Hi all,
Been lurking around the forum for a while, first time post. Just about to embark on LGV training, retraining yet again!! What is the real current situation regarding driver shortages - is it fact or fiction? I am 45 and based in the West Yorks area.
Cheers
Paddy
Yes and no
What there is a lack of in this Industry is experienced drivers especially class CE. So what do the Employers do they employ foreign drivers instead of taking on newly qualified drivers.
But they are shooting themselves in the foot because when the Economy slows and are Foreign friends return home where will they find the experienced drivers.
Unless these Employers, start looking more at home for their future drivers it will only get worse.
In a recent servey 88 percent of drivers taken on were from other transport companies ONLY 8 percent were newly qualified driver for 2007.
Need I say more 
vicious cirlce really.
it’s pretty shady for new drivers, i mean - pretty hard to get “experience” when no-one wants you without it
in response to the question in the post, personally i think it’s fiction - otherwise the mobile would be going off a lot more often than it does (and i’m “experienced” class 2). 
If you click the link in my signature it will lead you to an index where you can access a lot of info which may be of use to you 
Complete fiction. There is no shortage of drivers.
However…
There is a shortage of drivers who can understand simple English and go out of the yard to do the work then bring the vehicle back in one piece without causing any damage or upsetting customers, while at the same time complying with the relevant tacho legislation and the highway code.
Please note - I’ve got nothing against foreign drivers as individuals, and I don’t wish to tar them all with the same brush. But when you have to get translators into the office to tell one of them to stop driving as he’s already done 16.5 hours today, it’s a tad ridiculous.
In Response to flying_fenman…
AS someone a about 40odd miles closer to Felixstowe than your good self…
Is it worth putting down £2,000 to take all my courses to get a C+E ? Spending the next three months waiting and hoping to earn that (hopefully) £25K + Salary ?
Or am I barking up the wrong tree and should completely re-think my options?
Basically next week I am jobless, but with about 6 months salary to live on.
Sethie D
Sethie_D:
In Response to flying_fenman…AS someone a about 40odd miles closer to Felixstowe than your good self…
Is it worth putting down £2,000 to take all my courses to get a C+E ? Spending the next three months waiting and hoping to earn that (hopefully) £25K + Salary ?
Or am I barking up the wrong tree and should completely re-think my options?
Basically next week I am jobless, but with about 6 months salary to live on.
Sethie D
You’ll get a job quicker than three months I would have thought.
Pay in Suffolk is not the best but it isn’t the worst either. As an illustration, the company I work for has a depot in Suffolk that pays £1.62 / hour less than the one it has in Cambridgeshire. After the first 48 hours, that gap rises to £6.28 / hour.
Go for it I would say. Passing the test is only the beginning. Try and find a company that would consider new passes. Many will if you show the right attitude and a bit of flexibility.
Hope this helps.
Anything else I can help with, please get in touch. 
" Basically next week I am jobless, but with about 6 months salary to live on. "
If driving is your thing & you have a calling to train to drive HGV’s
and if you already have a C1 entitlement, suggest you join an agentcy and start gaining experence in that class of truck,
as the delays during training are many (waiting for paperword, knoledge test, etc etc)
and without an incoming your likely to run out of cash.
Sethie_D:
In Response to flying_fenman…AS someone a about 40odd miles closer to Felixstowe than your good self…
Is it worth putting down £2,000 to take all my courses to get a C+E ? Spending the next three months waiting and hoping to earn that (hopefully) £25K + Salary ?
Or am I barking up the wrong tree and should completely re-think my options?
Basically next week I am jobless, but with about 6 months salary to live on.
Sethie D
DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT.!!!
YES I AM SHOUTING AS LOUD AS I CAN!!![/size]
Book a holiday or buy a new car or something.
Don`t do what I did and wast you hard earned money for this rubbish.
After passing you tests you will still need 6 months salary to live on.
Jim
you’ll probably find it costs more than £2000 too, I’ve not done this yet so here goes;
First step’s the medical, you can get it for £50 but with the distance to the nearest place to me that does it that cheap, I went to my gp- £75
next is the theory test, mine cost me £35 late last year but I think it’s gone up since.
Then you start your training, because I got ripped off (watch this, they can be clever - if it looks too good to be true- it probablt is) after I sorted things out I got a course for about the going rate (class2, C) £949 But I travelled to wales to do it so I could visit my sister at the same time +£100 fuel
Assuming you pass first time, you can now do your C+E (class 1)
This is about the same price wherever you go and it cost me £950 I think, plus travel to and from spalding each day £80 in total.
I failed my first attempt and my second’s going to leave me with little change from £300.
so, it cost me; £2509- And that’s assuming I pass this time 
Now, that seems a bit of a horror story but it’s taken about four months to get this far, when I’m all done I’m hoping for;
Currently, I’m on £6 an hour, with overtime I take home about £230 a week and on average, I’d guess that’s about 45 hours.
In a full time class 1 job (assuming I can get one) I should be on £9-10 p/h and they tend to be about 45 hours I think so, that’s a £4 p/h payrise for a start. doing the maths - It’ll take me 2-3 months to earn that £2.5k back (difference between current and new job).
I enjoy driving and I’m sure I’ll find getting an artic into/onto some tight spots a challenge and I’m looking foreward to it
So, there you go, it’s a bit of a life story but explaines some of the facts.
