I’ve read that the government are being asked to intervene and somehow solve the problem of a driver shortage over the next few years.
What do you think they will do? Encourage pay rises to attract more drivers? Reduce red tape and possibly scrap the CPC? Maybe they will look to fill the gap with automation or drivers from overseas.
My guess is that they will wait until the precise moment I have completed my Class 1 training, funded by yours truly, and then they will subsidise training so it’s free to anyone wanting to get started. Just my luck.
Probably increase taxes on fuel, ramp up the cost of CPC training which will be required every year instead of 5 and bring in incentives for foreign companies to work here.
When it all goes Pete Tong they’ll remind us that we are ‘all in this together’ and that ‘lessons will be learnt’.
1.Company must change insurance rulles and abolish -MUST HOLD LICENCE AT LEAST 2 YEARS.
2.Tax office must allow to people claim tax back if he passed licence.Can save up to 800 quid.
2.Company must change work stile and not give start time for drivers from 2300 till 0300.
4.Change driving assestment rulles.
5.Scrapped fixed penalty sistem.
If company and goverment change this -thousand local people will agree work for drivers for 25-30 k.Because this money not big but for some people very big.And in next 5-10 years to many transport companies lost contract and may be go … After this big company taked all and all togethers can do all jobs with less drivers and truck numbers.
DAF_MAN:
Maybe they will look to fill the gap with drivers from overseas.
It seems obvious that the whole thing is a propaganda exercise to soften up the public for yet another load of immigration with the road transport industry being seen as a good dumping place for it.
The industry went to the Government cap in hand a few weeks ago, they got told they weren’t getting any help with the driver shortage and basically it was up to them to sort the problem.
Which is the right answer, the haulage industry has only themselves to blame, they have known that the average age of drivers is increasing and there are less new drivers taking their test for many years now and have completely failed to address the problem of holding onto existing drivers and encouraging new drivers into the industry.
If they improve pay and equally important the conditions then they might find they’ll get a few more drivers returning, and they also need to fund training as it’s becoming increasingly out of the reach of an ordinary person to fund themselves.
I went straight to Artics in 2 weeks, failed the first time and took it again a couple of weeks later, total cost was about £1000 in 1992, I believe it now costs about £3000 to £4000 to get and artic licence and DCPC, theory test, rigid test etc to go through, seems a hell of a rise in costs even allowing for inflation.
muckles:
The industry went to the Government cap in hand a few weeks ago, they got told they weren’t getting any help with the driver shortage and basically it was up to them to sort the problem.
Which is the right answer, the haulage industry has only themselves to blame, they have known that the average age of drivers is increasing and there are less new drivers taking their test for many years now and have completely failed to address the problem of holding onto existing drivers and encouraging new drivers into the industry.
If they improve pay and equally important the conditions then they might find they’ll get a few more drivers returning, and they also need to fund training as it’s becoming increasingly out of the reach of an ordinary person to fund themselves.
I went straight to Artics in 2 weeks, failed the first time and took it again a couple of weeks later, total cost was about £1000 in 1992, I believe it now costs about £3000 to £4000 to get and artic licence and DCPC, theory test, rigid test etc to go through, seems a hell of a rise in costs even allowing for inflation.
Licence cost about 4000.But this money can return in 6-12 month if found job.Because in UK people who work in factory get just about 12-15 k ,who work at warehouse can get up to 20 but any new drivers if found job can earn 25-35k per years,But people who work in office or construction not go to driving for any money for some reason
muckles:
The industry went to the Government cap in hand a few weeks ago, they got told they weren’t getting any help with the driver shortage and basically it was up to them to sort the problem.
Which is the right answer, the haulage industry has only themselves to blame, they have known that the average age of drivers is increasing and there are less new drivers taking their test for many years now and have completely failed to address the problem of holding onto existing drivers and encouraging new drivers into the industry.
If they improve pay and equally important the conditions then they might find they’ll get a few more drivers returning, and they also need to fund training as it’s becoming increasingly out of the reach of an ordinary person to fund themselves.
