Juddian:
Our youngters are in, not all any any means, but in too many instances above all this working class stuff, they’ve been ejumacated for better things, like managing stuff or being artistic or into more socially acceptable careers, they are not into working all hours God sends with little to no prospects of climbing the slippery pole before the ink on their licence is dry.
Agreed. Was just wondering if that should be edumacated though ? 
Lucky sod that I am I don’t have any kids, however my bro has two who both went to Uni - one studied Arts Management (or something - my brain switches off just thinking about it, she ended up in a SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT job putting on “events” in theatres etc. 
) and the other Music (which he dropped out of).
My brother has a background in insurance / accountancy and his (now ex) wife was a nurse.
So if that’s anything to go by no wonder the country is in such a mess - 30 years ago the youth wanted to either look after people’s money or their health, now they just want to put on a musical
Nobody wants to build or make anything anymore. 
Carryfast:
As for the lie concerning the employers’ ‘struggling to recruit younger people’.That’s obviously answered by the statement regarding the ‘difficulty’ of new drivers finding decent work easily.
I realise that employers would much prefer an experienced 30 year old to an inexperienced 20 year old, but without a reasonable supply of the latter coming into the industry where are they going to get the older experienced driver’s from ( Poland as usual I suppose)
KTMrider:
Carryfast:
As for the lie concerning the employers’ ‘struggling to recruit younger people’.That’s obviously answered by the statement regarding the ‘difficulty’ of new drivers finding decent work easily.
I realise that employers would much prefer an experienced 30 year old to an inexperienced 20 year old, but without a reasonable supply of the latter coming into the industry where are they going to get the older experienced driver’s from ( Poland as usual I suppose)
Firstly the ‘experience’ issue in reality covers lots of different scenarios.Varying from some with actually less ‘experience’ or having missed/avoided the start at the bottom bs,but who know the right people and/or luck in being at the right time and right place.To those having bs’ed their way into the better sectors of the job with little or no real ‘experience’ in those sectors.On that note those sectors will always be over subscribed regardless of all the ‘driver shortage’ propaganda.
Then you can now add to that the issue of employers wanting an over supplied labour market using imported foreign labour with low wage expectations by comparison with domestic living costs and wage expectations.In which case we’ve now got the lose lose situation of the self fulfilling circle of the employers having to employ that imported labour wherever possible or lose it.To add to the joke of the arbitrary unfair career progression situation in the industry in which the zb jobs are often reserved for the mugs who believe all the start at the bottom bs.
In addition to which we’ve got the situation of a massive sector of the industry having effectively been handed over to the cheaper foreign competition although even at best that sector was one of the worse in being subject the type of arbitrary entry conditions described above anyway.Then the ever increasing surveillance issue removing much of the sense of freedom that went with the job and the political climate which is all about trying to minimise the use of road transport which we’ve always had to put up with to a greater or lesser degree.
All of that arguably being a far bigger disincentive to new entrants into the industry than the question of if/when automation will affect what job opportunities remain.While the issue of compulsory,as opposed to voluntary automation,potentially affects every type of driver involvement whether for pleasure or for for work as a career choice.Or for that matter any compulsory move from Internal combustion engined vehicles to EV’s in that regard.
On that note let’s just say that I wouldn’t be as happy to be a young driver now.While if I was I’d just try to make the best of whatever time remains and opportunities to actually enjoy driving things whether it be cars or trucks or both.
While assuming that any potential move to automation will be voluntary not compulsory that would probably be a game changer regarding the incentive to be an owner driver. 