Well where is this honourable profession going?
Is it doomed?
Is it viable?
Please speculate.
Compare & Contrast.
Have your say.
What?
It’s doomed in the present, never mind the future.
Rules, regulations, wages, H+S bull, ‘compulsory regular training’, teenage graduate planners, roads full of muppets, hated by everyone…
Thank god the radio’s good 
waynedl:
It’s doomed in the present, never mind the future.Rules, regulations, wages, H+S bull, ‘compulsory regular training’, teenage graduate planners, roads full of muppets, hated by everyone…
Thank god the radio’s good
That bit is VERY questionable! 
Cheers
Jonny 
Send a PM to Carryfast, he’ll put you straight 
waynedl:
It’s doomed in the present, never mind the future.Rules, regulations, wages, H+S bull, ‘compulsory regular training’, teenage graduate planners, roads full of muppets, hated by everyone…
Thank god the radio’s good
Sums it all up just about right, most of the kit is ■■■■ too, some of us are lucky to get home in one piece everyday…
once the EU has calmed down we might see an improvement. however this won’t last, we will see history repeat itself again.
the EU as it is now, will eventually have fairly equal wages throughout the industry, but as soon as people start to see an increase in wages, then we will see another surge of backward countries joining up and supplying cheap labour. then that’s when we will see another downturn.
if the polititions, and business leaders thought about the future of europe, rather than a quick earner, then we could see stable economic growth, a stable euro, and a stable future for all.
they use EU membership in the same way that they control inflation. if inflation increases, then they increase interest rates. if wages increase then they increase EU member states.
Its not necessarily doomed, its at a low ebb, but IMO there is a window coming up when our younger drivers can help sort their industry out, this will be in about 5 to 10 years time as us old 'uns hang our keys up and a real shortage of competent drivers bites, it means sticking together and organising and unionising themselves, just like their forbears who made the job good in certain circles did…if they don’t do this then its bolloxed.
I forsee an increasing number of accidents as trucks become ever more automated, leading to ever more steering wheel attendants at the wheel as the job is made easier to attract licences.
The increasing number of regulations and environmental rubbish like LEZ won’t go away until the country gets leadership with some bollox prepared to remove us from the EU, and prepared to make us economically viable again and removes excess legislation.
That may never happen because the electorate are sheep unable to think for themselves, in which case the country will be economically bankrupt in due course, and like Greece, dancing to the tune of those who hold the ■■■■■ strings.
Im 46 and don’t expect the job to get better in my working life. All the european governments are using transport to raise revenue and it will kill it. My euro toll bill is around 850 - 1000 euros a month but I can’t increase my rates because the eastern european companies will just take the work. Today is my last euro job as I am going to try containers on local work for a few weeks but I don’t think it will be any better. If transport was charged at a realistic rate to cover all the costs put on it what would the cost to us as purchasers be? All the governments in europe need to realise that transport is essential to life and not just a way of propping up the failing economies of a europe that is too big to support itself.
Every aspect of industry, be it public or private is suffocating under the regulations.
More people are becoming stressed and de-motivated and business is suffering as a result.
I feel we are on the verge of something quite unusual and the recession is just going to quicken the outcomes.
There has to be a better way of being and many people are beginning to realise this.
Unless the government introduce a regulator, that can set standard tariffs, wages and taxation for the industry, then it will all but disappear. It will just be the major blue chips and the foreigners. I think the only way the smaller firms can compete is via the recent spate of partner alliances and pallet networks. Anyone not in either of those just won’t be around in 10-20 years
I handed my HGV back to Swansea in 2005 after 40 yrs I was suffering from stress. And even since then the new legislation that you lads have to cope with is now unbelevable would it not make sense to simplify the hours regs. for a start, years ago we had the 12 and a half spreadover it was simple and easy to use now when you see some of the arguments on here it appears you can come up with half a dozen diffrent answers and still not be sure if you are legal.
I am glad to be retired when you hear about VOSA and the multi-agency checks etc. Eddie.
erfguy:
I handed my HGV back to Swansea in 2005 after 40 yrs I was suffering from stress. And even since then the new legislation that you lads have to cope with is now unbelevable would it not make sense to simplify the hours regs. for a start, years ago we had the 12 and a half spreadover it was simple and easy to use now when you see some of the arguments on here it appears you can come up with half a dozen diffrent answers and still not be sure if you are legal.
I am glad to be retired when you hear about VOSA and the multi-agency checks etc. Eddie.
MOST know the rules, no, they’re not simple, but they do the job.
probably a long way off, and not in our time, but prob end up abit i-robot.
you know vehicles all moved around on “automated expressways” 20 trailer long truck type vehicles, that can split at random from the man vehicle to feed into its desired hub, etc, etc. sounds abit far fetched maybe. but what with volvos recent test in spain, and satelitte trcking etc, who knows…
As a mere youngster wishing to answer this question I would like you to look at Transport in the past.
After horses and World War one there was a glut of cheap motors around, there was also a glut of cheap labour too. The transport trade picked up as there was peace in Europe. There wasnt much legislation and it became a free for all for 20 years, then we went to war again, which gave us more work in the building trade, builders wanted things moving and there was another glut of lorries and cheap labour, every man and his dog had been taught to drive in the army.
We needed some rules which we got with A licensing, we got rules with drivers hours and operators until it was all taken in house with BTC. Some got away with nationalisation, some started up again, the work was still there, the BRS were not flexible enough, so companies moved to privatised hauliers again. BRS cherry picked the best work until the late 70’s It was good for another 20 years and then we didn’t need another war, we had greedy governments, unions and banks who brought us back down to bad working practices, not much health and safety and uncomfortable vehicles.
Another glitch of cheap labour when all the jobless miners took their HGV, a bit more boom and bust in the industry until now, 20 years later we have another source of cheap labour.
Look at the pattern, things can only get better 
Tomorrow, Brain Surgery for Beginners
Wheel Nut is spot on.
Most industries are cyclical, but everyone will want to eat in the future, and the position we are in now means that it has to be moved by truck!
looking back to trucks of the early 70s - no sleeper cabs, no heaters, low power - would you want to back to that?
Mind you, you did not have tachographs, tracking devices, mobile phones or as many idiots on the road.
So just get rid of everything in the last sentence and at least some things will be better!
mi13ke:
Wheel Nut is spot on.
looking back to trucks of the early 70s - no sleeper cabs, no heaters, low power - would you want to back to that?
■■■■ right, only lorry drivers could cope or manage, resulting in few licence holders on the road and the end of crap jobs and money.
newmercman:
Send a PM to Carryfast, he’ll put you straight
He couldn’t straighten a drinking straw