Why is transport the only inflation free job?

[leggly]

When I was tramping back in the late eighties/ early nineties, night out money was around £25. Imagine my surprise when I did a weeks work for a company recently and the night out payment hasn’t changed! The fact drivers will put up with this situation is shocking to say the least, why aren’t your unions fighting your corner? I will guarantee your transport managers don’t exist on twenty five quid a night if they have to travel. They definitely don’t sleep where they work. It is time to wake up chaps.

[fttm]

Best of luck with your campaign fella , uniting drivers will never happen and thanks to the likes of Stobarts Wincanton and the rest of the logistic companies it's a race to the bottom. Couple that with auto trucks , sat nav , tautliners ,there's absolutely no personal skill involved with the job nowadays. Own account drivers aside , it's a case of pay peanuts get bums on seats .

[mike74]

Unless you can somehow roll back the last 20+ years of mass immigration which has resulted in an over supply of cheap and easy labour for our Corporatist/Globalist leaders to take advantage of, with stagnant wage levels, ever worse T&C's and erosion of employment rights then I don't think you can do much about it.

[leggly]

I’m not going to even try. I gave up sleeping in tin cans years ago, I was just staggered that the money hasn’t increased in thirty years.

[CX53]

It’s not the only Inflation free job. I work in motorsport and there is always a high demand for skilled contractors. The rate doesn’t appear to have gone up since I started ten years ago, and only a few pounds per hour since the nineties. It used to be a good job, now it’s just an average job with long hours to match, similar to what a mate of mine says who does class 1 driving through a ltd company/agency.

[red_slr]

IMHO, (aside from all the other changes) the cost to actually keep a driver in the job has gone through the roof.

28 days holiday
Work Place Pension
Increases in NMW
Driver CPC
On the job training and quals like ADR, CSCS, W@H, Lifting, Hiab, moffett etc etc.
EU Drivers Hours Rules
Paternity Pay and Paternity Leave
More stuff that probably slips my mind,,,

30 years ago, Dave from down the pub would jump in a 7.5t with GFR and drive on £4.hr.

The vast majority of the above simply did not apply.

So Dave on £4hr in 1990 might cost a business £5/hr. But in 2019 Dave on £8.50hr might cost a business £15hr.

IYSWIM.

[Countdown]

mike74 said:

Unless you can somehow roll back the last 20+ years of mass immigration which has resulted in an over supply of cheap and easy labour for our Corporatist/Globalist leaders to take advantage of, with stagnant wage levels, ever worse T&C's and erosion of employment rights then I don't think you can do much about it.

Are most UK-based HGV drivers “immigrants”?

[mike74]

Countdown said:

Are most UK-based HGV drivers “immigrants”?

I was referring to the unskilled/low skilled jobs sector in general.

Not sure where I stated that ''most UK based HGV drivers are immigrants''... can you point it out to me where I said that?

But yes I suspect the impact of an oversupply of cheap labour through mass immigration, resulting in suppressed wages and eroded T&C's has had just as much of an impact on HGV driving as any other low skilled job sector in the UK.

[Teddy Lop]

I think loads of industries have suffering stagnant wages, I'm a spark and went self employed about 16 years ago but keep my eye on the jobs market as a form of occasional masochism, rates seemed flat for yeeeeeaaaarss until about 18 months or so when I looked and they seemed to have jumped a fair bit.

Fingers crossed its something thats filtering through, as said easy immigration suppresses wages especially so the lesser skilled you get (and no offence my industry suffers from the race to the bottom too, but that's exactly what many will see it as when you can grab some mug off the street and chuck them at a 1 or 2 week or whatever course)

[Countdown]

mike74 said:

Countdown said:

Are most UK-based HGV drivers “immigrants”?

I was referring to the unskilled/low skilled jobs sector in general.

Not sure where I stated that ''most UK based HGV drivers are immigrants''... can you point it out to me where I said that?

But yes I suspect the impact of an oversupply of cheap labour through mass immigration, resulting in suppressed wages and eroded T&C's has had just as much of an impact on HGV driving as any other low skilled job sector in the UK.

I agree that unskilled jobs have been affected by immigration - personally I wouldn’t have put HGV driving in that category, however YMMV.

In relation to the bit in bold - the OP’s asking why salaries/benefits for drivers dont appear to have increased and you reference “mass immigration” in your response. I was just wondering how/why you would link the two.

[mike74]

Countdown said:

I agree that unskilled jobs have been affected by immigration - personally I wouldn’t have put HGV driving in that category, however YMMV.

In relation to the bit in bold - the OP’s asking why salaries/benefits for drivers dont appear to have increased and you reference “mass immigration” in your response. I was just wondering how/why you would link the two.

Seem to be going round in circles here but I'll say again... I was referring to the wider unskilled/low skilled jobs market, and that HGV driving is no different to any other job in that sector when it comes to the effects of oversupply of labour through mass immigration.

[grumpy52]

The opening up of EU labour markets killed most of the transport industry .
East European companies and the European motor industry logistics train employing drivers for €25 per day and nil night out money aided the race to the bottom of the pond . The diluting of the unions didn't help, along with the crippling fuel costs in this country haven't helped .
The public attitudes and perception of truckers also don't help .
It's a job that I loved doing and miss it like mad . If it wasn't for ill health I would still be doing it .