Lorry driver shortage

farmerfred86

Member
BASIS
Location
Suffolk
Sugar beet harvest has started and already the warning signs are there.
im not sure BS are ready for it, rates are just not enough and factories will seriously struggle. Another nail in the coffin for beet!
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Sugar beet harvest has started and already the warning signs are there.
im not sure BS are ready for it, rates are just not enough and factories will seriously struggle. Another nail in the coffin for beet!
How far away are the factories?
A lot of the AD lot seem to cart for miles with tractors and trailers. Perhaps the 60kph Fendt's and 20 ton grain trailers could do it?
Must be heaps of them sitting idle over winter?
 

Sambo

Member
Screenshot_20210914-182138_Facebook.jpg


Not just driver shortages adding to the problems.
 

Wolds Beef

Member
That would bring back memories!! IH674 and 10 ton trailer. Bardney(now closed) was about 15 miles away. I led 1500 tons by Christmas one year and sat down for Christmas dinner and said to my father that I was getting my HGV and he was buying me a truck!!. We bought a 10 tonne Clydsdale truck and I passed my test at the second time of asking on the first day of the centenary Lincolnshire Show.
WB
Been there, done that.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
View attachment 985947

Not just driver shortages adding to the problems.
If the driver had arrived at 8.20 they would still have been sitting there at 9 anyway so no difference.
Its like the, drivers have to wait in a little hut with no access to facilities rule. If every driver told the shipper/receiver to feck off and were backed up by their employer it wouldn't be a thing.
Its not just farmers that can't stick together.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
If the driver had arrived at 8.20 they would still have been sitting there at 9 anyway so no difference.
Its like the, drivers have to wait in a little hut with no access to facilities rule. If every driver told the shipper/receiver to feck off and were backed up by their employer it wouldn't be a thing.
Its not just farmers that can't stick together.

Now you're dreaming. Employers would rather sh!t on a driver from great height and cover their own arse. After all, they can always get another driver from the agency... Oops, looks like that trick has expired.
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
How far away are the factories?
A lot of the AD lot seem to cart for miles with tractors and trailers. Perhaps the 60kph Fendt's and 20 ton grain trailers could do it?
Must be heaps of them sitting idle over winter?
Yesterday my son went from Sleaford to Brigg 45 miles Brigg to Spalding 70 miles Spalding to Markham Moor 60 miles started at 7.30 finished at 3.00 pm some off that was done at 30 mph with a combine header on the back most at 40 mph. This was with a Fendt 939 which has now been sold so he now has to use a Claas but they only do 55 kph apparently.
That would bring back memories!! IH674 and 10 ton trailer. Bardney(now closed) was about 15 miles away. I led 1500 tons by Christmas one year and sat down for Christmas dinner and said to my father that I was getting my HGV and he was buying me a truck!!. We bought a 10 tonne Clydsdale truck and I passed my test at the second time of asking on the first day of the centenary Lincolnshire Show.
WB
Been there, done that.
i had two campaigns at Bardney in the labs probably the most miserable time of my life. I used to watch the tractors and trailers coming in longingly. Taught me a lesson which was doesn’t matter how much you earn you have to enjoy what you do which might explain why people aren’t keen to drive a lorry day in day out.
 
Last edited:

Hooby Farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
roe valley
The guy that works to me part time is a truck driver. He was offered a Mon-Fri long haul job £1000/week. He currently works for a big recycling firm, he's on £15/hour plus time and half if he works Sundays and gets a £3000 bonus every 6 months. @Sambo The company he works for charges £200/hour If they go to site and have to wait more than 45mins after their allotted time, I know its waste disposal and not really delivering goods as such but I like the idea maybe more hauliers should starting doing it.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
How far away are the factories?
A lot of the AD lot seem to cart for miles with tractors and trailers. Perhaps the 60kph Fendt's and 20 ton grain trailers could do it?
Must be heaps of them sitting idle over winter?
yep that might be a solution, could also let/encourage lorry drivers to brake the law and get more done which I would think they could if the rules like speed limits and weight limits and why not throw out drivers hours while we are at it ?
 

