I read somewhere that the industry would be short of 150,000 drivers by 2020 in an old article .Is this true?.If this is the case you would think it would be an employees market ,with wages going up ,with drivers able to pick and choose and companies trying to retain drivers but in seems the opposite is true ,according the same article ( Drivers comments about industry in the article are very telling and very negative !!) Wages are low? Is this case? To get to the point ,I have been living in Greece over 6 years now but looking to return for work in the UK as I lost a lot of money on property due to the pandemic and new electrical regulations !! I only have a class 2 licence,no CPC and only military driving experience .Would it be easy to come back to the UK to get work in the trucking industry?
It depends with what you want. I know someone who passed his test last Monday he is in a job. If you are honest with employers you will get a chance. Dont expect footballers wages.
150,000 shortfall is nonsense.
Unemployment is set to rise as furlough scheme ends, affecting all types of employment.
Brexit too…
There will always be a need for drivers, but fewer now than this time last year, and likely fewer again next.
Shop deliveries etc will carry on, but less in other sectors. Be prepared to push pallet trucks and cages around.
Any second C19 wave will see takeaway food outlets closing again.
.
If lucky you’ll get summat straight off, but the streets ain’t paved with gold.
There aint a driver shortage, just a shortage a well paid driving jobs. Its only the crappy employers who pay dismal wages and expect you to work a 60hr week that are desperate for drivers to fill the seats.
150,000 is way of the mark, as stated it’s lack well paying jobs that have kept may drivers out of market.
There will be a recession/pandemic shuffle in driving jobs as retail moves more online with Amazon, boo hoo etc and the final mile done by white van man/woman.
Some like yourself will take up the slack as they look to find an income to support themselves and family.
Good luck, but most good paying employers want all cards, qualification’s and experience (preferably in the role your applying for).
peirre:
There aint a driver shortage, just a shortage a well paid driving jobs. Its only the crappy employers who pay dismal wages and expect you to work a 60hr week that are desperate for drivers to fill the seats.
Yup. When the FTA and RHA were trying to get the government to pay for licences the government asked DVLA about the number of licence holders. DVLA’s response was that there were more than enough licence holders and if companies couldn’t find drivers they needed to look elsewhere for the reason. That was just about as blunt “if you can’t find drivers it’s because you pay crap and you’re crap to work for” reply as DVLA were allowed to say.
Conor:
peirre:
There aint a driver shortage, just a shortage a well paid driving jobs. Its only the crappy employers who pay dismal wages and expect you to work a 60hr week that are desperate for drivers to fill the seats.Yup. When the FTA and RHA were trying to get the government to pay for licences the government asked DVLA about the number of licence holders. DVLA’s response was that there were more than enough licence holders and if companies couldn’t find drivers they needed to look elsewhere for the reason. That was just about as blunt “if you can’t find drivers it’s because you pay crap and you’re crap to work for” reply as DVLA were allowed to say.
Another aspect of that is many of those licence holders are just that…‘‘licence holders’’
A licence does not necessarily make a driver.
So a more accurate version of events is, there are are a shortage of competent real type drivers, but no shortage of licence holders.
I don’t think that totting up the number of vocational licence holders paints a true picture. We all know folk with HGV licences who’ve not used them for years and years and have no intention whatsoever of ever doing so. A more realistic figure would I suggest to be would be to compare the number of current DCPC holders compared to the number of jobs either available or requiring drivers.
I CBA to do the necessary research but I’m sure the figures are available in interweb land.
Surely stopping driving tests for several months means there are several thousand new entrants simply not there.
the maoster:
I don’t think that totting up the number of vocational licence holders paints a true picture. We all know folk with HGV licences who’ve not used them for years and years and have no intention whatsoever of ever doing so. A more realistic figure would I suggest to be would be to compare the number of current DCPC holders compared to the number of jobs either available or requiring drivers.I CBA to do the necessary research but I’m sure the figures are available in interweb land.
Makes sense. It costs nothing to retain a vocational licence, but only those actually employed, or seeking employment, as drivers will pay to renew CPCs.
