Over exaggerated shortage

A few short weeks ago there was a 30-40K driver shortage, then it was 50K, more recently it was ‘over 100K’ shortage and this weekend it seems it 120K driver shortage. That means in just a few short weeks, some 60,000 or more drivers have abandoned either the country or the work!!!
What they don’t mention is what type of driver they are looking at, and the great mead images always show a line of artics sitting waiting. There is no way, that anyone can persuade me that so many have left driving because of Driver CPC or smoother wild idea in such a short time. Perhaps some have left driving to become managers in one form or another as they know how the business should be run!

Terry T:
The point we’re at now started a few decades ago IMO. I first climbed into a truck aged 6 in 1986 and I’ve been in and out of them since that day. Can’t say when that all stopped exactly but nowadays taking your kids with you on runs is very much unheard of. I imagine many of us on here got into this industry in this way.

Then came along the in cab phones, trackers and worst of all, driver facing cameras. Not to mention EU driving rules increasing the max working day to 15 hours.

Oh and did I forget the 24/7 shopping, next day delivery lifestyle we created for ourselves. Artics running 200 mile from one amazon depot to another on a Sunday night with 2 pallets on coz of the oh so important parcels on the back which must be delivered tomorrow or the world will end.

Went to an RDC last week and when I asked about the toilet I was directed to a portaloo. And they want more women in the industry. Yeah right.

Why would a young person put themselves forward for all this. When I say it out loud I wonder why I do it myself. I guess mostly coz I foolishly left school with nothing worth shouting about and I can’t be arsed to do anything about it and I can’t earn this money anywhere else.

Kids are at school till 18 these days and have more options. I imagine truck driving is pretty low down.

That is the best post i have read in ages, nail head firmly hit.

agrre mate, we’ve had 18 month of Project Fear / Big Reset during Covid, now they wanting to recover shareholder values by ramping up the cost of everything hoping everyone will just pay up, no matter how expensive, for fuel, food, etc, etc. Absolutely nothing to do with a lack of drivers

youtu.be/F94jGTWNWsA
Inflation has only one source and one source only…
Hundreds of billions of pounds created by the Bank of England, out of nothing, and lent to Government so it could run furlough after furlough, pay pharma industries for their juices, labs for their tests, etc, etc, while production of goods and services were actually halted. Less stuff being made with more money circulating. Geez I wonder why the prices went up? Bloody Nowak and Popescu on “permanent holiday” in Germany, its all their fault…

The present wife had to go for a medical check up on Monday, it was only a blood test and BP check really.

Sorry we cant do your bloods as there is a shortage of sample bottles, its been caused by a ship stuck in the Suez Canal. It seems the Ever Given is still causing a massive shortage.

Its Bull Shine :stuck_out_tongue:

lolipop:
Shortage of Drivers,nothing being said that not many of the younger generation have the money to fork out £3-4k to get a licence,plus CPC and digi card

It doesn’t cost £3000-£4000. It costs £1500 to get your Cat C, the same as it cost to do Class 1 when I did it in 1994. I know this because I paid for my son to do his and I remember when the school said how much it was commenting that that was what I’d paid 25 years before.

osark:
https://youtu.be/F94jGTWNWsA
Inflation has only one source and one source only…
Hundreds of billions of pounds created by the Bank of England, out of nothing, and lent to Government so it could run furlough after furlough, pay pharma industries for their juices, labs for their tests, etc, etc, while production of goods and services were actually halted. Less stuff being made with more money circulating. Geez I wonder why the prices went up? Bloody Nowak and Popescu on “permanent holiday” in Germany, its all their fault…

If that’s the case then why was inflation much higher in the past when the government weren’t doing any of that?

Conor:

lolipop:
Shortage of Drivers,nothing being said that not many of the younger generation have the money to fork out £3-4k to get a licence,plus CPC and digi card

It doesn’t cost £3000-£4000. It costs £1500 to get your Cat C, the same as it cost to do Class 1 when I did it in 1994. I know this because I paid for my son to do his and I remember when the school said how much it was commenting that that was what I’d paid 25 years before.

It does cost between £3k and £4k to get your Class 1 and a DCPC on average with a 50% pass rate for C and CE.

Why do you have to be a bellend and argue with folk on here all the time? :unamused:

Conor:

lolipop:
Shortage of Drivers,nothing being said that not many of the younger generation have the money to fork out £3-4k to get a licence,plus CPC and digi card

It doesn’t cost £3000-£4000. It costs £1500 to get your Cat C, the same as it cost to do Class 1 when I did it in 1994. I know this because I paid for my son to do his and I remember when the school said how much it was commenting that that was what I’d paid 25 years before.

