There are some haulage companies that will take on the newbie over experience because they think they can mould them to do things there way, chancers, im stuck, keep going your grand you will make it up tomorrow, you don’t need a break, you can take a 9,
The experience man can know too much in that case so he hasn’t a hope
The job is unskilled it’s in the same bracket as a labour on a building site nothing more
Winseer:
Juddian:
Employers who require good skilled competent lorry drivers are normally sensible enough to pay them accordingly.
That is why you never see adverts for drivers worded in such a way, such companies are not revolving doors of dozens leaving and starting every month.
Those advertising constantly are not expecting the better drivers to be looking, they’re normally buying cheap and often.…alternatively, the best-paid work - is the work that most drivers don’t happen to want, be it full time or agency.
Supermarket work Monday-Friday day shift - seems to have dried up right now for example…
I’m going in on my continuing regular “awkward” shifts (late late starts) - to see the car park half empty, and only full timers coming in for the “early doors” starts the following morning…
Looking around for fellow agency drivers - and there’s precious few Brits among those happy few agency that ARE booked in.
Bliss for someone like me who just wants to come in, get on with the job, go home - and get paid.
“Making oneself available for awkward start times” - is easily the biggest tip I’d offer to would-be agency drivers wanting to know how to get that elusive “ongoing work” in the quiet January February season in particular…
I’m flat out this week for example, and now will have to cut off @ 3 shifts come next week - just to keep below the 96 hour fortnight thingy!
You make a good point here.
There are actually quite a lot of jobs out there offering sensible hours & good hourly rates, but many drivers don’t want them because of the wacky shift rotas, hardly any weekends off, start times all over the place. And that’s why they are paying good rates. Supply & demand.
Check out the jobs paying poor wages and they are generally offering the kind of shifts most drivers want. Mon-Fri, 4 on 4 off, set shifts, 4-6am starts etc.
ezydriver:
discoman:
if I was an employer I would want to take on the new start and train him my wayThe operative word there is ‘train’. Which implies he knows very little, and needs to acquire the specific skills needed to do the job legally, and to your satisfaction. I know lorry driving isn’t highly skilled, but neither is it unskilled. It’s a semi-skilled job, and not anybody could take to it.
Semi skilled? What part do you class as semi skilled? I think most can take to it but as we see the standards differ greatly. I have trained many different types of people and kids to drive articulated trucks. Some pick it up very quickly while others really struggle but very few do not get a licence. I can think of two stand out students over the years. One was an eighteen year old female who after a few hours driving drove better than some that have been driving for years. Her Father was a lorry driver and she was a bright girl. The other was a not so bright guy who had been working as a dishwasher in a hotel kitchen since he left school. He jumped in an artic and drove it like he had been driving it for years. A complete natural. I have also trained professional people who have really struggled but in the end 99% get a licence. It is a job anyone can do however a lot would never consider it while others do it very poorly. In my opinion the real good guys are slowly disappearing.
NO …if there is it will be more to do with conditions and hours 40 years out of date. ONE BOSS TO ANOTHER (hgv drivers are ten a penny )the other boss yes but good ones are not.I thought they were wise words and I must say a lot of wise words posted on this subject …Judan ect ect
jakethesnake:
ezydriver:
discoman:
if I was an employer I would want to take on the new start and train him my wayThe operative word there is ‘train’. Which implies he knows very little, and needs to acquire the specific skills needed to do the job legally, and to your satisfaction. I know lorry driving isn’t highly skilled, but neither is it unskilled. It’s a semi-skilled job, and not anybody could take to it.
Semi skilled? What part do you class as semi skilled? I think most can take to it but as we see the standards differ greatly. I have trained many different types of people and kids to drive articulated trucks. Some pick it up very quickly while others really struggle but very few do not get a licence. I can think of two stand out students over the years. One was an eighteen year old female who after a few hours driving drove better than some that have been driving for years. Her Father was a lorry driver and she was a bright girl. The other was a not so bright guy who had been working as a dishwasher in a hotel kitchen since he left school. He jumped in an artic and drove it like he had been driving it for years. A complete natural. I have also trained professional people who have really struggled but in the end 99% get a licence. It is a job anyone can do however a lot would never consider it while others do it very poorly. In my opinion the real good guys are slowly disappearing.
