trubster:
Left hand down!:
trubster:
the DCPC has probably cost me somewhere in the region of £1250
WTF. They sure saw you coming!
I mean in the cost of courses, lost work, travel and all the other crap associated with it.
Also a ball ache as I work nights, so it wasn’t just 1 day work lost for a course.
Did you not have your agency pay for it? 
Harry Monk:
Conor:
kr79:
tesco dc near by paying 31k starting wageSo the same as Geopost were paying me in ten years ago to drive a truck from York to Smethwick and back 5 nights a week. This is supposed to be an improvement?
Why do you keep on going on about how much you were earning ten years ago? It isn’t ten years ago now, it’s now. If I wanted to wave my willy I would tell you that I was earning more twenty years ago than you were earning ten years ago but I don’t, so why don’t you just change the record?
Harry is right, I drove for a living from 1983 until 2002 and in all that time my wage over a 12 month only varied by around £1500. I finished on just under 15 grand per annum in 2002 which was a lot lower than some other drivers doing the same job were getting, suited me though, but over 20 years driving and a few rate rises the job (tippers) slowly deteriorated so wages stayed much the same no matter how hard you worked! 
These recessions keep happening and take some getting out of.
I know a few local lads who are not renewing their licences but they are in their seventies and not prepared to shell out for the DCCP, I will keep mine for a while yet though.
Pete.
[/quote]
Did you not have your agency pay for it?
[/quote]
would an agency do that…I think a £1000 bet on lord lucan riding shergar,at the grand national, would be a safer bet
The shortage is the shortage of decent employers that offer proper conditions for there staff, a guaranteed number of hours not to exceed 45 only at the individual’s discretion proper holiday pay all training and licences paid for proper overtime payments and enhancements for nights and weekend working a good pension and sick pay and majority union membership.
All the above and you won’t have any problem finding drivers, stop working for agencies end job and knock and rip off bonus schemes and no employment contract and people will drive for you. The above is a reality for far to many in transport when it should be the majority it works for the train drivers for one reason, because they are in a union.
Harry Monk:
There’s an artificial boom being created at the moment, after all there’s a General Election next year so there will be a shortage of drivers right now. Whether things stay the same once interest rates go up is another matter entirely, and I think the Conservatives have figured out now that their core voters are not too impressed with ZIRP.
Yes, it does all look rather flim-flam political doesn’t it?
“Interest rates going up” sooner or later might provide an excuse for some employers running debt-laden firms to start laying people off. Just the next stage of the “Times are 'ard” argument. Trouble is they were always 'ard, and prosperity never arrived as far as pay packets were concerned did it?
The actual full-time jobs currently being advertised everywhere - are the ones that no one wants. Even offering C2 multidrop drivers more than nighttime artic drivers get - isn’t filling these jobs. The next stage could well be reducing the C+E payrates to try and “encourage” some to jump ship onto the better money that is now running up and down stairs at pubs with milk, chickens, & spuds under your arm.
I might chuck it in myself, and get a council job somewhere - if it comes to that. 
I’ve already known other drivers chuck it in to work on the road teams, - even sewage work! Things must be bad. In any case, as long as the money is right, I can handle unpleasant work better than I can handle work with high liabilities like collecting cash from people that are already nicking stuff out of the trays you’ve taken in, and pretending that it’s a “short” yet again… 
Doing any job where suspicion is upon the driver all the time is no good is it? - On the upside though, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of driver-facing cameras of late… Are they being/have been phased out over the past few months?
mike68:
The shortage is the shortage of decent employers that offer proper conditions for there staff, a guaranteed number of hours not to exceed 45 only at the individual’s discretion proper holiday pay all training and licences paid for proper overtime payments and enhancements for nights and weekend working a good pension and sick pay and majority union membership.All the above and you won’t have any problem finding drivers, stop working for agencies end job and knock and rip off bonus schemes and no employment contract and people will drive for you. The above is a reality for far to many in transport when it should be the majority it works for the train drivers for one reason, because they are in a union.
