The latest issue of Motor Transport carries an in-depth analysis of the HGV driver shortage but here one anonymous driver gives a different perspective on why the transport industry is finding it so hard to hang on to younger drivers.
I’m a fuel tanker driver in my late 50s. I work for a medium-sized company with seven drivers. Three of us are now part time, four are full. All of us are over 40. We’re about to lose the second of our youngest drivers this autumn. The reasons?
Despite being very profitable and a new fleet of tankers to drive our terms and conditions are very poor. The youngest driver had a pay rise in April; why? Because the minimum wage went above his £12 an hour rate. The rest of us have had one rise in six years - that means come April we’ll be earning just over a pound an hour more than the new rate. This for driving Class 1 fuel tankers.
Everything else in the contracts is just the minimum holiday and statutory sick pay and nothing else. We get £35 for a new pair of boots, once a year.
These are the reasons why there is such a shortage of drivers. It cost me a small fortune to pay for my Class 1 licence and ADR certificate and I borrowed the money. So 31 years of experience, thousands of pounds worth of training, for what? Less than £30,000 a year basic to drive a £450,000 gas tanker and drive 25 miles to get there in the morning. I’ll be hanging up my keys soon as will two other colleagues, both well over 60.
No real mystery then why there’s going to be a shortage. You just don’t feel like you’re remotely valued.
Email address supplied.
