The life of an LCV driver

Those hard working van drivers, who apparently get up everyone’s noses, because of their supposed aggressive driving style, are loved and loathed in equal measure depending with whom you speak.

For the past decade the species has been pejoratively known as “White Van Man” in the UK. Thankfully the term never caught on here, but Irish LCV drivers do possess many of the characteristics associated with their much-maligned British counterparts.
Unfortunately, many of Ireland’s LCV drivers fall into the stereotype. Their vehicles are almost always, although not exclusively painted white at the factory — in order to facilitate easy sign-writing on the panelled sides — and as such, the colour is very popular among van buyers. Drivers of un-lettered white vans are often thought of as having poor road manners, cutting off other road users and generally failing to drive safely.

In the not too distant past van driving was a much sought after job, but judging by the number of classified advertisements in the national media and anecdotal evidence from recruitment agencies, fewer and fewer people are taking up the challenge.
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s driving for a living was a much sought after job. Many saw the lure of the open road and the inherent benefits that brought, as several steps ahead of a poorly paid factory job, if you could get a factory job.
It was a step down from a full-blown HGV driver, but there was still an air of romanticism about driving a delivery van. However, the march of time and the arrival of the Celtic Tiger have down graded the position.
Nowadays, factory jobs, especially those in the hi-tech sector offer infinitely better pay and conditions and many drivers, have succumbed to the lure of the stationary life. Although those that have to battle Dublin’s traffic could argue that they spend much of their time in the one spot.

The working life of the LCV driver is shortening year on year. In the past LCV drivers could clock up a lifetime of service with the same company, but nowadays most drivers last less than five years in the job.
The constant stress and strain of traffic congestion, the incessant demand from consignors and customers to meet deadlines and the availability of other work in the marketplace are the most common reasons given by drivers who exit the business.
Generally there is a shortage of drivers in the haulage and distribution sector. However, the shortage is most acute in the LCV sector. As a result of Dublin’s deepening traffic crisis, and that’s where the majority ply their trade, LCV drivers are starting work earlier in the morning and finishing later at night.
Ireland’s car population has doubled since 1990 and anybody that suffers Dublin traffic on a regular basis, will surely empathise with the average LCV driver. Road works, traffic diversions, the M50 upgrade, are just a few of the myriad problems an LCV driver in Dublin has to face on a daily basis.

While most motorists including LCV drivers will agree that the recent introduction of Dublin City Council’s HGV traffic management strategy has freed up the city centre, the fact remains that the M50 now resembles Ireland’s biggest car park. It’s the bugbear of most LCV drivers, who invariably have to negotiate it at least once or twice a day.
The prohibitive tolls on the new Dublin Port Tunnel, mean that most vans drivers aren’t using the facility because of the cost. If the Eur. 750 million facility was toll free for all LCVs it would certainly make the life of the average driver a whole lot easier.
The reason for the exorbitant tolls, according to the National Roads Authority, is to prevent non HGV traffic using the tunnel as a quick entry and exit route to the city centre.

But what the mandarins seem to forget is that the LCV is an integral part of the commercial life of the city. With traffic congestion costing Dublin businesses more than Eur. 2.5 billion annually, one would have thought free toll access for LCVs at the tunnel should have been a given.
The 7.00am to 7.00pm ban on five axles trucks entering the city centre will certainly improve the lot of the LCV driver in the short term. But in the long term it could have a negative impact on drivers’ working conditions.
With more and more retailers making arrangements to receive deliveries outside the 7.00am to 7.00pm curfew, it won’t take that long until LCV drivers are forced to make their deliveries / collections in the same time window.
It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that Dublin deliveries, could be pigeon holed into a time slot running from 7.00 to 11.00pm and or even worse from 3.00 to 7.00am.

Similarly, with the stroke of a pen the LCV segment, could be brought in under the city’s draconian permitting scheme, that requires hauliers working within the cordon to register every day.
On the back of Dublin City Council’s “successful introduction” of its HGV traffic management strategy, the authority is already considering banning cars from certain parts of the city, to “return the city to the people.” A further extension of this notion could see LCVs banned during certain times of the day.
In a country where 98 per of all freight is moved by road, bodies such as the National Roads Authority, Dublin City Council, the Dublin Transportation Authority and the Department of Transport seem to pay scant regard to the needs of Ireland’s distribution sector.

The Department of Transport, through the National Development Plan and Transport 21 appear to be hell bent on covering the entire country with high-class dual carriageways, which on the face of it seems an eminently sensible idea from a logistics and distribution standpoint.
However, there isn’t much point cutting 90 minutes off the journey time from Cork to Dublin, only to spend the time saved stuck in traffic on the Naas Road or the M50. Most people working in the distribution sector, including the LCV sector, would prefer to see investment in the public transport.

With road space in the greater Dublin area at a premium, and with more and more new cars coming on the road every day, it would seem a logical step to get people out of their cars and onto public transport.
Freeing up valuable road space through investment in public transport would cure much of the capital’s transport ills, not to mention making a positive contribution to the environment.
But for reasons best known to the Government, investment in public transport, is a poor relation of the roads programme. But for the embattled LCV driver, an improved public transport system and the consequent increase in road space, would undoubtedly be a better option.

With the economy predicted to grow at a healthy five or six per cent per annum over the next five years, and the car population set to continue to increase it is hard to see the lot of the LCV driver improving to any great degree.
Similarly, businesses can expect to see that congestion bill heading skywards to and beyond Eur. 3 billion.