yes, but there’s more to it than that, as many other TN members have stated many times before.I mix with a variety of other TMs who are all reporting that they can’t get drivers, and they’re giving work to guys who otherwise wouldn’t get any consideration.
It’s mostly an issue of not enough drivers who can be trusted to work in a suitably professional manner, rather than an actual shortage of people with HGV entitlement.
Some of these guys have spent their entire lives building up a reputable company, now they’re having sleepless nights in case some risky-prospect ruins all that work. And we’re not just talking about newly qualified drivers being the risk, old-hands with bad attitude are every bit as much of a risk.
In which case the last thing they’d want is a labour pool made up of the unknown quantity of imported East Euro drivers.
While surely such an environment would be opening up a new dawn in opportunities for owner drivers.At least in the form of those wrongly regarded as being in the ‘wrong’ group.
So where are all the adverts for traction only owner drivers.In which case the tables are reversed in that it’s the driver taking all the risks as to his own professionalism against his own O licence, not the owner of the firm who can sit back and take most of the profits.
Something doesn’t add up.
The truth is no owner driver, or employed driver, wants the distribution dominated crap work that’s on offer.
tachograph:
I’m trying to figure out whether or not the HGV driver shortage is real or the same nonsense they’ve been bleating about for years.
One definitive indication are the newly qualified because if they are being snapped up then it is real
Yes my company are having problems keeping and recruiting drivers. The problem has many reasons though.
- We have a a nit-picking transport manager that treats drivers like meat robots, doesn’t appreciate or understand the job we do.
- We don’t have the highest pay rates so drivers leave for extra money.
- Rubbish work life/balance.
I have absolutely no pity for companies who can’t retain drivers. These are the same companies who for years cut rates to the bone and paid drivers the lowest they could get away with while having drivers work terrible shift patterns which resulted in no family life.
I’m glad this is happening and the usual suspects will hopefully be forced out.
Drivers now have the chance to make positive changes to the sector as long as they stick to their guns and demand better conditions
Its not just money or conditions, it only takes the appointment of the wrong manager with a poor attitude and morale at even the best of places can be utterly wrecked in next to no time as the new bod seeks to impose their stamp, before you know it people are getting pushed out for silly reasons and really good people no one in their right mind would want to lose start seeking alternative employment, seen it happen with mine own eyes.
One of our posters here described very well just today on another thread such a scenario leading to him leaving a decent job he’d been happy in for years.
My company hit the panic button, offered big sign up money split in two payments. We already had too many drivers to begin with as we’ve lost a lot of work the past few years but equally not lost any drivers or taken any on in that time. We only really utilise agency at peak holiday time and when covid hit the depot a while back. Took on 20 drivers in the last two months. We had 45 to begin with. Tues/wed/thurs have always been our quiet days and no word of a lie around 8/9 guys spare mornings and backs with only nightshift having a suitable number that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Rest of the week work has been spread out so thin to accommodate them so less o/t etc.
Come January when we fall off a cliff till about late February who knows what will happen.
We’ve got a really good p/h rate but everything else ■■■■ plus the sign up bonus, I think they could have filled another 20 drivers to sit in the canteen!
I’m not privy to the economy or thinking behind it, buts it’s bizarre.
ROG:
tachograph:
I’m trying to figure out whether or not the HGV driver shortage is real or the same nonsense they’ve been bleating about for years.One definitive indication are the newly qualified because if they are being snapped up then it is real
Not if the ‘newly qualified’ still only have the option of the lowest quality work, which forms most of the UK road transport industry, to ‘get their experience’ to move onto to better quality work.
That never appears because it isn’t there because government policy is to take freight off the road by making it uneconomic for trucks to move it.
Juddian:
One of our posters here described very well just today on another thread such a scenario leading to him leaving a decent job he’d been happy in for years.
To be fair it seemed to all result from the disciplinary action taken regarding a petty speeding offence.
Disciplinary action obviously dictated by justified paranoid TC and O licence implication worries.
Which leaves the question was the limit in question appropriate for the road conditions and not a typical revenue raising speed trap scenario and what was the actual margin of the offence in terms of numbers.
Assuming a typical speed fine entrapment scenario, like road fuel taxation, that’s obviously all part of the government’s anti road transport crusade not the fault of the operators.
I’m from Northamptonshire and at the moment you can have a different job everyday of the week. I am on agency full time on 1 contract and pay has gone up by £5hr, if you willing to work Fri-mon on your work pattern they will pay you for 12hrs a day even if you only do six and you are guaranteed not to get cancelled.