£1,500 just for class C, + DCPC, + class 1 ?.
For the privilege of being told no experience no job but they will consider new passes if they want to be a site labourer/driver of a scaffold wagon etc around the local houses.
As opposed to collecting/delivering cars around the country ( unfortunately for anyone who’s semi retired ).

There is this:

The government is expected to announce a shake-up of the HGV driver testing process as soon as Thursday.

It wants to fast track drivers into the haulage industry amid chronic shortages which have caused supply problems.

The BBC understands that during meetings between government officials, hauliers and suppliers, the “penny finally dropped” that the driver shortage was getting worse not better.

Widespread supply chain issues caused by the driver shortage have hit a range of sectors, including food, drink and medicines.

“The government seem to finally understand the scale of the problem. For the first time they looked rattled”, industry sources told the BBC.

It’s thought the centrepiece of the proposals could include combining the Class C test used for rigid lorries and Class E for larger articulated lorries into a single test.

Surely - raising wages will do little to solve the problem. All it does is lure drivers away from one employer to another chasing the extra money.

Santa:
There is this:

The government is expected to announce a shake-up of the HGV driver testing process as soon as Thursday.

It wants to fast track drivers into the haulage industry amid chronic shortages which have caused supply problems.

The BBC understands that during meetings between government officials, hauliers and suppliers, the “penny finally dropped” that the driver shortage was getting worse not better.

Widespread supply chain issues caused by the driver shortage have hit a range of sectors, including food, drink and medicines.

“The government seem to finally understand the scale of the problem. For the first time they looked rattled”, industry sources told the BBC.

It’s thought the centrepiece of the proposals could include combining the Class C test used for rigid lorries and Class E for larger articulated lorries into a single test.

Surely - raising wages will do little to solve the problem. All it does is lure drivers away from one employer to another chasing the extra money.

Don’t know.
If there is 100k drivers not using there hgv licence and money goes to a decent rate then people will maybe jump back in a truck.
Doubt it like lol

That’s what is already happening though… Via agency!

Conor:

osark:
https://youtu.be/F94jGTWNWsA
Inflation has only one source and one source only…
Hundreds of billions of pounds created by the Bank of England, out of nothing, and lent to Government so it could run furlough after furlough, pay pharma industries for their juices, labs for their tests, etc, etc, while production of goods and services were actually halted. Less stuff being made with more money circulating. Geez I wonder why the prices went up? Bloody Nowak and Popescu on “permanent holiday” in Germany, its all their fault…

If that’s the case then why was inflation much higher in the past when the government weren’t doing any of that?

Calm down, it has just started! And so they are panicking for bringing the genie out of the bottle again. The NI contributions increase has nothing to do with funding social care, and everything to do with mopping up currency so to slow down the speed of prices rising. Let me know when the British government spent less or the same amount than what they collected in taxes! Also tell me a year in which train fares were not on the news for going up, council tax did not rise a penny, foodstuff had no increase, etc, etc. If its not stagnant or prices actually dropping, it is inflation, be it 0.2% or 20%. What influences how fast prices rise, by how much is how much money is created by the BoE and how fast HM Treasury spends it. Money printing or as they like to say now, so they sound less rough, Qantitative Easing (QE), has been done for a long, long time, It is a one way street downhill, the more you do the faster you have to do, or you crash stop. Better crash stop at lower speeds I’d say. Crashes usually hurt don’t they?

Winseer:
That’s what is already happening though… Via agency!

Na, Universal Credit is too lucrative at the moment, not worth tramping a 50hr week, trust me…

bbez:

Winseer:
That’s what is already happening though… Via agency!

Na, Universal Credit is too lucrative at the moment, not worth tramping a 50hr week, trust me…

If I was unemployed or sick I’d be on £343.63 a month which I wouldn’t exactly describe as “lucrative”.

Harry Monk:

bbez:

Winseer:
That’s what is already happening though… Via agency!

Na, Universal Credit is too lucrative at the moment, not worth tramping a 50hr week, trust me…

If I was unemployed or sick I’d be on £343.63 a month which I wouldn’t exactly describe as “lucrative”.

I have absolutely no idea of how the benefits system works Harry so I may well be talking horse ■■■, but I suspect your paltry £343 per month would be a result of not being able to work the system like a pro tbh. I was once seeing a Ponty girl who was a real professional in this respect and was receiving benefits in excess of £600 per week for her and her gimpy AHDT spawn!