advertisement


Lorry drivers and poor pay& conditions.

I doubt whether many of us have the slightest clue about what’s involved in many jobs outside of those that family and very close friends do.
If anyone goes into lorry driving expecting to be treated well, they’re deluded. When I was planning the end of my time in the RAF and looking at resettlement courses, I was warned away from going down the HGV route by a couple of older guys. They were correct. That was in the late 80s.
I doubt many people are, in 2021, saying their job is better than it was in 1980. Everyone I speak to says theirs is worse and they’re looking forward to retirement.

Getting a load to the ferry on time? How about fixing an airliner overnight in crappy weather, then signing your life away on the reams of paperwork that has been designed to just catch you out, then seeing your work go airborne with 300 people on board? Or seeing the helicopter you’ve just worked on go into an aerobatic display practice? And all for less than some tanker drivers pull in?

I’ve no sympathy for anyone who doesn’t like the job they’re in. Especially at the moment when there are so many thousands of job vacancies.
There we find a man who is one of the lucky ones who managed to find a job he likes and is satisfied by. There were only two jobs that might have been right for me. Unfortunately Keith Richards beat me to one of them and George Best to the other.
 
There we find a man who is one of the lucky ones who managed to find a job he likes and is satisfied by. There were only two jobs that might have been right for me. Unfortunately Keith Richards beat me to one of them and George Best to the other.


I don’t mind admitting that, at least in my current job, I feel extremely fortunate, and as much through luck as anything else.
 
Almost half of the 515,000 HGV licence holders in the UK don’t drive lorries. Address the reasons why they leave the industry may well ameliorate the shortage faster than trying to train new talent.
Interesting that the industry itself seems to prefer the ‘Skilled worker visa’ route. I wonder why?

I see IR35 also gets a mention. I don’t see the problem regarding IR35 in general, tbh.

From the article...

As well not being included in the visa scheme, reforms to the IR35 tax ruleshave also made it less attractive for drivers from elsewhere in Europe to work or be employed in the UK.
 
I see IR35 also gets a mention. I don’t see the problem regarding IR35 in general, tbh.
If it wasn’t for Covid, the aircraft maintenance industry in Britain would be struggling now. It relied heavily on contractors.

I disagreed with it all as, very often, they weren’t really contractors. They worked long term, for one company, wire company clothing, and had to start and finish at allotted times. We’ll see next year, maybe.
 
We used to be a bit paranoid as employers when people went self employed for ages, never ever been inspected and this summer the last one decided to go on the payroll.

There are benefits when you're salaried.
 
In fact I spent a few years working as an HGV driver. There used to be a few decent jobs, but the availability of cheaper drivers (mostly from Eastern Europe) basically enabled companies to drive down costs by cutting pay and/or worsening conditions as part of restructuring operations or lost contracts.

In my case, I got a phone call on Friday evening telling me I was transferred to another company from Monday morning. We eventually won our cases at a tribunal thanks to union legal support. The payout wasn't much. Luckily I was able to get back into the work I was doing before driving.

Seems that now even the Eastern Europeans have better things to do than be treated like dirt driving in the UK. It's a mug's game and anyone considering entering the industry knows it.
 
Foreign worker visas are intended to drive down pay. In the extreme as in Malaysia and Singapore, about half the working population is temporary foreign labour.
This causes high underemployment or low pay for the less skilled local workforce, but is great for the businesses. It is sad passing through Changi airport seeing Singaporean cleaners in their 70s working because that is the safety net for people who were unable to earn enough when young to retire.
This model only works in an export driven economy, the local workers cannot afford to buy the things that they make
 
It's not just all about the money though, according to things you may not want to ponder. :eek: https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-kit-why-is-britain-running-out-of-everything
A lack of facilities and time pressure means drivers are often forced to use their cabs as toilets and wash by the side of the road. “The main thing you need for this job is a blanket, pillow, wet wipes and plastic bags,” says Hughes. “The laybys are sometimes covered in shit so it’s safer to crap in a plastic bag inside your cab. You wash with soap and water in a plastic bowl. It is degrading. It’s like living on the streets.”
 
Foreign worker visas are intended to drive down pay. In the extreme as in Malaysia and Singapore, about half the working population is temporary foreign labour.
This causes high underemployment or low pay for the less skilled local workforce, but is great for the businesses. It is sad passing through Changi airport seeing Singaporean cleaners in their 70s working because that is the safety net for people who were unable to earn enough when young to retire.
This model only works in an export driven economy, the local workers cannot afford to buy the things that they make

Daughter saw this a lot in the banana trade in Ecuador, Columbians nipped in for a day's work illegally.