The 2 bold statements - it’s what develops in the years after getting the licence that I consider skills, and which makes lorry driving a semi-skilled job. Not hitting bridges, keeping loads upright, good lane discipline, knowing the nature of all manner of loads and securing/driving appropriately, driving a manual, being able to read a map, accepting the weaknesses and inabilities of less capable motorists and dealing with them with maturity, identifying minor mechanical and technical issues at the road side and resolving them to avoid callouts, etc etc. All those things which add up and refine over the years…
… the physical act of driving an articulated lorry, i.e. throttle, brakes, steering, is ■■■■ easy, but picking up the many other skills required to do the job safely, legally, and efficiently is what so many struggle with.
Flipping burgers however…
The 2 bold statements - it’s what develops in the years after getting the licence that I consider skills, and which makes lorry driving a semi-skilled job. Not hitting bridges, keeping loads upright, good lane discipline, knowing the nature of all manner of loads and securing/driving appropriately, driving a manual, being able to read a map, accepting the weaknesses and inabilities of less capable motorists and dealing with them with maturity, identifying minor mechanical and technical issues at the road side and resolving them to avoid callouts, etc etc. All those things which add up and refine over the years…
… the physical act of driving an articulated lorry, i.e. throttle, brakes, steering, is ■■■■ easy, but picking up the many other skills required to do the job safely, legally, and efficiently is what so many struggle with.
Fair enough, I understand what you are saying however I still don’t see it the way you do. I roped and sheeted loads, I drove tippers, I drove car transporters, I drove various tankers and much more and yes they took a little time to learn and perfect but I wouldn’t class any of it as semi skilled. Not hitting bridges, reading a map and good lane dicipline are all part of what makes a good driver but certainly are not skills in any way. I would class them as being a responsible driver and using your brain.
As far as the physical act of driving a lorry goes it obviously ain’t ■■■■ easy to some! Many don’t seem to have the basic skill of coming off the throttle when needed and their steering when reversing don’t seem to work very well at times. 
Whatever you want to call it, skill, aptitude, attitude, nature, capability, competence, ethics, morals, reliance, patience and last but not least the ability to make their own luck, drivers with those attributes will never be out of work because when perfected over time and combined make a skilled driver, and bosses of proper companies who still have their finger on the pulse know one when they meet one.
The thing with lorry driving is its such a varied industry, and each and every one of us if we are bothered can find our own particular niche, excel and make a good long term career from it.
I’m quite happy for people to think it’s an unskilled job, good, let those drivers who think as such stay in the places where they’re treated as unskilled people, maybe those companies and drivers who don’t want to skill up are made for each other?
I also couldn’t give a tuppeny’s what joe public thinks of us, if poorly then it all goes to help keep the industry from being oversubscribed, let them bring in the next cheaper brand of foreigners to fill the shortfall, be some new surnames to struggle to pronounce on the subsequent reports of road accident chaos, again maybe those companies and those people suit each other, they’ll save on wages and a good portion of the fleet will be in the bodyshop or scrapyard, leave the rest of us as we are, labelled unskilled if it pleases m’lud but doing quite nicely thanks very much.
Something I notice at work at the moment… There doesn’t seem to be many other agency about. Car park is half-empty, and yet I’m flat out…
I won’t flatter myself by thinking I’m God’s Gift to Driving (except in the German sense of “Gift” perhaps…) but I do reckon that my availability to do the shift starts that no one else wants - must have a lot to do with it. 
ED: I’ll point out that over 90% of my shift starts are between 22:00 and Midnight at this point… Except any Saturdays I work, where I prefer an early afternoon start time.