I went straight to Artics in 2 weeks, failed the first time and took it again a couple of weeks later, total cost was about £1000 in 1992, I believe it now costs about £3000 to £4000 to get and artic licence and DCPC, theory test, rigid test etc to go through, seems a hell of a rise in costs even allowing for inflation.
Licence cost about 4000.But this money can return in 6-12 month if found job.Because in UK people who work in factory get just about 12-15 k ,who work at warehouse can get up to 20 but any new drivers if found job can earn 25-35k per years,But people who work in office or construction not go to driving for any money for some reason
Firstly the government does share some of the blame in the form of its transport policy.IE road fuel taxation and over regulation which is mostly about transferring as much freight as possible from road to rail.The combination of which reduces the type of career progression and earnings potential of the majority of drivers who are looking for something less boring and less stressful than the present high fuel costs and over regulation allows for.On that note a return to log books and a more realistic simpler hours regime that doesn’t call for drivers to be working when they want to sleep and parked up when they need to be working and allowing trucks to use red diesel would be a game changer in that regard.
As for office workers and builders wanting to drive trucks the fact is in general the skill set of the different trades is so different as to be incompatible.IE builders and bankers generally don’t make truck drivers and vice versa.
What is certain is that there will never be a queue of drivers wanting to do local multi drop,building deliveries and supermarket distribution.While there’s no way that anyone can make the more interesting long haul work pay,or pay a decent wage in the industry,without getting rid of the present extortionate road fuel taxation regime and the resulting costs of it.
muckles:
The industry went to the Government cap in hand a few weeks ago, they got told they weren’t getting any help with the driver shortage and basically it was up to them to sort the problem.
Which is the right answer, the haulage industry has only themselves to blame, they have known that the average age of drivers is increasing and there are less new drivers taking their test for many years now and have completely failed to address the problem of holding onto existing drivers and encouraging new drivers into the industry.
If they improve pay and equally important the conditions then they might find they’ll get a few more drivers returning, and they also need to fund training as it’s becoming increasingly out of the reach of an ordinary person to fund themselves.
I went straight to Artics in 2 weeks, failed the first time and took it again a couple of weeks later, total cost was about £1000 in 1992, I believe it now costs about £3000 to £4000 to get and artic licence and DCPC, theory test, rigid test etc to go through, seems a hell of a rise in costs even allowing for inflation.
Not sure where people are paying that, I’ve paid roughly £2,300 to get from standard licence to full C+E. That’s including medical, provisinal, CPC, digi card etc.
Not saying people aren’t paying that, just my insight to it.
muckles:
The industry went to the Government cap in hand a few weeks ago, they got told they weren’t getting any help with the driver shortage and basically it was up to them to sort the problem.
Which is the right answer, the haulage industry has only themselves to blame, they have known that the average age of drivers is increasing and there are less new drivers taking their test for many years now and have completely failed to address the problem of holding onto existing drivers and encouraging new drivers into the industry.
If they improve pay and equally important the conditions then they might find they’ll get a few more drivers returning, and they also need to fund training as it’s becoming increasingly out of the reach of an ordinary person to fund themselves.
I went straight to Artics in 2 weeks, failed the first time and took it again a couple of weeks later, total cost was about £1000 in 1992, I believe it now costs about £3000 to £4000 to get and artic licence and DCPC, theory test, rigid test etc to go through, seems a hell of a rise in costs even allowing for inflation.
Licence cost about 4000.But this money can return in 6-12 month if found job.Because in UK people who work in factory get just about 12-15 k ,who work at warehouse can get up to 20 but any new drivers if found job can earn 25-35k per years,But people who work in office or construction not go to driving for any money for some reason
Firstly the government does share some of the blame in the form of its transport policy.IE road fuel taxation and over regulation which is mostly about transferring as much freight as possible from road to rail.The combination of which reduces the type of career progression and earnings potential of the majority of drivers who are looking for something less boring and less stressful than the present high fuel costs and over regulation allows for.On that note a return to log books and a more realistic simpler hours regime that doesn’t call for drivers to be working when they want to sleep and parked up when they need to be working and allowing trucks to use red diesel would be a game changer in that regard.