caveman

Member
Location
East Sussex.
I remember way back in the 1990's, when I was owner driving and there were severe weather problems, there was dispensation whereby we were allowed to ignore hour's rules in order to get fruit to market and shift other essentials around.
Much the same could easily be done now.
 

roscoe erf

Member
Livestock Farmer

Jim Titheridge

17 September at 06:17 ·
So, you are running out of food on the shelves, fuel in the garages, you can’t buy things you need, because the shops can’t get their supplies.
Why is that?
A shortage of goods? No
A shortage of money? No
A shortage of drivers to deliver the goods? Well, sort of.
There isn’t actually a shortage of drivers, what we have, is a shortage of people who can drive, that are willing to drive any more. You might wonder why that is. I can’t answer for all drivers, but I can give you the reason I no longer drive. Driving was something I always yearned to do as a young boy, and as soon as I could, I managed to get my driving licence, I even joined the army to get my HGV licence faster, I held my licence at the age of 17. It was all I ever wanted to do, drive trucks, I had that vision of being a knight of the roads, bringing the goods to everyone, providing a service everyone needed. What I didn’t take into account was the absolute abuse my profession would get over the years.
I have seen a massive decline in the respect this trade has, first, it was the erosion of truck parking and transport café’s, then it was the massive increase in restricting where I could stop, timed weight limits in just about every city and town, but not all the time, you can get there to do your delivery, but you can’t stay there, nobody wants an empty truck, nobody wants you there once they have what they did want.
Compare France to the UK. I can park in nearly every town or village, they have marked truck parking bays, and somewhere nearby, will be a small routier, where I can get a meal and a shower, the locals respect me, and have no problems with me or my truck being there for the night.
Go out onto the motorway services, and I can park for no cost, go into the service area, and get a shower for a minimal cost, and have freshly cooked food, I even get to jump the queues, because others know that my time is limited, and respect I am there because it is my job. Add to that, I even get a 20% discount of all I purchase. Compare that to the UK £25-£40 just to park overnight, dirty showers, and expensive, dried (under heat lamps) food that is overpriced, and I have no choice but to park there, because you don’t want me in your towns and cities.
Ask yourself how you would feel, if doing your job actually cost you money at the end of the day, just so you could rest.
But that isn’t the half of it. Not only have we been rejected from our towns and cities, but we have also suffered massive pay cuts, because of the influx of foreign drivers willing to work for a wage that is high where they come from, companies eagerly recruited from the eastern bloc, who can blame them, why pay good money when you can get cheap labour, and a never ending supply of it as well. Never mind that their own countries would suffer from a shortage themselves, that was never our problem, they could always get people from further afield if they needed drivers.
We were once seen as knights of the road, now we are seen as the lepers of society. Why would anyone want to go back to that?
If you are worried about not getting supplies on your supermarket shelves, ask your local council just how well they cater for trucks in your district.
I know Canterbury has the grand total of zero truck parking facilities, but does have a lot of restrictions, making it difficult for trucks to stop anywhere.
Do you want me to go back to driving trucks? Give me a good reason to do so. Give anyone a good reason to take it up as a profession.
Perhaps once you work out why you can’t, you will understand why your shelves are not as full as they could be.
I tried it for over 30 years, but will never go back, you just couldn't pay me enough.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset

