BobDavis
Gimme All Your Lovin’
In my 40yr truck driving career wages went from double the national average for double the national average working hours to national average wage for double the national average working hours. So good luck to drivers who have got large wage increases which is not all of them. The supermarket rdc based store delivery jobs around the M25 ring have always paid good money & are paying even better money now but the wages of drivers based say in rural Devon who are delivering produce into these supermarket rdc’s have not risen much at all. Also worth pointing out that the well paid supermarket delivery jobs require shift work covering 24/7.
As for facilities for overnight parking in the UK when I started drivers could usually park overnight in town centre car parks so at least there were pubs & fish&chip shops nearby but none of that now. Overnight parking is mostly on overcrowded motorway service areas which were always crap places to sleep due to noise of vehicle movements all night. I’ve had jobs in my time which involved driving on the continent & it is a different world of quieter roads & better driver facilities at delivery points ie showers etc provided although motorway service areas get just as crowded with trucks at night as in UK.
Part of what caused the brexit vote imo was that UK companies of all types saw the influx of Eastern European workers after 2004 as a source of available labour that could not help but keep wages low whereas countries like Holland & France saw the potential social problems & the better employment laws in those countries tended to discourage foreign workers rather than actively encourage them as was the case in the UK. It is fair to say there are plenty of or even mostly Eastern European workers in the large Dutch meat processing industry though.
The idea that foreign workers are necessary to do the jobs that UK workers won’t do is bollocks though. Foreign workers with little English language cannot complain & it is to certain industries advantage mostly food production to have a captive workforce that will work as & when without complaint & it does amount to almost slave labour conditions that UK workers would not put up with.
As for facilities for overnight parking in the UK when I started drivers could usually park overnight in town centre car parks so at least there were pubs & fish&chip shops nearby but none of that now. Overnight parking is mostly on overcrowded motorway service areas which were always crap places to sleep due to noise of vehicle movements all night. I’ve had jobs in my time which involved driving on the continent & it is a different world of quieter roads & better driver facilities at delivery points ie showers etc provided although motorway service areas get just as crowded with trucks at night as in UK.
Part of what caused the brexit vote imo was that UK companies of all types saw the influx of Eastern European workers after 2004 as a source of available labour that could not help but keep wages low whereas countries like Holland & France saw the potential social problems & the better employment laws in those countries tended to discourage foreign workers rather than actively encourage them as was the case in the UK. It is fair to say there are plenty of or even mostly Eastern European workers in the large Dutch meat processing industry though.
The idea that foreign workers are necessary to do the jobs that UK workers won’t do is bollocks though. Foreign workers with little English language cannot complain & it is to certain industries advantage mostly food production to have a captive workforce that will work as & when without complaint & it does amount to almost slave labour conditions that UK workers would not put up with.
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