16 minute read
SIMPSON SAYS
WHO’S AFRAID OF THE DRIVER SHORTAGE?
The transport industry is about to face a perfect storm that will impact drivers and their employers, but quite possibly lead to better times for both, says Richard Simpson
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The past few years have seen the British transport industry reliant on an evershrinking pool of drivers. I’ve seen this for myself, with the average age of drivers roughly keeping pace with my own age, in the 30-something years I’ve been reporting on the industry.
And, as if I needed reminding, a recent brush with the grim reaper has left me sporting a sparkly new titanium-armoured, laser-welded pacemaker and a renewed admiration for the hard workers at the NHS coalface, has just reinforced the reality that no one lives, or works, forever.
As older drivers were falling off the perch, they were being increasingly replaced by bods from abroad. Sure, younger people here were passing their tests and trying their luck in the industry, but most didn’t stay long – for reasons to be discussed later.
And, while the arrival of drivers from mainland Europe were keeping the lid on wages following the normal laws of supply and demand, canny drivers were boosting their take-home income by switching from employment to agency and working as a one-man-band limited company. This enabled
By Richard Simpson, industry pundit
them to avoid paying normal income tax, and also allowed their employer (who was no longer their employer because they were sub-contractors) to avoid a host of obligations including having to pay sick leave, holiday or National Insurance.
It couldn’t last, and it won’t.
This April, HMRC is closing what it describes as the IR35 ‘loophole’ that allows drivers and others to class themselves as contractors, while Traffic Commissioners are clamping down on what they describe as ‘fake self-employment’ among drivers.
Combine this with clarification from the Government that would-be truck drivers from the EU will not be allowed into the UK and, with what is seen as an increasingly less appealing environment for those that are already here, it’s obvious that not only will the flow of foreign drivers cease, but at least some of those already here will be seeking opportunities elsewhere.
You don’t have to be a genius to see where this is leading. Drivers are going to be thin on the ground and those who have been working as ‘contractors’ are going to be looking or substantial salary increases, just to stand still in real income terms.
This scenario could actually be a good thing, long term, for all in the industry, whether drivers or employers. Some of the many thousands of people who have acquired HGV licences and then decided that the industry is not for them, could be attracted to return if wages rise sufficiently to make the profession attractive again. And a higher wage industry will lead to better attitudes on both sides, an increasing emphasis on recruitment and retention, rather than just asking the agency to provide another batch of steeringwheel attendants and even improved roadside facilities as drivers’ disposable income rises.
There is plenty of evidence that young people are interested in driving as a career, but rapidly become disillusioned by the reality of long hours, a low hourly rate and poor roadside facilities.
Drivers are going to become a more valuable asset for the industry, with a probable switch from agency to direct employment. And this makes investment in good-quality training more important than ever before.
The old joke about “What happens if I train my drivers and they leave?” “What happens if you don’t train them and they stay?” has never rung truer.
DAF is leading the way in driver training, with every sales dealer employing its own driver-trainer – and training being made available with the delivery of every new CF or XF truck. The deal here is a one-toone, 90-minute static vehicle handover, followed by up to 60 minutes of on-road instruction, with emphasis on the new fuelsaving systems on the vehicle. Training sessions for additional drivers are also available.
Compulsory training under the Driver CPC umbrella has got a mixed reputation in the industry. Its initial introduction caused a great deal of resentment and some of the training offered was of very poor quality. It’s fair to say that it gave training a bit of an image problem in the transport industry, and that’s putting it mildly.
However, with the second cycle now complete, many of the worst trainers have left the sector and DAF, as the UK market-leading truck manufacturer, has stepped in to offer approved courses thorough a select number of JAUPT-accredited providers.
Again, offering drivers a regular, structured approach to Driver CPC with a credible trainer, will be an increasingly important tool in attracting and retaining quality employees.
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HALL OF FAME
Eddie ‘The Beast’ Hall might be a former World’s Strongest Man, but his rise to the top also included time as a technician for DAF Trucks. His experiences from the workshop turned out to be pivotal moments in his life
Words: Matthew Eisenegger
Photographs: DAF Trucks/Eddie Hall
Main image:
Moment of glory: Eddie ‘The Beast’ Hall deadlifts 500kg!
MINUTES AFTER THE LIFT MY
SAYS HALL. THE DOCTOR TOLD
Since retiring from competitions, Hall has forged new careers, including staring in TV Show ‘Eddie Eats America’.
