Personally I’m so happy. Last 20 years. I grant workers filling the jobs no one wants , like lgv drivers, warehouse worker’s, food processor s,
Majority foreign,
Will it affect our economy definitely.
.
I’m just a lorry driver but unlike our government I know things are going to get intresting
As I say this country has treated certain areas of employment with contempt for decades,
It’s all coming home to roost now.
Unless the government simply grant visas for foreigners to come here and drive lorries (or pick fruit, or whatever). I think that will happen soon.
Back to £9.50 p/h it shall be.
Know your place.
A shortage of anything means a price increase, in this case the price of labor which of course means higher prices of products and services so I don’t see the cause for celebration? On top of reduced international competitiveness + being a less attractive country for investors foreign and domestic combined with a mountain of debt which the gov’t is barely able to service as it is. I still maintain my theory that the work force is there but the idiotic ‘‘no questions asked’’ furlough scheme has skewed the availability…Wait until it ends (if) and the businesses that relied on it to exist as zombie companies go down along with any ‘‘employees’’, then the tide may turn
Pay me 80%, heck - 50% of my wages and I’ll be more than happy to stay home and save lives all year long, any time.
Whereas the last few years there has been a buyer’s market, where companies have essentially gotten used to relying on agency staff and being able to get staff seasonally at low wage, this may no longer be possible.
It really depends what side of the fence you are on if you think this is positive or negative. Come Christmas at places like Amazon, the warehouses may no longer be able to put an advert out and double the workforce in a matter of weeks. The Amazon customers might be miffed, but Amazon having to consider its position on using agency staff might benefit workers, who may be offered a contract rather than being let go in January.
As regards truck drivers, many companies also rely heavily on agency staff. In a similar fashion, these companies may need to consider whether they can cope with agency staff who are now in a seller’s market, where they can move about and get remunerated better than before. The end result may be more full-time contracts and of course better pay. Most of the unionised pay agreements have been based on what the job entails rather than scarcity of drivers, so it will be interesting to see how pay changes.
ETS:
A shortage of anything means a price increase, in this case the price of labor which of course means higher prices of products and services so I don’t see the cause for celebration?
Because if inflation was to rise to 5% pa but HGV driver wage inflation was running at 30%+ pa then we as HGV drivers would be better off.
Harry Monk:
ETS:
A shortage of anything means a price increase, in this case the price of labor which of course means higher prices of products and services so I don’t see the cause for celebration?Because if inflation was to rise to 5% pa but HGV driver wage inflation was running at 30%+ pa then we as HGV drivers would be better off.
Pie in the sky Harry. Wages having been lagging behind real inflation for a long time. As I keep saying, look at your food bills (remembering to note shrinkflation), rent bill (for those not lucky enough to buy before they were priced out of the market), CT bill, utility bills, vehicle purchase and running costs. Average hourly rates for perm should be well into £20/hr now to have the same purchasing power as we had 20 years ago. Note how TPTB adjust how they calculate CPI every few years 
. It’s all a massive con as they try to keep everyone in the dark and assure you it’s only 1-2%. Yeah righto.
DCPCFML:
Harry Monk:
ETS:
A shortage of anything means a price increase, in this case the price of labor which of course means higher prices of products and services so I don’t see the cause for celebration?Because if inflation was to rise to 5% pa but HGV driver wage inflation was running at 30%+ pa then we as HGV drivers would be better off.
Pie in the sky Harry. Wages having been lagging behind real inflation for a long time. As I keep saying, look at your food bills (remembering to note shrinkflation), rent bill (for those not lucky enough to buy before they were priced out of the market), CT bill, utility bills, vehicle purchase and running costs. Average hourly rates for perm should be well into £20/hr now to have the same purchasing power as we had 20 years ago. Note how TPTB adjust how they calculate CPI every few years
Yes, I agree. However pay increases are still better than no pay increases. Unless some Government intervention occurs I can only see pay rising further.