Even with those terms they still carnt get drivers. General haulage firm’s in the area don’t stand a chance, only get the drivers which no one else will touch.
From what I understand, there are a group of drivers who move frequently. I get the impression they can be at a company on the scale of weeks before going somewhere else. I think these drivers either can’t cut it, or they get “let go” for whatever reasons the company doesn’t like.
As was written in another thread, 100k shifts that can’t be filled sounds more reasonable than 100k jobs.
I want to say more, but I also wish to remain anonymous.
Driver shortage? Maybe, but I think it’s also possible that companies are becoming more discerning? Instead of re-hiring the guy who left 2 months ago, maybe they’re now saying no?
TruckerGuy:
Instead of re-hiring the guy who left 2 months ago, maybe they’re now saying no?
I wish. Our place has hired the same person 4x so far including after they were fired twice (virtually unheard of) and they are the same a-hole who thinks they own the place.
There are definitely people who just jump from job to job like one who admitted he’d had loads of jobs including one day jobs. God knows hpw people do that when they have families to finance, but must work for them. I prefer security.
One theme I am seeing across all these threads is “work life balance”. Maybe this covid thing did something good in making people realise theres more to life than 15H shifts.
Our lot can’t understand it - “but but its always been 15H days; its all legal; not our fault if you all have to commute; HSE wouldn’t blame us if you fell asleep” etc. Banging head against brick wall like so many companies who just think we exist for their benefit. Yeah we could all move, but most are the same and we all want a job with a life. That seems to ve a life outside of trucks.
tachograph:
I’m trying to figure out whether or not the HGV driver shortage is real or the same nonsense they’ve been bleating about for years.
We’re always struggling for Drivers. Poor management decisions over many years has resulted in the company having a really poor reputation. You know you’re in bad shape when agency drivers won’t come and work for you. We’ve just had a couple of pay increases but it only matches what’s about locally so it won’t make much difference. The contract we’re on finishes next year, tenders are going in at the moment and I really hope we aren’t successful. I realise new management may not be much better but I believe it’s a risk worth taking.
Why is moral so low?
The job pays 48 hours per week (averaged out over a 26 week ref period) we regularly work 53 to 60 hours per week for about 22 to 24 weeks, non stat holidays are then used to reduce your average, not illegal but morally wrong. Different start and finish times every day. 2nd job on return to depot with no notice or warning. Have to ring work on rest day to get start time for next shift. Driver trainers that belong in the Gestapo etc etc.
tachograph:
I’m trying to figure out whether or not the HGV driver shortage is real or the same nonsense they’ve been bleating about for years.
I chose option 2. They have recruited over 15 drivers over the last several weeks and had no problem with applications but then again when you pay a decent wage with good pension and bonuses, don’t expect drivers to do more than the odd night out once in a blue moon, have a planned working week under 60hrs and you don’t need a 4x4 to get around the transport yard you tend to find that there’s no shortage of people wanting to work there.
Someone posted a cartoon a while back which sums up the situation perfectly…two booths at a job fair, one offering minimum wage, one offering £15/hr. Minimum wage booth, nobody there and man banging on about driver shortage, £15 booth dozens queuing up to sign up.
toonsy:
My last place though has virtually ground to a halt. Can’t even get agency drivers anymore.
So that’s two things:
-
Rates they’re paying are crap or
-
It’s a crap place to work for and if it’s that then even the money often isn’t enough to get agency to go there as Stobarts found out at Tesco Goole. They’d gone through and abused so many agency in the area when a certain ■■■■■■ was the Stobarts manager there that even offering £150 bonus a shift wouldn’t get people to go there and they were trying to get agency drivers from 40,50+ miles away in the hope they’d not heard about how bad it was.
If it’s option 2 they’re shafted.
I find the whole thing a bit bizarre if I’m honest.
The company I work for have banners up all over the place looking for drivers but on the other hand, allowing good drivers to part company for the most trivial of reasons.
One guy (a grafter BTW who the TM had zero issues with) asked to go down to 4 days to allow him to care for his wife and was point blank told no. He put his notice in that day and went elsewhere. The TM was then bleating that he had no one to cover. WTF■■?
I’m sorry, but if there was such a chronic shortage, TM’s would either be bending over backwards or at the very least trying to compromise to accommodate good drivers and keep their ar*e on a seat.
All I’m seeing just now is good drivers being allowed to leave the company and being replaced with lazy morons who’s raison d’etre is to do as little as possible for as long as possible whilst the rest of us carry them.
Obviously that’s just the company I’m driving for and may not be reflective of the industry in general but I just find it bonkers.