Grandpa:
I’ve spent four months plus trying to find a job that’s even possible. It hasn’t take me four years to realize that. It’s not negativity, it’s the reality of what’s out there. Where are all these tanker jobs? In my time I’ve done just about a bit of everything including tanker dock work for Rugby Cement. You can’t get near those places now.
The reason I stated places like BT and Asda is because they’re the ones I liked best, but again, you’ve no chance of getting near their trunks now. The only recent container work advertised didn’t exist as I went directly to the company itself. By the way and when they are hiring, it’s £135 a day and that includes your night out allowance.
It’s not sinking in, is it? I’ve tried agencies and I’ve tried knocking on doors and yes, the work is there, but it’s the work no one else will do. The op job isn’t a one off, those are the sort of jobs that they’re now looking to fill.
Don’t take my word for it, have a go yourselves. Try asking the agencies what they’ve got, or knocking on doors just to see what’s out here. You wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole! It’s why they can’t get drivers. One person says, if they’re that bad just refuse them. That’s exactly what I have been doing. I can see the mess it’s in out here as can the transport industry itself, but some of you will have to wait until you’re in that position yourselves and you’ll then know why drivers are leaving the industry at a record level.
Don’t worry Grandpa. I know exactly what you mean and so probably do the majority of drivers.
The reality is there aren’t many vacancies in this game. There is however a massive over-subscription of workers, so when vacancies do arise they will not be in sufficient number to absorb the number looking for them.
What conceals this fact is firstly the industry hype about the so-called driver shortage, and secondly the constant trawling by agencies and fly-by-night firms for people willing to work for less than those who are currently employed, or under worse conditions.
These are not genuine vacancies in which additional work is performed in the economy. They are phantom vacancies in which firms seek to replace an existing worker, but on less money or worse terms than he is currently on. If the vacancy is filled by a new worker, then that existing worker then joins the ranks of the unemployed, adding back to the driver surplus.
Some firms recruit almost constantly, not because they are constantly growing, but because they are utter bottom-feeders who cannot retain anybody and their business model relies on backfilling this constant turnover. The massive surplus of drivers, in which there is always somebody who doesn’t know what they’re in for and will bite the bait and stay for a short while, allows this malignant model to function.
And at any one time, if there are 100 vacancies in the market, probably all 100 of them are for these bottom-feeders seeking to backfill another man who has just walked out (or even to get ahead of the game, and recruit his replacement before he throws down the gauntlet).
And for agencies, they too cast the net constantly. Even if the firm is decent but just needs someone for some holiday cover, they might get on the blower to a few agencies, and suddenly there are adverts placed and calls going out which suggest the market is calling for 10 drivers. In reality, the agencies are all competing amongst themselves to be the crew who supply that one driver and who cream the commission for it.
The call might even go out to a few other firms willing to subcontract, and they too now cast the net to see if they can get a driver. Before you know it, there are 50 different firms looking for drivers on standby that day, even though the market only requires one.
This is why the logistics sector constantly has 70,000 unfilled vacancies and yet nobody can point to the stockpile that isn’t moving, because the vacancies are all phantom vacancies.
), but you’ve saved me the bother. Hi and Carryfast sound like twins.
not even asked whether I wanted to work and given a start time … After several times of this sort of thing happening, I stopped myself being led by the nose anymore.
