Lorry drivers and poor pay& conditions.

[Gingerbeard]

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 error. For example, if you have say 18 drops on your route, you may only have an hour to load and thats if you’re lucky. At the weekends it was often half an hour! If, like I experienced on many occasions, the picking wasn’t ready, you would be late starting out and there was no way you were making this time back. Most drivers would generally work through their breaks, just so they could try and finish on time. How this doesn’t break any driving regs I don’t know, perhaps it does and they need reporting! The companies expectations are such that you stay out until it’s all done, without any consideration for plans that you may have made for after your shift. It’s disgraceful!

My neighbours tried to work for them and lasted a week! They are fortunate and don’t need the money, I did and so had no choice but to stick it out. There is no way on earth I could have managed it full time though, I would have walked for sure! I have the upmost respect for those that do have to do this full time for a living, it must be brutal and they are made of sterner stuff than me…

 

[Monitor Gold 10]

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 error. For example, if you have say 18 drops on your route, you may only have an hour to load and thats if you’re lucky. At the weekends it was often half an hour! If, like I experienced on many occasions, the picking wasn’t ready, you would be late starting out and there was no way you were making this time back. Most drivers would generally work through their breaks, just so they could try and finish on time. How this doesn’t break any driving regs I don’t know, perhaps it does and they need reporting! The companies expectations are such that you stay out until it’s all done, without any consideration for plans that you may have made for after your shift. It’s disgraceful!

My neighbours tried to work for them and lasted a week! They are fortunate and don’t need the money, I did and so had no choice but to stick it out. There is no way on earth I could have managed it full time though, I would have walked for sure! I have the upmost respect for those that do have to do this full time for a living, it must be brutal and they are made of sterner stuff than me…

Thankyou very much for sharing your experiences with us. Makes interesting and informative reading. It is also damning on the culture of (yet another) an organisation that appears to put profits before people.

 

[Bananahead]

an organisation that appears to put profits before people.

I think that it is more complex than that. Consumers want low prices which means that costs are heavily controlled. How many threads have there been asking for low-cost delivery services? Maybe the organisation could buy more trucks, but can they staff them?

 

[richardg]

Can you back that up? Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place-

https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Fuel_Tanker_Driver/Hourly_Rate

I don't think it's necessary to back anything up, using that website as argument. I searched a few jobs on it, half if which raised an eyebrow. The best one was commercial divers, £26k, lol. I know a few in Hull. Some of them don't get out of bed for less than 100k

 

[davidsrsb]

Bizarre commentary on the news today, that they need to open up immigration to bring in drivers as young Brits would not want to be lorry drivers.
Until very recently most people took jobs to survive, not out of ambition. No schoolchild wants to be a binman, supply and demand raises pay to make it an acceptable job for the low skilled.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

I don't think it's necessary to back anything up, using that website as argument. I searched a few jobs on it, half if which raised an eyebrow. The best one was commercial divers, £26k, lol. I know a few in Hull. Some of them don't get out of bed for less than 100k

I doubt they start on £100k. I bet it’s like the oil industry where many have to cut their teeth working in the Middle East and beyond where the money might be good but the H&S and conditions are challenging. Then once they e a few years under their belts, the drag in the big wedge.

 

[richardg]

I doubt they start on £100k. I bet it’s like the oil industry where many have to cut their teeth working in the Middle East and beyond where the money might be good but the H&S and conditions are challenging. Then once they e a few years under their belts, the drag in the big wedge.

I doubt it too. But we are talking averages. And I simply don't believe that statistic. I'd say 26 was a starting salary. The very bottom.

 

[Monitor Gold 10]

I think that it is more complex than that. Consumers want low prices which means that costs are heavily controlled. How many threads have there been asking for low-cost delivery services? Maybe the organisation could buy more trucks, but can they staff them?

It is probably a complex situation, however decent pay and conditions would be a good starting point.

I have put a lot of time and effort into making sure my colleagues and I have decent conditions. I successfully campaigned for Meal Relief Facilities some time ago.

If the job isn't appealing- for whatever reason (s) it is in the interest of the employers to make the necessary improvements.

Especially as the UKG does not appear to be keen to hire EU Driving Staff...

