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Page 10
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BRIGHT SIDE!
Getting good drivers and keeping them is a problem that's vexing just about everybody involved in road transport. And, with the Working Time Directive looming, it's hardly likely to get any better.
Getting good drivers and keeping them is a problem that's vexing just about everybody involved in road transport. And, with the Working Time Directive looming, it's hardly likely to get any better.
This is something that has been debated and debated... and debated again by everyone in the industry, but surely it's time we stopped talking and started trying to do something positive about it?
While the WTD is looked upon as a great black cloud looming over businesses, it could actually be good news for road transport. Think about it. If you were considering a driving job, you'd hardly be enamoured with the prospect of working 70 hours a week. We're no longer in a day and age where people live to work. Nowadays we work to live, creating time to enjoy leisure activities and our families. Limiting working time to 48 hours might be one of the best things ever to have happened to this industry.
While the WTD is looked upon as a great black cloud looming over businesses, it could actually be good news for road transport. Think about it. If you were considering a driving job, you'd hardly be enamoured with the prospect of working 70 hours a week. We're no longer in a day and age where people live to work. Nowadays we work to live, creating time to enjoy leisure activities and our families. Limiting working time to 48 hours might be one of the best things ever to have happened to this industry.
While the WTD is looked upon as a great black cloud looming over businesses, it could actually be good news for road transport. Think about it. If you were considering a driving job, you'd hardly be enamoured with the prospect of working 70 hours a week. We're no longer in a day and age where people live to work. Nowadays we work to live, creating time to enjoy leisure activities and our families. Limiting working time to 48 hours might be one of the best things ever to have happened to this industry.
Even with reduced working hours, however, few people are going to come begging for a job in transport it's something which we're going to have to work at. After all, if you didn't know about the industry, how would you go about assessing if it would suit you? It's not as if anyone can jump into a truck and take it for a drive before they commit to spending £2,000 to earn their C+E licence.
That's why CMcommends MAN/ERF and Driver Hire for the Driving Ambition initiative. Even CM got in on the act at the latest Driving Ambition event in Edinburgh last week: editor Andy Salter appeared on BBC TV's Breakfast programme twice in one morning (as well as holding interviews on several radio stations) to extol the virtues of joining the industry.
It's this sort of action that's needed. If Driving Ambition can attract 20 would-be drivers to have a go from a single BBC broadcast, it shows that there are people out there who want to be drivers. It's just a matter of attracting them into our industry. And with the WTD only a matter of months away, we can't afford to just sit around and bemoan our fate. Only action now will save us.