Have things changed for better or worse

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Its roughly just over 3 years ago I decided to take a job out of the industry and give up driving. Some of the frustrations at the time were the lack of consistency of work,being treated like a numpty,being public enemy number 1,living in a tin box from Monday to Friday etc etc etc.

Now having only been back on the forum a couple of days and reading some of the posts it would appear that not much has changed :unamused: .

I recognise a few old names on here and wondered if I could ask if they tink things are any better these days. Is there more/less work about,Do agencies still have as bigger part to play as they did back then,I certainly dont see as many adds asking for drivers in my local rag as I did back then.

I am at the moment working 12 hr shifts days and nights and the work is non driving and very local,but it is hard physical graft and at 50 my old bones are getting tired :smiley: couple that together with the fact that I do actually miss getting about would you stay where you are or go back to driving if you were me ?

So in a nutshell is life on the open road any better now than it was 3 years ago… :neutral_face:

2

thecoder0:
Its roughly just over 3 years ago I decided to take a job out of the industry and give up driving. Some of the frustrations at the time were the lack of consistency of work,being treated like a numpty,being public enemy number 1,living in a tin box from Monday to Friday etc etc etc.

Now having only been back on the forum a couple of days and reading some of the posts it would appear that not much has changed :unamused: .

I recognise a few old names on here and wondered if I could ask if they tink things are any better these days. Is there more/less work about,Do agencies still have as bigger part to play as they did back then,I certainly dont see as many adds asking for drivers in my local rag as I did back then.

I am at the moment working 12 hr shifts days and nights and the work is non driving and very local,but it is hard physical graft and at 50 my old bones are getting tired :smiley: couple that together with the fact that I do actually miss getting about would you stay where you are or go back to driving if you were me ?

So in a nutshell is life on the open road any better now than it was 3 years ago… :neutral_face:

The job is still a piece of cake, it’s certainly not “hard physical graft” :open_mouth: The only problem, WAGE FREEZE. :frowning:

3

My tuppenceworth, nothings changed if anything its got far worse.

The clock’s been turned back at least 25 years, too many blokes again chasing too few jobs, the screws have really been turned down tight and some of the wages i hear banded about i was earning 25 years ago on crummy jobs.

If you have secure employment don’t for goodness sake pack it in unless you have a proper job offer, do not believe a single word uttered from the lips of a lying toe rag agency bod, a pox on all agency liars.

The things i hear from good blokes about their treatment at various often high image flash motor employers makes your skin crawl, open bullying being rife, they know they can get away with it.

I think things will get worse in the next year or two, and once interest rates finally rise, which they must do to end the ever increasing spiral of national debt, then all bets are off.

There are some good jobs still, jealously guarded and usually only obtainable through recommendation as the existing drivers know only too well that it takes but one or two bad apples to spoil the barrel.

If you are old school you will find a good job if you go about it the old way, knocking on doors, old school is not age related IMO there are some youngsters that are cracking first rate drivers and some older blokes who will never be a lorry driver as long as they’ve got a hole in their arse.

The only thing i would say is if you have specialist knowledge then you have a big advantage, any bugger with a licence can pilot a modern truck and a chimp could do a lot of the jobs, but being able to do specialist work sets you apart for an employer.

4

hiya dave,
like has been said i too think its got worse. 200 drivers applying for the one job is not over exaggerated too.
the biggest problem is wages kept far too low
you are treated like crap
you are just a number
and there is always someone else to take your place.

as for agency’s, well all i can say is they…
lie
promise you the world. but never deliver, and i would never work for them again.

5

Juddian:
My tuppenceworth, nothings changed if anything its got far worse.

The clock’s been turned back at least 25 years, too many blokes again chasing too few jobs, the screws have really been turned down tight and some of the wages i hear banded about i was earning 25 years ago on crummy jobs.

If you have secure employment don’t for goodness sake pack it in unless you have a proper job offer, do not believe a single word uttered from the lips of a lying toe rag agency bod, a pox on all agency liars.

The things i hear from good blokes about their treatment at various often high image flash motor employers makes your skin crawl, open bullying being rife, they know they can get away with it.

I think things will get worse in the next year or two, and once interest rates finally rise, which they must do to end the ever increasing spiral of national debt, then all bets are off.

There are some good jobs still, jealously guarded and usually only obtainable through recommendation as the existing drivers know only too well that it takes but one or two bad apples to spoil the barrel.

If you are old school you will find a good job if you go about it the old way, knocking on doors, old school is not age related IMO there are some youngsters that are cracking first rate drivers and some older blokes who will never be a lorry driver as long as they’ve got a hole in their arse.

Yeah I get the impression that what you have written is pretty much as it were 3 years ago,I am at the stage where im looking to make a few contacts that I have,people ive worked for before etc,im more a knock on the door type than spend time sending cv,s to HR departments that will probably not even look at them.

