Franglais:
Brexit can’t be issue there, can it?
Wowsers!! 
Don’t let your buddy the inimitable ‘Klossmeister’ let him hear you saying that Franglais ffs, you’re letting the side right down there mate.
I thought that according to you lot Brexit was to blame for every ■■■■ thing under the sun…and even if it isn’t you two both normally find a way to credit it that way.
While RHA subscriptioni s a tax allowable business expense for employers, Union subscription is not allowable expense for employees. It is the Union’s job to make driving a more attractive career. Also, rejoining the EU would elevate conditions to that of western European dtivers.
robroy:
Franglais:
Brexit can’t be issue there, can it?
Don’t let your buddy the inimitable ‘Klossmeister’ let him hear you saying that Franglais ffs, you’re letting the side right down there mate.I thought that according to you lot Brexit was to blame for every [zb] thing under the sun…and even if it isn’t you two both normally find a way to credit it that way.
Just like “you lot” think Brexit will solve everything?
[emoji3]
Davies: “there will be no downside to Brexit at all, only considerable upsides”…
That (non-elected) Gov minister was wrong in 2016, and is wrong today. Still blaming the EU for all his failings though.
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Still, I daresay the self-appointed forum police will be along soon to tell you off for using the “B” word.
Franglais:
robroy:
Franglais:
Brexit can’t be issue there, can it?
Don’t let your buddy the inimitable ‘Klossmeister’ let him hear you saying that Franglais ffs, you’re letting the side right down there mate.I thought that according to you lot Brexit was to blame for every [zb] thing under the sun…and even if it isn’t you two both normally find a way to credit it that way.
Just like “you lot” think Brexit will solve everything?
Nah…just to put this to bed, being off thread and all that… Unlike my accusation to you,.I can categorically say I have in fact NEVER said that…
Drivers can not moan about hours because they are masters at making an 8 hour shift into 15 hours
SHYTOT:
Drivers can not moan about hours because they are masters at making an 8 hour shift into 15 hours
More like the employers are masters at turning drivers into labourers and local milti drop into local local multi multi drop and expecting one person to do the job of two.
They still couldn’t find a full load to send anywhere far even if they wanted to and the customer could afford the fuel bill.
SHYTOT:
Drivers can not moan about hours because they are masters at making an 8 hour shift into 15 hours
Really?
Not this callsign: I’m salaried - if I can get done in 8 hours I will (its the company that thinks a working day is 10 hours plus).
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Franglais:
Nice to agree.
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If I tried hard I could find summat contrary to say…[emoji3]
But I won’t
Ffs! STOP THAT NOW! We both have reputations to maintain you know, any more of that agreement malarkey and they’ll be in tatters! 
Another ex driver here, having given up the dream to change light bulbs in a local care home for a better hourly rate than I was getting for class 1 driving. Also saved myself the 25 mile each way commute at stupid o’clock. Anyway, I have kept my licence up to date, digi-card too, and did my 35 hours of on-line boredom to renew my CPC at the end of last year. Just in case…
January, I had a run-in with the care home management (see, it’s not just the haulage industry!) and I left. Now I’m reading about this “catastrophic HGV driver shortage” and started me thinking about coming back to it. Checking out local-ish driver vacancies I’m seeing class 1 days being advertised at as low as £9.50 per hour. No doubt they’ll have the balls to make it unpaid breaks too. The upper rates I am seeing are about £12 per hour on days.
So absolutely nothing has changed. There is no shortage of drivers; just a shortage of people willing to drop their pants for low wages. The haulage industry is a cesspit of it’s own making, and until it gets a grip on wages AND working conditions, nothing will ever change. Just pay reasonable wages and don’t think we all want to work maximum legal hours, then we might get somewhere. I would quite like to come back to driving, but I’m not a charity.
ttps://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/fres … d=msedgntp
A major British fresh food distributor has warned fruit and vegetables are rotting in cold stores because of a major shortage of HGV drivers.
Tim O’Malley, managing director of Nationwide Produce PLC is one of the biggest companies supplying fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and restaurants across Britain.
He has warned that perfectly good food is being left to rot as there are not enough truck drivers to transport produce across the country.
Blah Blah Blah…
the industry has rotted to the core since the influx of eastern European drivers, wages are that abysmal that no one wants to work in this industry anymore .Employees have squeezed the life out of transport and now they are reaping what they sowed
i have no loyalty to any employee anymore… I used to in the Eighties when my boss was firm but fair. he used to say a fair days work for a fair days pay and should any problems arise whatever they might be he would help as much as he could Nowadays my present manager would do his utmost to upset the apple cart rather than keep a happy workforce ,as
i said reap what you sow… and he doesn’t get it when he can’t get drivers for love nor money me i am here because its a walk from my house no nights out and that suits me but i would never go that extra mile for him never
the maoster:
I don’t believe that Brexit is the cause of the driver shortage, nor Covid. I don’t even think that IR35 is the cause, although it may very well be the straw that broke the camels back.The simple fact is that lorry driving is a deeply unattractive career choice. It’s changed from a job which was admittedly challenging but ultimately rewarding into a bloody endurance test, nothing more, nothing less. Grown men don’t appreciate being talked down to by snot nosed kids with an ology in logistics, the type of snivelling little sods who replaced life long transport operators with a wealth of experience. It’s been a steep downward slope for the last 20 or 30 years bringing us to the point where we are now.