As for office workers and builders wanting to drive trucks the fact is in general the skill set of the different trades is so different as to be incompatible.IE builders and bankers generally don’t make truck drivers and vice versa.
What is certain is that there will never be a queue of drivers wanting to do local multi drop,building deliveries and supermarket distribution and there’s no way that anyone can pay a decent wage in the industry without getting rid of the present extortionate road fuel taxation regime and the resulting costs of it.
I cant see drivers shortgate for class 2,7.5 tonne truck who do multidrop .There hard job but found job not so easy.Plenty people with class 2 cant found nothing with 40-50 hours per week.And now to many company do multi drop-simply one truck,van cross another.
muckles:
The industry went to the Government cap in hand a few weeks ago, they got told they weren’t getting any help with the driver shortage and basically it was up to them to sort the problem.
Which is the right answer, the haulage industry has only themselves to blame, they have known that the average age of drivers is increasing and there are less new drivers taking their test for many years now and have completely failed to address the problem of holding onto existing drivers and encouraging new drivers into the industry.
If they improve pay and equally important the conditions then they might find they’ll get a few more drivers returning, and they also need to fund training as it’s becoming increasingly out of the reach of an ordinary person to fund themselves.
I went straight to Artics in 2 weeks, failed the first time and took it again a couple of weeks later, total cost was about £1000 in 1992, I believe it now costs about £3000 to £4000 to get and artic licence and DCPC, theory test, rigid test etc to go through, seems a hell of a rise in costs even allowing for inflation.
Not sure where people are paying that, I’ve paid roughly £2,300 to get from standard licence to full C+E. That’s including medical, provisinal, CPC, digi card etc.
Not saying people aren’t paying that, just my insight to it.
This if pass from first time all test.But most people fail 1-2 time each fail -extra about 300 pound just for test.Plus some people taked or driving school recomendation 7 day training.
if you live in the wrong area then you will be less likely to find work than other areas, however judging by the amount on here who give (me included) totally opposite views when people ask about x/y/z company maybe its drivers who put people off joining the industry. that and health and safety as if it wasn’t for going with my old man as a kid I would never have considered driving for a living.
Carryfast:
What is certain is that there will never be a queue of drivers wanting to do local multi drop,building deliveries and supermarket distribution and there’s no way that anyone can pay a decent wage in the industry without getting rid of the present extortionate road fuel taxation regime and the resulting costs of it.
I cant see drivers shortgate for class 2,7.5 tonne truck who do multidrop .There hard job but found job not so easy.Plenty people with class 2 cant found nothing with 40-50 hours per week.And now to many company do multi drop-simply one truck,van cross another.
You might be confusing a shortage of full time permanent local multi drop/distribution sector etc type jobs with a shortage of drivers.Being that ironically the shortage of drivers looking for it has caused it to go to mostly agencies.In addition to the fact that much of the previous longer haul haulage sector class 1 type operations have been forced into the same local/distribution etc sector by fuel costs.To put it simply the government’s transport policies have deliberately taken out much of the types of work which most drivers want to do.
Carryfast:
What is certain is that there will never be a queue of drivers wanting to do local multi drop,building deliveries and supermarket distribution and there’s no way that anyone can pay a decent wage in the industry without getting rid of the present extortionate road fuel taxation regime and the resulting costs of it.
I cant see drivers shortgate for class 2,7.5 tonne truck who do multidrop .There hard job but found job not so easy.Plenty people with class 2 cant found nothing with 40-50 hours per week.And now to many company do multi drop-simply one truck,van cross another.
You might be confusing a shortage of full time permanent local multi drop/distribution sector etc type jobs with a shortage of drivers.Being that ironically the shortage of drivers looking for it has caused it to go to mostly agencies.In addition to the fact that much of the previous longer haul haulage sector class 1 type operations have been forced into the same local/distribution etc sector by fuel costs.To put it simply the government’s transport policies have deliberately taken out much of the types of work which most drivers want to do.