Some days the employers, all well armed, simply decided at the end of the day not to pay anyone.
 
From the June 1979 'Truck' magazine 'Driver to Truck' section.

This section was devoted to Truckers responding to criticism from anti-road haulage groups.

This is an interesting contribution from Richard Price and Graham Moyse:

"Richard Price and Graham Moyse
both drive to the Continent with bulk plastic, Roger in a Volvo F10 and Graham in a Volvo 88. Their firm, Bryn Mallindine, is based in Malmesbury, a village near Swindon, where Graham also lives.

'It's best to keep a low profile to assist in relations with neighbours,' he said, admitting that there are problems for a heavy haulage firm in a small community.

'But I think most of the problems stem from this country's idea of status which the Continent doesn't have. Here a truck driver is the lowest of the low.'

Richard Price lives in the nearby village of Purton which is a short cut regularly used by trucks from Gloucester to the M4.

'I'd use the route myself if I ever had to go that way,' he said. 'I don't take too much notice of the way people complain about heavy loads. Somebody once complained about my truck parked in the village and my boss was told not to let me do it again. I was annoyed when I found out that the man who complained had been out of work for years'."

I feel Graham Price nailed it when he mentioned 'status'.

I wholeheartedly agree and that part isn't much different these days. If anything it seems worse- I can only go on some of the abuse I've experienced as a Bus Driver of course.
 
Having just quit a part time job as a delivery driver for Waitrose I can tell you, from first hand experience, that it is not an easy job. You are, most of the time flat out for a solid 8 to 9 hours. It is a lot more labour intensive than you might imagine and the area we covered was huge, so you did some good mileage. It was genuinely tiring.

Like all large corporations, it is run to the wire, so there is literally no margin for…


Ah well a country dominated by finance and not understanding or will to pay for resilience finds out what happens when a shock occurs to the system.
 
From a John Harris Guardian piece on the wider issue of labour shortages. (my bold) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/30/britain-labour-shortage-workers
Which brings us to the kind of work that sits at the core of the crisis. The haulage industry is reckoned to be short of around 100,000 drivers. Some of this is to do with Brexit, but it also reveals deeper, more structural problems evident in many countries. For lorry drivers, median hourly pay stands at £11.80, work is often arduous and massively time-consuming, and the majority of the workforce is over 45. Via such services as Amazon Prime, we have been encouraged to believe that the costs of post and packaging can be waved away, and transport can somehow be organised for free – an insidious idea that has accelerated the downward slide of pay and conditions.

Adrian Jones, the Unite union’s national officer for road transport, says “a lot of chickens have come home to roost”. He is now seeing pay increases for drivers that are three or four times the rate of inflation, and he wants more. A fragmented industry, he says, ought to be compelled to agree a floor on pay and basic standards, as happens in the Netherlands. In the short to medium term, the haulage industry’s problems will be seen in confusion and economic disarray – but the sudden sense of urgency surrounding such proposals shows that fundamental things might already be changing for the better.
 
Perhaps a genuine Brexit bonus. In all seriousness, I know a lot of people thought that sending the East Europeans home would put pressure on employers to improve pay and conditions. I hope they are proven right on this one.
 
From a John Harris Guardian piece on the wider issue of labour shortages. (my bold) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/30/britain-labour-shortage-workers

Interesting words from Unite. I get the impression that they are great at talking and not so great at taking action.

I've done a lot of stuff at work which one might reasonably expect a TU Representative to do.

One could be forgiven for wondering if Unite is a fundraising unit for the Labour Party.

A different industry, but you get the idea:

https://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/news/croydon-news/accident-fears-croydon-bus-drivers-875712

I put a lot research and work into campaigning for the facility that we have. I was the one updating colleagues, writing emails to my Local MP, TfL and the HSE as well as carrying out research into the rights od Whistle-blowers, Provision of Welfare, etc.

No information at all on the TU Notice Board.

In fact the response from the TU Representative was: "...You are Mobile Workers so the company does not have to provide you with facilities..."
 
Perhaps a genuine Brexit bonus. In all seriousness, I know a lot of people thought that sending the East Europeans home would put pressure on employers to improve pay and conditions. I hope they are proven right on this one.
Great idea. Get the unemployed off their fat arses and ...then back onto their fat arses except this time at the wheel of an articulated lorry :).

A long-time trucker friend says hes never had it so good and has just bough his first electric car for about £55k.

Aye life can be alright in the slow (limited to 56 mph) lane.
 


advertisement


Back
Top