With all the jobs one finds on different sites these days,it’s surprising any driver is out of work.
But look more closely at the adverts.
It has been said many times on this BB that agencies advertise non existant jobs,whenever you ring up for a job advertised as,“Urgently required”,or “Immediate start”,when all you get on calling is,“Give us your details and we’ll get back to you”,Oh yeah!.I could grow old waiting for most of these return calls.
I am lucky enough to be an older driver only doing a couple of nights a week after starting on what turned out to be the best agency around.I have been doing this two nights a week since I retired 8 years ago.
However,as I have related on here several tmes,my son was made redundant 12 months ago and apart from some really crappy agency jobs,has not earned much at all.
He spent all of his redundancy money,plus we helped him out,to gain more qualifications,his DCPC,ADR,Hiab licence,Renewed his CB forklift licence,he has just a few weeks ago taken his class 2,he even has a clean driving licence.
He has tried all these job adverts,the few genuine ones he has got down to the short list,but fell at the last hurdle.
However,when reading a lot of these job adverts,if you look closely,they are all for the same job,repeated month after month.When my son applies for any of the numerous class 2 jobs one agency is offering,he always gets the same answer,“No chance without 3 years experience”!
3 ■■■■■■■ years!,but you can’t buy experience.
But week after week,the same jobs are still advertised,why is this?
Is there really a job going and the agency can’t find an"Experienced" driver?
Or is there something more sinister going on?
My wife was talking to a friend of hers last week,this friend works in the local job centre,and she made a remark to my wife to the effect that these agencies get a handout for all the names they have on their books!
If this is true then it must be the scam we all thought it was,these agencies only want names on their books,even though there’s no jobs on offer.
If you are signed up on an agency,you are not classed as unemployed,even if that agency cannot find you any work.How many younger people are there that have the relavent qualification of a class 1 or class 2 licence,but can’t get a job because of the lame excuse of"No experience"?
All us older guys were lucky to have been driving in the times we were.
When I got my first driving job after leaving the army,I started on a Bedford TK.The boss gave me some ropes and sheets and showed me how to tie a dolly,then I was on my own!
When I moved up from a rigid to an artic,there was only a car licence in those days that covered you for everything.Likewise when I was given a fridge trailer or a tipper trailer,apart from showing you how to use the controls,no one ever came out with me,and no boss ever asked me if I was experienced.
I’ve never lost a fridge load or turned a tipping trailer over,so I must have done alright.
Things can only get worse as older drivers like myself think it’s time to park up,then there will be a sudden leap in the number of bosses who will have to bite the bullet and take on drivers with no experience.
It’s a sign of the times sadly.
Same thing happened to my brother in law in that he managed to get trained on a jobcentre training course - I have learnt that around here there is no funding now for driver courses/plumbers/electricians etc, despite signing on to every agency he can find including one that said “if you can get here by 4.30pm today we have a start for you tomorrow” of course he never heard from them again until he rang them and they said “the job fell through at the last minute”■■? They do get paid for taking on names just like companies such as T K Max take people on a 6 week trial, they drop everyone after 6 weeks and take on a new batch, the company gets paid for each new one they take on trial and hey presto job figures are way down on the true figure. In the latest effort to reduce the figures further the government (citation needed) is to pay companies to employ people on benefits in preference to others.
The whole thing is laughable
Now surely if a new driver has a DCPC, then he does not need any experience, afte rall thats what the DSA, VOSA, Dft and the EU want us to believe. Will it be illegal after sept 2014, for an applicant to be rejected for a job on " lack of experience"? all drivers will have the same DCPC qualification, therefore experience should count for nothing.
oh…sorry…I forgot, we live in the real world!
Good comment there truckerjon,bet they have not thought of that one.
truckerjon:
Now surely if a new driver has a DCPC, then he does not need any experience, afte rall thats what the DSA, VOSA, Dft and the EU want us to believe. Will it be illegal after sept 2014, for an applicant to be rejected for a job on " lack of experience"? all drivers will have the same DCPC qualification, therefore experience should count for nothing.