I’ve heard it said before that the reason wages aren’t more is because the boffins predict that not everyone will spend what they earn, so the money won’t be going round and round in the economy. Wages are set at a level where the general population is kept at a point of satisfaction where they are reasonably content and won’t riot.
Notice than when bills go up, the Bank of England doesn’t feel the need to “Raise interest rates to protect the economy”…
But the moment there’s talk of “Wages Inflation” - suddenly we get told the BoE is now highly likely to raise rates to choke off any economic recovery, as any positive number - is now regarded as “inflationary, unsustainable, and unsavoury”…
“Overheating?” - My Arse!
Firms that try pushing rate rises onto their customers, especially their corporate customers - will find those customers simply finding a better conrract for supply - elsewhere.
Hauliers - cutting each other’s rates to then run at a loss - is now DEAD as a business model, as who wants to intentially go under in a year, because they were so desperate to be lickcocks to their own bankers/suppliers/support industries?
Harry Monk:
DCPCFML:
Harry Monk:
ETS:
A shortage of anything means a price increase, in this case the price of labor which of course means higher prices of products and services so I don’t see the cause for celebration?Because if inflation was to rise to 5% pa but HGV driver wage inflation was running at 30%+ pa then we as HGV drivers would be better off.
Pie in the sky Harry. Wages having been lagging behind real inflation for a long time. As I keep saying, look at your food bills (remembering to note shrinkflation), rent bill (for those not lucky enough to buy before they were priced out of the market), CT bill, utility bills, vehicle purchase and running costs. Average hourly rates for perm should be well into £20/hr now to have the same purchasing power as we had 20 years ago. Note how TPTB adjust how they calculate CPI every few years
Yes, I agree. However pay increases are still better than no pay increases. Unless some Government intervention occurs I can only see pay rising further.
I agree of course, but my point was more that we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves thinking that we’re on the big bucks with these recent rate increases as it’s a fallacy. The rates are increasing to what they should have been years ago, but were held down by cheap eastern european labour. Before the A66 Expert in Kitchen Furniture comes along to accuse me of being a racist again, note how all the transport companies whining in the news about driver shortages always refer to the eastern europeans returning home.
I agree of course, but my point was more that we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves thinking that we’re on the big bucks with these recent rate increases as it’s a fallacy. The rates are increasing to what they should have been years ago, but were held down by cheap eastern european labour. Before the A66 Expert in Kitchen Furniture comes along to accuse me of being a racist again, note how all the transport companies whining in the news about driver shortages always refer to the eastern europeans returning home.
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This is exactly the reason I voted for Brexit I’ve been driving HGV’S for 26 years and the wages along with T&C have got worse, Zero hours contracts and Umbrella wasn’t even a thing when I started, I worked at Tescos when they used to ship in EE by the coach load they kept wages down and new that if you wanted to leave they had a cheaper replacement lined up.
They even factored in monthly damages and it still worked out cheaper.
Finally the rates are heading to where they should be, also dare I say it but this is our time to get a decent job with a decent pension, wages and working life before the government bows down to pressure from corporation’s and opens up the cheap labour market again.
LisasGuy:
This is exactly the reason I voted for Brexit I’ve been driving HGV’S for 26 years and the wages along with T&C have got worse, Zero hours contracts and Umbrella wasn’t even a thing when I started, I worked at Tescos when they used to ship in EE by the coach load they kept wages down and new that if you wanted to leave they had a cheaper replacement lined up.
They even factored in monthly damages and it still worked out cheaper.Finally the rates are heading to where they should be, also dare I say it but this is our time to get a decent job with a decent pension, wages and working life before the government bows down to pressure from corporation’s and opens up the cheap labour market again.
As I said, it is a bit of a seller’s market now whereas it has been a buyer’s market. I didn’t vote on Brexit exclusively for that reason. I just thought that you can’t increase a population by several hundred thousand every year and expect the natives to be happy about it. Population increase has to be more gradual than that, so the open borders experiment failed spectacularly.
