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Time to bail out of the industry?
Page 20
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I'VE BEEN reading the letters in CM regarding the upcoming Driver CPC, and have to wonder why any government would want to put so many obstacles into the path of someone mad enough to want to join this industry!
The industry already suffers from the Catch-22 situation of no experience, no job. Also, no drivers under 25 due to insurance risks, long hours, anti-social lifestyle, employer harassment, legal harassment, stress and fatigue due to other road users, customers and the general public alike.
On top of all that, drivers are treated like munpties at large sites due to a health and safety totalitarian quango dictatorship that assumes you the driver do not fully understand a red and green light operation on the loading ramp, and, therefore. cannot be trusted to hold on to your keys or even sit in your cab, forcing you from the comfort of your temporary home into a crowded room with dozens of other 'num pty drivers' to share body odour and a single toilet that gets cleaned once in a blue moon. Will a qualification along the line of the certificate of professional competence in driving and drivingrelated training change any of this? I think not.
But here's the solution for drivers: T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G.
Train to be a plumber, train to be an electrician, train to be a hairdresser — be popular with the general public instead of a focus for abuse, it would make a change to find someone who is happy to see you and doesn't treat you like you have leprosy and are dropping off a dose of the plague.
Next year, the Driver CPC will be introduced, and 2015 will see hundreds of trucks parked up due to a shortage of qualified drivers. How will this be resolved? The last time there was a shortage I saw a huge influx in poorly qualified foreign drivers, but this is a panEuropean policy, so every EU country will he in the same sinking boat. Anybody speak Chinese? John Hunt Derbyshire