Any idea what has happened to this so called drivers shortage??
I do agency work down in Cornwall and just when you expect the xmas rush to be starting, everything has gone totally flat.
The jobs listed on the jobcentre site have been there since before I got my class 1 (3 months ago) mainly because of the money they are paying…or not as the case may be.
I’ve even told the agency I would travel to Plymouth for work, yet there is still none!!!
OK, Rant over
The words : recession , interest rates , consumer spending and lack of .
Will give you a fairly good indication as to why firms are laying off just before christmas rather than taking on …
IMO the ‘driver shortage’ is a myth. If it was real, and I’ve said this before, you wouldn’t see class 1 jobs advertised at <£7 ph requiring 2 years experience would you 
Possibly due to our Eastern european cousins taking a lot of work? and therefore no need for uk drivers?.
Cant wait until turkey and Croatia joins the E.U. then the competition for work will hot up and i bet the rates drop dramatically when theres so many people competing for work.
I too can’t find much in the way of work, granted my age probably accounts for a lot of it but even so, there just doesn’t seem to be anything at all about on class 2. Everybody says join as many agencies as possible, well its not possible, because everyone one of them has refused to even sign me up, apart from the one I was already with who’ve given me trickles of class 2 work but not enough. I’m gonna have no choice but to dig deep, almost bankrupt myself and go for class 1 and hope the promises of a job I’ve had for the past 10 years from my dad’s boss turn out to be true.
As for the eastern Europeans, I don’t know if it is them or not thats responsible in the total lack of jobs now but since they joined the EU there does seem to be a huge reduction for the need for drivers and whilst I do see a fare few about, mostly on agency work, they aren’t as rife as one might have thought, although it is true to say that I don’t speak to every driver I meet, so without speaking to a driver I wouldn’t realistically be able to tell one northern european from another, British or Polish.
I personally doubt that Turkey will ever join the EU but at any rate, with the joining of Romania and Bulgaria, the problems faced in western Europe by large scale ecomonic migration of workers will potentially be far greater than any threat that could come from say Poland. These two countries are poorer than the poorest to join the EU in 2004 and with large populations and large pools of truck drivers, just take Somat/Betz drivers for example, they will be totally free to go where ever they please, probably Britain and Ireland due to the lack of any legislation to limit numbers and then our situation will be even worse and will never improve whilst citizens of countries in eastern europe are totally free to take advantage of western european empoloyment but at rates of pay below any acceptable sum to a person properly living in Britain with all the expense involved in doing so.
The economy of this country has been proped up by house price inflation and people using the equity of thier house to raise money or feeling confident to borrow money because of low unemployment due to a growing service sector propped up by rising house prices and easy credit, which creates more spending and therefore more jobs.
This couldn’t last forever and haulage is the barometer of the economy, if it’s good then more goods are moved, if things are going bad then less goods are moved.
From what you say it looks like bad times are just around the corner, 
robinhood_1984:
I too can’t find much in the way of work, granted my age probably accounts for a lot of it but even so, there just doesn’t seem to be anything at all about on class 2. Everybody says join as many agencies as possible,
Have you tried knocking on the doors of haulage companies, there are some that will take on a keen young driver they can train. Especially if they make effort to contact them.
robinhood_1984:
I personally doubt that Turkey will ever join the EU but at any rate, with the joining of Romania and Bulgaria, the problems faced in western Europe by large scale ecomonic migration of workers will potentially be far greater than any threat that could come from say Poland.
The population of Poland is greater than the population of of Romania and Bulgeria put together as is the work force, 17 million compared to 13 million. It also has far higher unemployment rate than either country. Also if Bugerian driver leave Betz to get better jobs in the west then Betz have to increase pay to get drivers. Which might allow West European hauliers to compete, although not UK hauliers as this govenment will do anything to try and ruin the UK haulage sector.
Turkey joining the EU would be a far bigger problem with a population of 70 million including a 25 million work force and 10% unemployment
Semtex:
Any idea what has happened to this so called drivers shortage??I do agency work down in Cornwall and just when you expect the xmas rush to be starting, everything has gone totally flat.
It’s October - always quiet on agency. Usually starts picking up first two weeks in November.
The agency cycle goes:
Xmas - March is quiet
March - May ticking over nicely.
May - September is absolutely mental.
October to mid November is quiet.
Mid November - Xmas is Busy.
If you know about the cycle, you can plan your finances around it. I usually did it so I had a shedload of cash in the bank by Xmas so I could sit at home and do a couple of days a week during the quiet time after xmas.
muckles:
Have you tried knocking on the doors of haulage companies, there are some that will take on a keen young driver they can train. Especially if they make effort to contact them.
The ones I can think of that opperate rigids, which isn’t all that many really, I’m sure there are plenty of companies I don’t even know of in my local area but all the ones I’ve been in touch with have pretty much said the same, insurance etc.
