Truck spotting
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Iwas wondering if you could please ask your readers if they could send me their fleet lists as I am a keen spotter of trucks since I retired early owing to ill health.
D Exley, Leeds
LI Helpful hauliers can contact Mr Exley at Flat 16, Tennyson SI, Guiseky,
Leeds, Yorks LS20 9LJ—Ed.
Short answer
The driver shortage issue was very well addressed by Karen Miles in her piece headed "The short answer" (M 9-15July). However, in addition to the problems that she explored, there are more worrying troubles that go to the heart of what the job has become.
Although drivers agree that trucks have certainly got better in recent years, just about everything else has got worse. The repetitive regime of traffic chaos, unsociable hours, poor sanitary conditions, inadequate parking and relentless schedules is wearing thinner than ever.
Even if all these things were magically to improve, youngsters thinking of joining the industry will note the desperately low regard in which the truck driver is generally held, and still look elsewhere. Any youngster going out for a week with driver dad will hardly be drawn to the job.
Of course drivers in harness will probably tough it out for the lack of any alternative, but the vital new blood will not appear—and can you blame them?
My full-time driving days finished seven years ago, and I was lucky, I worked in one of the few well-paid sectors of the industry and my wife and I could trust each other. If I had been getting the poor pay and marital grief that is the lot of many drivers, I would have cleared my locker sooner. Bosses, think on, this is your wake-up call.
Ian Norwell, Tingewich, Bucks.