.
Disappointing that yet again there was no mention of lousy wages & terms being a factor in the shortage.
The cost of transport has to go up. On average, how much do people think it would add to the cost of P&P on every parcel that gets dispatched this Christmas? The cost of every case of lager? Pence? Create an attractive employment arena and the people will come, quality professional people, not the dregs of the dole pile which is what we’ll get if the government start serving up HGV licenses down the job centre.
simple , them that dont have issues paying drivers what they are worth, them that do pay less that £9
I have no sympathy with hauliers bleating on about driver shortages. They treat drivers like animals, pay crap wages, expect people to work 15 hour shifts, put pressure on to break the law. What do they expect, it's not exactly an attractive proposition is it?
The truth is simple enough, the FTA would like to see us all being paid less and a massive over-population of drivers so that the companies they represent can pay even less.
If hauliers want more drivers - then hauliers should train more drivers.
The FTA appealing to government for funding is outrageous. Why should the tax payer pay for haulage companies to get rich?
Bunch of pillocks. 
Lets have it right the FTA represent the industry elite not the drivers. For years they have stood by and seen drivers exploited as the only variable is the reduction in the drivers wages to ensure the industry elite remain profitable. Now that the industry elite have lost some of their ability to exploit people they respond in the usual way and cry wolf oh the driver shortage will bring the country to its knees. No sign of innovation or looking at improving efficiency such as taking 5-6 hours to tip at an RDC as the driver is only on £8 an hour so what does it matter. Well no more it would seem so it will matter. As for the dcpc it cost £300 all in or over a year £6 a week, each of is is probably guilty of wasting more than this on ■■■■,beer lottery and junk food that will only serve to reduce our life expectancy so the cost argument is questionable. As for the cbb brigade it says a lot for a persons attitude if they are not interested in learning or maintaining a proffessional competence no wonder the industry elite treat us all like monkeys thank god not all of us are thinking along the lines of monkey see monkey do. Not all of us want to be dinosaurs, not all of us hate automatic transmissions. The dcpc may yet prove to be the best thing thats happened for drivers in a long time the FTA and the industry elite are defanately not!
I didn’t see this advert.
It wasn’t by any chance “Come and pay us £££££ to get your LGV licence today! - £900 a week when qualified! Work straight away! No Bull!”
Just had a crawl around on the Job Centre website and there’s no evidence of a genuine driver shortage.
There hundreds if not thousands of spammed-up agency adverts, often by the same lying gits advertising massive wages, repeated to ad-nauseam - and as we all know… no such jobs exist. No doubt this is where the Gov gets it’s stats from when claiming there are x million unfilled posts available at the job centre.
There were a few genuine ads from genuine companies, who on the whole are too embarrassed to declare their wage offerings. But here’s a classic example of a company that will always struggle to get drivers:
Name removed… ■■■ ■■■ - Pickering, North Yorkshire
HGV Driver
Job description
The ■■■ ■■■, Farmers and Butchers are looking for a part time HGV driver 18 hrs per week based near Pickering.  Role will involve working unsociable hours, Sunday night through to Monday with duties including some heavy lifting. Â
The job primarily involves driving to and from London. The applicant must have a clean HGV Class 2 licence, CPC is also required.  To apply call Andy on 01751 xxxxxx or Amy on 01751 xxxxxx or email . Pay rate - £10.00ph
So half a job, ■■■■■■■ half cows about, driving on Sunday NIGHT!!! for half a wage.
Who the hell is gonna want that job at that wage?
There’s a few others - but mainly the same culprits paying peanuts… the worst of a bad bunch are those experiencing a shortage. Conversely, the best employers have a waiting list of drivers who would love to go work for them.
What I really do find amusing is that some of the superstore retailers and supermarket chains are now finding it hard to get even agency bods… having sacked loads of their own drivers years ago asuming there would always be an endless supply of cheap agency drivers. LOL. 
Spence:
Just had a crawl around on the Job Centre website and there’s no evidence of a genuine driver shortage.There hundreds if not thousands of spammed-up agency adverts, often by the same lying gits advertising massive wages, repeated to ad-nauseam - and as we all know… no such jobs exist. No doubt this is where the Gov gets it’s stats from when claiming there are x million unfilled posts available at the job centre.
There were a few genuine ads from genuine companies, who on the whole are too embarrassed to declare their wage offerings. But here’s a classic example of a company that will always struggle to get drivers:
Name removed… ■■■ ■■■ - Pickering, North Yorkshire
HGV Driver
Job description
The ■■■ ■■■, Farmers and Butchers are looking for a part time HGV driver 18 hrs per week based near Pickering.  Role will involve working unsociable hours, Sunday night through to Monday with duties including some heavy lifting. Â
The job primarily involves driving to and from London. The applicant must have a clean HGV Class 2 licence, CPC is also required.  To apply call Andy on 01751 xxxxxx or Amy on 01751 xxxxxx or email . Pay rate - £10.00phSo half a job, ■■■■■■■ half cows about, driving on Sunday NIGHT!!! for half a wage.
Who the hell is gonna want that job at that wage?
There’s a few others - but mainly the same culprits paying peanuts… the worst of a bad bunch are those experiencing a shortage. Conversely, the best employers have a waiting list of drivers who would love to go work for them.
What I really do find amusing is that some of the superstore retailers and supermarket chains are now finding it hard to get even agency bods… having sacked loads of their own drivers years ago asuming there would always be an endless supply of cheap agency drivers. LOL.
