Food Crisis.

[Midnitemo]

was a truckdriver for many years(second career)and still have a lot of friends currently doing it....this figure of 70,000 drivers short is wishful thinking on the part business owners/management , currently most truckers are up around £10 p/h and that's to much in the eyes of management , if they could tempt more people into getting a licence and create even more competition for jobs they could drive the wages/costs down(I gave up trucking in 2003 and was on £7.77 p/h basic then...I think this is the price point employers would like to get back to)

[Sunna]

good post me , around my area the hgv wage has droped from £10ph class 2 , as low as £7.30p but most agencys pay around £8 to £8.50 .
if you think of the cost involved to get at 1st a 7.5 ton then move up to a class 2 that's got to be as high as £5000 /£6000 they pay £till staff in aldi £7.50ph to start so if you are a young chap would you spend that sort of cash to ern £8 ph.

[bigpaul]

when I had my HGV licence back in the 80s we were told we needed about 140,000 new drivers just for existing fleets never mind new ones, but as a newly qualified driver could I get a job?could I heck!

[Midnitemo]

no job no experience!...no experience no job! , I worked my way through some really crap jobs til I get into the better stuff...my last job was Asda wal mart which at the time around my area was considered a cream job , £350 a week basic(45 hours) with as much overtime available as you wanted to do paid with a premium , full sick pay(none of this ssp shit)average earnings holiday pay , training/uniforms/boots , good pension , new lorries, all laws to be adhered to , nice clean safe work , subsidised canteen's......not many employers left like that now, even Asda wal mart is not the job it once was since the yanks took over , they have eroded the job and undermined the union wherever possible.