Jim Titheridge

17 September at 06:17 ·
So, you are running out of food on the shelves, fuel in the garages, you can’t buy things you need, because the shops can’t get their supplies.
Why is that?
A shortage of goods? No
A shortage of money? No
A shortage of drivers to deliver the goods? Well, sort of.
There isn’t actually a shortage of drivers, what we have, is a shortage of people who can drive, that are willing to drive any more. You might wonder why that is. I can’t answer for all drivers, but I can give you the reason I no longer drive. Driving was something I always yearned to do as a young boy, and as soon as I could, I managed to get my driving licence, I even joined the army to get my HGV licence faster, I held my licence at the age of 17. It was all I ever wanted to do, drive trucks, I had that vision of being a knight of the roads, bringing the goods to everyone, providing a service everyone needed. What I didn’t take into account was the absolute abuse my profession would get over the years.
I have seen a massive decline in the respect this trade has, first, it was the erosion of truck parking and transport café’s, then it was the massive increase in restricting where I could stop, timed weight limits in just about every city and town, but not all the time, you can get there to do your delivery, but you can’t stay there, nobody wants an empty truck, nobody wants you there once they have what they did want.
Compare France to the UK. I can park in nearly every town or village, they have marked truck parking bays, and somewhere nearby, will be a small routier, where I can get a meal and a shower, the locals respect me, and have no problems with me or my truck being there for the night.
Go out onto the motorway services, and I can park for no cost, go into the service area, and get a shower for a minimal cost, and have freshly cooked food, I even get to jump the queues, because others know that my time is limited, and respect I am there because it is my job. Add to that, I even get a 20% discount of all I purchase. Compare that to the UK £25-£40 just to park overnight, dirty showers, and expensive, dried (under heat lamps) food that is overpriced, and I have no choice but to park there, because you don’t want me in your towns and cities.
Ask yourself how you would feel, if doing your job actually cost you money at the end of the day, just so you could rest.
But that isn’t the half of it. Not only have we been rejected from our towns and cities, but we have also suffered massive pay cuts, because of the influx of foreign drivers willing to work for a wage that is high where they come from, companies eagerly recruited from the eastern bloc, who can blame them, why pay good money when you can get cheap labour, and a never ending supply of it as well. Never mind that their own countries would suffer from a shortage themselves, that was never our problem, they could always get people from further afield if they needed drivers.
We were once seen as knights of the road, now we are seen as the lepers of society. Why would anyone want to go back to that?
If you are worried about not getting supplies on your supermarket shelves, ask your local council just how well they cater for trucks in your district.
I know Canterbury has the grand total of zero truck parking facilities, but does have a lot of restrictions, making it difficult for trucks to stop anywhere.
Do you want me to go back to driving trucks? Give me a good reason to do so. Give anyone a good reason to take it up as a profession.
Perhaps once you work out why you can’t, you will understand why your shelves are not as full as they could be.
I tried it for over 30 years, but will never go back, you just couldn't pay me enough.
Talking to a few truck drivers of late this is just about right, others seem to go out of their way to make the job as miserable as it can be, talking to one driver that I have known for 30 years he said the job went down hill when the foreign drivers came in and has got worse since,
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer

Jim Titheridge

17 September at 06:17 ·
So, you are running out of food on the shelves, fuel in the garages, you can’t buy things you need, because the shops can’t get their supplies.
Why is that?
A shortage of goods? No
A shortage of money? No
A shortage of drivers to deliver the goods? Well, sort of.
There isn’t actually a shortage of drivers, what we have, is a shortage of people who can drive, that are willing to drive any more. You might wonder why that is. I can’t answer for all drivers, but I can give you the reason I no longer drive. Driving was something I always yearned to do as a young boy, and as soon as I could, I managed to get my driving licence, I even joined the army to get my HGV licence faster, I held my licence at the age of 17. It was all I ever wanted to do, drive trucks, I had that vision of being a knight of the roads, bringing the goods to everyone, providing a service everyone needed. What I didn’t take into account was the absolute abuse my profession would get over the years.
I have seen a massive decline in the respect this trade has, first, it was the erosion of truck parking and transport café’s, then it was the massive increase in restricting where I could stop, timed weight limits in just about every city and town, but not all the time, you can get there to do your delivery, but you can’t stay there, nobody wants an empty truck, nobody wants you there once they have what they did want.
Compare France to the UK. I can park in nearly every town or village, they have marked truck parking bays, and somewhere nearby, will be a small routier, where I can get a meal and a shower, the locals respect me, and have no problems with me or my truck being there for the night.
Go out onto the motorway services, and I can park for no cost, go into the service area, and get a shower for a minimal cost, and have freshly cooked food, I even get to jump the queues, because others know that my time is limited, and respect I am there because it is my job. Add to that, I even get a 20% discount of all I purchase. Compare that to the UK £25-£40 just to park overnight, dirty showers, and expensive, dried (under heat lamps) food that is overpriced, and I have no choice but to park there, because you don’t want me in your towns and cities.
Ask yourself how you would feel, if doing your job actually cost you money at the end of the day, just so you could rest.
But that isn’t the half of it. Not only have we been rejected from our towns and cities, but we have also suffered massive pay cuts, because of the influx of foreign drivers willing to work for a wage that is high where they come from, companies eagerly recruited from the eastern bloc, who can blame them, why pay good money when you can get cheap labour, and a never ending supply of it as well. Never mind that their own countries would suffer from a shortage themselves, that was never our problem, they could always get people from further afield if they needed drivers.
We were once seen as knights of the road, now we are seen as the lepers of society. Why would anyone want to go back to that?
If you are worried about not getting supplies on your supermarket shelves, ask your local council just how well they cater for trucks in your district.
I know Canterbury has the grand total of zero truck parking facilities, but does have a lot of restrictions, making it difficult for trucks to stop anywhere.
Do you want me to go back to driving trucks? Give me a good reason to do so. Give anyone a good reason to take it up as a profession.
Perhaps once you work out why you can’t, you will understand why your shelves are not as full as they could be.
I tried it for over 30 years, but will never go back, you just couldn't pay me enough.
I have always felt it is the same with the NHS, we happily import trained people from abroad, without a thought as to how it effects their country taking all their skilled people, rather than train our own. Immoral in my opinion, especially as we are such a wealthy country.