There was me reading it and thinking £10ph class 2 aint bad lol
I can start work at 2300 on a Sunday and work through till 1400 on the Monday and the class 2 bloke would earn more than me at that rate and there are companies around here that pay less than I’m on.
NewLad:
There was me reading it and thinking £10ph class 2 aint bad lolI can start work at 2300 on a Sunday and work through till 1400 on the Monday and the class 2 bloke would earn more than me at that rate and there are companies around here that pay less than I’m on.
No offence intended, it just seemed like a lot wanted for little reward.
I guess you’ve highlighted that where you are located makes a huge difference.
I currently work for a York based company, we do quite a bit of work into Europe and there are huge differences in wages in Euroland too.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a driver from Cornwall and his wages were scary - didn’t realise such bad wages were out there, he was on £7.50 ph.
Even Reed Bordello pay about 13 quid ph for Sunday’s.
I think the Pickering farmer is gonna need a bit of luck getting a reefer driver to work Sunday Nights for 10 quid ph though… not sure how many Class 2 drivers there are in the area with a clean licence wanting half a job.
Spence, your talking all kinds of sense on here. If only this angle was being reported to the public in the media.
Comment of the week…
Spence:
What I really do find amusing is that some of the superstore retailers and supermarket chains are now finding it hard to get even agency bods… having sacked loads of their own drivers years ago asuming there would always be an endless supply of cheap agency drivers. LOL.
Preach!
NewLad:
There was me reading it and thinking £10ph class 2 aint bad lolI can start work at 2300 on a Sunday and work through till 1400 on the Monday and the class 2 bloke would earn more than me at that rate and there are companies around here that pay less than I’m on.
It’s Sunday night work (unsociable shift), it’s heavy lifting (no-one wants to do graft) and it’s London (no-one wants to do London either). For a tenner an hour. Are you mad? 
The times that Drivers must have heard the same old response from their Bosss when they ask for a pay rise........I pay the going RHA rate or I pay in line with FTA rates,rates that are fixed by other Haulage Bosss a bit like a cartel for price fixing in the oil ,banking and energy companies.
expressandstar.com/news/2014 … nds-firms/
Same old rehashed non news again in my local paper.
The two local companies mentioned this time are Aspray and Stan Robinson neither particularly renowned for being high paying companies.
ahhhh the poor sod trying become a driver but hey ho ol jo from overseas is doing 9 hour days 5 days aweek how about some of these companys bleating now yet soon took europe drivers on at the sake of uk workers no im not a racist either but the average uk worker hasnt a chance when you got people from over the water who,ll do it for a bowl of rice and its about time these agencys stopped using the gov type job sites with non exsisent jobs…im sorry but what goes around comes around
I see people saying no driver jobs about I have two Class 2 jobs going full time I did mention it early in the week on here. Do you know how many responses I got NIL!
So seems there’s a lot of drivers happy getting crap wages or agency work.
Spence:
NewLad:
There was me reading it and thinking £10ph class 2 aint bad lolI can start work at 2300 on a Sunday and work through till 1400 on the Monday and the class 2 bloke would earn more than me at that rate and there are companies around here that pay less than I’m on.
No offence intended, it just seemed like a lot wanted for little reward.
I guess you’ve highlighted that where you are located makes a huge difference.
I currently work for a York based company, we do quite a bit of work into Europe and there are huge differences in wages in Euroland too.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a driver from Cornwall and his wages were scary - didn’t realise such bad wages were out there, he was on £7.50 ph.
Even Reed Bordello pay about 13 quid ph for Sunday’s.
I think the Pickering farmer is gonna need a bit of luck getting a reefer driver to work Sunday Nights for 10 quid ph though… not sure how many Class 2 drivers there are in the area with a clean licence wanting half a job.
I know what your saying mate, tbf I’ve been at my place for about 18 months now and they gave me a start when I’d passed class 1. I have now (yesterday) applied somewhere else, the money at the new place isn’t life changing £12.98ph, but and it’s a BIG but, at least this way I’ll be getting paid for what I do and not hoping for a short (10hr) day to make my rate reasonable. It’s working nights and I’ll only have to do 8.5 hours to get what I’m getting now for a potential 15/13 hour day.
Fingers crossed.
Oh and no mention of n/o being required 
andrew.vaughan.1804:
I see people saying no driver jobs about I have two Class 2 jobs going full time I did mention it early in the week on here. Do you know how many responses I got NIL!
So seems there’s a lot of drivers happy getting crap wages or agency work.
Are you prepared to post the wages your offering? As in an actual figure. Overtime rates, any other terms? Surely, if they were great you’d be boasting about these to try and fill your long vacant positions.
Why not say who you are? Whats the company, whats the job, whats your reputation within the industry?
I wouldn’t apply for some generic job posted by some random geezer on an internet forum.
andrew.vaughan.1804:
I see people saying no driver jobs about I have two Class 2 jobs going full time I did mention it early in the week on here. Do you know how many responses I got NIL!
So seems there’s a lot of drivers happy getting crap wages or agency work.
The problem is this forum has a worldwide readership although mostly UK. Most here are already employed. Your advert doesn’t mention a wage which any one experienced enough knows normally means it’s not worth asking as it’ll be NMW or sub £8 ph. You don’t have many posts to your name so there is no credibility or validation for you as a person (not meant in a disrespectful way)
To find just one interested person from this site would be quite an achievement.