This is heavy for a friday,but is this indutry in turmoil,i have been reading alot on here about jobs,pay, conditions,and my conclusion is we are in a right state.Jobs=is their a shortage our not i think there is,but employers are know using foreign drivers for lower pay because they are up agaist it higher fuel lower incomes etc.Conditions=useless all over priced cold showers bad food the lists go on and on.But what are the answers to these problems for one i dont know any idears?
Back page of Truck stop news.
LOST £720m worth of profit every year. Its not only drivers who think of TM’s as a bunch of incompetent morons who could not organise a ■■■■ in a brothel.
More than 10% of companys are loseing money & only a minority are returning 10% in profit.
This has ended up being a very long post and a bit of a rant but I think most of it is relevant so I’m posting it complete.
I’m afraid I have little sympathy with the state of the industry. Since the late 80’s when UK manufacturing went into decline the industry experienced a glut of capacity which had to result in an adjustment of that capacity. As a result we can all name companies big and small that didn’t survive.
What we have now is an industry that mainly operates with unrealistic prices being charged. I read about 3 years ago an indepth report into the overall health of the uk road haulage industry and it made very bleak reading. The AVERAGE gross operating profit for the industry was 3%. That is a pitiful return in anybody’s terms. Several companies have emerged as specialist service providers and appear to be doing alright in their particular niche.
Where we are now is that users of transport have become used to transport at unrealistic prices and they react unfavourably to any news of rate increases. As all companies do not have to support the same level of overhead operating costs competition within the market is still fierce. There will always be an operator who will take a job on at just above break-even prices in order to get any return on their investment. This is how the problem perpetuates. Thanks to inflation profits are constantly being squeezed and I think the industry as a whole has been at the point where there are no opportunities to cut costs anymore. Operating equipment is as cheap as it will ever be. You can’t do anything about the cost of diesel or insurance or maintenance. That leaves only one variable left: the cost of the driver. This is exactly what happened in the early nineties and this approach (and the over supply of drivers following the reduction of capacity in the 80’s) led to thousands leaving the industry or earning less than unskilled labourers.
Then the European legislators got in on the act and made entry to the industry more difficult than it had ever been. The industry is now in the situation that there is definitely a driver shortage. The switched on companies (and it has to be said they are almost without exception operating outside the spot-hire side of the general haulage markets) have improved conditions and wages. Unfortunately for the rest of the industry there is the problem that the users (customers) have become used to cheap transport and they will fight tooth and nail to prevent their transport costs increasing. If a company tries to increase its rates to cover costs it loses the customer to someone else. Something has to give, trucks can’t be bought cheaper, diesel still costs the same so its back to the driver again. Our own domestic drivers have worked out that the companies are in pain and are refusing to work for silly wages but a lot of the companies cannot afford these new higher wages. The obvious solution is to look to the poorer coutries of europe who’s citizens have equal access rights to our domestic job markets and will work for half the money.
Not a happy picture and this is what is happening. This will ring very true to anyone who remembers the Chairman of Christian Salveson recommending sourcing drivers from abroad to cure the shortage.
I would say this to any haulier who is suffering from a driver shortage. “THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF EXPERIENCED AND HARDWORKING DRIVERS OUT THERE, BUT THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF DRIVERS WHO ARE PREPARED TO WORK FOR YOUR OUTDATED WAGES UNDER OUTDATED CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT. YOU NEED TO WAKE UP TO THIS OR FACE AN EARLY EXIT FROM THE INDUSTRY”.
bloody hell. Where did that come from? 
Since first finding this forum/site I,ve posted many postings saying the same thing ,I now live near the spanish borber and many,s the time I,ve gone to fuel up at the border and seen the amount of eastern european trucks parked up waiting for customs clearance,but just recently to holding area as been turned into a lorry park with no restictions and the holding area seems to have gone,I,ve said this before if and when the agencies get hold of the eastern european drivers and remenber there licences are valid in the UK just watch the rates dive.
Can only hope that Plunkett is going to do as he says and that is revoke the uk legislation allowing EU nationals full access to our benefits system. That might stop the flow. Heres hoping.
In 2002 the UK took in 20% of all assylum seekers in THE WORLD.
Qhunter:
This has ended up being a very long post and a bit of a rant but I think most of it is relevant so I’m posting it complete.…etc, etc…
Rant or not Qhunter I found your post an interesting and coherant summary of the transport industry today. Well done.
In Penrith truckstop on night with Dad and this bloke had a list of costs on his trailer. It told you the cost of running a truck in Britain with things like maintenance, road tax and fuel price compared to France. It worked out about £14,000 cheaper to run a truck in France than what it is here. 
I have to agree with all thats been said, but add some friends of mine who run a few trucks on regular contracts a finding it hard to make ends meet not only for the above reasons but because of the delay in getting paid, 30 days turn into 60, 90, 120, all this time without money yet the trucks have to roll each day and the bills dont stop, yet on the other hand some of the same people are quick to issue penaltys for any late deliverys on the fridge side, of his business, and if a pallet is rejected he has to run with it free and pay for it him self dual standards or what?.
to make ends meet he has to back load with whatever he can in order to fill the cash flow left by the late payment, he keeps his trucks going but the daily pressure is imense, he looks after his drivers cos without them he has no business and he says good drivers are hard to come by.
add this into the equation with all of the above and you will see what problems truckers face, he has had to drop the fridge work because of this problem and the fact that the rates kept dropping till it was not worth doing it seems that they know your in a fix so they turn the screws each day, he now only runs boxes but has had to get rid of his fridge units for skellys, and seems to be happier but is still waiting for a massive amount of money still owed.
somthing needs to be done but what im unsure maybe F.I.S.T. could give us some clues?
This is slightly to one side of the issue but…
I like Germany, given the opportunity I would like to live and work in Germany, but in order to do so I would not expect to be able to get a job there if I could not speak and read/write German with a reasonable degree of fluency. Furthermore, if I wanted to work there as a driver I would expect to have to take a German driving test because they have different laws and systems to us. Having an EU spec licence is ok for delivering to, or passing through a country but to work there in residence you need a greater knowledge of the local system and this should be proven.
Next, related to the great Trucknet theory test challenge, there is a question in the theory test about drivers hours regs where the answer is ‘in the interest of road safety and fair competition’.
So, to get to the point…
1 How can we allow drivers to work residentially in this country if they ‘no speakee da eengleesh’ well enough?
2 Without wishing to cast aspersions, can we be sure that the licence issued by another country is upto the standards we have to attain in this country?
3 In the interests of road safety, see point 1…but in the interest of fair competition. It’s all very well having the hours regs in the interest of fair competition but how fair is the competition for the driver in the employment market.
I have the greatest respect for any foreign driver working in this country who can communicate effectively and has acheived the standards I will have to acheive with respect to his driving licence.
It is one of the principle duties of a employer to employ people (can’t get away from that, it’s in the job title - employer) and it is one of the principle duties of government to protect and develop employment opportunities for the population whom they govern. After all, if the majority of the population is employed - more tax taken, less dole payed out. Every other country in the world runs protectionist policies for this very reason so why can’t we. In the case of the EU, we seem to adhere to the letter of every law that comes from Brussels, yet other member states seem to pick and choose - what is going on?
Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated
(put dummy back in and retrieve teddy bear from corner 
)
Jules