Aleafy suburb in Stokeon-Trent is where we find Eddie ‘The Beast’ Hall, winner of the World’s Strongest Man competition in 2017 – in the house he shares with wife – Alex – and children Layla and Maximus. If winning a global title wasn’t enough, what sets Hall apart from his competitors is that he is the only man on the face of the earth to dead lift 500kg (a whopping half a tonne). For those unfamiliar with dead lifts, a weightloaded bar is lifted from the ground to the hips.
At the height of his challenge to become the strongest man in the world, Hall topped out at a massive 32 stone, but today the comparatively sveltelike Hall is a mere 28 stone and, at well over 6ft, he fills the door frame as he shakes my hand and welcomes me into his impressive new home. “Sorry it’s a bit of mess at the moment,” he says sheepishly. “We only moved in a couple of weeks ago”.
We settle down in Hall’s kitchen for a chat and he talks with ease and confidence while waxing lyrical about his life achievements, starting right at the beginning. Hall was brought up in and around Stoke-on-Trent, and was the
Eddie in conversation with the team from DAF Driver Magazine
youngest of three brothers. “Everything is competition with your brothers – who can eat the fastest, who’s the best fighter,” he says. “As in most families, the youngest had to go everywhere their siblings went and, as they were competitive swimmers, I didn’t want to miss out. So I started competing at the age of five.”
As time – and his swimming career – progressed, Hall became annoyed that he wasn’t in the same group as his older brothers, Alex and James. “I realised I would have to work harder so I started training harder,” he recalls. “At 5am every morning I would cycle to the pool for a 90-minute session and ate a good diet that allowed me to keep my energy levels up.”
From a very young age, Hall had been both inspired and motivated by Arnold Schwarzenegger and – taking a leaf out of his idol’s book – he started lifting weights, which proved to be a pivotal moment in his life. With all of the extra effort going in, it wasn’t long before Hall’s hard work was rewarded. In 2001, he entered the UK Nationals swimming competition, where he picked up four golds and a silver, setting two British records in the process.
From strength to strength
Success breeds success – and Eddie was selected to represent the GB youth squad, which is a funded pathway to the Olympics. The move not only provided him with new kit, but also gave him access to dedicated trainers and nutritionists. But it was possibly too much, too young. Hall reveals that it was around this time that he slipped into depression and was prescribed the antidepressant Prozac at the age of 14.
Mental health is very close to Hall’s heart – and he speaks very passionately about it, in particular depression, which had a major impact on him at home, in school and within his swimming squad. His recovery was helped by the film Terminator – starring Schwarzenegger – when Hall realised he could look like the famous bodybuilder. So a young – and slightly confused – Hall set about chasing the dream. “I told my family I was going to have the body of Schwarzenegger, and my mind was focused on the task. I had a gym membership and nothing was going to stop me.”
The DAF days
With Hall’s time dedicated to the gym, his new build meant he had a real presence wherever he went. But he was eating more and more and also taking protein supplements, so life was becoming very expensive. Still only 16 – and living at home – he needed a job. Hall’s mum saw an advert in the local paper for an apprentice technician role at Lex Commercials, the local DAF Trucks site in Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent. “I applied for – and got – the job and was packed off to the DAF Trucks dedicated apprentice training facility in Bristol,”
At home with with wife Alex and children Maximus and Layla
he recalls. “There was a lot of banter in workshop life and I really enjoyed my time as a technician. It gave me very valuable life skills and definitely helped make me the man I am today.”
Sometimes working more than 50 hours a week, any spare time was spent in the gym, which meant no socialising, which was – as Hall puts it – “a bit of godsend”. When he completed his apprenticeship at Lex Commericals he left to join Muller Wiseman as a technician, where he stayed for eight years.
The switch to strongman
Egged on by his brother in 2007, Hall entered his first strongman competition, which involved a truck pull, log lift, tyre flip and a deadlift to name just a few of the challenges. Although inexperienced, he managed to finish fifth out of 15, the strongman bug had bitten and bitten hard. “From then, I entered competition after competition, at first staying local, before moving onto qualifying events for England’s Strongest Man, he remembers. “In many cases I was beating some of the elite athletes that were regular competitors in World’s Strongest Man events, which made me even more driven to win. I went on to win the UK Strongest Man on many occasions, but it wasn’t enough – I wanted to be champion on the world!”
The big lift
Part of Hall’s training to realise his goal involved deadlifting – just one element of Strongman. In 2015, he broke the deadlift record of 465kg and he pledged to come back and lift 500kg. Many laughed at ‘The Beast’ because the weight lift was regarded as impossible. “All this did was fuel my ambition to prove them wrong and demonstrate that the impossible was actually possible,” he says.
