As we wave goodbye to 2021 I wonder what the new year is going to bring, I have to say that I did not expect last year to be any different and wasn’t expecting much at all and then along came 1st April and the game changed dramatically, IR35 was the trigger, the final straw that caused the seismic shift that finally exposed the dysfunctionality of the UK road haulage industry and it’s reliance on cheap labour from former communist states in Eastern Europe
With hindsight I suppose we should have seen it coming but evidence of any planning at “Big Logistics” is scant, indeed it strikes me that they were taken by surprise as their faulty business model was cruelly shot down in flames
So after screaming loudly at the government via the venal trade organisation, the detested RHA, there seems to be a welter of new training schemes for young people to become the next generation of HGV drivers
The idea that the penny has finally dropped and we are going to invest in our own young lads and girls has got to be a good thing and if this is the case, I for one give it my full support but like everything else I fear it will fizzle out once it’s no longer newsworthy
So in conclusion, is this the turning point? will the decent pay rises most drivers saw last year be carried through with further improvements in working conditions, holidays etc or will the influx of newly qualified drivers mean we slip back to the recent past of being treated like filth and the old mantra being wheeled out again; “Well pal if you don’t like it you know where the door is, watch it doesn’t catch you on your arse on the way out”