Must be true if it was in The Sun 
They’ve obviously counted all the jobs on all the sites not realising most of them don’t exist. It’s just agencys trying to sign up drivers.
Another work of fiction.
I e-mailed 10 agencies and not one replied! I’m as ■■■■■■ off as a midget with a yo-yo! 
I was compelled to send a email to Jane Hamiltion
Dear Jane Hamilton
I was compelled to write re your article
Most if not all of the jobs advertised are in fact agencies
advertising for the same job, or non existant jobs just to get drivers
on their books, Many sign up with a promise we have loads of work. and
they wait and wait beside a phone waiting for that call into work
I suggest you contact trucknetuk.com which is a HGV / LGV
driver site, I am sure the guys on there will put you right.
I am a professional LGV driver of 18 years, Down in Cambridgeshire I
am registered with a agency, I have had around 4 months work in the
last 12 months, usually bad shifts or very unsocialble shifts, I
fought for my son at court and I will not let work and my time with my
son conflict, thus another reason why finding a work life balance is
so hard for many truck drivers.
Many firms like stobarts offer work, Yes Tuesday to Sunday, Ok for the
single drivers, but those who wish to spend that quality time with
their children and partner, its not an ideal situation
I am moving up north, to get more chance of work, but I still do not
believe that the jobs you stated are actaully real jobs
As they say, “never let the truth get in the way of good story”.
Wow I got a reply back
Dear Sophie-Jane
Many thanks for taking the trouble to write to me. I am asking the DWP to
check for me and will get back to you straight away.
Kind regards
Jane
Jane Hamilton
Consumer Editor
The Sun
3 Thomas More Square
London E98 1XY
IF she replies, get her to print a story, about how the agencies take the ■■■■ by advertising on a Government website, giving us all false hope!
bigvern1:
IF she replies, get her to print a story, about how the agencies take the ■■■■ by advertising on a Government website, giving us all false hope!
I will as always fight for the Professional driver, Too many times we have been shafted by Journalists and companies, Its about time Drivers Stand tall and shaft them back
PinkLadyTrucker:
Wow I got a reply backDear Sophie-Jane
Many thanks for taking the trouble to write to me. I am asking the DWP to
check for me and will get back to you straight away.Kind regards
Jane
Jane Hamilton
Consumer Editor
The Sun
3 Thomas More Square
London E98 1XY
I contacted JCP a few years back and was advised the Job Centres had to advertise agency vacancies.
skids:
Must be true if it was in The Sun
Ah The Sun!
Soft strong and thoroughly absorbent!
waddy640:
I contacted JCP a few years back and was advised the Job Centres had to advertise agency vacancies.
Exactly why the figures are so high, I not checked recently, but agencies must be writing around 4/5 or probably more vacancies for the same 1 or non job, just for someone to sign with them
Read all about it in the NUS sorry; “SUN”
I signed up with an agency in January 2006 and am still awaiting my first assignment. This was as a result of a vacancy advertised at JCP.
No mention of Liverpool I see
Geoff Dunning should know better than to allow his name to be used in an article such as this, come on Mr Dunning, you or the Road haulage Association have a right of reply via this site. Which of your drinking & golfing buddies have all these jobs on offer and who is training drivers for free. I think you have been conned by the hype of the less reputable LGV Trainers.
The run up to Christmas is always known to require extra drivers, but this year there is such a downturn that drivers are being laid off or being made redundant. In my local area there are the same 3 or 4 jobs advertised each week, by a different employment agency, these jobs pay minimum wage at best or are so bad that they pay less than 16k per annum.
There are hundreds if not thousands of drivers who have paid between £2000 and £3000 to gain their licences. Even these cannot get a regular gig.
Transport operators are either refusing to pay for training for the new DCPC which comes in on 14th September 2014 or they are expecting these same drivers who are on a minimum wage or benefits to pay for their own extra curricular classroom training. That is before many have even sat in a lorry.
Mr Dunning, you need to step out of your oak panelled boardroom and out into the real world. The haulage industry is in a very poor state, not through a lack of drivers, but a lack of drivers jobs, you can blame a lacklustre training programme, cost cutting and more needless legislation for this.
Drivers already have very strict controls over the hours they work, yet still the RHA were amongst the associations and unions to agree to even more legislation on working hours. None of which has made the life of a lorry driver any better. Drivers are actually working longer hours now then they were before the tachograph was introduced in the late 70’s.
Drivers are now forced to record a period of their working day as availability, some of the less scrupulous members of the RHA and others refuse to pay drivers for this time or for time when they are on compulsory breaks. These drivers are still at work and a 13 hour day is “an easy day,” 15 hour days at work are more common in many companies.
Professional Drivers Geoff? In name only, certainly not in the way they are treated or remunerated.
+1 (post by Wheelnut)
Just for the record I obtained my current employment having been turned down by the previous 62 prospective employers, that was after the Daily Mirror had claimed that there would be a shortage. I suppose it will be the Daily Star that comes up with this story next in a couple of years time.
sorry sophie i didnt see your thread and replied to a similar thread
it may be no harm if more of us emailed the sun and let see will they run the true version of job vacancys
If there are supposed to be 669 in Wakefield, then can someone tell me where they are please?
The same of the 547 in Leeds?
We don’t have enough transport companies in Wakefield to support 669 jobs, but I’m guessing they are talking about Morrisons and Asda, which, as you’ve guessed, are mostly staffed by agencies. In fact I would say that it’s not actually jobs, but shifts in a week.
Can’t wait to see if PLT gets a proper reply.
Ken.