CF,I made no mention of ‘‘driver shortage’’,merely about the problems ‘‘new’’ drivers have,and have Always had.
hutpik:
CF,I made no mention of ‘‘driver shortage’’,merely about the problems ‘‘new’’ drivers have,and have Always had.
That’s fair enough.But in this case it’s the contradiction which proves the lie when employers now say that there is a supposed ‘shortage’ of drivers,equally supposedly in large part because of an ageing workforce not being replaced by new drivers.
IE there can’t possibly be the two issues together at the same time,of new drivers finding it difficult to find employment and employers moaning about not enough new drivers replacing an ageing retiring workforce.The latter can only possibly be a lie in that case.No surprise seeming to all be part of an orchestrated campaign to maintain the supply of cheap plentiful East Euro labour.
NRL_KL:
The driver shortage problem has long been an issue for the UK’s haulage firms. Reports show that there are approximately 80,000 licence holders for Class I and II but they are not all willing to drive; in total figures are leaning towards an industry shortage of over 45,000, and this is a growing concern. The average age of a lorry driver is close to 54 and we are losing more drivers than we can replenish, yet there are enough licence holders out there to supply the industry, but if we can’t persuade them to drive the industry will literally grind to a halt. So what are the main reasons why licence holders are not interested in getting back behind the wheel? I spent a lot of time talking with drivers, the FTA, the RHA, fleet operators to try and find out why and this is what was uncovered:“Poor pay conditions, whilst there has been a slight improvement in this area the average wage for an HGV driver is £24,700, or less if newly qualified.”
“It is too expensive to become a driver, whilst many companies support their drivers through subsidised training (or in some cases completely cover the cost of their training) the rest fork out anywhere between £3k-£4k, which the driver has to fund.”
“Conditions on the road are not fit for drivers. Many drivers have to live in their Lorries, they are shunned from certain services with “No HGV’s” signs placed at entrances, and the truck stops that are available are often grotty, food is awful and it’s a miserable means to an ends. On the continent there is a difference in culture and mind-set. Services often include accommodation, waiter service and the drivers feel more looked after, as such their visits to the service stations are an enjoyable experience rather than an unpleasant one.”
“Legislation and accountability. Many drivers are put off by red tape and the level of accountability that they are ultimately responsible for.”
“As a newly qualified driver it can be difficult to find work and many companies shun them due to a lack of experience, there seems to be a myth about newly qualified drivers being unsuitable. As such the drivers are more likely re-apply in a few years or so because they know that companies will hire drivers with 2 or 3 years on their licence. The obvious problem being that the last time that driver actually drove an HGV was probably in their examination and their hours of experience is low. In fact they are most likely to pose more of a risk to employers than a freshly qualified driver.”
There are of course many other reasons, but these echo the majority. So how can we fix this industry problem? Firstly the average age is something that needs to be addressed so as to replenish attrition from retired drivers, this is a slow burner but many companies now offer apprenticeships to encourage younger drivers to take up driving and once qualified, a £21k+ salary is quite attractive to youngsters. Furthermore, the companies who are developing these individuals benefit from being able to coach the apprentices through the entire process of learning to drive and so they have greater confidence and trust in their employees. Ex armed forces personnel, there are so many drivers who are currently operating in the armed forces who regularly drive HGV class I and II vehicles, when they are ready to leave the armed forces they have plenty of experience and the advantage of hitting the ground running. Moving forwards we still need to address the infrastructure issues in the UK, this will be key to keeping our drivers happier with life on the road, otherwise these ‘driverless’ HGV testing companies (currently testing in the USA) may indeed solve the shortage crisis for us!
Thanks for reading, please post your comments, opinions and more importantly ANY factors which put you off driving as an occupation which I have not mentioned in this article.
You’re obviously an employer/agency ■■■■■■ and you’re clearly not taking things on board. Jog on ■■■■■■!
Not so long ago there was the possibility for all drivers who learned the job inside out of getting into lorry jobs that paid well, the dead mans shoes jobs were in many areas, so it was worth the time for a young driver to earn their spurs and bide their time till they got a chance by hook or by crook to get into one of these places.
They are still around but few and far between, but most companies have outsourced transport to one of the green death type outfits, neither of which are really worth the time of day for a variety of reasons.
Then too many companies have deskilled the job, just like lorries themselves have been deskilled to assist the race to the bottom, so they can employ a large minority of idiots that at one time wouldn’t have lasted 2 minutes in the industry, trouble is they are forcing the competent to work to the same dumbed down one size fits all methods they had to bring in for the incompetents THEY employed as they cheapened the job.