By Hall’s own admission, going from 465kg to 500kg was a massive jump and he knew his physical makeup alone would not allow him to lift the weight. He had to dig deep into his own mind to summon up the extra force needed. “The theory of ‘flight or fight’ is achieved by a massive rush adrenaline. And I had to use my mental powers to go into a dark place to trick my mind to get the maximum amount of adrenaline in my body,” he recalls.
Working with a team of sport psychologists, he created a very dark mental scenario that he could use just the once to summon up that adrenaline to achieve the big lift. There was also another mental battle – depriving himself of his family. “I was only seeing my wife and children for an hour, once a week, on a Sunday afternoon. “It becomes so much of an obsession that
nothing else in the world matters – only you and winning the title.
The record attempt for the 500kg deadlift took place at the European Strongest Man Competition in Leeds on 9 July 2016. The day before, Eddie had consumed 20 litres of Lucozade and didn’t go the toilet once, which indicated all of the liquid had been absorbed into his body.
On the day, after waking up, he had a protein shake, then a full English (seven sausages, five rashers of bacon, four eggs, four hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and loads of fried bread) before tucking in to a huge bowl of porridge. After a set of stretches, it was off to bed for a nap. Lunch was an ‘all you can eat’ buffet, where Hall asked for fried fat and consumed around 4,000 calories. Then it was back to bed for another nap, before waking up, scoffing a load of flapjack and heading to the arena.
In the competition, Hall was up against two fellow strongmen: Icelandic strongman Benni Magnusson and Jerry Pritchett from Arizona, USA. There were three lifts each, starting at 420kg and working up to 440kg and then 465kg equaling the current world record, then the big one at 500kgs. Hall went first and lifted 420kg very quickly before skipping 440kg, instead going straight to 465kg. He lifted it and so did Magnusson.
“When it was time for the 500kg lift, I knew I needed to psych himself up and think about those dark things to make me very angry and get the adrenaline going,” he says. “I gave myself a pinch to feel the pain, walked out onto the stage, locked onto the bar and closed my eyes. I rocked the bar back – now loaded with half a tonne – and pulled it off the ground. Once it was up, I opened my eyes, savoured the moment and mouthed “F*** you!”, which was aimed at all the people who said it couldn’t be done.
Once he put the bar down, he collapsed, such was the stress put on his 32-stone body. “I had blood pouring from my nose and ears – even 20 minutes after the lift my heart rate was still over 160 and my estimated blood pressure was 300 over 180,” says Hall. The doctor told me afterwards that if the blood hadn’t come out from my eyes or nose, my heart would’ve exploded. I was lucky to be alive!”
Man on a mission
A month later, Hall was on a plane to Botswana to compete in The World’s Strongest Man. He felt sure he could win, but he dislocated two fingers and eventually finished in 3rd place. The following year, he went two better – again in Botswana – and claimed the title he’d worked so hard for: he was the 2017 World’s Strongest Man.
“After my victory, I announced my retirement from major competitions, but I’ve still capitalised on my success,” he admits. Still only in his very early 30s he has a whole new life in front of him and has prepared for it with acting lessons.
WIN THE STRONGMAN’S STORY Eddie Hall has donated two signed copies of his book ‘Strongman: My Story’ as a competition prize: For your chance to win a book, simply answer the following question:
How much weight did Eddie ‘The Beast’ Hall deadlift to break the world record?
300kg 400kg 500kg
Answers on email to:
matthew@cvdriver.com
He has agents in New York and London and offers of film work have started to come. “I’ve already got the lead role in an up-andcoming film, which I can’t say too much about,” he says. “I’ve also recently finished a series filmed in the US called ‘Eddie Eats America’, where I carry out eating challenges. Although I’m not a competitive eater, I do have a very big appetite.
There is still a link to Strongman, however, as Hall also features very heavily in ‘The Strongest Man in History’, where he and three other fellow strongmen try to repeat historical feats of strength.
W e ig h t lif t e r & P P G
T h e r e fo r a ll o f y o u r W e ig h t lif t in g n e e d s
T r e n d s i n t h e t i p p i n g i n d u s t r y m a y c h a n g e , b u t W e i g h t l i f t e r ’s v a l u e s d o n ’t . B a c k e d b y 8 5 y e a r s e x p e r i e n c e a n d e x p e r t i s e , t h e W e i g h t l i f t e r G r o u p p r o d u c e s a r a n g e o f t i p p i n g t r a i l e r s a n d r i g i d b o d i e s w h i c h a r e m a n u f a c t u r e d w i t h o u t c o m p r o m i s e