I don’t work Fridays much, so I’ve got the full space of rest period as not to get that dreaded “Jet Lag” thing from trying to change shift more than once in a week.
My desired work pattern for the future? - I’d like to be driving in rush hour traffic a whole lot less - that’s for sure. 
Let’s see if I can move towards a proper, comfortable night shift pattern of 19:00-07:00 before long. I prefer 12 hour shifts, and would ultimately like to be offered a four-shift week “Any four 12 hour shifts from seven” - with no bother over working every sunday, and I’d like at least every other friday/saturday off…
I continue to live in hope, of course…
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 19:00-07:00 every week, week in, week out where I’m paid for a 48 hour week @ a decent hourly rate - would be complete gold of course. 
So I think you can safely say that regardless of anything Brexit kicks up it’ll be business as usual.
David H:
So I think you can safely say that regardless of anything Brexit kicks up it’ll be business as usual.
Nobody knows, but I doubt it can get any worse for us than when it was decided back in 2004 that henceforth we would achieve pay parity with eastern Europe. We will just have to wait and see.
Harry Monk:
David H:
So I think you can safely say that regardless of anything Brexit kicks up it’ll be business as usual.Nobody knows, but I doubt it can get any worse for us than when it was decided back in 2004 that henceforth we would achieve pay parity with eastern Europe. We will just have to wait and see.
So, if for years we have had stagnated wages, as we waited for the East Euro wages to rise up, we can now look forward to escaping any pay rise as we wait to achieve pay parity with India?
Good ole Brexit. [emoji3]
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
iv never known Felixstowe dock so quiet ,hardly ever see a container ship heading in or out only 5yrs ago usually saw 2 or 3 if ever i looked on the horizon. My neighbour drives a tug ferrying containers onto the train on the dock, lucky if he does 2 days a week when he used to do 6 . Last week i spoke to a container driver hes another sitting at home .All says its the Brexit behind it
corij:
iv never known Felixstowe dock so quiet ,hardly ever see a container ship heading in or out only 5yrs ago usually saw 2 or 3 if ever i looked on the horizon. My neighbour drives a tug ferrying containers onto the train on the dock, lucky if he does 2 days a week when he used to do 6 . Last week i spoke to a container driver hes another sitting at home .All says its the Brexit behind it
Hate to inform you but Brexit ain’t happened yet and the proper effects of leaving the EU will take years to show. The UK did fine before on it’s own and there is no reason why it can’t do the same again.
Anything goes wrong or changes these days and it’s all down to brexit. Complete tosh. 
corij:
iv never known Felixstowe dock so quiet ,hardly ever see a container ship heading in or out only 5yrs ago usually saw 2 or 3 if ever i looked on the horizon. My neighbour drives a tug ferrying containers onto the train on the dock, lucky if he does 2 days a week when he used to do 6 . Last week i spoke to a container driver hes another sitting at home .All says its the Brexit behind it
The majority of containers coming into Felixstowe are from outside the EU so shouldn’t be affected by Brexit, maybe people are slowly coming round to the fact that they don’t need to fill their houses with needless tat made in the far east.
Tell you what boys…my ■■■■ Farmer Giles have been playing up lately !!, ooooooh! 
I’m finding it hard to sit down these days on long journeys, and don’t even mention the pain in my upper arms, I’m reversing an artic these days like a ■■■■ amateur.
■■■■ Brexit’s to blame I reckon 
,…if only I’d been a remainer.
Thing is though if I had it would compromise part of my character of being a GOOD LOSER !!!°…
I see they’re STILL whinging eh?
Priceless.
corij:
iv never known Felixstowe dock so quiet ,hardly ever see a container ship heading in or out only 5yrs ago usually saw 2 or 3 if ever i looked on the horizon. My neighbour drives a tug ferrying containers onto the train on the dock, lucky if he does 2 days a week when he used to do 6 . Last week i spoke to a container driver hes another sitting at home .All says its the Brexit behind it
Caused by a lack of consumer demand driven by a shortage of disposable income. If the eu has anything to do with the equation it will be because the deterioration in wage levels it has brought about has led to this lack of demand.
