Not my post but one I’ve found from an ex hgv driver. Makes valid points.
Even if I didn't have a full-time job and was struggling for cash, I don't think I'd want to return to doing this. Even in 2001-2003 when I used to work part time for Driver Hire in Wokingham, the hours were totally unsociable, the conditions were poor. Truck stops were expensive, both the food and parking. People treated you like absolute dog-toffee, especially if you were late because - you know - the traffic is all your fault. My name was "oi driver!" for most pick ups and drop offs.
As for the pay... Imagine my surprise to discover the rates of pay are still pretty much the same, nearly 20 years later. And I imagine the conditions haven't improved much either.
Perhaps if the haulage firms (and other so-called low skilled industries) had have treated people better in the first place and not like some expendable asset who didn't matter because they were already rubbing their hands at the thought of exploiting people from another poor EU country about to gain free movement in the UK - then maybe they wouldn't be in the mess they're in right now.
People often say Brexit caused this; I'm inclined to agree from a certain POV. More accurately, I'd say it exposed it. When you see hard working guys washing cars all day long on a promise of opportunity far from their homelands and learn some are being paid £15 for the day, whilst living 10 people to a squalid 3-bed mid terrace and getting fleeced left right and centre, it should spur anyone into taking action. But with half the country seemingly resenting them for being here and the other half happy to continue supporting such exploitation, you can't help think that Covid, DVLA testing backlog and Brexit combining to put a stop to it is actually a blessing in disguise (in some ways), for them at least.
But nobody cares about that do they? Too busy blaming people, demanding "where's my petrol", playing "who's the more important key worker? ".
Biased MSM have thrown the cat amongst the pigeons in causing the panic we're seeing on the forecourts right now. Last Thursday things were relatively calm. By Friday lunchtime they had descended onto chaos, with the MSM gleefully interviewing transport reps, politicians et al later that night asking how much Brexit is to blame. Just once I wanted one of them to say, "you are, Burley! You, the BBC, The Daily Mail, The Sun, ITV News and the rest of the MSM for fuelling the panic which has put lives at risk and brought a nation to its knees, just so you can high-five each other in your trendy London bars later that night at your whopping viewing figures and newspaper sales".
5,000 temporary visas for drivers isn't going to solve this. 5,500 temporary visas for poultry workers isn't going to solve this either. There are shortages all over - why on earth would anyone want to come back to a country which either didn't welcome them, or were happy to exploit them?
The only way through this is to start pointing the finger at where it all began. Greedy industries putting profit over their workers' wellbeing. Because without purpose, without feeling valued and without a sense of belonging - we are nothing. And no amount of money will change that.
The trouble with that? The costs will simply be passed onto the consumer. And the finger pointing and division starts all over again.