Is there really a driver shortage? I’ve got just a C licence, I have a CPC card and a digital tachograph card. I must have spoke to a hundred company’s in Essex and Suffolk over the last few weeks and still haven’t got one phone call back. Maybe the shortage only apples to the C+E guys? I’ve got a +E booked in a couple of weeks time but I doubt that’ll help me pay my rent this month. Anyone else having trouble finding class 2 work?
ColchesterBen:
Is there really a driver shortage?
No.
There is no driver shortage; what there is, is a shortage of people who know how to treat them.
Get on an agency, get put into places like MRCT Eye, Turners Soham, Brakes Thetford, & Downtons Tilbury - and you may well find the jobs are “more vacant and going” from a position of “having your foot in the door” as it were… 
The winter can be a slow time in the haulage game.Get your name down with agencies in your area.There still are firms who wont even look at you without 2 years experience.a subject that has been done to death on here several times.I think your best bet is tipper and skip firms .
Have you tried Hamblion in Colchester, Cammack at Earls Colne, Brooks at Halstead, sometimes will give newly passed a shot
ColchesterBen:
Is there really a driver shortage? I must have spoke to a hundred company’s in Essex and Suffolk over the last few weeks and still haven’t got one phone call back.
There you go OP, you’ve just answered your own question, doesn’t matter what licence you hold [emoji15]
Carl Usher:
No.There is no driver shortage.
+1
When you get class 1 licence that try apply to NFT .They will open new Depo at Tilbury dock in next couple month.They take new passed drivers as well.
The only driver shortage there is is a shortage of good experienced drivers and drivers prepared to work for nothing.
When the RHA and FTA are in the news talking about a driver shortage and how their members cannot find drivers, what it actually means is that their members cannot find drivers willing to work for the same or less money than 10 years ago.
This is a bad time of year to look for work… I’ve recently needed to find more work asap with only 8 months on C+E, and that was hard enough. Agencies are NOT the way to go; you’ll find, especially this time of year, they will have a line of applicants waiting for that spontaneous PM last minute shift, all with 2+ years, and they’re not likely to touch you with less than 12 months as a minimum.
Companies are your best bet. Actually, your best bet is to drive around all of them and hand your CV in personally. A friendly face never goes amiss. I think if you did this for a day, you’d be employed within a couple of weeks; all it takes is to strike up a conversation with the TM, be likeable, and be in the right place at the right time. Hence visiting as many companies as you can; you maximise your chances of doing this.
I rang seven agencies the other day and not one would touch me. First company had me in for a driving assessment the same day, and job offer the day after.
Conor:
The only driver shortage there is is a shortage of good experienced drivers and drivers prepared to work for nothing.
I’m not even sure there is a shortage of the former, only the latter.
Mouthpieces like the RHA seem to think “a good experienced driver” ought to be so abundant and so experienced, that any transport manager can just go into Asda with pocket change, get a driver off the shelf and put it behind the wheel of any setup without so much as 5 minutes’ induction into the firm, and then throw the driver away again at the end of the day.
Good grief, even in a factory doing basic packing, if you haven’t worked for that firm before then someone shows you around the site, introduces you around, and demonstrates how to pack a part into a cardboard box! In driving, you’re lucky if the planner says hello on the first day, and you’d be royalty if you were shown around the site!
People contemplating retraining as a driver have asked me about what it’s like, and I consistently say I wouldn’t recommend it, and I certainly wouldn’t make the same choice again to enter as an inexperienced driver.
I read in an article the other week that the shortage is in-fact caused by people not wanting to be lorry drivers, and has nothing to do with sector growth, or lack of licence holders. Over the years, generally speaking, employers have wanted drivers to work more, for less, and therefore nobody wants to do it! 
A big thing I notice with looking for Class 1 work, is that there is definitely a shortage of tramper drivers, as every man and his dog seems to be advertising for trampers. Probably due to the exact reason above, tramping crosses the line between a job and a life. In my area, a new driver would get work as a Class 1 tramper the day after they pass their test!
The more cushty work is quickly snapped-up by the experienced drivers, and if these jobs pop-up, they is very stiff competition from drivers with possibly decades of experience, leaving the stuff that nobody else wants to do to the new drivers, and a lot do it just to earn their stripes. The best jobs never need advertising, because there is an abundance of people already after them, and they can spend years getting their feet in the door!
As for the actual process of applying, the best way to do it in my opinion is to drop-off CVs in person. It looks a lot better than just sending an e-mail or application form, as the person who will give you that job will actually see you, and assess you in person.
Good luck with everything, and something will come your way, it always does
Like others have said there’s no drivers shortage… its more a case of what is a acceptable wage to be paid having spending a small fortune on getting a lgv licence, couple this with our eastern euro brothers willing to drive lgv class 1 for £7.50 for all hours worked and hence there is no drivers shortage. When I’m looking for new work a return to manufacturing or office will be the way i go.
For me, I think the likes of the stobart tv show has do this industry no favours either!
Also I have worked for NFT, when I was there if you divided the sunday hourly by 2 it worked out to be less then minimum wage at double time.