Which is all very well, but just as most of us need enough money to make it worth while working, most of us also need a certain amount of job satisfaction or we become eventually demoralised and then the good people they should be encouraging bugger off into other jobs or different fields entirely.
There is a wage ceiling now among the majority of transport jobs, those jobs that were around where the up and coming drivers strived to attain have disappeared, or the contracts have been changed in some cases and the job isn’t what it was.
This is reflected out on the road, where even the good drivers are fighting a losing battle against thousands of bloody idiots (sadly in lorries too) doing their best to ■■■■ everyone else off, how many journeys can you make now that include the usual corridors where some numpty hasn’t taken the endless bloody roadworks out or managed to turn a lorry over on a dead straight road with all the traffic going in one direction?
My suggestion for companies who want to turn the clock back a bit is to do exactly that, make your job attractive again, make it so it requires more skill than selecting D and steering, give your staff some sort of job satisfaction and a job worth having and treat them with respect and you might just find the shortage of proper lorry drivers suddenly doesn’t affect you any more…oh and stop using bloody agency sharks too.
There is no shortage of licence holders, there never has been.
Juddian:
Not so long ago there was the possibility for all drivers who learned the job inside out of getting into lorry jobs that paid well, the dead mans shoes jobs were in many areas, so it was worth the time for a young driver to earn their spurs and bide their time till they got a chance by hook or by crook to get into one of these places.They are still around but few and far between, but most companies have outsourced transport to one of the green death type outfits, neither of which are really worth the time of day for a variety of reasons.
Then too many companies have deskilled the job, just like lorries themselves have been deskilled to assist the race to the bottom, so they can employ a large minority of idiots that at one time wouldn’t have lasted 2 minutes in the industry, trouble is they are forcing the competent to work to the same dumbed down one size fits all methods they had to bring in for the incompetents THEY employed as they cheapened the job.
Which is all very well, but just as most of us need enough money to make it worth while working, most of us also need a certain amount of job satisfaction or we become eventually demoralised and then the good people they should be encouraging bugger off into other jobs or different fields entirely.There is a wage ceiling now among the majority of transport jobs, those jobs that were around where the up and coming drivers strived to attain have disappeared, or the contracts have been changed in some cases and the job isn’t what it was.
This is reflected out on the road, where even the good drivers are fighting a losing battle against thousands of bloody idiots (sadly in lorries too) doing their best to ■■■■ everyone else off, how many journeys can you make now that include the usual corridors where some numpty hasn’t taken the endless bloody roadworks out or managed to turn a lorry over on a dead straight road with all the traffic going in one direction?
My suggestion for companies who want to turn the clock back a bit is to do exactly that, make your job attractive again, make it so it requires more skill than selecting D and steering, give your staff some sort of job satisfaction and a job worth having and treat them with respect and you might just find the shortage of proper lorry drivers suddenly doesn’t affect you any more…oh and stop using bloody agency sharks too.
There is no shortage of licence holders, there never has been.
My sentiments exactly [emoji1360]
kr79:
Only firms that struggle to get drivers are ones paying crap money or offer crap conditions
Someone near me is advertising for a c2 hiab driver delivering bagged cotswold stone, 50 to 55 hours a week £14/hour. Must be a catch somewhere, I know I wouldn’t go for it unless desperate and I’m on much less.
I would say it’s more of a shortage of good HGV employment opportunities. I called up McMurrays transport the other week to see what they were offering and got told it’s minimum wage, but the drivers usually walk away with about £600pw so I’m guessing that’s hours maxed every week!!
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The clown is correct once again. Personally I reckon he should change his avatar to Yoda 
I am one of many on here who went out on my Dad’s truck with him as a youngster, and the job now is demoralising. If you are a decent driver who takes pride in your job and enjoys a challenge, general haulage is certainly not the way to go.
Would I prefer to make £500 a week in an office with very little responsibility, or would I prefer to drive an artic? At the moment it’s the wagon, but that is more of an ’ emotional ’ decision rather than a logical one.
The problem is that as the ’ race to the bottom ’ shows NO sign of a slowdown, sooner or later the last drops of enjoyment will have finally been wrung out of you and the bean counters will have succeeded in their quest to have a plethora of subservient morons who will be happy to select ’ D ’ for 60 hrs per week at minimum wage in their fleet spec motors 
Well, the OP ain’t been back to tell us who he is or who he represents.
He’s either a journalist who has read the crap spouted by the RHA and its lackies in the trade press, or an agency-owning scumbag, or the proprietor of Two Bit Haulage Ltd.
I’m 50, started on vans at 20 and I got my Class 1 at 22. It’s all I ever wanted to do. However, from the articles I’ve been reading recently, the demise of professional HGV Drivers is likely to continue with the introduction of driverless trucks.