I have quite a few years experience under my belt of driving (26yrs) this year. Im still involved in onsite driver training at the place I work now,basically teaching people how to use artic tippers etc. I am not trying to sound clever but I have complete confidence I can cut it with the old school type of driver :wink:

I spent a couple of years after taking redundancy working for 2 particular agencies so im more than aware of the tactics they employ! To be fair I used to work on a self employed basis through them and could earn more in a weekend than I could on the books for most employers back then. Also worth memtioning that I was in a position where I could take it or leave it as far as the agy were concerened and that suited me fine.

I guess it looks like things have not moved on for you guys n gals which is a shame. Thanks for thee feedback.

6

greggy:
hiya dave,
like has been said i too think its got worse. 200 drivers applying for the one job is not over exaggerated too.
the biggest problem is wages kept far too low
you are treated like crap
you are just a number
and there is always someone else to take your place.

as for agency’s, well all i can say is they…
lie
promise you the world. but never deliver, and i would never work for them again.

Hi Colin,

I wish I had a fiver for everytime some youg agy buck had given me the usual “plenty of work etc” crap I found that out of maybe 6 agys I used possibly only 2 could be halfway trusted,BUT having said that I had no problem in treating them with the same level of respect :wink:

7

Nothings really changed, still an easy job.

8

Coffeeholic:
Nothings really changed, still an easy job.

Plenty of it Neil ?

9

thecoder0:

Coffeeholic:
Nothings really changed, still an easy job.

Plenty of it Neil ?

Plenty lorrys on the roads, have a look. :bulb:

10

pavaroti:

thecoder0:

Coffeeholic:
Nothings really changed, still an easy job.

Plenty of it Neil ?

Plenty lorrys on the roads, have a look. :bulb:

There’s plenty of lorries on the roads but for every lorry on the road there’s probably a couple of drivers looking for work.

11

pavaroti:

thecoder0:

Coffeeholic:
Nothings really changed, still an easy job.

Plenty of it Neil ?

Plenty lorrys on the roads, have a look. :bulb:

There’s a marked reduction. I can travel the entire M62 and not see a single Nobby Dentedangle or Willi Eckz.

12

I still believe a lot of it is attitude and what you are prepared to do. How often have we heard wouldn’t get out of bed for that much or must have a globetrotter or whatever. I know drivers who haven’t worked in months and others who have changed jobs a couple of times.
If your not working any jobs better than the dole and it’s easier to find a job if you are working.
My wife’s friends husband called round the other week whining he has only had a few agency shifts since Xmas and should he borrow money to do class 1 as his agency recon they have loads off class1 work on good rates.
I said I recon there telling you that to keep you sweet and as a new pass you may struggle to get the work and from what I hear the rates are not much more than class 2 at the moment.
I put him on to a mate whos firm were looking for skip drivers not bad money but about 45 minutes away from his house found out a week or so later he never called when I asked said it was to far to travel and didn’t fancy doing skips. How can you help someone like that.

13

Juddian:
My tuppenceworth, nothings changed if anything its got far worse.

The clock’s been turned back at least 25 years, too many blokes again chasing too few jobs, the screws have really been turned down tight and some of the wages i hear banded about i was earning 25 years ago on crummy jobs.

If you have secure employment don’t for goodness sake pack it in unless you have a proper job offer, do not believe a single word uttered from the lips of a lying toe rag agency bod, a pox on all agency liars.

The things i hear from good blokes about their treatment at various often high image flash motor employers makes your skin crawl, open bullying being rife, they know they can get away with it.

I think things will get worse in the next year or two, and once interest rates finally rise, which they must do to end the ever increasing spiral of national debt, then all bets are off.

There are some good jobs still, jealously guarded and usually only obtainable through recommendation as the existing drivers know only too well that it takes but one or two bad apples to spoil the barrel.

If you are old school you will find a good job if you go about it the old way, knocking on doors, old school is not age related IMO there are some youngsters that are cracking first rate drivers and some older blokes who will never be a lorry driver as long as they’ve got a hole in their arse.

The only thing i would say is if you have specialist knowledge then you have a big advantage, any bugger with a licence can pilot a modern truck and a chimp could do a lot of the jobs, but being able to do specialist work sets you apart for an employer.

Do you think that wages will sky rocket like they did in the late 1970’s when interest rates rise sharply? :question:
Anyone not being able to pay their mortgage (due to the new high rates) might deliberately default the mortgage, put themselves on the dole, and claim housing benefit for the new rented place they’ll be provided with. :frowning:
The shortage of solvent drivers (rather than competent ones!) will push wages up for those that remain in this scenario…
Lack of residence will also make tramping more popular as well! :slight_smile:
If the government wants to seriously tackle the defecit, it needs to reward firms for paying well, and take away benefits that are too easy to fall upon when an employer goes out of their way to CUT pay instead. :unamused:

14

thecoder0:

Coffeeholic:
Nothings really changed, still an easy job.

Plenty of it Neil ?

No idea, I haven’t had cause to look recently. We have plenty of agency guys in, most doing 5 or 6 shifts a week, most regulars but some new faces as well, and the ones I speak to say they have plenty of work.

15

Coffeeholic:

thecoder0:

Coffeeholic:
Nothings really changed, still an easy job.

Plenty of it Neil ?

