Maybe down south there is no shortage but there is up here. Rumour has it the Dundee is going back to time and a half on Saturdays and double time on Sundays. I have heard that a secret double time is being offered for Sunday to those who don’t usually work them where i am just now. Needless to say i am slightly miffed and a certain agency will read an email on Monday morning which says my rates have just doubled for Sundays and non payment means i wont work Sundays from next week on. I am doing yet another night out tomorrow to shift 2 trailers because we cant get enough drivers and they know they are short all week. I did an extra 12 hour shift this week to help out
i don’t know what happened but there just aren’t enough drivers in central Scotland to cover demand. It really is a drivers market just now
Bring it on scanny, milk it while it’s there !
Ps. My spellcheck doesn’t like me typing your name it puts " scanty " !!!
Jim
No it isn’t a myth,I am 66 the third youngest on a company of 14.My buddy is desperate,I did suggest banning smoking in all his vehicles reduced his
potential workforce by 50% and I live in the South West, they’re all struggling,back to the ‘good old day’s’…who the hell are you looking at…
lick em n stick 'em…Fill your boots lads n lassies.
Hi scanny.i find i dont do shifts as the pay is so crap.maybe its because i can only really go as far as eurocentral.
Maybe it’s time I get me a Saturday shift 
Yeah but, you’re just saying that pay rates have gone back to what they were & what they should be before the recession.
Anyone who works Sunday for less than double time unless they are contracted to do it is nuts in my opinion.
it is no myth my phone never stops from agencys and there all screaming for drivers. i just did a shift last night and the company is over run with polish guys there out numbering the full timers lol its been a while since i worked for this company and i was a mazed at how its all changed so quickly and yet they still need more drivers even with the huge number of polish guys and if this is happening all over the land well come sept there will be an even bigger shortage
i am glad i still havent got my cpc card but if wages do go back up to rates they should be for us guys and if smoking bans get lifted i might hang on in there.
Silver_Surfer:
Anyone who works Sunday for less than double time unless they are contracted to do it is nuts in my opinion.
That can only really work if the customer is prepared to pay double for the goods though, when I was on tippers rate and three quarters was the norm but that was soon cut to rate and a half. Seems to be a shortage around here going by what a long established haulier told me a week or so ago, easier ways of making money without the self expense of training etc I guess? I got all my training for free 38 years ago through my company but I doubt that I would have bothered getting a HGV license if I had needed to fund it myself
Pete.
scanny77:
driver shortage isnt a myth
Rubbish 
. There is a shortage of drivers willing to work for the peanuts being offered but there is no shortage of drivers per se.
Two local companies to me as always banging on about the alleged national driver shortage because they’ve been advertising for yonks and can’t get anyone, yet both pay marginally above the national minimum wage. Even the jam rolls won’t work for that.
Left hand down!:
scanny77:
driver shortage isnt a mythRubbish
Two local companies to me as always banging on about the alleged national driver shortage because they’ve been advertising for yonks and can’t get anyone, yet both pay marginally above the national minimum wage. Even the jam rolls won’t work for that.
+1
I used to work every Saturday I could get. Then, everyone else got an increment, and I didn’t, so I stopped working Saturdays and now I work all the sundays I can get, where I do still get a premium. ‘Feet of clay’ when it comes to paying people the same as the others working next to you is half the battle of “retention” because it’s not about “unwillingness to work” any particular shift - it’s “unwillingness to have the ■■■■ taken out of you” whilst doing it.
I also don’t work mid-week supermarkets anymore because I didn’t get the increment some months back, along with other reasons related to 9-5 office staff hassling me all the time. 
The glut of drivers is disappearing fast though. Canny firms are doing their best to recruit for full time now, whilst drivers will still snap up salaried high-hourage FT jobs at the old run-of-the-mill rates. This Christmas is going to be an interesting one, post DCPC deadline and all.
I’m not interested in working at RM this Christmas for example, unless I’m doing at least one shift a week there from this September when the main shortage actually kicks in. Bugger not starting until November, just so I can be stood down first week of January on a lot less money that everyone else alongside me is getting! I understand you’ve got to do a number of weeks on lower money before higher parity rates kick in. Once on those higher parity rates, you are expected to do 5 from 7 I understand. So, stuff doing 5 from 7 trying to build up that credit, only to get dropped week 12 or whatever. I left full time at RM, so am just not interested in doing FT there again - unless the pay is there to match. I’ll probably end up doing an odd shift here and there, primarily over the weekends, which is the best alternative for me that doesn’t involve getting parity pay ever. 
All I’m asking is to be treated the same as the others working around me on agency, where nearly all the regulars will be on parity pay come the start of Christmas season. I’ll resist signing up with Manpower/Pertemps etc as long as I can, as I’d prefer to do it as a sub.
Armagedon:
I did suggest banning smoking in all his vehicles reduced his
potential workforce by 50%
He had no choice. The law required him to.
My mate signed up with an agency in Hull after being out of driving for 2 years and was working a day later. He’s not stopped and they’ve put him in a temp to perm position a week later.
This week my phone hasn’t stopped ringing from agencies offering me work including agencys I haven’t worked for and ones I told to ■■■■ off. That’s here in N Ireland. But is it because of a shortage of drivers? Or is it just the time of year with people going on holiday. I don’t know. But I do think there is a shortage of ‘reliable’ euro drivers which I do on a freelance basis, where I can just pick and chose who I want to work for.
More like of a shortage of drivers with 2 years experience but some firms are gettin to picky wanting to know if u have ever been banned and accident records, that could be a good thing but only for the squeaky clean
Wasn’t this time last year - ie between the public holidays - a bit dead?
Hmm mm, had my class 2 for 27 years but not used I t for a very long time until relatively. recently. Thought Iam happy with my work at the minute I think this could be a good time to upgrade to class one as I know I can get experience at my current company. Feathers in the cap and all that 
I don’t see any increase in pay being offered in the south-east, and that’s what I would take as evidence of a driver shortage. I’ve no doubt there will be a shortage of drivers at some point, as older drivers retire and aren’t replaced by new blood and eastern Europeans drift back home as their economies improve, but I think it would take a huge increase in pay to make significant numbers of people spend £3,000 getting a C+E licence.
Last year, the work was there for the crappier jobs, and things like Hiab. Now we are a year on, and it’s starting to stack up for nights, weekends, out-of-town depots, and even full time jobs again. I’d say it was an excellent time to upgrade to class one. - Go for it! 
Winseer:
Last year, the work was there for the crappier jobs, and things like Hiab. Now we are a year on, and it’s starting to stack up for nights, weekends, out-of-town depots, and even full time jobs again. I’d say it was an excellent time to upgrade to class one. - Go for it!
Cheers me dears …Mrs Drift give me a grand 
I have a feeling work are going to bang me in for it though as with four artics and my naughty wagon (nickname lol) it pays for them having me covering artics at holidays, hence the experience 