Some drivers don’t need CPC but they are few and are outside “normal” driving jobs.
Noremac:
Surely stopping driving tests for several months means there are several thousand new entrants simply not there.
Several thousand? Or a few hundred?
How many driving schools are there?
How many passed tests in an average pre C19 week?
.
And how may driving jobs have already been lost, or are being lost now as furlough ends and the “jobs” held open have evaporated?
.
Franglais:
Noremac:
Surely stopping driving tests for several months means there are several thousand new entrants simply not there.Several thousand? Or a few hundred?
How many driving schools are there?
How many passed tests in an average pre C19 week?
.
And how may driving jobs have already been lost, or are being lost now as furlough ends and the “jobs” held open have evaporated?
.
Some simple back-of-the-envelope maths suggests that as there are around 400,000 working HGV drivers and the working life of an HGV driver is 40 years, then there would be a churn of around 10,000 drivers per year.
In each of the last 3 complete years there were over 40,000 HGV test passes. I don’t recall the exact length of time the tests were on hold, but fair to say there would have been at least multiple thousand passes in that time.
In the above I suppose you have to bear in mind that each C+E driver has had two passes though.
I wasn’t aware of the 400,000 figure, but I guess that would be another way of getting a ball-park figure.
Two good posts above.
Noremac:
I wasn’t aware of the 400,000 figure, but I guess that would be another way of getting a ball-park figure.
It’s possibly more. I found this…
“The latest vehicle licensing statistics show that at the end of 2016 there were around 493,600 HGVs licensed in Great Britain, of which around 404,800 were taxed as ‘goods vehicles’ (the remaining vehicles would be HGVs exempt from tax and those taxed as private HGVs), 2% more than at the end of 2015”.
So as I said my calculations were very rough and I assumed one driver per vehicle. Possibly it is more as some vehicles are double shifted. It could also well be the case that 40 years is an over-estimate of the lifespan of a working HGV driver as many people pass the test(s) but do not then spend a lifetime in the industry in which case the churn would be more than 10,000 per year. But I think it’s fair to say that thousands, rather than hundreds of tests will not have taken place during the pandemic.
Franglais:
150,000 shortfall is nonsense.
Unemployment is set to rise as furlough scheme ends, affecting all types of employment.
Brexit too…
There will always be a need for drivers, but fewer now than this time last year, and likely fewer again next.
Shop deliveries etc will carry on, but less in other sectors. Be prepared to push pallet trucks and cages around.
Any second C19 wave will see takeaway food outlets closing again.
.
If lucky you’ll get summat straight off, but the streets ain’t paved with gold.
That’s what it say’s here buddy ! Bearing in mind this is pre-covid . returnloads.net/hgv-driver-shortage/
Cundalini:
Franglais:
150,000 shortfall is nonsense.
Unemployment is set to rise as furlough scheme ends, affecting all types of employment.
Brexit too…
There will always be a need for drivers, but fewer now than this time last year, and likely fewer again next.
Shop deliveries etc will carry on, but less in other sectors. Be prepared to push pallet trucks and cages around.
Any second C19 wave will see takeaway food outlets closing again.
.
If lucky you’ll get summat straight off, but the streets ain’t paved with gold.That’s what it say’s here buddy ! Bearing this is pre-covid . returnloads.net/hgv-driver-shortage/
That article is about 6(?) years old, and is predicting that shortfall.
The article was written by whom?
A company with am interest is exaggerating any possible shortage?
.
Forget old predictions.
.
Employers are Not hanging around training school gates.
What’s the odds…
On a ‘flounce’ and from whom?
EDIT: Ignore this. I’ve posted it in the wrong thread.
This, kiddywinks is what happens when one consumes far too much Pinot \grgio at lunchtime.
The lack of driving tests wont make much difference as the majority of new passes cant get jobs without two years experience.
The driver shortage has always been a swizz peddled by agencies & outfits that offer a mixture of modest wages, poor treatment of drivers, little job security and garbage shift patterns. Look through Indeed and it’s 99% complete dross. The decent jobs that drivers strive for are never struggling for good drivers.