No idea, I haven’t had cause to look recently. We have plenty of agency guys in, most doing 5 or 6 shifts a week, most regulars but some new faces as well, and the ones I speak to say they have plenty of work.

It might be the guys you don’t see who are struggling for work? Just a thought…HTH! :stuck_out_tongue:

16

44 Tonne Ton:
It might be the guys you don’t see who are struggling for work? Just a thought…HTH! :stuck_out_tongue:

Confucius he say “to know what we know and know what we do not know is wisdom”. :laughing: :laughing:

17

A job i knew about a few months ago £6.50 p/h class 2 hiab, o/t after 40 hours, day work no nights out… advertised via york press and job centre website, 500+ applicants, some as far away as sheffield doncaster and darlington… speaks for itself…

18

thecoder0:
Its roughly just over 3 years ago I decided to take a job out of the industry and give up driving. Some of the frustrations at the time were the lack of consistency of work,being treated like a numpty,being public enemy number 1,living in a tin box from Monday to Friday etc etc etc.

Now having only been back on the forum a couple of days and reading some of the posts it would appear that not much has changed :unamused: .

I recognise a few old names on here and wondered if I could ask if they tink things are any better these days. Is there more/less work about,Do agencies still have as bigger part to play as they did back then,I certainly dont see as many adds asking for drivers in my local rag as I did back then.

I am at the moment working 12 hr shifts days and nights and the work is non driving and very local,but it is hard physical graft and at 50 my old bones are getting tired :smiley: couple that together with the fact that I do actually miss getting about would you stay where you are or go back to driving if you were me ?

So in a nutshell is life on the open road any better now than it was 3 years ago… :neutral_face:

think you could find a hundred who would swap Job with you :slight_smile:

19

Winseer:

Juddian:
.

Do you think that wages will sky rocket like they did in the late 1970’s when interest rates rise sharply? :question:
Anyone not being able to pay their mortgage (due to the new high rates) might deliberately default the mortgage, put themselves on the dole, and claim housing benefit for the new rented place they’ll be provided with. :frowning:
. :unamused:

Do you know Winseer i’m buggered if i know, but i have me doubts, why should they**, i reckon some serious reduction in peoples expectations to make ends meet will be coming though, Sky TV, new cars, eating out, new clothes, foreign holidays, holidays at all?, stupidly expensive keep up with the Jones’ presents for the spoiled kids etc all will be going, those who have loaded themselves with credit and lived for today instead of paying that all important house off are in for a rough ride.

I still had a mortgage last time which peaked IIRC at around 16%, sole breadwinner too and little kids to raise.

Things were different though, not so many rules and regs to prevent you working, at the time i was working around 100 hours a week, me usual truck work for bread and butter, then kerbside cowboying and weekend evening taxi driving to keep the wolf from the door.

Since those days we’ve had 20 years of unmitigated uncounted even immigration so millions of people prepared to rough it will take those extra top up jobs that blokes like us used to do to make ends meet, and still coming unchecked despite all the promises by the current bunch of con men in Downing St.

I hope i’m wrong but i forsee far worse downturn to come than we’ve seen so far, and far more money to pay back than they admit, and we’re still in growing defecit…Fiddling while Rome burns?

It might all change cos NuLab mght just get back in again, in which case we’ll borrow even more than the current record sums and that’ll push the defecit to Greek levels, who knows?, its all above my pay grade anyway…:wink:

**why should they pay more i asked?..any bugger can now jump in our trucks and drive them, so if we won’t work whats to stop a foreigner jumping in our trucks and taking over…we voted for parties that want us in the EU, well i didn’t but most did, so we have no choice but to have all and sundry allowed in, single blokes will be quite happy to live all year in our globetrotters and super extra space cabs, they won’t be bothered about 15% mortgages, they’ll send the money back home and buy a decent house for half what we have to pay.

Bleak picture ain’t it and i hope to God i’m wrong.

20

Winseer:
Do you think that wages will sky rocket like they did in the late 1970’s when interest rates rise sharply? :question:
Anyone not being able to pay their mortgage (due to the new high rates) might deliberately default the mortgage, put themselves on the dole, and claim housing benefit for the new rented place they’ll be provided with.

It was prices that sky rocketed during the mid 1970’s and the unions (tried and failed to) keep wages in line.Then Thatcher got in. :open_mouth:

Wages can’t go anywhere because the supply of labour far outweighs demand for it which is the result of years of de industrialisation and immigration so interest rates can’t rise either because the money isn’t there to pay them if they did and the banks would just be left with loads of repo’d housing with loads of negative equity on it and there’d be loads of homeless bankrupt home buyers who are still liable for the difference in value between what they borrowed and what their repo’d house would be worth.

So basically the savers are subsidising a zb’d economy and keeping it afloat by accepting zb savings rates to prevent a further,much bigger,banking collapse if interest rates were put up to where they should be.

In addition to which the place is now importing goods that it doesn’t need that it could have made for itself all paid for by borrowed money and earnings from making hamburgers and moving imported goods around warehouses while exporting zb all and paying for the resulting unemployment rates using printed worthless money.

The economy as it stands is a bit like the Titanic.It’s just a matter of time before it inevitably sinks.