Juddian:
What’s changed is that the job is now so easy, and arguably so well paid for such little actual work/nous/skill/effort/muck involved, that is has attracted and allowed to flourish a breed of driver wholly unsuited to the job.
They simply wouldn’t be in the job if it was as it used to be.
No one’s saying either that all new drivers are rubbish and yes there were bad drivers in the past, what’s different is that one had to have some mechanical aptitude to drive the old motors where anyone can now get in a modern truck and take it out on the road, any who can’t see the standards have dropped rapidly is denying reality.
No one’s arguing about wishing going back to those days, but you have to be careful how desirable the job becomes because it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the so called driver shortage and the subsequent well paid job its become can very quickly tip the other way if it becomes flooded with those who just see it as a route to a fast and easy buck, just be careful what you wish for.
To a degree; what has undeniably changed is how we learn the job. Back in the day, you started at the bottom and worked your way up. You learned techniques and skills mostly via the time-honoured method of “sitting next to Nelly”, which of course meant that the benefits of learning good skills could often be cancelled by learning sharp practices and bad habits.
For all that longer-serving drivers might ■■■■ and moan about DCPC, what it does (or rather should) afford is a common standard of basic knowledge of the law, basic loading and securing techniques and other essentials across the whole transport sector. If it had been better designed and applied in the early days, there might not be so much disdain for it now; but that’s another subject. Same applies to in-house driver trainers.
I think to a certain degree, the job has always attracted those who view it as “easy money”, but not perhaps for the obvious reasons. More in fact because however regulated and controlled your job might be, and however intrusive your employer’s methodology (trackers, driver facing cameras etc) it is still a job where you are “your own gaffer”, where you get variety on a daily basis if that’s what you want, and also where there is that slight element of permanent risk that keeps you focussed throughout the shift; or rather it should do. None of that is going to change whilst HGV’s still have steering wheels, even if they and the brakes are the only things we end up controlling. Self-parking cars may to some extent be a reality but I’ve yet to see it applied to backing a trailer onto a bay blindside!
Where doing your own repairs is concerned; personally I’ve never worked anywhere which insisted that fitters changed bulbs, and it’s something that not only should every driver of any vehicle be trained to do, but that manufacturers and designers should be forced by law, if necessary, to enable all but the most inept driver to achieve using a minimum of tools and effort. Unfortunately with the complex and frequently expensive LED set-ups being fitted nowadays to both cars and HGV’s, I fear that ship has long sailed. Same applies to many other things; given the cost and complexity of modern vehicles, and the fact that many are on contracts or leases which prohibit drivers from doing their own repairs, I can perhaps understand employers being reluctant to allow them lest it prove costly.
