Thinking I’ve Had Enough…

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Long days, everything is against truck drivers. VOSA, traffic cops, have an accident is always blame the lorry driver attitude! Driving aswell as manual labour work.

Thinking about just jacking the HGV work in, getting a job driving a flatbed or a van Mon- Friday then making money up delivering pizza two evenings a week!

A do know of people earning the same as me just doing deliveries, working 5.30-10pm in the evenings and pocketing the cash.

Meanwhile we’re slaving away for a transport office , get scrutinised for every mistake, working unearthly hours.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see why the industry struggles to get peole to do this work?

2

RogerOut:
Is it just me

No…

It’s not just you. Despite having a really cushy local number that doesn’t involve nights out (unless Eddie keeps me waiting 7 hours for ten pallets), I can’t be arsed with this any more for all the reasons you’ve pointed out.

3

Your first sentence just about sums it up,no matter what driving job you do you will still have to deal with those problems
Driving a flat bed does not mean you wont be doing "manual labour" as for van jobs, where do you think the term "white van man" came about, tear arsing about as though theres no tomorrow. Look at places that offer next day delivery by between 08.00 am and 10.00 PM not all van jobs are cushy 9-5 if they are about,as for doing 5.30 til 10pm a couple of nights a week defeats the point of leaving a job in the first place.
Only my opinion,nothing more.

4

Yes, good point, I understand most driving jobs require a fair amount of labour work, and rushing around from A- B.
But people are earning the same as lorry drivers, who have only got a car licence.
They also don’t have to worry about tachos,driving infringements or paying thousands to do a course.

A cab driver I know, jacked it in, does another driving job, the does Thursday, Friday Saturdays delivering for a local Chinese takeaway.
He’s taking over £200 quid from doing three evenings, starts at 5 finishes at 10.

Granted not everyone want to do that, but I can see why people are jacking this industry in.

Even some 3.5 ton food deliveries are paying drivers £11.50 quid an hour. There are many lorry drivers earning that.

5

Yes, good point, I understand most driving jobs require a fair amount of labour work, and rushing around from A- B.
But people are earning the same as lorry drivers, who have only got a car licence.
They also don’t have to worry about tachos,driving infringements or paying thousands to do a course. And the continuous threats of having their vocational licences took away from the Traffic commissioners, should they appear before a Court.

A cab driver I know, jacked it in, does another driving job, the does Thursday, Friday Saturdays delivering for a local Chinese takeaway.
He’s taking over £200 quid from doing three evenings, starts at 5 finishes at 10.

Granted not everyone wants to do that, but I can see why people are jacking this industry in.

Even some 3.5 ton food deliveries are paying drivers £11.50 quid an hour. There are many lorry drivers earning that.

6

RogerOut:
Long days, everything is against truck drivers. VOSA, traffic cops, have an accident is always blame the lorry driver attitude! Driving aswell as manual labour work.

Thinking about just jacking the HGV work in, getting a job driving a flatbed or a van Mon- Friday then making money up delivering pizza two evenings a week!

A do know of people earning the same as me just doing deliveries, working 5.30-10pm in the evenings and pocketing the cash.

Meanwhile we’re slaving away for a transport office , get scrutinised for every mistake, working unearthly hours.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see why the industry struggles to get peole to do this work?

What sort of work do you do?

Is it repetitive route day work, rdc.s?

What kind of firm do you work for?
Up their own arses, guys with non jobs dictating to you, compliance managers, modern logistics keeping tabs on you all the time and ringing you up … why have you done this that or the other?

I reckon if that was mostly or partly applying to you, I can see why you’re ■■■■■■ off, I think I’d personally last a week before I walked away (very quickly).

I’ve found in this job it depends how good or bad it is on how YOU react to it, how YOU deal with it, how far you let them try and take the ■■■■ and/or push you., and how you make things work for yourself, by setting your own pace and sticking to it, disregarding their comparison to you with other drivers,.and using their own stick to beat them with, but
If you ain’t getting job satisfaction where you are, try a different firm. :bulb:

The other stuff you list is a ball ache, but just deal with it.

Long days…
Do what I did go on 4 days,.with a long 3 to 3 and a half day weekend at home.
Or a 4 on 4 off pattern even.

