midlifetrucker:
There is a shortage of [zb] prepared to work for diddly for greedy companies and agencies. End of
just wondering what you mean by greedy companies and agencies? what do you class as a good wage?
why do drivers expect the people who go and find the work and set a company up with all the associated risks to make money are classed as greedy?
just look at stobarts one of the biggest paying a shade over £8 basic but a good few on here are happy as once everything else is added on it becomes a decent wage apparently, I assume you think they are being done as the owners don’t pay them £21 an hour and make no money.
LIBERTY_GUY:
Not really, as it obvious that these hauliers have taken some mind altering substance that has taken them back twenty years in time, where drivers are still buying things at 1990’s prices. Heck, there is probably even a parallel universe out there where drivers are respected and not right at the bottom of the food chain…
Which takes us to Black Holes, a phrase which could take the thread in an infinite number of directions
midlifetrucker:
There is a shortage of [zb] prepared to work for diddly for greedy companies and agencies. End of
just wondering what you mean by greedy companies and agencies? what do you class as a good wage?
why do drivers expect the people who go and find the work and set a company up with all the associated risks to make money are classed as greedy?
just look at stobarts one of the biggest paying a shade over £8 basic but a good few on here are happy as once everything else is added on it becomes a decent wage apparently, I assume you think they are being done as the owners don’t pay them £21 an hour and make no money.
It seems obvious that the greed ( more like rigging of the transport market ) is all on the part of the government in the form of fuel taxation.So get rid of that and let trucks use red diesel.Then split the difference between £8 v £21 making around £15 per hour sounds about right and not greedy to me.As for the ‘risks’ in setting up a company they become a lot less if you increase spending power in the economy.
The driver shortage is government propaganda for the media to keep spinning, so it’s gets more and more in the general public’s mind.
Then over the coming years when they bring in self-driving trucks and thousands of drivers lose their jobs, the general consensus of the general public will be “Well there was a terrible driver shortage I’ve been hearing about it for years, the government had to do something, so these trucks really have saved us!”
While drivers scream “Noooo there was never a driver shortage it’s all BS!”, but sadly by then it will be too late and no one will listen or give enough of a sht to be bothered about you or I or anyone else, as long as they get their cheap crp from Amazon on time…
They’ll be able to self-tip themselves at Aldi without complaining too much as well, just the occasional “beep” of annoyance.
midlifetrucker:
There is a shortage of [zb] prepared to work for diddly for greedy companies and agencies. End of
just wondering what you mean by greedy companies and agencies? what do you class as a good wage?
why do drivers expect the people who go and find the work and set a company up with all the associated risks to make money are classed as greedy?
just look at stobarts one of the biggest paying a shade over £8 basic but a good few on here are happy as once everything else is added on it becomes a decent wage apparently, I assume you think they are being done as the owners don’t pay them £21 an hour and make no money.
What a patronizing reply. I am my own agency. I choose who I work for and do a good job. I look for work. I get paid what I ask. If I think I am being abused I dont work for them.
I have seen on a spread sheet what agency’s pay drivers and charge out to companies. I accept not all agencys are the same. I would rather eat my own eyeballs than work for one.
My argument is for those drivers who would in the old days worked for a company and would have done a good steady job. They would have job security. Known their customers and built up a rapport.
They now have no idea where or when they work. Treated like idiots ( look at the flack they get on here)
As for the £21 an hour etc etc. If drivers were paid the money agency’s charged most would be happy. Personally I think £12-£15 an hour should be where a good hgv driver should be. A newly qualified driver on a tenner. More specialist drivers more commensurate with skills. ADR heavy haulage etc. if the industry can’t afford that, then the industry needs to tell customers the price has to go up. Unfortunately this country is obsessed with a race to the bottom. Someone will cut the job up to get the work. Of course normally they survive a year or two then go belly up.
I never worked out how people can afford to work for £8ph now that mortgages up north are as high as down south (at least where I live) and tax credits are about to be crushed out of existance…
“I’ve got until next April to get a job” is what this government policy does… So if I’m a lucky one, I should thank the Conselfservatives?