I think, as someone else said, there’s plenty of qualified drivers out there BUT the firms mostly want experienced drivers. One good way to get this experience is to work for/through an agency for a bit.
after your test, get your license back first - then it’s not so obvious to an employer you’ve only just passed
truckerjimbo:
Sethie_D:
In Response to flying_fenman…AS someone a about 40odd miles closer to Felixstowe than your good self…
Is it worth putting down £2,000 to take all my courses to get a C+E ? Spending the next three months waiting and hoping to earn that (hopefully) £25K + Salary ?
Or am I barking up the wrong tree and should completely re-think my options?
Basically next week I am jobless, but with about 6 months salary to live on.
Sethie D
DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT.!!!
YES I AM SHOUTING AS LOUD AS I CAN!!![/size]
Book a holiday or buy a new car or something.
Don`t do what I did and wast you hard earned money for this rubbish.
After passing you tests you will still need 6 months salary to live on.
Jim
[/quote]tch, so negative
truckerjimbo:
DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT.!!!
YES I AM SHOUTING AS LOUD AS I CAN!!![/size]
Book a holiday or buy a new car or something.
Don`t do what I did and wast you hard earned money for this rubbish.
After passing you tests you will still need 6 months salary to live on.
Jim
[/quote]So, Jimbo. You’re not quite sure which side of the fence you’re on then…
Fiction. Drivers are ten-a-penny. (but good drivers aren’t)
Fiction. My idea of a shortage would be the day when agencies and firms camp at DTC’s to try and convince newly qualified drivers to sign up with them 
Secondly if the demand for drivers does exceeds the supply then surely the wages would have to be a lot higher than what they are now, wouldn’t they?
This fictitious driver shortage notion only reminds me of clearstone adverts
Depends where you are in the country.
As others have said if you have experience, clean licence and good references can prob get work quite easily in some areas be picky about work.
Getting an HGV licence especially class 1 you gotta treat it as a kinda self taught apprenticeship, you maybe get lucky. But the reality is the decent jobs, the easy jobs, the high paid ones etc… can to some extent pick and choose and won’t touch newbs with a barge pole.
Have to walk into with your eyes wide open and realise chances are if you are with an agency going to be the last one called at first, gonna get the jobs experienced guys knock back because its really hard work or dirty work. In full time jobs the places you can get work are going to be similar and pay could be crap. Its not like their is an industry standard pay. Some places are offering £6 per hour for class 1 work still ! But somtimes you gotta say to yuorself screw it, its worth my while being exploited to a certain degree for awhile to get that valuable experience and after awhile you can walk away work somewhere decent.
Another very important thing is references, for full time jobs. Not in a conventional sense but in truck driving find a lot of bosses etc… know other people from different companies. So whilst getting experience really try and keep your nose clean, so if you go for a decent full time job, you have glowing references. A lot of the time its not offical like a written reference, its a case of one guy calling up someone else he knows and asking whats this guy like.
I went for a full time job when i only had 6months class 1 experience, i had previously been working at a place a lot as a agency driver. I went in on spec to this company and they werent really interested because i had only had 6months experience but when he found out i’d been working for a company in Glasgow where he knew the TM he said he would get back to me. The TM gave me a glowing reference because i’d done a lot of agency work for that company and it lead to me getting a job.
If your doing agency work, never use the agency as a reference because they will give out a bog standard one, try and get TM’s and stadd at places you are working for regularly to give you a reference looks a lot better. If your in a crap job just getting experience do the job well even if you hate it, because a decent reference ive found can make a difference.
Yes very negitive and str8 to the point.
Don`t want anyone wasting there money like I did.
And Darkseeker I can see a problem with your plan mate.
“I should be on £9-10 p/h” for a new driver, no chance.
Good Luck Lads
Jim
truckerjimbo:
Yes very negitive and str8 to the point.Don`t want anyone wasting there money like I did.
And Darkseeker I can see a problem with your plan mate.
“I should be on £9-10 p/h” for a new driver, no chance.
Good Luck Lads
Jim
yeah, good point, didn’t nessaseraly mean straight away though.
I have, however been offered a job over £8 p/h class two, with the chance of progressing to class 1 after six months (which is £28000 p/a).
Soo, it’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe you’ve just had a run of bad luck.
if you go for a job and i go for the same job il get it
experience
driver shortage was a nice myth but it never happened
Take no notice of any of the negative comments… DO IT, think of it as an investment in your future, even after 6 months and you hate it, look for another job but you will still be earning driving the trucks. I have a few friends in the construction industry who are or were finding it hard to get work and they wished they had class 1 to tide them over till things picked up.
if its what you want then do it
I was always put off doing it cos of the you will never get job cos of experience ect and the ususal talk of long hours ect,
i eventually took the training and passed ect and it took me a little while to get a job signed on with agencies ect and made a nuisance of myself so they gave me some work to keep me quiet, I also contacted several local firms that i knew needed drivers and again made a nuisance of myself, the first job i got was crap but it still gave me some experience, basically show the potential employer that you are keen, interested, reliable ect i think having the right attitude helps, I put myself in the position of the company and thought what would I expect from a new driver,
as for foreign drivers i think the insurance companies need to look at this in the same way as they look upon newly qualified drivers, having worked for a major haulier i have witnessed some serious mistakes that could have resulted in serious injury or worse, like pulling out of site into oncoming traffic,(wrong side of the road) 1 driver even tried to come onto site through the exit road and when he realised he was on the wrong side swerved to the correct side nearly tipping trailer onto its side and just missing the security gatehouse thing by about 2 inches ,