 

[cctaylor]

All too easy for government to say "train Brits to drive lorries". This doesn't address the immediate shortage. Covid has disrupted both training of new drivers and the driving tests. The training and testing systems have limited capacity and it will be a considerable time before the current shortage can be filled.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

All too easy for government to say "train Brits to drive lorries". This doesn't address the immediate shortage. Covid has disrupted both training of new drivers and the driving tests. The training and testing systems have limited capacity and it will be a considerable time before the current shortage can be filled.

Better Ts & Cs might attract back some qualified drivers who have left, perhaps?

 

[TheDecameron]

All too easy for government to say "train Brits to drive lorries". This doesn't address the immediate shortage. Covid has disrupted both training of new drivers and the driving tests. The training and testing systems have limited capacity and it will be a considerable time before the current shortage can be filled.

It’s even worse with medical manpower. “We’ll train more British doctors”. Well it takes around ca.13 years to turn a university entrant into a consultant. The great myth that ‘they’re coming here and taking our jobs’ laid bare and worse, no strategic planning to deal with the consequences five years after they triggered Article 50.

 

[MichaelC]

And throw in the law of unintended consequences, IR35. Many hgv drivers operated via their own companies (albeit not owning their own tractor units). With IR35 a number left the industry. Brexit has obviously driven (unintended pun) away the continental drivers. And as for our ministers, err, how long does it take to qualify as an hgv driver? Oh, I suspect COVID has significantly reduced the amount of training and testing time…

 

[matt j]

Perhaps they're just going to fudge things along until self driving lorries are up and running.

 

[davidsrsb]

Perhaps they're just going to fudge things along until self driving lorries are up and running.

Using EV lorries charged by the fusion reactors

 

[The Far North]

Kwasi Kwarteng believes he has identified a solution to this problem. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58364308

He added that the government had confirmed funding of up to £7,000 per apprenticeship from August for people training to be a lorry driver, while there was also grant funding to train military service leavers, ex-offenders and the long-term unemployed to move into lorry driving.

 

[matt j]

Using EV lorries charged by the fusion reactors

More likely the electric trolley bus approach they're going to trial here. Have the large hubs on main arteries with their own slip roads for the lorry trains to get on/off at, then use smaller EV vans for the local distribution.

One big bonus being is that all the lorries will be restricted to the inside lane freeing up the rest of the road for regular traffic, so less congestion as there'll be no more waiting to get past three wagons trying to pass each other over 10 miles at 56mph.

 

[Brian]

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 error. For example, if you have say 18 drops on your route, you may only have an hour to load and thats if you’re lucky. At the weekends it was often half an hour! If, like I experienced on many occasions, the picking wasn’t ready, you would be late starting out and there was no way you were making this time back. Most drivers would generally work through their breaks, just so they could try and finish on time. How this doesn’t break any driving regs I don’t know, perhaps it does and they need reporting! The companies expectations are such that you stay out until it’s all done, without any consideration for plans that you may have made for after your shift. It’s disgraceful!

My neighbours tried to work for them and lasted a week! They are fortunate and don’t need the money, I did and so had no choice but to stick it out. There is no way on earth I could have managed it full time though, I would have walked for sure! I have the upmost respect for those that do have to do this full time for a living, it must be brutal and they are made of sterner stuff than me…

It’s not a surprise. This is the exact sort of thing the UK needs to move away from.

Thankyou very much for sharing your experiences with us. Makes interesting and informative reading. It is also damning on the culture of (yet another) an organisation that appears to put profits before people.

Exactly. Just to repeat, as a country we need to move away from this, there is a balance, greed for excess profit has been ruining the UK for a long time.

I think that it is more complex than that. Consumers want low prices which means that costs are heavily controlled. How many threads have there been asking for low-cost delivery services? Maybe the organisation could buy more trucks, but can they staff them?

So we’re told by the corporations that treat their employees like crap. I really don’t buy it. People will buy what is available, low prices are more a feature of how the UK economy operates rather than what people want or demand.

 

[Brian]

Kwasi Kwarteng believes he has identified a solution to this problem. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58364308

I know it’s unrealistic to expect this from some UK businesses, but they should be offering training and should never have stopped training new people. Having been able to recruit trained people for many years I doubt some of the 40-50 year olds running businesses nowadays even know what training staff means, or how to go about doing it.

 

[Copperjacket]

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.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

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.

Yes indeed. Copperjacket highlighted several of these, upthread. These aren’t things more pay will fix, either. But also, he mentions delays in loading/picking, and this is easily and quickly fixed by employing more warehouse staff, so lorries spend the minimum time loading and the maximum time delivering.