May be all depend from area,town but i know people who try get full time work or agency job for class 2 .No so much oportunnity at least here near Leicester,Magna park and wages more sh…ts.but anyway much better than work in some factory or warehose.
After reading various threads on here I was under the impression that all the driving jobs were being taken by our European friends flooding into the country, even to the extent of some companies firing drivers so they could take on cheaper foreign drivers. Is this not the case then? Have people on here been scaremongering? I know, I find it hard to believe as well.
BillyHunt:
After reading various threads on here I was under the impression that all the driving jobs were being taken by our European friends flooding into the country, even to the extent of some companies firing drivers so they could take on cheaper foreign drivers. Is this not the case then? Have people on here been scaremongering? I know, I find it hard to believe as well.
All Eastern Euro drivers work for same rate with you.Lorry drivers can easy get 25k per years for 40 hours per week instead warehouse operative can average get just up 20 K.But about overtime and weekend rates problem with UK work time regulation.Follow rulles any company in UK can pay just National minimum wages for any time in any day .This rulles must changed for anyone from cleaner till ministr.Must be legal requarement for some extra money for night shift and Sunday .And Goverment must try make some rulles to reduces night shift work to any job.At night as much as possible people must rest but not picking COcl cola or tualets paper and much more.But i think it is not possible.If you been in France,Germany you can see there at night work just minimum factory(fresh food mainly) and people.
BillyHunt:
After reading various threads on here I was under the impression that all the driving jobs were being taken by our European friends flooding into the country, even to the extent of some companies firing drivers so they could take on cheaper foreign drivers. Is this not the case then? Have people on here been scaremongering? I know, I find it hard to believe as well.
All Eastern Euro drivers work for same rate with you.Lorry drivers can easy get 25k per years for 40 hours per week instead warehouse operative can average get just up 20 K.But about overtime and weekend rates problem with UK work time regulation.Follow rulles any company in UK can pay just National minimum wages for any time in any day .This rulles must changed for anyone from cleaner till ministr.Must be legal requarement for some extra money for night shift and Sunday .And Goverment must try make some rulles to reduces night shift work to any job.At night as much as possible people must rest but not picking COcl cola or tualets paper and much more.But i think it is not possible.If you been in France,Germany you can see there at night work just minimum factory(fresh food mainly) and people.
Our mad open door immigration policy isn’t a case of immigrants working for less than minimum wage although there are dodges where that actually is the case.The issue is that it lowers wages to less than they ‘would be’ across the economy as a whole by artificially increasing the supply of labour.
As for moving night trunking to days in a country as small and over crowded as this great that’ll work.
While the example of Germany’s combination of day time running and stupid low truck speed limits shows the results of all that in the form of traffic clogged motorways by day.But clear enough for plenty of flat out car driving at night which I’ve often taken advantage of. As for France its population v land mass makes it even easier for a lot more day running.Although in all cases there are plenty of logistics operations throughout Europe.Which,like here, are actually based on the idea of overnight trunking and daytime deliveries.So don’t expect any of those operations to support your ideas.
As for Billy’s point concerning East Euro immigrant labour.Ironically the fact that it obviously adds to the issue of artificially over supplying the labour market is a double edged sword for the employers’ side of the labour market equation.In that it just adds to the disparity between prices here v income levels which is probably slowly dawning amongst the East Euro immigrant labour force.IE why work here on a typical zb uk distribution or building sector job.When they can find better quality work,for better wages in real terms,at home.
Which then just leaves the question of wether uk employers want to replace that potentially falling immigrant driver workforce with the non EU groups of immigrants waiting to enter at Calais.
they have known that the average age of drivers is increasing and there are less new drivers taking their test for many years now and have completely failed to address the problem of holding onto existing drivers and encouraging new drivers into the industry.
