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A certificate won't change anything...
Page 17
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IT WAS INTERESTING to read in recent issues of CM the comments regarding the Driver CPC. Can anybody tell me how this will provide any benefit to the industry?
By the time I need to get mine, I'll be 62, with 41 years as an LGV licence holder. Am I going to accept that 41 years needs to be supported by a piece of paper so I can work another three years? The problem is I'm not alone. Most of the drivers I see are at least my age and the usual response is: only have a couple of years to go, why bother?"
Look at the average age of lorry drivers now, then imagine the situation in 2014, and the scale of the problem becomes obvious.
But there's no need to be pessimistic — it will make the job a more professional one with a professional qualification. Won't it?
Let's wind the clock back and make me 21 again. Great, I'm going to be a lorry driver, so I've dossed around since school until I'm old enough to spend my hardearned or ill-gotten cash on my licence. In the meantime, my mates have all been to college and got their qualifications before I even start mine.
Undeterred, Isoldicron, obtain both C+E and CPC and set off to find myself a job. First problem: "You're 21? Insurance won't touch you until you're 25." And then when I'm 25: "Come back when you've got two years' experience." But I'm a professional — the certificate says so!
Then my luck changes. I find a firm willing to give me a go: "Start Monday morning, 3am should be OK, you're not booked into the first drop until 7.00am. You'll be finished by 5pm, keep the windows shut and you won't notice the smell in the lay-by.
"Don't worry about not being able to wash, you might find somewhere the next day. Best take a suitcase of sandwiches, you'll likely not be home until Saturday. Don't worry about cash for parking, by the time you stop there will be no spaces left and don't go parking where the curtains might get slashed either. Keep the phone switched on, but we probably won't trouble you more than 15 to 20 times a day, unless it's urgent. There you go, lad, a right proper professional job to go with that fancy certificate."
While I'm enduring that, my mate's going to work in his nice suit, white shirt and tie. He doesn't need to get out of bed until 8.00am, is home by 5.30pm, and is fed, showered and in the pub with my other mates by 8.00pm. He's only earned two thirds of what I have, but he's only worked 35 hours — I've had to work 70, and my home each night has been a stinking lay-by.
Will the Driver CPC really attract young people into the industry?
Wouldn't it be better spending the time and money making the job more professional than just saying it's professional and giving out a fancy piece of paper? Education and training is all well and good, but won't better education only make it easier for new drivers to see that long hours, no facilities and little respect from the public or warehouse staff is not such a good deal as the piece of paper makes out?
Roy Larkin Hampshire