She (and the rest of the greedy hauliers/shareholders) should have thought about this years ago.
What goes around comes around…
motortransport.co.uk/blog/2021/ … overnment/
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Sorry, but I won’t create an account just to read an article.
Good! Despite her mealy mouthed platitudes re employing home grown drivers all she wants is pallets shifting. Hell, you could cable tie a kebab to the drivers seat and she’d send it out as long as it charged minimum wage!
After decades of wage stagnation the worm has finally turned and we (drivers) are in a position of strength. I’ve had a gutfull of eating the scraps from the rich mans table, so welcome bosses to the new reality.
Harry Monk:
Sorry, but I won’t create an account just to read an article.
I didn’t have to Harry. The headline was enough to tell me all I need to know.
Pallet-Track chief executive Caroline Green has urged the government to reverse its decision to block emergency work visas for EU labour, claiming a quick solution is needed to the driver shortage.
Responding to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s call for businesses to prioritise hiring UK-based workers rather than relying on labour from abroad to fix the problem, she said: “This is a long-term goal and what we need now is a short-term fix.
“We do need to hire more UK drivers but it takes six to nine months to hire and train them, plus we have had to contend with a huge backlog of tests.
“We are seeing the impact the driver shortage is having on the supply chain in the here and now, with even big brands such as McDonalds and Nando’s struggling to stock staple items.
“We appreciate the industry needs to address the underlying issues around attracting, testing, training and retaining drivers and we are relying on the forward-thinking actions of our network members to help address this. But more immediate government measures are needed right now to support UK supply chains.
“We saw 14,000 EU lorry drivers leave jobs in the UK in the year to June 2020, but only 600 returned by July 2021. The UK government changing its stance on visas for HGV drivers is just one way we could potentially tempt some drivers back to work here
Boo hoo my heart bleeds for them.
My stance on the driver shortage is, I will not do extra hours to compensate for the shortfall of drivers and if Christmas is cancelled and/or there’s not enough choice of various food and drinks on the shelves for the spoiled general public, then so be it.
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The Tory Peer CEO of Next also wants foreign labour
Now considering he is a fully paid up Tory Lord what does he already know that has made him release this little rant to the press?
simcor:
“We are seeing the impact the driver shortage is having on the supply chain in the here and now, with even big brands such as McDonalds and Nando’s struggling to stock staple items.“We appreciate the industry needs to address the underlying issues around attracting, testing, training and retaining drivers and we are relying on the forward-thinking actions of our network members to help address this. But more immediate government measures are needed right now to support UK supply chains.
“We saw 14,000 EU lorry drivers leave jobs in the UK in the year to June 2020, but only 600 returned by July 2021. The UK government changing its stance on visas for HGV drivers is just one way we could potentially tempt some drivers back to work here
Sent from my old light ship office in exile in the North Sea outside UK territorial waters.Mods feel free to block it as being off topic, offensive to whoever etc etc etc.
News reports state that Cobham services is littered with abandoned east euro reg trucks and their drivers are all queueing up in Camberley to earn 30k + for class 2 all claiming the right to work here and saying that going home to do class 1 international work was a big mistake and how bad can driving a scaffold wagon be. 
These type of ■■■■■ in their lucrative gravy train jobs are so out of touch with reality ffs, that it is almost derisory. 
There is a driver shortage for one reason …
The job is crap in terms of t.s & c s, 
So consequently nobody in their right mind wants to join the industry,.and those who were happy to do all the crap willingly have ■■■■ ed off home.
They’re getting there by addressing the ■■■■ poor wages (whether that may be temporary or not) so now start sorting out the rest of the crap…
Starting with ridiculously long hours all paid at same hourly rate, and 15 hour days with what is essentially not enough rest…9 off after a 15 hour day ffs, you can say wtf you like it is NOT enough,.and contrary with H&S that is otherwise ramned down our necks when it suits them
So these arse wipes who are so vocal about driver shortage. would they see anything wrong in finishing their work at 1630 then coming back in at 0130 to work 2x as many hours as they already do?
Take a guess.
Sort the lack facilities on the road for drivers, the chronic overnight parking situation, and the targeting and victimisation if you dare to park anywhere that has no parking rules for no other reason that ‘they’ just don’t want these awful big trucks parking on their places.
It ain’t ■■■■ rocket science, if a job is not attractive it will not get filled.
Where has the figure of 9 months to train a driver come from? The actual driver training as everyone knows is a 5 day or 10 day course. I think the shortage is down to a usual lack of staff outside of the driving industry. DVLA issuing licence & CPC etc, etc. Certainly not the training of a driver.
Whist you have Drivers prepared to work for long hours for “peanuts” just so they have a flashy new motor with all the gizmos Bosss will exploit them to keep their cost`s down and profits up.
For years its been the norm for hauliers to quote I pay RHA rates,of cause they will RHA is a cartel which only looks after its self f##k the drivers.
There is a shortage of drivers all over Europe also. Why would anyone come to the UK to drive for less money, higher food prices and rent.
Don’t make any sense
Eddie Stobart are now offering “Death in service” as part of their improved benefits package.
Also interesting is how they are breaking the meal & night out allowance down to £ per hour but not the actual salaries.
“Full uniform and PPE provided free of charge”
Free uniform, meh! I get work clothing from my local Lidl, that “benefit” would be worth about £2 per week to me.
Free PPE? Gee thanks… For doing what you are legally obliged to do :
Another bunch of low-paying shysters who have changed to listing shady salary numbers without stating how many hours they’re based on. There should a law (at least for haulage) where the pay must be shown per hour for working days, nights and the weekend days, given the nature of the job means that the hours can vary wildly due to traffic and other reasons. Salary is ok when you’re working 9 til 5 in an office any day.
robroy:
mStarting with ridiculously long hours all paid at same hourly rate, and 15 hour days with what is essentially not enough rest.
This the is argument I’ve been trying and failing to get out lot to understand. There’s 2 problems with 15 hour days.
-
The lack of sleep especially if you reduce and have to commute. Even 11 hours off after 15H doesn’t always give a lot of sleep.
-
If say you do 10H then 15H and mix this around during the week, your brain has no idea what your sleep pattern is meant to be. One day it might be 6am and the next 11am (nights example).
People often ask me if its a good job…yeah until you do this stuff. Most can’t get their heads round this. Saw something about improving mental health in transport, err think we got a way to go.
“we are relying on the forward-thinking actions of our network members to help address this”
Oh dear
dekka:
“we are relying on the forward-thinking actions of our network members to help address this”
Oh dear
Guess that means “we need them to pay them a decent wage” which if they are like most of these companies isn’t going to happen, well bye bye Pallet Track etc. Even our lot who run it mostly inhouse still don’t seem to value the day drivers as much as they need to.
Palletforce might survive due to size but really can’t see the others continuing as their customers get peed off with orders taking days to get there. The customers don’t care its due to a random company elsewhere in the country holding things up.