I never thought it would happen but automated trucks are heavily utilised on mining operations in Australia. Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), for example, made a successful delivery of beer, driving autonomously on the highway between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, a distance of 120 miles.
Another article mentioned driverless trucks are likely to be introduced before driverless cars, we could see their introduction within 10 years time.
I’ll be 60, 10 years before retirement, and too old to retrain.
Olog Hai:
Well, the OP ain’t been back to tell us who he is or who he represents.He’s either a journalist who has read the crap spouted by the RHA and its lackies in the trade press, or an agency-owning scumbag, or the proprietor of Two Bit Haulage Ltd.
My thoughts exactly.
lumpygreenpoo:
I’m 50, started on vans at 20 and I got my Class 1 at 22. It’s all I ever wanted to do. However, from the articles I’ve been reading recently, the demise of professional HGV Drivers is likely to continue with the introduction of driverless trucks.I never thought it would happen but automated trucks are heavily utilised on mining operations in Australia. Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), for example, made a successful delivery of beer, driving autonomously on the highway between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, a distance of 120 miles.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/25/driverless-beer-run-bud-makes-shipment-with-self-driving-truck.html
Another article mentioned driverless trucks are likely to be introduced before driverless cars, we could see their introduction within 10 years time.
I’ll be 60, 10 years before retirement, and too old to retrain.
But retrain as what I wonder? With more automation in agriculture, mining, refining, manufacturing, transport, will we all end up as hair-dressers and barristas?
Class two vacancies abound at Paddock Wood and Aylesford in my neck of the woods. There are probably plenty of other places as well, but alas the work isn’t “Bread Deliveries in a 17t” which is considered a cushy number…
It’s Food Deliveries in a 17t or 26t vehicle. What used to be 3663, P&H, Brakes, and even XPO.
I believe that in the case of XPO, the C2 work has a good headline rate (over £10ph) but that’s actually the night rate, and the vacancies are not for night runs of course. 
Brakes it’s Early Doors C2 work (always vacancies to those who already have a blue card)
P&H It’s daytime local runs, which alas means more than one trip out with a wagonfull of multidrop stuff
3663 I’m not sure about, as I’ve not been to paddock wood for the past 7 months. There’s a warburtons depot nearby, but I don’t think they run the double deckers you see on the motorways out of there? Correct me if I’m wrong by all means… 
The pallet firms also have 17t daytime delivery work, but I don’t know how much they pay at all. Check out firms like Salvatori, Shakespere, or S&S.
Muckaway:
kr79:
Only firms that struggle to get drivers are ones paying crap money or offer crap conditionsSomeone near me is advertising for a c2 hiab driver delivering bagged cotswold stone, 50 to 55 hours a week £14/hour. Must be a catch somewhere, I know I wouldn’t go for it unless desperate and I’m on much less.
Agency bull?
NRL_KL:
a £21k+ salary is quite attractive to youngsters.
Until they experience the reality! 
I think you need to expand on this statement with same balance as you’re claiming it’s attractive, but not arguing why.
I’d further suggest that they are enticed in the industry by Brokers quoting far more fanciful figures, who aren’t quite so forthcoming with the expected hours and sacrifice to your life away from work. The EXPECTED hours of a driver with a lot of firms is laughable, and they then slap you in the face with maybe a quid extra for that compulsory overtime! 
Little wonder that there are plenty of licence holders not doing the job, as the T&C’s are generally crap in trucking,
The driver rules being treated like targets for performance driven by profit, will always be at odds with employee welfare! 
I see 2 choices; a sticking plaster of sponsored fresh dumb meat holding down wages, or the industry agreeing better T&C’s.
I know which I’m putting my mortgage on! 
Franglais:
lumpygreenpoo:
I’m 50, started on vans at 20 and I got my Class 1 at 22. It’s all I ever wanted to do. However, from the articles I’ve been reading recently, the demise of professional HGV Drivers is likely to continue with the introduction of driverless trucks.I never thought it would happen but automated trucks are heavily utilised on mining operations in Australia. Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), for example, made a successful delivery of beer, driving autonomously on the highway between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, a distance of 120 miles.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/25/driverless-beer-run-bud-makes-shipment-with-self-driving-truck.html
Another article mentioned driverless trucks are likely to be introduced before driverless cars, we could see their introduction within 10 years time.
I’ll be 60, 10 years before retirement, and too old to retrain.
But retrain as what I wonder? With more automation in agriculture, mining, refining, manufacturing, transport, will we all end up as hair-dressers and barristas?