You used to get all this from Royal Mail - but then they stopped recruiting. There’s a BIG opportunity for them here to step in and mop up all the Class 2 drivers - RM has always been the best place for such work imho, having done it myself during the 90’s.
Winseer:
mike68:
The shortage is the shortage of decent employers that offer proper conditions for there staff, a guaranteed number of hours not to exceed 45 only at the individual’s discretion proper holiday pay all training and licences paid for proper overtime payments and enhancements for nights and weekend working a good pension and sick pay and majority union membership.All the above and you won’t have any problem finding drivers, stop working for agencies end job and knock and rip off bonus schemes and no employment contract and people will drive for you. The above is a reality for far to many in transport when it should be the majority it works for the train drivers for one reason, because they are in a union.
You used to get all this from Royal Mail - but then they stopped recruiting. There’s a BIG opportunity for them here to step in and mop up all the Class 2 drivers - RM has always been the best place for such work imho, having done it myself during the 90’s.
Indeed, and they were not the only ones, good employers knew long ago that their staff are their most important asset, employers may have to up their game to attract and retain good drivers. But since time immemorial drivers have been their own worst enemies.
kr79:
From all the owner drivers i talk to rates are rising but the same as any haulage operation there are plenty of busy fools about.
Look at keltbray they are a demolition firm they lorrys cover there own work so thrre not working for buttons.
Crossrail has caused a boom for construction in London but unless hs2 gets the go ahead theres not a lot in the pipeline.
Busy fools it was forever thus, the best thing about Crossrail is all the “high rollers” have sold their sole to the devil for “peanuts” just to get a bit of the action(good luck to them dealing with all the bullpoo on site) anyway the small jobs that are left do seem to have a bit more money to play with so there’s a few quid in them, it beats me how some of these firms make any money given the damage they must pick up due to crap drivers,if Walshy is charging drivers £50/ broken spring the poor sods must owe money at the end of the week 'cause them DAF’s do like a spring or two even more so when you do 45/50 over the speed ramps into the tip 
BTW not slaging off DAF’s mine was a good un along with Leyland Constructor,Scammell Routeman & Hino a good earning tools to go to work with,think I’ll reserve judgment on the nasty old S80 cab Foden I had around 30 or so years ago though 
Left hand down!:
trubster:
Left hand down!:
trubster:
the DCPC has probably cost me somewhere in the region of £1250
I mean in the cost of courses, lost work, travel and all the other crap associated with it.
Also a ball ache as I work nights, so it wasn’t just 1 day work lost for a course.
Did you not have your agency pay for it?
Some agencies do, I was put through 3 courses gratis thanks to an agency I used to work for, but I still paid for 2 courses and lost 10 days work plus travel and all the other crap
splitshift:
kr79:
From all the owner drivers i talk to rates are rising but the same as any haulage operation there are plenty of busy fools about.
Look at keltbray they are a demolition firm they lorrys cover there own work so thrre not working for buttons.
Crossrail has caused a boom for construction in London but unless hs2 gets the go ahead theres not a lot in the pipeline.Busy fools it was forever thus, the best thing about Crossrail is all the “high rollers” have sold their sole to the devil for “peanuts” just to get a bit of the action(good luck to them dealing with all the bullpoo on site) anyway the small jobs that are left do seem to have a bit more money to play with so there’s a few quid in them, it beats me how some of these firms make any money given the damage they must pick up due to crap drivers,if Walshy is charging drivers £50/ broken spring the poor sods must owe money at the end of the week 'cause them DAF’s do like a spring or two even more so when you do 45/50 over the speed ramps into the tip
Few firms on that work must be strapped up to the eyeballs with all the new motors if hs2 foesnt get the green light i could see a fair few go bust.
Muckspreader:
I run my own wagon though occasionally drive via an agency on a class 1 (mine are rigids & I like driving an artic)
For a Saturday night run I get £15/hr for the first 8 then £19.80 thereafter (Devon)To be honest I’d do it for £20 and a sandwich just because I like driving the truck, its always spotlessly clean, fuelled up, strapped and they make me a coffee ready for when I arrive.
