Looks like there is no longer a shortage of drivers, at least in the Salford area, as the agency I work for yesterday announced a £ 3 per hour reduction in wages.
I knew it was to good to last.
I imagine agencies can’t afford to pay enhanced wages forever.
The real long term problem is drivers in theirs 50s and 60s retiring and not enough people replacing those jobs.
never was a driver shortage, its a thing called xmas were more demand then supply of drivers
this whole thing is to rush whatever agenda the government wants to push which is brexit is bad
Try all of the rest of the agencies. You could most likely get something else. Now if the rest of the drivers did that, Im dreaming now.
There was never a driver shortage. Just shortage of drivers willing to do max hours for peanuts. So glad I have retired after 59 years on the road, from 35 cwt( if anybody can remember that) to 44 ton C+E
I’ve seen no drop in agency rates in my area , Lincolnshire , not working at present but phone never stops & rates they are offering are the same as 3/4 months ago
If it was Xmas rush , never was a shortage of drivers , it makes you wonder why they would continue to ring a driver who has made it clear he won’t be driving for a fair while
If there had been a genuine shortage then I along with many others wouldn’t have had to wait weeks to get our HGV licences reinstated.
I started driving HGV’s in 1972 and continued until 1978 when I started working as a civilian driver for a police force where I obtained my class one in 1979.
With the exception of casual HGV driving between 2008 to 2013 I was not employed in the transport industry because, even with no other qualifications, I could earn more money and get a decent pension at the end of it when I retired in 2005 at the age of 55.
When I started casual driving again in 2008 I was earning about £5 an hour less than when I retired.
Only a shortage of drivers for the jobs / companies no one wants to work for
Once they get the foreigners in the rates will drop again, just like they did when they first came over
TruckDriverBen:
never was a driver shortage, its a thing called xmas were more demand then supply of driversthis whole thing is to rush whatever agenda the government wants to push which is brexit is bad
On which planet?
This government was purged of MPs who did not support the party line, only those who came out and supported Brexit were allowed to continue their careers. Even those who were previously remainers were forced to recant, and support Brexit.
Liz Truss and Matt Hancock and my own MP (just three examples), had to “change sides”
The ERG has taken control of the Conservative party, with the predictable and predicted disastrous results.
Rees-Mogg, Gove, James Cleverley, Therese Coffey, Iain Duncan-Smith,
Liam Fox, Mark Francois, Sajid Javid, Andrea Leadsom, to name just a few members of the ERG. Which has a massive and malign influence in the corridors of power.
I don’t know where you get your “information”, but it is the complete opposite of the truth!
Please @TruckDriverBen show me just one example of a member of this government “pushing” the idea that “Brexit is bad”? Please?
And show me examples of that being a “government agenda”.
Agency I work for dropped the day rate by a pound and night rate by £2 but they not cancelling anyone. The rate is £4hr better than last April so can’t really complain
elsa Lad:
Agency I work for dropped the day rate by a pound and night rate by £2 but they not cancelling anyone. The rate is £4hr better than last April so can’t really complain
I weep.
Only in this country will people get a paycut, and be grateful for it… 
waddy640:
If there had been a genuine shortage then I along with many others wouldn’t have had to wait weeks to get our HGV licences reinstated.I started driving HGV’s in 1972 and continued until 1978 when I started working as a civilian driver for a police force where I obtained my class one in 1979.
With the exception of casual HGV driving between 2008 to 2013 I was not employed in the transport industry because, even with no other qualifications, I could earn more money and get a decent pension at the end of it when I retired in 2005 at the age of 55.
When I started casual driving again in 2008 I was earning about £5 an hour less than when I retired.
Bravo sir. Thanks to your like, wages have stagnated for decades. “I don’t care that the wages are ■■■■, I’m only doing it for pocket money…”
They should stop retirees from working for pocket money. Either retire, or keep working.
Not only are retirees bringing wages down, they are doing other people, who need those jobs, out of jobs.
Bravo. Let’s here it for the pocketmoney brigade…
I’m retired now so not too bothered, but it’s vital that you agency guys hold your nerve and don’t accept any reductions in money. Tell them you’re going to move on if they try it on.
Obviously if you’re a dirty tracky bottoms/turn up late/don’t turn up/ignorant I’ll mannered vehicle crasher then you won’t have much in the way of leverage, but the rest of you should try and keep the current rates. They need you remember. Without you they don’t have a business.
HGV driving schools now seem to be rather more active than they were before all this lockdown ■■■■■■■■ started.
I guess the notion of there being a “Driver Shortage” has now done it’s thing, and successfully fooled non-truckers into thinking that a great career awaits them as soon as they pass, and get the first job…
A first job IF they are lucky enough to find one - that’ll now no doubt pay nearer £12ph than the lofty agency rates that so many ordinary drivers wouldn’t be seen dead at…
Of course, “refusing to do a job” - under “Market Forces” dictat - is what REALLY drives up wages.
How many people working on agency right now could say:-
“If I get a shift cancelled, then I don’t want a replacement shift. I’ll just go short that week, as I’m sure it won’t happen often enough to be an ongoing problem, even in the normally quiet month of February…”
If anyone cuts rates, and you still say “Sure Boss, I’ll work for less - I can’t get by with less work this week, nor any other!” - then you’ve successfully placed your scrotum right up choc against the steel toe caps of the very boot that’s about to kick you. Congratulations!
elsa Lad:
Agency I work for dropped the day rate by a pound and night rate by £2 but they not cancelling anyone. The rate is £4hr better than last April so can’t really complain
Alternatively, the rates might be rock solid for the rest of the year, but didn’t go up at Christmas time, so they don’t now have to drop back down for the first three months of the new year…?
There’s more than one way to skin a cat here.