I can see why the likes of the supermarkets like being able to hire and fire with every expectation that there is a fresh crop coming in the following week (on agency). If it is a buyer’s market, the workers can have unreasonable targets put on them with the threat of not being kept on. It isn’t good for UK workers and it isn’t good for the people coming over either.
I suspect the government is flooding ever more immigrants, legal and illegal alike - into the country to keep wages down, rather than leave the paris accord to stop energy prices spiralling out of control, the way they have… We could have even been less frosty towards Russia, and bought some cheap energy from them - but no…
Theresa May - demolished what remains of our power stations, making us totally dependent on EU imported Energy, mostly from France.
Surely a total folly, unless one intended it as a “Punishment for voting Leave”…
Cameron - didn’t have a contingency plan, should this country vote Leave. He quit rather than saw Brexit out to the bitter end.
He gambled and won that the Opposition - wouldn’t pick up the “lethal weapon” Brexit Gauntlet and remove the Tories from power with it, as actual Eurosceptic Corbyn could and would have done - had he not been bullied by his own backbenchers to “support Cameron” in Remain, in a similar manner to the way Keir Starmer supports Boris Johnson, instead of being an effective leader of the opposition… A lot of Diehard Labour voters - are pretty ■■■■■■ off with that, although I am not one of them of course…
Now we have Boris Johnson, getting elected with a full majority on a “Get Brexit Done” ticket - who then swings to the Center, quickly loses his “Token” Chancellor, and seems to have totally de-Right Winged the Home Secretary in short order… I was one of those who thought that “Surely Priti Patel - would rapidly increase the list of deported persons - beyond compare?” - but no. The Conservative Party has quickly moved to occupy the gap left by departed Cleggy’s Libdems in 2015 and onwards… I dunno what wisdom makes him think that a party we’ve so solidly rejected (Me among them this time around…) could possibly represent a “third way” of politics, where Right Wing Labourites and Left-leaning Liberal Tories - are the only way to keep the establishment in power overall… A sad symptom of our first-past-the-post system that, which at one point - risked an election result in this country akin to the 2016 one in America… I’m talking about “What if Corbyn had won in 2017, because of the Brexiteer Public’s rejection of Remainer Appease May’s policies and lack of getting anything popular and useful done during her short tenure as PM…”?
We are where we are though.
It is Eastern Europeans who’ll decide the next five years of this country’s future, I strongly suggest…
If they return home En-Masse, the Euro still too high to make “sending some back to the wife” viable for them - the shortage will extend to the EE community, and this “Driver Shortage”, alongside other shortages - will really gain legs…
If they decide to stay here, and all become the very dragon’s domains that we’d surely like to see the back of? (Umbrella accountants, Agencies, Acting Managers, Estate Agents, Landlords, Builders, and of course Politicians) - then there’s no hope for us home-grown Brits, other than a prosperious retirement, whilst Final Salary Pension Payouts - last.
Noremac:
LisasGuy:
This is exactly the reason I voted for Brexit I’ve been driving HGV’S for 26 years and the wages along with T&C have got worse, Zero hours contracts and Umbrella wasn’t even a thing when I started, I worked at Tescos when they used to ship in EE by the coach load they kept wages down and new that if you wanted to leave they had a cheaper replacement lined up.
They even factored in monthly damages and it still worked out cheaper.Finally the rates are heading to where they should be, also dare I say it but this is our time to get a decent job with a decent pension, wages and working life before the government bows down to pressure from corporation’s and opens up the cheap labour market again.
As I said, it is a bit of a seller’s market now whereas it has been a buyer’s market. I didn’t vote on Brexit exclusively for that reason. I just thought that you can’t increase a population by several hundred thousand every year and expect the natives to be happy about it. Population increase has to be more gradual than that, so the open borders experiment failed spectacularly.
I can see why the likes of the supermarkets like being able to hire and fire with every expectation that there is a fresh crop coming in the following week (on agency). If it is a buyer’s market, the workers can have unreasonable targets put on them with the threat of not being kept on. It isn’t good for UK workers and it isn’t good for the people coming over either.
