Lorry driver shortage

[Renaultman]

Putting a different slant on it from the lorry driver side, and I don't do it full-time,
But how would you or your staff like to be a driver on a lorry,
Average week, away Monday morning if lucky, as some away Sunday night.
Have to sit for upto 4.5 hours at the wheel before a break, and even then you cannot go far from the lorry, 45 minutes later your off again, after 4,5 hours need another break, go get a shower in a cesspit where some polish driver has left a mess after him.
grab some food out of a sh1thole of a truck stop, and back to the lorry, drive half hour to park outside the gates of tipping point next morning, wakened on and off through the night by traffic, phone home, then bed.
Next day repete the same, through to Friday night at soonest,
All along never far from the lorry, p1ssing in laybys , stuck in traffic, eating from not so good or fatty food vans or cafes, hassle from the office, and from customers where you deliver, problems getting loaded.
All the time trying to gain time by starting early about 4am, to miss traffic etc.
Then parked up at 7pm for the night, again in a layby, no toilet or food,
Call home and then bed, and about fecking 9 pm a boy racer with the latest sawn off exhaust pipe wakes you as he is off out, one would be ok, but there is usually 3 or 4 of them, fudge me around midnight there away home, same bloody noise again.
By Thursday evening you have had enough, so begrudgingly you pay for parking in a truck stop, as the company won't pay parking, fed and watered, alone with a shower, back to the lorry, phone home and then bed, just as you get off to sleep, a fecking fridge lorry parks beside you, the fridge engine runs most of the night, what a waste of parking money that is, and if it is not that, its the bloody ladies of the night knocking on the door wanting to know if you want company,
Anyhow Friday morning tipped and trundle to a farm for loading grain.
Bugger me the farmer expects the driver to sweep up in the store as loading,
Back to the mill, queue is mile long, 4 hours later your tipped, back to the yard, the gaffer wants a 5 minute job done, 2 hours later your finished at 6.30 and home for 7.
The kids and wife have missed you all week, and want to tell you everything that's happened, your mentally drained at bed time, have to make the most of it, as your away 4pm Sunday to do it again,

It at one time was a reasonable job, and made reasonable money,
However with the advent of minimum wage, then the living wage, the drivers only got rate of inflation in general, which means the wage gap has got a lot less over recent years, the night out money soon dwindles away, after buying breakfast, dinner and tea the next day, put together with the cost of getting your licence to drive, CPC training, medicals etc, its not attractive for many to become drivers as it where,
If there is an accident the police automatically blame the lorry driver,
DVSA pull lorries in and do their best to get a fine,
Tachograph has to be kept within the law, and on a break means on a break, no work is permitted,
Once was in a services on a break, 10 minutes later a plant lorry pulled in beside me,
Driver must of put Tachograph on break, got out went inside back out 10 minutes later back to his lorry, he opened the door and put something in his cab, he then walked around his lorry and pulled at the straps to check they were tight, back to the cab, the gestapo in the DVSA car came over, they checked and gave him a fine of £60, as checking his straps as it is classed as work, yet his Tachograph said he was on rest,

And that about sums it up, why there is a shortage of drivers

Great post.

 

[Stewie]

Header trailer is the best. I drive LGV have driven wagon and turntable drag, combines, and just about anything else that moves, still struggle with my lines with the telehandler and header trailer.

I still have bad dreams about reversing it

 

[Farmer_Joe]

They have had it drummed into them they have to have a degree no matter what and think it just gets them the ideal job at the top of the tree without working there way up and end up shocked when that's not the case !

Yet if they had got a trade and a practical skill they would be streets ahead now with the fone red hot name ur price !

a degree is no replacement for drive and charisma,

those two thing will get you further than anything else in life, and sadly are not taught...

now you have to pay thousands for a degree i cant see the point especially with so many trades commanding such values.

most valuable thing with driving is experience, i imagine most farmers have plenty and would be capable of hgvs

 

[betweenthelines]

Absolutely fine in his own car. I could drive all day until my hours are up, then get in my own car and drive two hours home. What I couldn’t do, is park a truck when my hours are up, then drive home in a company car that my employer has provided.

