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Rikki Chequer, community manager for TruckNet UK, reports on the
Page 9
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past week's hot topics of discussion among members of the LES leading internet forum for professional drivers.
N THE PROFESSIONAL Drivers forum this week, a 50-year-old driver who has been out of the industry for 10 years asks if he is employable. He has experience with long loads, wide loads, reefers, and on the Continent; he has both his CFCs; he is "willing to tramp not interested in going back to the yard every night anyway"; and he has a clean licence -"never had a point on it".
The answers he has been given point out that just by asking the question he shows he is surely out of touch, but reassure him that he would be welcomed by many companies with open arms.
Some drivers have a new slant on the debates over the best truck, asking what the worst truck is to have a night out in. Many models are represented in the thread, however an old hand made this comment] "You are all wimps... how do you think us old-uns managed before sleeper cabs arrived?
"Two bits of scaffold plank across the engine cowling and a sleeping bag -and as for curtains, well, we had to use old blankets or towels... if we were lucky. So stop moaning and relish the fact that you even have a bed to sleep in."
That seems to have quelled the discussion for a while.
Owner-operators are discussing the use of T-cabs and whether it is possible to use them legally or whether their use with 13.6m trailers is simply being overlooked by enforcement agencies. As yet, no Vosa member has given us their opinion.
Finally, newer drivers struggling to find employment are asking whether there really is a driver shortage, or whether it is merely a marketing ploy by the drying schools to bolster trade.
The replies from around the country seem to indicate that any shortages of drivers tend to be regional gaining employment seems to be a postcode lottery.