Is this the same shortage that was going to leave the shelves empty at Xmas, and if there is a severe shortage of Drivers, why have I only got Friday and Saturday in this week from my Agency ?
And why are my wages not going up
Simple reason is people aren’t prepared to put up with being talked down to, ■■■■■■ on and left to spend nights in services that rip you off, a layby in the middle of nowhere or fighting for a space in the few good truckstops we have left in this country.
jimjam150975:
And why are my wages not going up
and mine 
Before xmas you were tripping over agency men at our gaff all with big smiles on their faces bragging how much money they are on bla bla bla bla same old bollox you hear each year,it must a bugger for um now when highlight of the day is homes under the hammer 
seth 70:
jimjam150975:
And why are my wages not going upand mine
Before xmas you were tripping over agency men at our gaff all with big smiles on their faces bragging how much money they are on bla bla bla bla same old bollox you hear each year,it must a bugger for um now when highlight of the day is homes under the hammer
Thats why I ditched agency work. It feels so good to know that I’ve got work tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that etc, etc.
Ive said it before there is no driver shortage,theres a good [english]driver shortage though 
English drivers, we are a dying breed thank you Europe vote ukip
roughyed:
Is this the same shortage that was going to leave the shelves empty at Xmas, and if there is a severe shortage of Drivers, why have I only got Friday and Saturday in this week from my Agency ?
No, its the same driver shortage that’s been going on for the last 20 years, my theory is, its been made up by the training companies to drum up business, these articles are followed up with half a page of adverts for truck driving schools somewhere in the paper, the sun do it regularly.
Radar19:
seth 70:
jimjam150975:
And why are my wages not going upand mine
Before xmas you were tripping over agency men at our gaff all with big smiles on their faces bragging how much money they are on bla bla bla bla same old bollox you hear each year,it must a bugger for um now when highlight of the day is homes under the hammerThats why I ditched agency work. It feels so good to know that I’ve got work tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that etc, etc.
+1…amen to that… 
Changing tack slightly,it’s not just our industry that’s suffering “skill shortages”.
I regularly pass a new housing development in Leamington that has signs outside advertising for brickies and chippies,something that I haven’t seen since beer was 13p a pint 
The short sightedness of successive governments (and greedy bosses),who just grab the nearest,cheapest Johnny Foreigner,rather than train our own people properly,is going to bite us on the bum eventually
The best and funniest part of that article regarding the dcpc, is:
‘‘Transport secretary Martin McLoughlin defended the EU rules, arguing that drivers need to know how to drive their lorries properly’’
This just shows what our illustrious ‘Transport Secretary’ actually knows about the ‘Transport’ part of his pretentious title…typical MP What a ■■■■
I suspect it’s a fishing expedition, make as much noise (propaganda) as possible about a future shortage of drivers, get the chattering classes panicking about a shortage of quiche at Marks and Spencers so the govt of the day caves in and spends more £millions of ours putting doley boys and foreigners through the test.
They know that eventually there will be a shortage of licence holders too…there’s been a shortage of drivers for some time but many transport operations have geared down to simple as…and it’s not in the RHA/FTA’s interests to have a real shortage otherwise they’ll have to start paying some proper money to attract or come up with training schemes of their own, far better for their balance sheets if the taxpayer stumps up.
There is no shortage of drivers as such,there is just a shortage of drivers who are not prepared to be mugged of by clueless neanderthal small minded transport managers and haulage operators who think because they have managed to land a couple of break even contracts using clapped out motors means that they qualify for business man of the year.
its almost word for word the same ■■■■■■■■ that the daily fail ran before xmas.
there wont be a shortage of food on shelves, there isn’t a shortage of drivers, there is a shortage of people who want to do it as a career choice however.
health and safety have stopped drivers being able to take their children with them for a day out etc, so they don’t get the experience of life on the road. why would a 21year old want to become a driver.
Lakeside services is over run ALL the time with drivers, couldn’t get moved in there the other day. Literally! I saw a driver trying to get in, swung it round and smashed the front left of his trailer against some poor guys trailer. Not sure of the outcome on that. I saw that it was rammed in the park so just whipped it round into the coach part because I only wanted to run in and grab some cigs and ring the gaffer!
Baggie:
Changing tack slightly,it’s not just our industry that’s suffering “skill shortages”.
I regularly pass a new housing development in Leamington that has signs outside advertising for brickies and chippies,something that I haven’t seen since beer was 13p a pint
The short sightedness of successive governments (and greedy bosses),who just grab the nearest,cheapest Johnny Foreigner,rather than train our own people properly,is going to bite us on the bum eventually
Speaking to a paramedic trainer a few weeks back, he reckons they are about 80% down on the amount of people that need to be trained. They’ve tried importing redy trained people, but the training criteria tends not to match up. The course for qualifying to be a paramedic has changed from 3 years to 10 months intensive.
Friends mother went into hospital and stayed for 2 weeks in Central London, not on of the nursing staff was English born and bred - my friend whose a bit PC and right-on had trouble understanding them, her 91 year old mother had no chance.
There’s something very wrong when there are jobs but a shortage of skilled labour, be that driver or nurse or brickie. I don’t think you can point to any one thing, it’s a combination of poor pay/high living costs in some areas, competition from abroad driving costs and prices down, lack of foresight from successive governments for training programmes and there are those who will choose to spend life on the dole + cash in hand jobs and see no reason to get a ‘proper’ job, be that for idealogical reasons or sheer indolence.
jimjam150975:
English drivers, we are a dying breed thank you Europe vote ukip
+1 absolutely!
The rise of training agencies is also to blame you can train to be a painter or whatever with no guarantee of a job at the end of it how many of you work for companies that train there own staff.
I’m probably going to repeat alot of what has been posted. But basically this has been going on for 20 years the haulage industry got a bit of a break when the east European drivers came flooding in, so they stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the impending truth that the average age of drivers is increasing and fewer people are taking their hgv test. Along with people leaving the industry as the economy picks up, now the short.sighted [zb]'s who run the industry want the government to sort their mess out by using tax payers money to train drivers. 
Instead of sorting out their own problem and doing something to stop the exodus of drivers and train new drivers to replace those who are coming up to retirement age.
Personally those industry bosses, who’ve spend years cutting pay nd conditions for the sake of profit, need to be taken round the back of their trailers and have the collective ■■■■ kicked out of them.
muckles:
I’m probably going to repeat alot of what has been posted. But basically this has been going on for 20 years the haulage industry got a bit of a break when the east European drivers came flooding in, so they stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the impending truth that the average age of drivers is increasing and fewer people are taking their hgv test. Along with people leaving the industry as the economy picks up, now the short.sighted [zb]'s who run the industry want the government to sort their mess out by using tax payers money to train drivers.Personally those industry bosses, who’ve spend years cutting pay nd conditions for the sake of profit, need to be taken round the back of their trailers and have the collective [zb] kicked out of them.
summed up the whole sorry mess perfectly