Rationing

[Mouldy]

38 minutes ago, Coryton said:

Doesn't it depend when you got your license? I think that if you were entitled to drive them then you still are, but if you got your license after the rules changed then you need an extra entitlement.

As OBB said, that’s correct, but it does ultimately adversely impact the number of people who could potentially drive them.

[Vaughan]

I actually hold a CPC (certificate of professional competence) both national and international, from when I was driving in the 80s.  They were quite complicated exams, designed for transport managers of companies, not for drivers.  If you were an owner driver - a "subbie" - you needed it as you were running your own transport business.  Very often it was a subbie's wife who held the CPC as she was doing all the paperwork anyway!

Modern CPCs are not as complex but every HGV driver now has to have one, for some obscure reason, which certainly won't improve his driving!  So you not only have to spend a few thousand on training for the licence, you have to pay for the CPC training as well.  If that is not enough to put new people off the job, remember that you can't hold an HGV licence until you are 21.  Most young people leaving school have got settled into other jobs by then.

I don't think this has much to do with Brexit.  I think it has been "on the cards" for the last 10 years.  Even back when I was driving, we reckoned that it was almost impossible to get into an international artic and drive it 100 yards down the road, without breaking some little law or another.  It was bad enough then but I am very glad I am not still driving nowadays.

[CambridgeCabby]

My class 1 licence, I permitted to lapse many years ago now and wouldn’t contemplate reaquiring it , the rules and regulations that are demanded nowadays make the working life of an HGV driver very difficult and the rewards even more so.

The EU often saw many drivers from other member nations , let’s say, bending the rules on a regular basis , often failing to pay fines etc and making what should have been a level playing field , very much not so. This caused many drivers to seek new careers and many more not to enter the trade in the first place 

 

 

[andyg]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

I actually hold a CPC (certificate of professional competence) both national and international, from when I was driving in the 80s.  They were quite complicated exams, designed for transport managers of companies, not for drivers.  If you were an owner driver - a "subbie" - you needed it as you were running your own transport business.  Very often it was a subbie's wife who held the CPC as she was doing all the paperwork anyway!

Modern CPCs are not as complex but every HGV driver now has to have one, for some obscure reason, which certainly won't improve his driving!  So you not only have to spend a few thousand on training for the licence, you have to pay for the CPC training as well.  If that is not enough to put new people off the job, remember that you can't hold an HGV licence until you are 21.  Most young people leaving school have got settled into other jobs by then.

I don't think this has much to do with Brexit.  I think it has been "on the cards" for the last 10 years.  Even back when I was driving, we reckoned that it was almost impossible to get into an international artic and drive it 100 yards down the road, without breaking some little law or another.  It was bad enough then but I am very glad I am not still driving nowadays.

The EU enforced drivers cpc is complete nonsense, I've sat through days and days of utter drivel. A day in the life of a strawberry has to of been the worst by far. I've watched the full catalogue of scania produced driver training videos over and over again. I can honestly say with mu hand of my heart I've learnt very little over the last 7 years by attending these courses. Why on earth anyone would want to enter our industry is beyond me. In our experience the biggest single factor that has fueled these current shortages has nothing to do with brexit or covid. it's the changes made by HMRC to agencies drivers Ltd company status. They have just gone back to mainland Europe it's as simple as that. This is the case at all our depots nationwide. Hgv driver shortages are nothing new there has always been shortages especially in the south east. The industry needs to change if it wants new blood  to join, but sadly it won't and we will now see another influx of cheap imported labour from the African continent I suspect.

[SteveO]

Someone published what purported to be the wage rates paid by Eddie Stobart on FB recently, which came out at around £10 per hour.  If this is correct, I am not surprised that there is a shortage of HGV drivers. 

[Mouldy]

3 hours ago, Vaughan said:

I actually hold a CPC (certificate of professional competence) both national and international, from when I was driving in the 80s.  They were quite complicated exams, designed for transport managers of companies, not for drivers.  If you were an owner driver - a "subbie" - you needed it as you were running your own transport business.  Very often it was a subbie's wife who held the CPC as she was doing all the paperwork anyway!

Modern CPCs are not as complex but every HGV driver now has to have one, for some obscure reason, which certainly won't improve his driving!  So you not only have to spend a few thousand on training for the licence, you have to pay for the CPC training as well.  If that is not enough to put new people off the job, remember that you can't hold an HGV licence until you are 21.  Most young people leaving school have got settled into other jobs by then.

I don't think this has much to do with Brexit.  I think it has been "on the cards" for the last 10 years.  Even back when I was driving, we reckoned that it was almost impossible to get into an international artic and drive it 100 yards down the road, without breaking some little law or another.  It was bad enough then but I am very glad I am not still driving nowadays.

I also hold National and International CPC qualifications and have, in the past, been named on an Operators Licence.  The qualification still exists alongside the DCPC, which is the one that LGV drivers are required to hold and is very much more difficult examination to pass than the somewhat ‘mickey mouse’ drivers cpc that was only introduced to try to give some credence to the profession and ensure that drivers were up to date with new regulations.  It doesn’t involve any exams or tests and cannot be failed.  All you have to do to get it is attend 35 hours of instruction over a five year period.