…There’s always the argument that “Post Brexit” we might be looking at a whole lot MORE jobs coming onto the market - with a whole lot LESS worker protections built in…
It is a two-edged sword of course. Employers don’t want to be told that “if they take someone on, they’ve got oodles of rights from day one” - so barely take on enough staff to run at anywhere near full capacity, using agency to fill out the rest.
Thus, Post-Brexit, we might see Agencies getting a whole lot LESS work (not something I voted Leave for there…) with MORE full time contracts…
…At which point the “Devil will be in the detail”.
If the money isn’t upto scratch - then we, as the workforce pool MUST insist upon decent perks, and other stuff like “friendly hours” and “regular family-friendly shift start/finish times” etc.
I for one, - am hoping that we’ll see an END to this “Any five from seven” culture where they can give you a broom to push about when it’s quiet, and you can’t ever get the holidays off in long-advance, “because of the pecking order” - despite there officially being “no seniority” - yeh right!" 
In my mind, if it’s “all over the place” shifts - it should be any FOUR rather than five.
If it is a FIXED five shifts - leave that to the monday-friday 9-5ers…
Weekend cover? People like me would bite your hand off for a Friday-Monday 7pm-7am fixed job - which of course with all those premium hours in it would be north of £600pw takehome… 
Harry Monk:
corij:
iv never known Felixstowe dock so quiet ,hardly ever see a container ship heading in or out only 5yrs ago usually saw 2 or 3 if ever i looked on the horizon. My neighbour drives a tug ferrying containers onto the train on the dock, lucky if he does 2 days a week when he used to do 6 . Last week i spoke to a container driver hes another sitting at home .All says its the Brexit behind itCaused by a lack of consumer demand driven by a shortage of disposable income. If the eu has anything to do with the equation it will be because the deterioration in wage levels it has brought about has led to this lack of demand.
Excellent post Harry. Not sure it’s fashionable to tell the truth anymore though mate…
jakethesnake:
The 2 bold statements - it’s what develops in the years after getting the licence that I consider skills, and which makes lorry driving a semi-skilled job. Not hitting bridges, keeping loads upright, good lane discipline, knowing the nature of all manner of loads and securing/driving appropriately, driving a manual, being able to read a map, accepting the weaknesses and inabilities of less capable motorists and dealing with them with maturity, identifying minor mechanical and technical issues at the road side and resolving them to avoid callouts, etc etc. All those things which add up and refine over the years…
… the physical act of driving an articulated lorry, i.e. throttle, brakes, steering, is ■■■■ easy, but picking up the many other skills required to do the job safely, legally, and efficiently is what so many struggle with.Fair enough, I understand what you are saying however I still don’t see it the way you do. I roped and sheeted loads, I drove tippers, I drove car transporters, I drove various tankers and much more and yes they took a little time to learn and perfect but I wouldn’t class any of it as semi skilled. Not hitting bridges, reading a map and good lane dicipline are all part of what makes a good driver but certainly are not skills in any way. I would class them as being a responsible driver and using your brain.
As far as the physical act of driving a lorry goes it obviously ain’t ■■■■ easy to some! Many don’t seem to have the basic skill of coming off the throttle when needed and their steering when reversing don’t seem to work very well at times.
So what you are saying is plumbers, electricians, plasterers etc are all unskilled as well. They all study to learn the basics some have natural talent others struggle but they qualify to do the job then with experience become skilled as do most other professions, I think Skill come with experience and training. The fact you have listed your experience proves there are many different skills to be learnt by an HGV Driver which really should make it a skilled profession considering the consequences if something goes wrong.
Tricky artic reverse in public place with a lot of pedestrian foot traffic still seems to often draw an admiring crowd.
Never seen anything similar gather round a shelf-stacker at Tescos or a burger-flipper in Mcds.