Hank Hill:
Like others have said there’s no drivers shortage… its more a case of what is a acceptable wage to be paid having spending a small fortune on getting a lgv licence, couple this with our eastern euro brothers willing to drive lgv class 1 for £7.50 for all hours worked and hence there is no drivers shortage. When I’m looking for new work a return to manufacturing or office will be the way i go.
For me, I think the likes of the stobart tv show has do this industry no favours either!
Also I have worked for NFT, when I was there if you divided the sunday hourly by 2 it worked out to be less then minimum wage at double time.
I think you’ll find that the majority of transport companies work out at under NMW if you halve their Sunday PAYE rate.
Hank Hill:
Like others have said there’s no drivers shortage… its more a case of what is a acceptable wage to be paid having spending a small fortune on getting a lgv licence, couple this with our eastern euro brothers willing to drive lgv class 1 for £7.50 for all hours worked and hence there is no drivers shortage. When I’m looking for new work a return to manufacturing or office will be the way i go.
For me, I think the likes of the stobart tv show has do this industry no favours either!
Also I have worked for NFT, when I was there if you divided the sunday hourly by 2 it worked out to be less then minimum wage at double time.
But in England by Goverment rulles any employers can pay just minimum national wages or more for any day from 365 day .So employers not broken any rulles
Employers only have to pay staff a higher rate for working on Sundays if the contract says so.gov.uk/sunday-working
Carl Usher:
Hank Hill:
Like others have said there’s no drivers shortage… its more a case of what is a acceptable wage to be paid having spending a small fortune on getting a lgv licence, couple this with our eastern euro brothers willing to drive lgv class 1 for £7.50 for all hours worked and hence there is no drivers shortage. When I’m looking for new work a return to manufacturing or office will be the way i go.
For me, I think the likes of the stobart tv show has do this industry no favours either!
Also I have worked for NFT, when I was there if you divided the sunday hourly by 2 it worked out to be less then minimum wage at double time.I think you’ll find that the majority of transport companies work out at under NMW if you halve their Sunday PAYE rate.
Not all when I worked for Noble Foods after working for NFT, sunday was always at double time so worked out at £16.50 plus night rate.
If people are willing to work for peanuts then these companies will continue to pay peanuts!
I was driving through Suffolk last night, and noticed that on the single carriageways - the local drivers like to thunder past on an overtake on the limiter. Blind bends, brows of hills - they are obviously immortals, as they seem to not be aware of any dangers from such a driving style.
Is this the hallowed Bulgarian style I’ve heard of? The sort of people that frequent places like Soham or Eye yards? 
I would say…The only driver shortage that exists, is the one that is in the deluded, thick head of a self important lorry driver.
I would have thought that anyone with half a brain, would understand that; if it was true, the supermarket shelves would be half empty, on a daily basis. The national news headlines would be reporting it every day, as the drivers’ wages were increasing, beyond control and therefore, the prices of everything in the shops was going up and up to absorb this.
Well, I can honestly say that I’ve seen nothing of the sort. Lorry drivers wages are poor for one reason and one reason only-THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF THEM. THEY’RE 10 A PENNY.
Joy:
I can honestly say that I’ve seen nothing of the sort. Lorry drivers wages are poor for one reason and one reason only-THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF THEM. THEY’RE 10 A PENNY.
True!
fredthered:
Joy:
I can honestly say that I’ve seen nothing of the sort. Lorry drivers wages are poor for one reason and one reason only-THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF THEM. THEY’RE 10 A PENNY.True!
Same in other industries and sectors really. Engineering, medicine, education - they’re all moaning that they just can’t get the staff, whilst wages fall, conditions worsen, security evaporates, and bosses take the wrecking ball to training courses and career paths.
Even warehouses moan they can’t recruit reliable staff - at minimum wage, under sweatshop conditions, typically with not even a single week’s work being guaranteed in full!
The problem bosses have is that their workers seem to be sullen, disobedient, inflexible, and their tenures are short-term. What they don’t recognise is that their Dickensian workplaces are the production line for these problems. It’s like when 19th century American psychiatrists diagnosed the mental illness of “drapetomania” in slaves - the “illness” of having the urge to run away from one’s slavemaster!
Frankly, the wagons in this game are given more respect from bosses - nobody bemoans a “shortage” of wagons that don’t have to be fuelled, which service themselves, and cost nothing to buy. Yet they bemoan the wages required to motivate, maintain, and reproduce their workforce.
When anybody talks of a shortage of drivers, they’re talking about the same problem as drapetomania - people are running away from it!
Joy:
I would say…The only driver shortage that exists, is the one that is in the deluded, thick head of a self important lorry driver.I would have thought that anyone with half a brain, would understand that; if it was true, the supermarket shelves would be half empty, on a daily basis. The national news headlines would be reporting it every day, as the drivers’ wages were increasing, beyond control and therefore, the prices of everything in the shops was going up and up to absorb this.
Well, I can honestly say that I’ve seen nothing of the sort. Lorry drivers wages are poor for one reason and one reason only-THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF THEM. THEY’RE 10 A PENNY.
+1. This guy is bang on. Prices in shops are actually falling