The current Gov is all about free trade deals everywhere isnt it? Our "native" workers are no longer going to be in competition with EEs coming here to work in UK factories, but will be in direct competition with Asian, Chinese, etc workers. They are on less than the average EE wage, and working in factories not up to our UK and European standards, and supplying us with cheap food, without conforming to our farmers standards. They may not be living here in our expensive housing, but we are in direct competition with them for our jobs. Where someone lives is only half the story.
The free trade deal with Aus is well publicised by the Gov as a door into the Pacific Rim.
Franglais:
Our “native” workers are no longer going to be in competition with EEs coming here to work in UK factories, but will be in direct competition with Asian, Chinese, etc workers.
And they can drive trucks on UK roads from Asia?
I’m impressed. 
LisasGuy:
This is exactly the reason I voted for Brexit I’ve been driving HGV’S for 26 years and the wages along with T&C have got worse, Zero hours contracts and Umbrella wasn’t even a thing when I started, I worked at Tescos when they used to ship in EE by the coach load they kept wages down and new that if you wanted to leave they had a cheaper replacement lined up.
They even factored in monthly damages and it still worked out cheaper.
Finally the rates are heading to where they should be, also dare I say it but this is our time to get a decent job with a decent pension, wages and working life before the government bows down to pressure from corporation’s and opens up the cheap labour market again.
[/quote]
One of the many reasons why i’ll never darken their doorstep long as i live, not as they were alone but they were a main player, despite fantastic profits which are never enough.
Agree this is the time to negotiate better terms at your present or find a stable job, playing the agencies off against one another might be fine in the short term, but there’s a lot of media hysteria about the driver shortage (supposedly leading to food shortages, which will come anyway but for other reasons) and there’s very good chance the govt of the day will please their mates by opening things up for foreign lorry drivers and others…maybe train for free a percentage of the hordes of illegals too for good measure?, i suspect the time to make hay is limited before the wage wave dips back again.
It’s just the temp rates that have risen sharply at present.
There won’t be any change for actual career truckers - until and unless at least some of this wages inflation - ends up in directly-employed full time contract rates… At present though, job adverts - seem to omit that most important of all job detail - the bloody wages!!
For the time being, the supply of Ten drivers on an agency’s books for every shift they have to cover per week - needs to be brought down as a business model.
Add it up: If you have ten drivers per shift/week - then in fact you have 50 times too many drivers as per each week’s worth of work required by most drivers to make going to work - viable. Eg. a 4,5,or 6 day block of shifts. NOT “One shift” that qualifies you to pay the umbrella payslip processing fee, which is what everyone on the books would end up getting with such a daft over-ratio of drivers-on-books to “shifts available on a regular basis”…
“Pecking Order” is a convenient excuse as to why you’ve been on an agency’s books for a while - and not got a single week’s worth of work out of them…
How can it be any different at the next agency to sign with ? - If they are all chasing the same shifts/clients/workplaces as well, of course…
Franglais:
Our “native” workers are no longer going to be in competition with EEs coming here to work in UK factories, but will be in direct competition with Asian, Chinese, etc workers.
Eh, no.
Juddian:
This is exactly the reason I voted for Brexit I’ve been driving HGV’S for 26 years and the wages along with T&C have got worse, Zero hours contracts and Umbrella wasn’t even a thing when I started
Can’t have been looking hard then. Zero hours contracts were a thing even as far back as the 50s and 60s, especially in areas like dock work and fishing.
Harry Monk:
Franglais:
Our “native” workers are no longer going to be in competition with EEs coming here to work in UK factories, but will be in direct competition with Asian, Chinese, etc workers.And they can drive trucks on UK roads from Asia?
I’m impressed.
With factory workers in competition with Asian workers, will their jobs be as plentiful and well paid? Won’t they be looking for work elsewhere, like just, maybe, driving?