VOSA…
Just keep your card right ffs! , don’t go over your time, it’s ■■■■ easy, and c’mon mate,.seriously, how many times do you get pulled by VOSA in a year??

Traffic Cops??
:open_mouth: seriously do they still exist?? :smiley:

Accidents?.., how many do you have exactly?? :smiley:

Manual labour?..Think positive, it keeps you fit,… or again change jobs.

I was going to jack my firm in about 7 years ago, as UK general haulage bored the arse off me compared to what I’d been used to, I too looked into van jobs, the money was crap,.and who tf wants to do a full week on a van doing 70 odd drops, then work doing ■■■■ pizza deliveries afterwards at nights and/or weekends? :unamused: …in your own time. :open_mouth:
So I looked at the hand of cards I was dealt and used them
I cut my days down, stopped doing ■■■■ ridiculous weekly hours, I found a niche job in the firm I worked for that I actually enjoy,.and I’m hone 4 days a week with my Mrs, compared to most of my life in the past away from home.
You can make the job work for you mate, it’s mostly crap but it does not have to be if you work on it.

7

I am getting on for 70, the other mans grass is probably not greener. Find a haulage job that you like doing. Get your motor and be away just you and the lorry. Switch off your phone and just drive. Call in half way through your shift ,see if they want any thing. I do that ,office a$$ wipes soon understood! The grocery dot com folks are micro managed, you dont want that.

8

well i’ve been hgv’ing since 1979…and still not had enough! :astonished: :slight_smile:

9

RogerOut:
Long days, everything is against truck drivers. VOSA, traffic cops, have an accident is always blame the lorry driver attitude! Driving aswell as manual labour work.

Thinking about just jacking the HGV work in, getting a job driving a flatbed or a van Mon- Friday then making money up delivering pizza two evenings a week!

A do know of people earning the same as me just doing deliveries, working 5.30-10pm in the evenings and pocketing the cash.

Meanwhile we’re slaving away for a transport office , get scrutinised for every mistake, working unearthly hours.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see why the industry struggles to get peole to do this work?

You will struggle to find someone to work a job like that, but like has been mentioned it’s been years since I was pulled over by VOSA, never spoke to traffic cops and had two accidents in 14yrs - one being my fault. Manual labour depends on the job, with 1000’s of companies to work for it ain’t difficult to just work for a fridge or container company if you are not a fan of doing anything.

I do long distance work most of the time now so next week im starting Sunday/tomorrow, collecting load in southern Germany Tuesday AM to be delivered Friday AM in the UK so back in the yard that afternoon. I might have to put a few straps on but the ballache is the paperwork nowadays with customs/clearance. Office wont contact me except I might have to WhatsApp paperwork. Hours wise im normally under 11 a day or parked up for rest/waiting for loads. Obviously im away from home a lot but that’s fine for me.

10

I’ve done some van work of late , wasn’t keen but they said they’d pay me class 1 rate so gave it a go , job is easy but having a dicky shoulder I’m struggling to Chuck parcels over fences , if your young / fit I’d go for vans , if your older then no

11

I think the last 2 years have affected every single one of us, in countless different individual ways.

I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected in some way, some tragic where people were treated with cruelty by faceless arses who revelled in their moment of power, others who whilst no tragedies as such their lives have been turned upside down, no matter the bravado they might show publicly, many angry at the pointless damage inflicted on others for no good reason,the pain inflicted over the last 2 years on so many people isn’t going to vanish overnight even if the whole farce is now regarded as yesterday’s news by a callous political machine and their media whores who have casually moved on to their next game.

Just saying, you arn’t alone in wondering what the hell are we doing and why.

12

RogerOut:
Long days, everything is against truck drivers. VOSA, traffic cops, have an accident is always blame the lorry driver attitude! Driving aswell as manual labour work.

It’s in your head. You’re playing victim. Instead of basing what you think is happening on all the ■■■■■ you clearly spend days watching on ■■■■■■ Tiktok why not look at your own personal experience and answer me the following questions:

  1. When was the last time you were stopped by the DVSA for an inspection and how many times have you been stopped in the last decade?

  2. When was the last time you were stopped by the police for doing something wrong and how many times have you been prosecuted and for what?

  3. When was the last time you had an accident and how many have you had in a lorry at fault?

My answers like most drivers will be sod all and can’t remember the last time it was so long ago for the first, second and third ones.

