apparently the transport committee are going to hold a skills and workforce planning inquiry into the lack of professional drivers in the haulage industry,guarantee they will not include drivers themselves in this inquiry,if they did they would find out why there is a driver shortage,in my opinion it would be because of working conditions,wages,being treated like dirt by some people, too many rules and regs etc ,drivers are working 15 hr days in order to make a decent wage,you should not have to do that,young people do not want that kind of life,they want to earn as much money as possible for as little hours as possible that’s why they do not want to drive hgvs ,there are still drivers out there who still love the job,fair play to them,as I said all the enjoyment has gone out of it now
Lack of professional drivers.
Says it all.
truckman020:
apparently the transport committee are going to hold a skills and workforce planning inquiry into the lack of professional drivers in the haulage industry
Why should they when there is no shortage? Any excuse to huddle up for some tea & biscuits, some people hey…[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
Pimpdaddy:
truckman020:
apparently the transport committee are going to hold a skills and workforce planning inquiry into the lack of professional drivers in the haulage industryWhy should they when there is no shortage? Any excuse to huddle up for some tea & biscuits, some people hey…[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
yeah, I thought the same,just trying to justify what they get paid
truckman020:
yeah, just trying to justify what they get paid
They have to, otherwise they’d be unemployed:lol:
Why RHA blame about shortage and ask money from goverment .Why they with big transport companies can t open some driving schools and make money and give new drivers to companies■■?
Andrejs:
Why RHA blame about shortage and ask money from goverment .Why they with big transport companies can t open some driving schools and make money and give new drivers to companies■■?
Are you in fact a Meerkat?
Haha that made me chuckle. Compare the job market.
Nobody wants to operate plant either. Long hours, dirty manual type work is unfashionable.
So… Let’s get this straight…
There are 285,000 holders of class one licences in this country say,
There are 330,000 C1 jobs though. An apparent shortage of 45,000.
Agencies supply that shortfall from their own pool, and now there’s no shortage.
At WHAT stage during these calculations do the government people factor in that "not every holder of a C1 licence wishes to continue using it… They’ve moved on, sicked out, or changed careers completely…
It might be the case that there are actually only 185,000 of the 285,000 that actually want a job, and have one in driving.
This would put a LOT of extra pressure on agencies to supply drivers they just don’t have eh?
I have not noticed any brand new agencies starting up for a while now.
If any hair-brained government scheme decides to train up new drivers from scratch with “grants” for all the fees payable, and the like… Wouldn’t it just be easier to introduce some kind of tax-friendly scheme for the transport industry, so that for example - “hours over 35 don’t get taxed” to recognise the “above office hours” the entire job is?
On the one hand - there are plenty of drivers out there.
On the other, an increasing number of them are hanging up their keys for whatever reason, and the current T&Cs are not enticing them to “come out of retirement” again.
People are not exactly rushing to fill the full time vacancies now appearing on the market either.
Gordon Brown tried to “make work pay” with Tax Credits - which the Tories have strangely cut rather than scrapped…
Now we need someone to “make transport pay” by encouraging all those leaving drivers - to re-consider… 
Winseer:
So… Let’s get this straight…There are 285,000 holders of class one licences in this country say,
There are 330,000 C1 jobs though. An apparent shortage of 45,000.
Agencies supply that shortfall from their own pool, and now there’s no shortage.
How does that work? If you’ve 285,000 C+E licenses in this country that also includes those working for agencies…
Winseer:
So…
This would put a LOT of extra pressure on agencies to supply drivers they just don’t have eh?:idea:
Supply drivers to non existent jobs too eh…[emoji23]
The posts will be filled with tractor driving Poles and licence bought Romanians, and when that source is exhausted they will probably give aid grants to Syrians to train up, and lastly give the flood of African migrants a shiny new licence to go with their shiny new made up name… and all the while leaving 1.8 million on the dole and ■■■■ knows how many on the sick, but from what I can gather they get more money than I do for slogging my arse out for 60 hours!!! Industry is ■■■■■■, country is ■■■■■■, exit EU and dump all politicians would be a quick fix…
There is a shortage of ■■■■■■■■■ prepared to work for diddly for greedy companies and agencies. End of
CHAINSAW:
The posts will be filled with tractor driving Poles and licence bought Romanians, and when that source is exhausted they will probably give aid grants to Syrians to train up, and lastly give the flood of African migrants a shiny new licence to go with their shiny new made up name… and all the while leaving 1.8 million on the dole and [zb] knows how many on the sick, but from what I can gather they get more money than I do for slogging my arse out for 60 hours!!! Industry is [zb], country is [zb], exit EU and dump all politicians would be a quick fix…
Dont let the facts get in the way of a bit of casual racism now will you
Winseer:
So… Let’s get this straight…There are 285,000 holders of class one licences in this country say,
There are 330,000 C1 jobs though. An apparent shortage of 45,000.
Agencies supply that shortfall from their own pool, and now there’s no shortage.
so do agency drivers not need licences ? is that what the hi-viz vest is for?
truckman020:
apparently the transport committee are going to hold a skills and workforce planning inquiry into the lack of professional drivers in the haulage industry,guarantee they will not include drivers themselves in this inquiry,if they did they would find out why there is a driver shortage,in my opinion it would be because of working conditions,wages,being treated like dirt by some people, too many rules and regs etc ,drivers are working 15 hr days in order to make a decent wage,you should not have to do that,young people do not want that kind of life,they want to earn as much money as possible for as little hours as possible that’s why they do not want to drive hgvs ,there are still drivers out there who still love the job,fair play to them,as I said all the enjoyment has gone out of it now
I agree.
No point whatsoever formulating plans to get numbers trained up (certainly not at government expense) if there isn’t an attractive employment arena to retain their interest long term. Many, as they are doing now, will simply just jack it in when they realise the reality of how lousy the working conditions & wages really are for the most part across the industry.
This topic pops up on a regular basis and I’m often left wondering if the drivers on here have experience of other industries.
It’s not just lorry drivers who are having wages and perks eroded whilst pay is being cut.
If there was a true tangible shortage of drivers, the O/D business would be booming…
If there wasn’t a shortage of drivers this thread wouldn’t pop up every other week 
There seems to be a shortage of drivers that enjoy the job that’s for sure, if you don’t like or enjoy it then move on. It’s a continual stream of people, I won’t call them drivers because I don’t know if they are, whining on about the hours, the pay, the vehicles, the traffic, the other drivers, the forkies, the tm, the planners. Last time I checked nobody was getting dragged into a yard & being forced to drive a truck.
As it happens I like & enjoy my current job. Decent pay, decent hours, decent kit.