Legally acceptable ? Yes

Safe? No

 

[Hilly]

Putting a different slant on it from the lorry driver side, and I don't do it full-time,
But how would you or your staff like to be a driver on a lorry,
Average week, away Monday morning if lucky, as some away Sunday night.
Have to sit for upto 4.5 hours at the wheel before a break, and even then you cannot go far from the lorry, 45 minutes later your off again, after 4,5 hours need another break, go get a shower in a cesspit where some polish driver has left a mess after him.
grab some food out of a sh1thole of a truck stop, and back to the lorry, drive half hour to park outside the gates of tipping point next morning, wakened on and off through the night by traffic, phone home, then bed.
Next day repete the same, through to Friday night at soonest,
All along never far from the lorry, p1ssing in laybys , stuck in traffic, eating from not so good or fatty food vans or cafes, hassle from the office, and from customers where you deliver, problems getting loaded.
All the time trying to gain time by starting early about 4am, to miss traffic etc.
Then parked up at 7pm for the night, again in a layby, no toilet or food,
Call home and then bed, and about fecking 9 pm a boy racer with the latest sawn off exhaust pipe wakes you as he is off out, one would be ok, but there is usually 3 or 4 of them, fudge me around midnight there away home, same bloody noise again.
By Thursday evening you have had enough, so begrudgingly you pay for parking in a truck stop, as the company won't pay parking, fed and watered, alone with a shower, back to the lorry, phone home and then bed, just as you get off to sleep, a fecking fridge lorry parks beside you, the fridge engine runs most of the night, what a waste of parking money that is, and if it is not that, its the bloody ladies of the night knocking on the door wanting to know if you want company,
Anyhow Friday morning tipped and trundle to a farm for loading grain.
Bugger me the farmer expects the driver to sweep up in the store as loading,
Back to the mill, queue is mile long, 4 hours later your tipped, back to the yard, the gaffer wants a 5 minute job done, 2 hours later your finished at 6.30 and home for 7.
The kids and wife have missed you all week, and want to tell you everything that's happened, your mentally drained at bed time, have to make the most of it, as your away 4pm Sunday to do it again,

It at one time was a reasonable job, and made reasonable money,
However with the advent of minimum wage, then the living wage, the drivers only got rate of inflation in general, which means the wage gap has got a lot less over recent years, the night out money soon dwindles away, after buying breakfast, dinner and tea the next day, put together with the cost of getting your licence to drive, CPC training, medicals etc, its not attractive for many to become drivers as it where,
If there is an accident the police automatically blame the lorry driver,
DVSA pull lorries in and do their best to get a fine,
Tachograph has to be kept within the law, and on a break means on a break, no work is permitted,
Once was in a services on a break, 10 minutes later a plant lorry pulled in beside me,
Driver must of put Tachograph on break, got out went inside back out 10 minutes later back to his lorry, he opened the door and put something in his cab, he then walked around his lorry and pulled at the straps to check they were tight, back to the cab, the gestapo in the DVSA car came over, they checked and gave him a fine of £60, as checking his straps as it is classed as work, yet his Tachograph said he was on rest,

And that about sums it up, why there is a shortage of drivers

Which bit was better at anytime in the past ?

 

[kiwi pom]

Transport companies have been saying there's a driver shortage for years, it might be a bit truer now but its also being used as an excuse far more than it should. A bit like Brexit and Covid really, 'yes sir the drivers running late for some reason, I'll call him and give him a rev up' has been replaced with, 'sorry sir we just can't get drivers, nobody wants to work for a living anymore'.
Easy excuse to cover all kinds of other screw ups and poor planning.

 

[Hilly]

Transport companies have been saying there's a driver shortage for years, it might be a bit truer now but its also being used as an excuse far more than it should. A bit like Brexit and Covid really, 'yes sir the drivers running late for some reason, I'll call him and give him a rev up' has been replaced with, 'sorry sir we just can't get drivers, nobody wants to work for a living anymore'.
Easy excuse to cover all kinds of other screw ups and poor planning.