That is the million dollar question. And the politicians just haven’t grasped it, being so wrapped up in soundbites and their constant meaningless waffle which all turns out to be lies. To them ANY job will do for a pleb just so long as it massages the statistics to make it look like their party’s ideas are succeeding.
Here they are at the moment, whingeing about the supposed lack of people to drive lorries. On the one hand they are bleating about what 'initiatives ’ they can come up with to encourage people to do the job; on the other hand they are plotting to stab those very people in the back as soon as they possibly can, by replacing them with computer controlled vehicles. But in the meantime it is vote for me.
They are coming up with grandiose schemes for whole new towns around the country with thousands of houses to make it look like they have plans to alleviate any housing shortage. What they have totally missed is that each house is going to need employment for its occupants. Where are the jobs in those areas for the new town dwellers? The few they do create they can categorise within the current suitspeak title of ‘management’ to cater for the graduates in origami, but management of what? supervising 30 or 40 part timers in a call centre which is attempting to sell some dodgy financial product to people who don’t want or need it?
Ah got it. It is the sellers of dodgy financial products who keep the funds coming in to the party’s coffers.
They will point to HS2 as a scheme creating employment. Yes in the short term Pavel, Bogdan and Shamus will be busy, there may even be a few jobs in the stations… oh no they are doing away with station staff as quickly as they can, so we can forget that one. A rolling stock maintenance depot? probably not. Drivers? no, they won’t be needing them either. But the supply chain they argue, yes all the time it is in construction… and then what?
All those in redundant occupations, and they are going to total a significant number, are going to need suitable employment. They are going to have to be found jobs MAKING SOMETHING. But rather than that fact biting them in the arse, that just went over the politicians heads at the speed of light.
They do have one plan up their sleeve however, graduates in crystal ball gazing will be employed en masse to research whether they can come up with an algorithm, to prove that having got on his bike and moved to a different part of the country, a skilled man currently earning £700 for a 40 hr week, will be better off and happy, answering a telephone on a zero hours contract, while being monitored by cctv and audio recordings. All for the potential weekly earnings of around £200. Oh, and the plan is for him not to reach pensionable age until 75.
Not only do we have to pay these people but we are being asked to vote for this. And we will.
Jesus wept.
Bloody Hell Cav, thats a depressing post, and as right on the mark as i’ve seen for some time, sadly.
When we’ve got a population of 100 million, will they still need to import another half a million a year to produce enough new workers (if only half of them were workers ) to keep the whole unsustainable ponzi scheme afloat? citing old people as the culprits as usual.
Those still capable if independent thought can see the doomsday scenarios developing, whats coming in relatively short order isn’t going to be pretty, but as Cav rightly says, our electorate are blindly going to vote without fail for more of the same, and then amazingly they will seem baffled that they’ve ended up with exactly what they voted for, sheer lunacy doesn’t come any more plain than our voting public.
Juddian:
Bloody Hell Cav, thats a depressing post, and as right on the mark as i’ve seen for some time, sadly.When we’ve got a population of 100 million, will they still need to import another half a million a year to produce enough new workers (if only half of them were workers
Those still capable if independent thought can see the doomsday scenarios developing, whats coming in relatively short order isn’t going to be pretty, but as Cav rightly says, our electorate are blindly going to vote without fail for more of the same, and then amazingly they will seem baffled that they’ve ended up with exactly what they voted for, sheer lunacy doesn’t come any more plain than our voting public.
Problem is though J, which bunch of liars do you vote for?
Corbyn is unelectable. Farron is a balloon. UKIP rather sadly in my opinion are becoming obsolete.
Slim pickings mate unfortunately. Many years of underhand behaviour have brought us to this point
We all* believe what we want to hear: a politician who says “Less taxes AND better hospitals/schools/pensions” will be voted for out of some sort of wish rather than a belief in what they say. A favourite trick of politicians and salespeople is to preface anything dodgy with a couple of nice facts: “We all like ice-cream. Puppies are nice. You can trust me”. And it works! That trick works in other ways too: “Mr SonSo has no dress sense. He doesn`t like the same sports as you and me. His economic policy is bad”.
*Present company excepted of course.
Buggered if i know Beaver, i suspect ‘none of the above bunch of crooks’ is going to end up on my slip.
Don’t trust a single one of them and i do not want to know i helped whichever traitor party welches on Brexit.
What i don’t believe is all the tough words as they square up for the alleged EU negotiations, talk about overegging the pudding its a stage managed scripted bloody farce, they’ll be up at the Oscars next year for gongs and all the luvvies will be spitting feathers cos they didn’t get their fawning recognition for doing bugger all for once.