Years ago, when I was working training apprentices, I read an article in the business section of the paper talking about training. It said, that from an individual companies perspective it made far more financial sense not to bother training anyone, just poach them from another employer who did train. But from a countries point of view, it made sense to train, therefore it was the governments job to put incentives in place to make training worthwhile. However, I will add that a colleague worked before we were involved with government funding, and she said everything went down hill when the government (via training and enterprise councils as they were then) got involved. Politicians never just try to help, they always have to add their bit too and interfere (usually via pointless bureaucracy).

I think the crows are coming home to roost now, with our obsession with university instead of trades, as mentioned above, pointless rules which restrict drivers (local government again making rules without looking at the bigger picture).
 

Hilly

Member
I have always felt it is the same with the NHS, we happily import trained people from abroad, without a thought as to how it effects their country taking all their skilled people, rather than train our own. Immoral in my opinion, especially as we are such a wealthy country.
Years ago, when I was working training apprentices, I read an article in the business section of the paper talking about training. It said, that from an individual companies perspective it made far more financial sense not to bother training anyone, just poach them from another employer who did train. But from a countries point of view, it made sense to train, therefore it was the governments job to put incentives in place to make training worthwhile. However, I will add that a colleague worked before we were involved with government funding, and she said everything went down hill when the government (via training and enterprise councils as they were then) got involved. Politicians never just try to help, they always have to add their bit too and interfere (usually via pointless bureaucracy).

I think the crows are coming home to roost now, with our obsession with university instead of trades, as mentioned above, pointless rules which restrict drivers (local government again making rules without looking at the bigger picture).
My late father trained hundreds of apprentices , he used to get very frustrated by the way things were heading and used to say they will end up with no trades men and ones do have will be half trained , he wasn’t wrong , the university for all has done some damage to this country giving youth false hope .
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
My late father trained hundreds of apprentices , he used to get very frustrated by the way things were heading and used to say they will end up with no trades men and ones do have will be half trained , he wasn’t wrong , the university for all has done some damage to this country giving youth false hope .
we trained a few lads over the years who had degrees in sports science, even one who had a masters in Politics and International Relations, but he got fed up with the corporate world and wanted to become a carpenter, oh and another with a classics degree who became a sparky.
 

Hilly

Member
we trained a few lads over the years who had degrees in sports science, even one who had a masters in Politics and International Relations, but he got fed up with the corporate world and wanted to become a carpenter, oh and another with a classics degree who became a sparky.
Just a waste of time , the younger they get involved in a trade the better they learn , the late father used to call older apprentices diluties as their skills were diluted due to older learning , teen years is where the max amount of learning takes place .
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Just a waste of time , the younger they get involved in a trade the better they learn , the late father used to call older apprentices diluties as their skills were diluted due to older learning , teen years is where the max amount of learning takes place .
I always felt they had done it the wrong way round, should have done a trade, then maybe a few years later a degree in that subject, would have been far more use, had a few apprentices who did that or did a degree part time, so ended up without great debts.
 

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