The transport industry is finally reaping what it has sown.
I don’t agree with you that it’s a “deeply unattractive career twice” at all. I think you need to take off your rose-tinted spectacles when looking around at other job sectors. As several past discussions have shown, when the question is put to the driver community what they would do instead of truck-steering and they also possess the qualifications to do, you are met with silence. That shows you that despite the endless whining about the job, conditions, treatment, pay, etc, the job still ranks highly for most drivers when compared with alternatives. If it didn’t, then no-one would be doing it and they’d be stacking shelves in Aldi, which we’re frequently told is a more attractive alternative, yet, oddly, no-one seems willing to give up their horrific, over-worked, badly-treated truck-steering duties to go do it 
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As for your “endurance test” comment - what are you smoking, bruh? You’re sat on your fat arse for best part of 8 hours doing nothing more than spinning a steering wheel - you’re not training to be a Marine ffs . Speak for yourself, but personally I don’t consider a leisurely 2hr drive from Wakefield to Birmingham area, sleeping for 3 hours and then a leisurely 2hr drive back to Wakefield, to be an endurance test or anything close.
There is plenty of decent, clean and easy work out there where you’re left to get on with it, no cameras in the cabs, no traffic office pestering you, but most drivers seem to think that working 75 hours a week over 6 days sleeping in a tin box living like a tramp is what truck-steering is all about it. Whose fault is that? If you’re not prepared to leave your comfort zone and sample what else is out there in the big wide world then you’re not in any position to be the arbiter in stating it’s an unattractive career choice.
It’s nothing to do with covid or IR35, nor the attractiveness of the job that is the cause of the current claimed “shortage”. As the transport firms are all saying themselves, the reason is 100% down to the supply of cheap labour drying up, ie. EE flip-flops. Like I said above, if these companies were paying the market average or better then they would have the same recruitment chances as all their competitors also paying same. The only reason they can’t recruit is because there is no longer a pool of EE flip-flop bums to pick from who are happy to work for the £10/hr on offer. There is a huge pool of home-grown, experienced drivers ready and willing to drive, but they all want minimum £14/hr+ and these tinpot transport companies can’t afford them if they want to stay profitable. The situation is entirely of their own/the government’s making.
We can argue over the semantics all day long and keep ignoring the massive elephant in the room which is the sole cause of their problems : the cheap Eastern European labour that the government flooded the industry with a couple of decades ago is now rapidly drying up. You really don’t need to have a degree in economics or business studies to see this. Continue with your heads firmly lodged in the sand if you wish, but it’s nothing to do with the attractiveness of the job. Those minor annoyances are easily overlooked if the ££ is ‘right’.
How long before special skills status gets given to HGV drivers then?
Or we end up with drivers from other countries as the result of some trade deal?
Fill your boots while you can. The cliff edge will.come soon.
If it’s decided there is a shortage of drivers, the minimum pay for immigrants will be under £21,000. Its under 25k already.
If we only allow limited contracts, etc will we attract those who want to become part of our society, and build their family’s future here? Or those prepared to rough it for while, put up with crap, and take most of their earnings abroad when they leave?
If you are a competent driver with a good record, would you go somewhere you were welcome, or somewhere that wants to chuck you out asap?
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Ed to add
“New immigration system: what you need to know - GOV.UK” gov.uk/guidance/new-immigra … on-process
yes ,I missed the part about a review of the driver hours as they are stuck in the late 1960s along with working conditions
shynot … the only time I turned 8 hours into 15 was with my pen when I filled the log book in
fuse:
yes ,I missed the part about a review of the driver hours as they are stuck in the late 1960s along with working conditions
Many would be more than happy to go back to the 1968 limits on driving and working hours.
cav551:
fuse:
yes ,I missed the part about a review of the driver hours as they are stuck in the late 1960s along with working conditionsMany would be more than happy to go back to the 1968 limits on driving and working hours.
Tachos mean no breaks or late starts without the guvnor knowing about it.
Just tweak domestic regs with 12 hours minimum daily rest and 48 hours weekly rest and make ‘domestic’ operations mean what it says job done.
AETR for international freight journeys.
The RHA gave never done a single thing for drivers in the past 30 years. They are only interested in the companies who pay to be members. Not one thing on that list will help drivers in this country.
They are a disgrace.
“Raising the Pay” - already isn’t working is it?
Can’t get bums on seats for £20ph+ RIGHT NOW…
I’d argue that the rate needs to be enshrined in a quality full timer’s contract with family-friendly hours. Eg. 4x10 hour fixed shifts, available on comfortable start times agreed at the outset with the incoming driver, no Graveyard or Stupid O clock start times ever again…
I don’t think Aldi’s small increment for their drivers - will be more than a temporary reprieve for them, should agency rates keep on rising…
As for Tesco’s “Golden Hello” packages - I can see a wave of Bonus Whores coming along and depriving them of their first bonuses paid out, before leaving right after the qualifying period is over, not bothering to earn the 2nd bonus…
It’ll work for about a week, maybe two… Then the drivers who got their first bonus will simply be back off to agencyland for the now £30+ rates gettable there, assuming there isn’t a complete financial Crash this coming Christmas…
“Could go either way” I reckon at present…