Nope. For every one who gets that job they’ve been pushed to - there will be dozens of others who can’t get ANY job for live nor money…
Not only has the tax credit threshold been cut - the taper has been steepened as well.
You’d have to be employed to move an ashtray one side of a desk to another for 90 minutes per week to be better off under the “new” system.
It’s total ■■■■■■■■ that ANYONE can be better off under the new system. Yeh, sure - they WOULD be better off “if only they had that well-paid job to go to” - but that’s pie in the sky for most people.
BillyHunt:
Per everything as it happens. I don’t know where you clean toilets but if you’re making more at it than you would driving trucks then stick at it.
LIBERTY_GUY:
Just how many people outside of truck driving, go to work and have to contend with a whole plethora of agencies trying to take money off them, for ridiculously petty things?
BillyHunt:
Per everything as it happens. I don’t know where you clean toilets but if you’re making more at it than you would driving trucks then stick at it.
I intend to.
Good for you, I like a person that knows their limitations. Oh, hang on, it wasn’t you, it was the other you!
BillyHunt:
Per everything as it happens. I don’t know where you clean toilets but if you’re making more at it than you would driving trucks then stick at it.
I intend to.
You’ve logged in and answered under the wrong account
BillyHunt:
Per everything as it happens. I don’t know where you clean toilets but if you’re making more at it than you would driving trucks then stick at it.
I intend to.
You’ve logged in and answered under the wrong account
BillyHunt:
Per everything as it happens. I don’t know where you clean toilets but if you’re making more at it than you would driving trucks then stick at it.
I intend to.
You’ve logged in and answered under the wrong account
Not the first time. He responded as Pimpdaddy on a previous thread it seems?! (sorry PD if this is wrong, just the chit chat)
Daz1970:
For various reasons the sector/industry does not appeal to young people as a career.
Those of you that are on for ‘large’ fleets…What’s your driver groups average age?? 50-55 years of age perhaps??
If we don’t already have a problem we sure as hell will do in the next 5 years or so.
Why don’t young men or women want to do the job (apart from a few die hard exceptions) ?
Cost of LGV licence aquisition
Length of time to get from car licence to C+E with full DCPC qual.
Number of tests/exams/assessments to get from car licence to C+E & DCPC
Early starts…“get to the yard for 4.30 a.m.”
Reply: “I don’t get off my Playstation (or similar) til 2.30 a.m!!!”.
Nights out with or without early starts (usually with)…they don’t want to leave home comforts ‘at home’.
Traffic jams/volume of traffic/accidents/roadworks/general hold-ups.
It’s just not X-Factor or glamorous enough.
Poor wages - even after overcoming points 1) & 2) at great personal expense
Treated badly by all sorts of other people: Transport office/fellow road-users/colleagues/customers/(some) gaffers
Legislative considerations: Drivers Hours rules/DCPC/overloading/roadworthiness/speeding tickets etc.
Fear of involvement in: hijacking load/stealing fuel/stowaways/violence (as advertised on News at Ten live from Calais/Sangatte)
General reluctance to graft - not all youngsters suffer from this but when you consider the above points many do. And who can blame them!!
Apart from all the above it’s a great career choice and the vehicles are far superior than 25 years ago.
Ask yourself, if you are ‘old school’ - would you go through it all again to be a trucker■■?
I personally can’t see a quick fix for the situation. Unless we keep on truckin’ until we’re 75 years old■■?
Number 1 is the biggest factor.
They have to get a job in the first place to earn money, they are more than likely going to be in a low paid job when they get one, there is no way they would be capable of saving 2-3k for a C+E licence with the other prioties they have, if they own a car then that is a large chunk gone, might have rent, gas,electric, council tax, phone, bill ■■■■ up on the weekend etc etc. If more companies start offering free training to get a C or C+E then more youngsters might consider driving for a living.
Heck, there is probably even a parallel universe out there where drivers are respected and not right at the bottom of the food chain… 
Poor wages - even after overcoming points 1) & 2) at great personal expense