Ask a haulier what he wants to be doing in
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10 years' time and he'll probably say "not this". But is it easier to get in than get out?
Mike Sherrington has been finding out.
Some would say the road haulage industry is like the devil's own party—admission's free, but you pay to get out. The truth is there are many problems which snag at the skirts of the transport industry. Attracting fresh recruits is difficult because, let's face it, long distance lorry driving isn't the sexiest job in (or out of) town. But once in, many truckers find it hard to make the journey from driving to another career, or even another job within haulage.
There are various reasons for this. One is the skills that truck drivers have are not the most transferable to other industries unless it is into another driving job of some kind. Another problem is that io years into most jobs, the mortgage and kids mean that you depend on drawing the kind of salary you have become accustomed to.
Also, when you ask most people what they would do if they left the industry they give a
small sigh and a smile; but there are those who got out and have come back.
One of these is Michael Spink. He started off, on leaving school, working in his father's haulage business, WG S pink & Co, which ran a fleet of six refrigerated vehicles on international work. When his father retired Spink, who was married by this time and less keen on international travel, got a job in vehicle maintenance. But he says: Most of the big dealerships started providing their own warranty system so the opportunities for independent maintenance work started to decline and there was not enough work to keep me going."
He then left the industry altogether to start buying and selling potatoes, but after a year that job started to go to seed on him so he is back working as a driver for his
brother-in-law's firm, Hutchinson Distribution, "I was never a scholar so what I could do was limited but at least in this job I get home every night," he says. "I am still
not sure whether I want to drive for the rest of my life—in the long term I am looking for a job in transport management."
But what opportunities are open for those who want to quit the industry? The advice from Neil Prestwich, senior manager with Hays Montrose Logistics Personnel in Manchester, is to stay put: "There are about 50,000 drivers who leave every year and only 22,000 coming in to replace them. We are having to put up our rates by about II an hour every year. Class i drivers are becoming gold dust and I estimate that they will be able to earn between Do-15 an hour in two or three years' time. So they should stay where they are."
Manual job
If they do opt out, of course, they can do any unskilled manual job providing they are fit, but there are also opportunities in transport management. Most management jobs we handle ask for Class I or Class 2 licences so that the managers will be able to move vehicles around the yard or in an emergency take them out on a job," says Prestwich. "There is also the feeling that these people understand drivers and can relate to them better." He adds that the other great national shortage is for HGV fitters, and this trade might attract former drivers.
There are signs that, at least in some areas, the driver shortage might be easing slightly. Another recruitment agency, Manpower, is to launch a nationwide driver recruitment cam paign on July, spearheaded by an advert in a national tabloid newspaper, "We had a phenomenal response to our last ad, including a number of people who had left the industry and are looking to come back to it," says a company spokeswoman, Richard Harris, a partner in Avonmouthbased HH Haulage, has also recently advertised for drivers. We had 40 responses, which was by far the biggest response we have ever had for a driver ad," he reports. But it was not a case of people wanting to return to the industry; all the people we interviewed were currently working as drivers, including nine who worked for the same company."
But Harris also points out that two of his drivers left last year and are showing no signs of returning to the industry. "One left because he said the hours he had to work meant he had no social life and the other to run his own pub. This involved working even longer hours than in haulage but he wanted to be his own boss," says Harris who, despite the good response to his latest advert, still fears that it will be difficult to recruit into general haulage because of the nights that have to be spent away from home.
Despite all this it is still easier for drivers to find new employment than for small independent hauliers to give up the business, although the amount of extra regulation in the industry is prompting a number of hauliers to contemplate baling out. One of these is Ron McNeil, managing director of Gravesend-based Mac Transport which operates to tractors and 22 trailers working in general haulage. McNeill is 59 and can't remember the last time he had a proper holiday, apart from getting away for the odd long weekend.
"We have only had one enquiry for our business once I made it known that I wanted to get out and that wanted me to stay on as manager," says McNeill. "The problem is that the business is largely based on the good reputation I have built up over the past 30 years, and you can't sell that. Once I go the reputation goes with me."
Family business
McNeill is now resigned to working for a few more years yet when he might pass the business on to his nephew. Family connections are important to holding a business together but can make it virtually impossible to get out of it. Sheffield-based H Askey Transport has been a family business for around too years, starting with horses and taking on its first motor vehicle just before the Second World War.
The firm is still run by the family, with current owner Alan Askey and his sister Jean seeing a new generation of grandchildren enter the business.
But the family connection is not limited to the owners: drivers' sons are also getting jobs and the family atmosphere makes the firm so popular that it has a two year waiting list for jobs.
"I doubt if we have ever found work as tough as at the moment," says Alan Askey. "We have been through steel strikes, haulage strikes and at one time my grandad could only keep going by grazing his horses in a client's field because he could not afford to feed them. But now, because of the amount of regulation imposed on us by people who know nothing about the industry, it is tougher than ever. Add to that soaring fuel and insurance costs—my insurance premium has just gone up from L14.000 to L26,000. But there is no way we can get out of the business...so many people depend on us."
Reg Richardson, a partner in Richardson Transport in Middlesbrough, also feels a duty to his stafE "I built this firm up from just one wagon to employing 50 people today. If someone would buy the business and keep on all the staff I might consider getting out. But there is no way that I am prepared to see all my hard work go down the pan and leave my staff without jobs."
Feelings of duty (and non-transferable debt) keep many independent business people locked into an industry they have at best a love-hate relationship with. As for drivers, wages are probably going to keep climbing. But if you really want to go remember to build up your skills, plan your escape route carefully—and don't look back.