As for the driving as well as manual labour work, I don’t know what to say about that. I’m disabled, got three now four knackered discs in my back. If the job was proper manual labour I’d not have been able to do it for 27 years. There’s plenty of work out there which isn’t manual labour. As for your solution for going on flats to avoid it in my experience that’s where I did the most graft, roping and sheeting on a quayside in 20,30,40MPH winds.

13

RogerOut:
Long days, everything is against truck drivers. VOSA, traffic cops, have an accident is always blame the lorry driver attitude! Driving aswell as manual labour work.

This old chestnut again :laughing:

If I remember rightly you were a bus driver until not that long ago so haven’t been driving lorries long at all? Bearing in mind I’ve been driving 8-9 years and have never once been stopped by Vosa or a traffic cop - how many times have you in a year? :unamused:

And accidents - they’re either you’re fault or they’re not. But again, how many have you managed to have in a year?

You’ve literally asked about every company in the country so I’m sure you know there are plenty of jobs that you don’t have to work “unearthly hours”. You’d probably find that most van drivers are also “slaving away for a transport office” :unamused:

And why’s everybody allergic to manual labour nowadays? Just go back on the buses - could be hard graft carrying pizzas to somebody’s front door!

14

crunch13:
could be hard graft carrying pizzas to somebody’s front door!

On the 5th floor when the lift is out of order! :smiley:

15

RogerOut:
.
He’s taking over £200 quid from doing three evenings, starts at 5 finishes at 10.

.

[emoji53] But that’s only £13 ph. £22 ph as a lorry driver, no manual work sounds a lot better!

16

Most some useful replies. But think of it like this- if this industry is so great, why aren’t people queuing up to do it?…
Please enlighten me…because I seem to recall there’s been a labour shortage even before that vote we had in 2016…

17

RogerOut:
Most some useful replies. But think of it like this- if this industry is so great, why aren’t people queuing up to do it?…
Please enlighten me…because I seem to recall there’s been a labour shortage even before that vote we had in 2016…

Can’t see where any of us have said the job is ‘‘so great’’ mate, on the contrary in fact, most of us who have done a bit can see it for what it is.
IF there IS a shortage, it’s for a couple of reasons, including EE drivers going back home, which on the whole was beneficial pay wise,.and the CPC where many good experienced drivers (and a few bad ones :smiley: ) said '‘■■■■ this,.I’m off.
If they want these disenchanted exoerienced drivers to return to the job,.’( as they do judging by the written 'invites) ’ scrap,.suspend, or at least show it ain’t primarily a money making excercise ('it clearly is btw :unamused: ) by letting drivers automatically qualify for it every 5 years, or at least cut this 40 hours ■■■■■■■■ down to about 1x8 hour session.

As for new young drivers,.who tf in their right mind wants to start a career where you’re expected to work 2 week’s hours in one…cut the ridiculously long hours down.
I see by comments you were a bus driver, surely that job was half the hours,.so what possesd you?

18

Bus driving is generally not well paid- outside of London you’re looking at probably 11ph for 39 hours. Average pay probably £23 k per year.
Consider the responsibility that you have- up to 90 passengers, people falling over , claiming they got hurt, trying to sue the bus company.
Retail jobs pay similar money now.

19

RogerOut:
Bus driving is generally not well paid- outside of London you’re looking at probably 11ph for 39 hours. Average pay probably £23 k per year.
Consider the responsibility that you have- up to 90 passengers, people falling over , claiming they got hurt, trying to sue the bus company.
Retail jobs pay similar money now.

If I had a bus licence I’d be going for the Continental Tours holiday sector.
I used to know a lad on it and he loved it, and I dont recall him complaining about the money, nor the conditions of the job.

Got to ask you again btw…how many times did any of those examples actually happen to you.
No job is without potential pitfalls, which do not necessarily turn into reality. :bulb:
If potential pitfalls stopped everybody joining a particular industry nobody would be working. :unamused:

20

robroy:
I see by comments you were a bus driver, surely that job was half the hours,.so what possesd you?

I’m going to guess that what possessed him was higher pay. But now he’s done it and realised that you actually have to work more hours and/or work harder for that higher pay he’s not happy and the industry is ■■■■ :unamused:

Which it is, in a lot of ways :laughing: But it’s not the army, you can leave at anytime o/p!