Hmmmm their are lots of wagons parked up with no drivers you know. .

 

[mountfarm]

How bad is it? I asked a rep to get my rape shifted asap this morning as need the space for barley but he said he would try his best but can’t promise anything due to the lorry driver shortage in the country. Personally think he’s at it but could be wrong.

Yes really bad. Some drivers are demanding £35/hour

 

[mountfarm]

Saw my wife’s cousin recently, just left university with a sociology degree and applying to get on a trainee civil servants scheme.

I bet the scheme is hugely oversubscribed and a job at Tesco awaits.

Few younger lads just out of uni with various degrees such as engineering who can’t get jobs and are working for the likes of dhl/fed-ex.

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

Yes really bad. Some drivers are demanding £35/hour

They might find themselves getting let go and end up in a worse job then they had,
or on the dole,

 

[caveman]

The pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap model is cracking up.

 

[betweenthelines]

Is it any different than a driver going out partying half the night and being tired next day or playing playstation

If a truck driver is involved in a fatal RTA, everything he has done over the last few hours and days will be looked into, and if he has driven "tired" it's not just down to him. If his employer knowingly allows him to drive when not fit to do so the employer is also a fault. In reality that means if a driver turns up for work and says something like "Hardly slept last night, the neighbours had a party that went on till 2 o'clock" he should be sent home.

Some drivers don't help themselves either. I had one guy turn up for a shift who had pulled a shoulder muscle and couldn't move his right arm-he said he was fit to drive as the truck was an automatic!

 

[tepapa]

Yes really bad. Some drivers are demanding £35/hour

They are supplying the lorry and diesel for that price I hope . Be the same as farm lads carting silage for £25/hr on their own diesel.

 

[deleted user 436632456]

Or the boss is just a greedy sod….

Would you take a £56,000 pay cut easily??

It's far more than he will be taking out of the business as it is

 

[Devil's advocate]

I bet hundreds of farmers would, we are used to driving large vehicles often in tight spaces we can back into far tighter spaces than most artics have too, we arent all driving flat out with our phones to our ears

truck cabs so different.

Tractors you can see so much more, even the way your front wheels are pointing.

 

[kiwi pom]

Hmmmm their are lots of wagons parked up with no drivers you know. .

Yes there are, its true there is more of a shortage now but it'd bet the no driver excuse is being used in a lot of situations where its not true.
Hasn't there been a big reduction in haulage companies doing tipper work in recent years due to poor rates? The grain companies don't have to admit to paying low rates now they can just say there's no drivers to move the harvest. Blame nicely shifted.

 

[deleted user 436632456]

The middle of the night, the A75, a fridge unit and a mag**t (Some will know, some won't) and the keyphrase coming down the CB "Go on ahead".. those where the glory days that all the money in the world can never replace.
I'm not condoning it but it happened and it was fun.

I feel sorry for so called drivers that are just in it for the money.

 

[Hilly]

The middle of the night, the A75, a fridge unit and a mag**t (Some will know, some won't) and the keyphrase coming down the CB "Go on ahead".. those where the glory days that all the money in the world can never replace.
I'm not condoning it but it happened and it was fun.

I feel sorry for so called drivers that are just in it for the money.

Good friend of mine drove timber during the glory days , given it up now , drives a tractor

 

[deleted user 436632456]

Good friend of mine drove timber during the glory days , given it up now , drives a tractor

Fun fact..
There is a well known traffic cop in the A75/M6 area who shares the same name as the breed of bull in your avatar... he's a nice guy

 

[Boohoo]

Tesco are advertising on the radio over here in N.I for HGV drivers and a £1000 bonus in sept 2022. No idea what the hourly rate is though.

£1000 is paid on 1st April 2022 if they are still employed on 11th March 2022. Hourly rate is currently £12.18.

Edit
@Alwaysinit what radio station were they advertising on? I heard they were going to do a radio advert but I didn't hear it.