The population of Poland is greater than the population of of Romania and Bulgeria put together as is the work force, 17 million compared to 13 million. It also has far higher unemployment rate than either country. Also if Bugerian driver leave Betz to get better jobs in the west then Betz have to increase pay to get drivers. Which might allow West European hauliers to compete, although not UK hauliers as this govenment will do anything to try and ruin the UK haulage sector.
Turkey joining the EU would be a far bigger problem with a population of 70 million including a 25 million work force and 10% unemployment
I know Poland has a larger population, but it also has a substantially higher standard of living than that of both Bulgaria and Romania which is quite a bit lower than the worst off country to join the EU in 2004 (Latvia I believe) and as a result more people will be willing to make the move. Also, Betz doesn’t have to employ Bulgarians, thats just convienient for the time being, as we’ve seen with the shipping industry and I have personally experience with this, companies employ the cheapest crew on the most convienient terms, I was shocked to learn today for example that a large Slovenian shipping company actually now employs very few Slovenes and instead has replaced them with Chinese and Burmese sailors who are now the worlds cheapest seafarers and in northern Europe Polish seamen are now losing their jobs on western european owned ships to Filipinos or Russians which is rather ironic because in the mid 90s it was the Filipinos on British, Dutch and German ships that lost their jobs to the then cheaper Polish seamen and before this it was the British, German and Dutch seamen who lost their jobs to any of the above and whoever else.
I agree with you about Turkey but I dont see it happening, not whilst France for example has to put it to a national vote and as things stand in France, most people there are against it and as you know, it only takes one member state to stop the whole thing takling place, wether it be a major country such as Germany or the tiny island of Malta.
My first few months on the agency have gone quite well but it is a bit quiet now. Have a couple of companies that ask for me now and that does help.
Maybe its not so much a shortage of drivers but more a case of a shortage of proffesional haulage companies prepared to pay a proper wage to a British driver for driving a decent vehicle under legal and realistic time frames 
Or maybe im just being niave and expecting to much!!!
I had to work in Milton Keynes for the summer due to the pathetic agency rates in the south Wales area. Back to New Zealand tomorrow thank god!
Coming to the conclusion its a myth…can’t be a shortage. I’ve got a “work wanted” ad. in Truckstop News, i’m 46, experienced with clean license. Its been out a over week, phone hasn’t rung once!
Its quiet on containers,work a bit scratchy (■■■■)this time last year i was balls out running about all over the place doin max hours
Just hope things get a bit busier
bullitt:
Maybe its not so much a shortage of drivers but more a case of a shortage of proffesional haulage companies prepared to pay a proper wage to a British driver for driving a decent vehicle under legal and realistic time framesOr maybe im just being niave and expecting to much!!!
AGREED!
Driveroneuk:
Coming to the conclusion its a myth…can’t be a shortage. I’ve got a “work wanted” ad. in Truckstop News, i’m 46, experienced with clean license. Its been out a over week, phone hasn’t rung once!
So let me get this right…
You’ve got a work wanted add in a paper employers are highly unlikely to see and you’re wondering why the phone isn’t ringing?
Personally I used to phone around the companies in my area as well as personally visiting them. Still, depends on how much you actually want to find work.
Of course the driver shortage is a myth. Generally propogated by the FTA who have quoted figures of 50,000 drivers short. They put about the rumour in order to gain funding for driver training which would help their members recruit drivers for their largely hire and reward member base. Add to this the concept to encourage ethnic minority and women drivers into the driving force and it seems a welcome people friendly idea. I however view it as a cynical ploy to achieve public funding for driver training and an attempt to exploit the very people they hope to help (the potential drivers). If the jobs going begging are worth having they would be worth the training cost of say two grand surely?
sorry mike and others cant agree i rememberwhen maggie was in we was all terrified of losing our jobs and the gaffers used to say drivers were 10 a penny well it isnt like that now is it? i could get half a dozen jobs in half an hour on the phone and my money has been going up by far more than the inflation rate for about 5 years now so yes there is a driver shortage compared to how it was
Harry Monk:
sorry mike and others cant agree i rememberwhen maggie was in we was all terrified of losing our jobs and the gaffers used to say drivers were 10 a penny well it isnt like that now is it? i could get half a dozen jobs in half an hour on the phone and my money has been going up by far more than the inflation rate for about 5 years now so yes there is a driver shortage compared to how it was
Well speaking from my own experience, for any of the jobs anywhere near me that pay over 20k there is a waiting list to get in. I can however go from firm to firm weekly if you wanted to working for container,general haulage etc.at rates varying from £5.75 per hour to £6.50 per hour. I don’t really class them as jobs!! Some firms cannot get drivers but that doesn’t mean that there arn’t drivers out there looking for work.
i think it depends on area. some places cant find enough drivers, others have too many. regardless of that though, we are in competition with foreign drivers working for less than us and they are keeping the wages low. on the other hand, how can these people find addresses with their ‘no speako english’? they seem to have a lot of rtas too so taking these into consideration, what do you do? take a chance and employ someone who can possible do the job but could write off wagons? or pay a little more for a good driver who knows where they are going and can ask for directions anyway?
a little investment can pay off 