Qualification and experience are not the same thing so your point doesn’t work.
After September 2014 all drivers will have a DCPC but not all will have experience of putting the theory into practice so companies will still be able to ask for experience. experience will always count for more than qualifications.
You have to have a heart transplant. Do you want the surgeon who has never performed one before or the surgeon who has done over a hundred? They both have the same qualifications but one has actually got experience of performing the operation. 
Trouble with that argument is that even the experienced surgeon had to do his first op once. It had to be someone.
However, if there’s thousands of surgeons looking to do ops then you can call the shots.
Is there a fraud occuring with the bogus agencies posting non-existent jobs that are repeated more times than a ■■■■■ drops her knickers,some kind of fudging the figures,to make some official body look good,so they can trump out phoney percentages on the media network for any election to make them look good.
Diversion2:
Trouble with that argument is that even the experienced surgeon had to do his first op once. It had to be someone.
Indeed, and inexperienced drivers with a DCPC will at some point hopefully get a chance to do their first run, but companies will still be able to prefer the qualified experienced over the qualified inexperienced after September 2014.
But my point is;at some time in the not too distant future,there will be a shortage of experienced drivers,who is going to be the first to take a chance and set on one of these young hopefulls?
The trouble is,in todays pressurised industry,bosses are not prepared to tolerate mistakes,in my time of gaining experience,any small mistake could be covered up,but todays new drivers are under the microscope from the minute they turn up.
Unfortunately my son cannot sell himself too well,but with so many interviews under his belt,he’s getting better.
I told him that if I was after one of these jobs that this one pratt continually advertises,I would keep ringing him and asking if he hadn’t filled the position yet, I’m still here!.
You son does seem suitably qualified, but you did mention that he does not sell himself very well. If he spent some time learning how to sell his self and to promote his ‘Wares’ then he might have a bit of success.
I do know that it is being in the right place at the right time and it doesn’t matter how many times you phone write or e-mail it is a waste of time!! The only way, or best way is to go in person and knock on doors and pester
As people have said before, make sure you have your night out gear, enough money for the week and passport with you…and more importantly you licence…
And as for todays pressure not like it used to be…isn’t that why every tom ■■■■ and Harry was doing the M/E because the goods were taking too long to get there by Ship??
The stress today imho is nowhere near as bad as the 80s and 90s…I knew people who would 1 hit from Gib!!!
Good luck to your son I hope he gets a job…PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) and a bit of Bull goes a long way
Bestbooties…totally agree with your initial post…my lad in the same position!!!
just a couple of points though…sonny jim still signed on when registered with the agencies[9 in total !!!],just informed them of each day he worked when he went to sign on…perfectly above board and is entitled to the money !!!..only told to sign off when he was getting 3 days or more regular…on weeks he gets nothing he goes back and signs back on…jobcentre staff moan but mention the amount of pretend jobs on their books and ask them to ammend their website they process him in due course
Out of the 9 agencies hes registered with only 2 come up with regularish work so get on as many books as possible to find a good one…time consuming and a pain but they are all bidding on the same contracts and work hence the duplication of jobs
All firms seem to be very hesitant to take on new permanent employees at the minute[around here anyway] so the agencies have the upperhand at this point in time.
We all hope the promised driver shortage comes along with the better wages etc ,but i think companies will just import drivers from further afield…new EU member states are on the horizon with free movement of labour,so i`m not holding my breath…cheers,stu
I have recently seen more & more of these non jobs, but they are now asking for 2 years proven recent experience, so this almost rules me out, so what price experience now?
There have been no major changes to legislation since my health issues began, yet unless I use a little subtle romancing my 35 years on the road count for nothing. The DCPC will not make me a better driver, it may make me conform to dreamt up bull crap like three point entry and wearing the correct coloured hiviz on site.
I check the job adverts every day, and still visit the DWP for alternative career advice, even my advisor is worried about her own job and admits there are not many new jobs but a lot of recycled repeated adverts to make the market look buoyant.