Winseer:
elsa Lad:
Agency I work for dropped the day rate by a pound and night rate by £2 but they not cancelling anyone. The rate is £4hr better than last April so can’t really complainAlternatively, the rates might be rock solid for the rest of the year, but didn’t go up at Christmas time, so they don’t now have to drop back down for the first three months of the new year…?
There’s more than one way to skin a cat here.
Like many drivers on here we had 3 pay increases last year and the last one was in October which they now classed that as xmas rates. Also we had a 12hr daily guarantee, that has also been reduced to 8hrs.
They didn’t have much trouble recruiting drivers before Christmas, i think they are now over full with drivers so i guess they know they can reduce the rates and risk losing the odd driver and still have enough.
So is there a driver shortage or not? Will there be a shortage when these “older” drivers retire ?
elsa Lad:
Winseer:
elsa Lad:
Agency I work for dropped the day rate by a pound and night rate by £2 but they not cancelling anyone. The rate is £4hr better than last April so can’t really complainAlternatively, the rates might be rock solid for the rest of the year, but didn’t go up at Christmas time, so they don’t now have to drop back down for the first three months of the new year…?
There’s more than one way to skin a cat here.
Like many drivers on here we had 3 pay increases last year and the last one was in October which they now classed that as xmas rates. Also we had a 12hr daily guarantee, that has also been reduced to 8hrs.
They didn’t have much trouble recruiting drivers before Christmas, i think they are now over full with drivers so i guess they know they can reduce the rates and risk losing the odd driver and still have enough.
I started January last year on £12ph, for which I insisted only working part-time.
In March that was raised to £12.12 (1% pay award) in line with going rate pay increases at the time.
In June - it was lifted to £12.50 (3%) as a so-called “Retention Bonus” and the first inklings that there might be “problems @ Agency” because the holiday season was just starting, lockdown was easing somewhat, and former agency bods like myself - had already found alternative directly-employed positions, be they full or part time.
Then came August when the “agency shortage” really started to bite:
Agencies (and ONLY agencies!) started offering silly knock-out rates to enourage (at first) those ex-agency drivers like myself to come back, but drivers now in full time permanent positions - were reluctant to give up their newly-found job security only to be laid off again in the Autumn, taken back on across Christmas, stood down again in January - you know, the same-old-same old when it comes to agency expectations…
So, in the end I signed up with a couple of agencies, refused all work except that which I wanted, and then fell back on the second agency when the work quickly dried up at the first one.
Since then, I’ve had 4 shifts cancelled, no weeks with “zero work” BUT I didn’t get an uplift across Christmas just gone…
I do still have work in January though, and that’s what really matters with these big energy bills coming in and all - Right?
Full timer’s rates - might have been more acceptable to me (being lower…) IF they’d been 35-40 hour weeks like the workplace norm in other industries, rather than this 48-60 lark, which I’m now done with.
I am not young anymore, and working a 5th shift really starts to make me feel ill now, regardless of how long the shifts are… I think I lose more skin having to commute more times per week than I do working a longer shift… So, my get-around is to aim for 4x12hour shifts per week, avoid ever doing 5 or 6 shifts, at least back-to-back, and if any of those planned 12 hour efforts go to 15 hours - then that’s ok, as once I’m at work, I’m wide awake, it just being the getting there through the perma-rush-hour traffic we seem to have now… The week straight after Christmas was pretty good, as I got the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday at Bank Holiday rate, plus the Friday (new year’s eve) on “Job ‘n’ Knock”. By far the best-paid week’s work I’ve done for about 3 years.
I really like being able to pick and choose my shifts like this, and aim to be staying a while now. I doubt any full time position could offer me the flexibility I’ve already got, let alone the premium rates as well… How can the standard old “Any five from Seven” as an actual Full Time Contract compete, let alone at a considerably lower hourly rate? Is there overtime available where you full timers work? Do you have enough hours LEFT each week to be able to DO overtime? (How does a 55 hour week @ Fedex for example, get that average down to 48 over the reference period??)
the nodding donkey:
waddy640:
If there had been a genuine shortage then I along with many others wouldn’t have had to wait weeks to get our HGV licences reinstated.I started driving HGV’s in 1972 and continued until 1978 when I started working as a civilian driver for a police force where I obtained my class one in 1979.
With the exception of casual HGV driving between 2008 to 2013 I was not employed in the transport industry because, even with no other qualifications, I could earn more money and get a decent pension at the end of it when I retired in 2005 at the age of 55.
When I started casual driving again in 2008 I was earning about £5 an hour less than when I retired.
Bravo sir. Thanks to your like, wages have stagnated for decades. “I don’t care that the wages are [zb], I’m only doing it for pocket money…”
They should stop retirees from working for pocket money. Either retire, or keep working.
Not only are retirees bringing wages down, they are doing other people, who need those jobs, out of jobs.
Bravo. Let’s here it for the pocketmoney brigade…
To clarify a few points, I left my full time employment in 2005 aged 55 with the intention of returning to HGV driving full-time for ten years up to getting my State Pension in 2015 when I would be 65.
In total between May 2005 and August 2008 I contacted 56 companies regarding employment, out of these 46 didn’t respond to my applications, of which 8 of those re-advertised the vacancy.
The first one in May 2005 responded to my phone call with " We prefer not to employ English people" and Parcelforce refused to give me an interview because I didn’t hold a passport, I was born in Surrey and have spent my entire life living in the UK.
I had one interview with an agency and am still awaiting my first assignment, I was also offered an interview with a company that had previously rejected me.
I took up casual work as it was obvious that I was too old to work full-time.
i was talking to my agency the other day one site they service they have had to put the rates up to 30 pound/h for class 1 apparently the company deals with paper so i dont know if there is alot of hand ball or what the issue is.