I used to do more but now I’m only doing once a month.
It all sounds a bit weird. I am starting to wonder if you’re maybe a fantasist.
Also agree with Harry.
The downside to tippers, skips, mixers etc is that when the economy takes a downturn it’s the construction industry that suffers first.
From the person trying to put bums on seats points of views we have struggled to get agency drivers for a few months. However it’s normally a days notice or less. Plus the work is all handball. This is Cat C work, are they all working on the construction boom, given up or decided to upgrade to the bendy stuff?
We aren’t getting so many CV’s through now for permanent drivers either. We are based in Peterborough so there’s a lot of large Cat C operators in the area, the money is good (especially as our drivers average 40-45 hours a week)but maybe it’s the handball putting people off.
I looked at the o/t list the other day and after it being posted up a week ago ,about 7 drivers have taken up shifts out of the 30 apx available,in the past they didn’t bother posting them up,just cover them with agency ,but struggling too get agency .
I know they have TFT agency drivers who are guaranteed 45 hrs min every week,but they seem that desperate now there givingthe normal agency 10 weeks guaranteed work.
Also got a fair few mates who have changed jobs and there all being asked too do 5 days-6 days- 5 days etc etc ,not the normal 5days then o/t if you want it.
trubster:
Left hand down!:
trubster:
Left hand down!:
trubster:
the DCPC has probably cost me somewhere in the region of £1250
I mean in the cost of courses, lost work, travel and all the other crap associated with it.
Also a ball ache as I work nights, so it wasn’t just 1 day work lost for a course.
Did you not have your agency pay for it?
Some agencies do, I was put through 3 courses gratis thanks to an agency I used to work for, but I still paid for 2 courses and lost 10 days work plus travel and all the other crap
Plenty of agencies will pay to put you through a kind of in-house DCPC - but you’re obliged to take the work they offer you over the coming months.
This will of course be C2 multidrop and/or supermarkets. Me? - I’d rather stick to the work I’d rather be doing (night & weekend trunking), cherry picking though it might be, and if I end up paying for it myself, then at least I’ve lost less days off work, and get to tax-offset it if nothing else.
I really didn’t fancy regular work at P&H.
“Do you like hospital food son?”
Company I’m with have not taken on anyone without Full CPC since the beginning of 2014.
If you dont have it why should they pay you to get it, It’s all to do with personal development if you want a job you get it!!!
Simples! 
skypilot:
‘… Company I’m with have not taken on anyone without Full CPC since the beginning of 2014 … If you dont have it why should they pay you to get it, It’s all to do with personal development …’
That’s a part of what I see; crudely ie:
On the one hand the Government treats us as cretins, eg, vast new phases of empty roundabouts with nanny lines and red lights almost requiring a STOP at 02.00hrs
The other is in our area that is evidently somewhere in the midst of an alleged national skills shortage with the Government effectively not giving a tuppenny stuff as demonstrated by their roll-over, roaring silence and go-hang the disenfranchised who may see a ‘…personal development…’ opportunity also as one of feeding oneself through an expensive federalising compliance mincer 
skypilot:
Company I’m with have not taken on anyone without Full CPC since the beginning of 2014.
If you dont have it why should they pay you to get it, It’s all to do with personal development if you want a job you get it!!!
Simples!
Because if it is done properly it benefits the company as much if not more than the driver certainly when it comes to things like economical and defensive driving and load restraint. Forward thinking companies invest in training of their workforce. Backwards ones don’t and instead ■■■■■ and whine how much fuel their drivers burn and how much they keep bending their wagons.
skypilot:
If you dont have it why should they pay you to get it, It’s all to do with personal development if you want a job you get it!!!
Simples!
Why pay for something that should be free?
after i did my 35 hours, i got a drivers handbook with every rule and regulation in it from a company that i was doing agency work for and it was free !!
so i had spent all that money for a little blue card and ive forgotten most of the stuff i had learnt, so now i can look it up in a free book !!..aye cpc is well worth it !!