With the current stiuation with CPC and the september deadline, will wages rise?
NO
Yep, we’ll all be millionaires by 2016. Mark my words, you heard it here first.
I think something will happen after September. Might not be wages tho. I have a few friends coming up to retirement and they have said that they will finish early rather than pay for the DCPC. I also know lads who have their licences and at present don’t drive for a living and they also say their not going to bother. I’m sure we all know someone who isn’t going to do it so that may well create the situation where us that are left will be able to pick and choose who we work for to some degree.
The firm I work for are changing their decades old shift structure because they can’t get drivers now and it’s a good job we have. Their thinking is, they want to keep the drivers they have now so have bowed to the pressure of a smaller employee market to pick from.
This is going to improve my life so it can only be a good thing. Good drivers will go to good firms, bad firms will have to pick up their act or they will struggle.
coaster:
With the current stiuation with CPC and the september deadline, will wages rise?
from minimum wage? 
yes 
flip flops will drive it down! 
dream on suckers, the trollies are down with NO LUBE! 
dally1:
I also know lads who have their licences and at present don’t drive for a living and they also say their not going to bother. I’m sure we all know someone who isn’t going to do it so that may well create the situation where us that are left will be able to pick and choose who we work for to some degree.
Therein lies much of the problem, nobody actually knows how many of those people who hold hgv and/or psv licenses actually drive for a living anymore? When trainers refer to the thousands leaving it too late, they are basing those projections on all those license holders still actively driving vocationally, when that is clearly not the case.
I too know a couple of guys close to retirement giving it up in September. To be told how to do your job when you have been doing it successfully for decades, was never going to go down well with many folks.
I think having the CPC is a bargaining tool. How many aren’t gonna bother? How many companies will be searching for decent “qualified” drivers? I think we’re gonna be in a better position jobwise once fully qualified.
LIBERTY_GUY:
dally1:
I also know lads who have their licences and at present don’t drive for a living and they also say their not going to bother. I’m sure we all know someone who isn’t going to do it so that may well create the situation where us that are left will be able to pick and choose who we work for to some degree.Therein lies much of the problem, nobody actually knows how many of those people who hold hgv and/or psv licenses actually drive for a living anymore? When trainers refer to the thousands leaving it too late, they are basing those projections on all those license holders still actively driving vocationally, when that is clearly not the case.
I too know a couple of guys close to retirement giving it up in September. To be told how to do your job when you have been doing it successfully for decades, was never going to go down well with many folks.
It’s not the telling people how to do their job really . Its more on ensuring drivers know what their ment to know as its regularly shown on here Drivers that should KNOW basic hours regs but DONT.
maga:
Yep, we’ll all be millionaires by 2016. Mark my words, you heard it here first.
nick2008:
It’s not the telling people how to do their job really . Its more on ensuring drivers know what their ment to know as its regularly shown on here Drivers that should KNOW basic hours regs but DONT.
Whilst I agree with that, the reality is that the ‘essentials’ of drivers hours and regulations could be condensed into a single seven hour day.
Some of the other modules on offer by ‘providers’ include customer service and other ‘padding’ just to get five days worth of money from you to satisfy just the folks that thought up this whole silly scheme. True you can make it up with ADR and HIAB etc, but is makes it a very expensive exercise if like myself you have to pay for everything yourself. 
I think that demand for DCPC-qualified drivers will rise, but whether that will have an overall impact on wages is anyone’s guess.
However there will no doubt be a few employers who will be faced with the choice of paying what a qualified driver demands or taking vehicles off the road while their own drivers are rushed through 35 hours of training in a week. Whether that will knock on to overall and sustained wage increases across the board, I don’t know, but trainers are now very busy.
I cannot see companies that are so tight they won’t pay for their employees, the people that are the core of the business, the ones that do the actual work that makes the company money, to do DCPC will suddenly start boosting wages come September.
The good & decent firms will have their drivers sorted while the dross will struggle & hopefully go to the wall.
Or we could all take up the slack and work 95hrs instead of a mere 80hrs a week?
Wages go up after September…I would not put a bet on it.In fact if there are any gamblingman…a safer one would be £2000,on Hartlepool winning the UEFA champions league cup
Not a chance will wages go up in september,why would they, we`ve been told for the last few decades there is a driver shortage.
Here’s hoping!
Wages will not go up, if anything employers want them as low as min wage if they can, most new jobs available now are based around that figure. There is no driver shortage.
I will not be doing the DCPC and as an od I will be selling my unit (sale already agreed), I am not that old but I am sick and tired of the industry that seen so many changes that are “just because” and not for any real benefit to the driver, all it has done is pushed up the cost of training for new drivers to an astronomical amount with very little hope of ever getting the money back, and all to do your job.
The two companies I pull for have said that they will not take anyone to cover the work I did but just absorb it into the current workforce’s they have.
In short as I say, there is no driver shortage and wages will not rise - my opinion and as an old ■■■■ I am entitled to it!
This is where I get shot down 
As I am a contractor to several clients, and in September the demand is normally quite high - I think that the DCPC and the large number people leaving the industry WILL cause some shortage, maybe not enough to affect full time wages but certainly will cause a higher demand on an already stretched “adhoc (agency/supply) drivers”.
I set my own rates and if it seems that demand is high enough to justify a rate increase, I will raise my rates according to the conditions. Sadly my crystal ball has given up today but if we are going to have a large number of drivers leaving to fill shelves at Tesco or take early retirement, then I can see a gap in the market that will only get bigger.
nick2008:
It’s not the telling people how to do their job really . Its more on ensuring drivers know what their ment to know as its regularly shown on here Drivers that should KNOW basic hours regs but DONT.
If it ensured anything of the sort, fewer people would have a problem with it. As it stands, it has no set syllabus and there’s no requirement to ensure the attendees have understood anything. I did my DCPC in house with the firm I work for, partly at two dedicated seven hour sessions and partly at an ADR course. I learnt nothing about, say, drivers’ hours. In fact, I learnt nothing about anything much, since I already have an ADR licence and the two DCPC sessions covered familiar ground.
The tripod that supports low wages:
(1) Insurance premiums remaining cheap/easily fiddleable for drivers that have endorsements, a track record of trashing vehicles, or little experience.
(2) Fuel Prices - All the time running costs here are sky-high, there’s little room for firms to increase wages, even if they wanted to.
(3) Driver Glut - There’s still too many top-notch drivers who are prepared to lick any number of ■■■■■ for £9ph - just because that particular outfit is offering “full time” instead of agency, and uses decent kit.
Thus, the only bit we drivers actually have any control over with regards to wages is (3). 