How as the working time directive affected you and the company you work for as I have read that one company had 3 trucks come back fully loaded on the first day of the WTD came in. I have heard a few people say it wont effect me as I don’t work over 48 hours anyway and there are some that will be losing money. I was wondering what affects you have seen or heard that the WTD as caused and as there been drivers leaving the industry. The opinions I have been hearing about are that the WTD is a right pain even for the places who don’t work more than 48 hours a week.
Weve now gone onto a shift due to the WTD which is Mon to Fri week 1. Mon to Fri week 2. Then its Mon to Thurs or Tues to Fri week 3 which ever you want.Then its back to week 1 again I work on regular nights starting at 18.00hrs every night and iam usually done by the latest 05.30/06.00hrs. Weve now gone on a salary for this £27,450/24 days holiday(use on your 4 day weeks= 6 weeks hol)
All bank holidays off or you are paid extra if you work them, sick pay at 8hrs per shift and payed from day one and not 3 waiting days.The company wanted us to have banked hours against us so after a few short nights they
could get you in on one of your days off so we told them where they could stick that,and they did.
Before this we were on Mon to Fri & optional overtime Sat&Sun and we were working two weekends then having the third one off.
Our money is down by about £1500 per year, but were not working any weekends at all and also only a 4 day week every third week. Things had to change due to the WTD and now weve all come around to it we`re quite looking forward to a bit more time off.
The above shift patteren is the same for our day drivers with £23,680 and nightout money on top of that (the last time i had one it was about £25.60 but that was over 2yrs ago,not sure what it is now).
This is for Exel in Wrexham.
What kind of shift patterens/money are the rest of you lot out there being offered?.
why don’t we keep all these WTD threads in one place,i know it’s good to get everyone’s views and opinions on this useless WTD,but if everyone keeps making new threads about it,then thats all we’ll see on here. 
The company I work for are pretty much ignoring the WTD. They didn’t even tell us when it was starting. There idea is to let it run for a month and see where they are then. Erm, shouldn’t they have done that months ago?
Seems like a good time to be looking for another job.
still disputing over the pay deal …
neither side will agree , and whilst the argument has been going on the company has lost its over 10 hrs night shifts 
no wanna pay what we want , no gonna get more than a 10 hr night shift
paul@midway:
still disputing over the pay deal …
neither side will agree , and whilst the argument has been going on the company has lost its over 10 hrs night shifts
no wanna pay what we want , no gonna get more than a 10 hr night shift
Paul, were in exactly the same boat, strict 10 3/4’s per night and no rushing about until it gets sorted. To leave important issues this long is unacceptable and most of our drivers (or at least the ones who put themselves out for the firm) are losing a lot of money.
The three wagons returned on monday mentioned above was my firm, I was the last to get tipped before we had to leave site to get back in time, they only sent 4 wagons on tuesday I know at least 1 more delivery didn’t get done last night as well.
Could be tonight will see a few more non deliveries as the night drivers have a particular grievance affecting our wage/condition negotiations which 2 drivers are going to try and sort out this afternoon, if we get no joy then we intend to stay put tonight till something is sorted by management - not ideal for anyone but we need to stand and be heard.
Asda skelmersdale, management have put their heads in the sand, they just took it that the night drivers would all opt for a collective agreement to opt out.
They never even considered that they would opt to do 10 hour nights, so thay are waiting to see how many drivers stick to the 10 hour nights before or if they change anything.
Asked my TM today about it and he said it won’t affect me if i chose to opt out of it.!!
Told i aint allowed and that i had been reading about it on the web.
He asked me where i had read about it.
Told D.O.T website so he went on it and printed it all off 35 pages and said he had better read up on.!!
Some TM
Been salaried for a while now so the only effect it will have on me is that I’ll have to do less hours.
Office are monitoring everyones weekly hours and planning the runs so that we dont go over the average too often.
If it looks like some is doing too many hours then they’ll get an odd free holiday day to fetch them in line
Welcome to TruckNet UK map-man 
. I read your post last night map-man as I was looking around for info on the WTD and was concerned to read that the place you work for had 3 loaded wagons come back and at least 1 more from last night as well. I hope something can be done soon to sort this WTD out.
I thought the working time directive was meant to cut the hours we work. Nothing as changed for me except the extra paperwork and one period of POA… Will be interesting though, when I have clocked up 48 hours, To see if I get time off with pay (lol). Substantial pay rise to cover lower number of hours turned out to be nothing more that a cost of living rise, so I see problems in the next few weeks.
Regards
Westie
nothing changed here either…still mon-thur 4pm till 2.30am fri 11.30 am till 10.30pm`ish
Dave
It hasn’t.
When we went on the 35 hr week a few years ago here in France (almost defunct now), the main difference was that the boss employed a bloke to wash down for us on Saturdays, if we were back. Also, towards the end of each month, out of the blue, we might find ourselves with a day off. We got a slight increase in pay to cover lost hours, but because they counted only driving hours, we still seemed to be at work as long.
Salut, David.
We have got a lot busier, or is it just me/ 
2 hard weeks on the trot
We have been working on it since the end of Feb, and have found it has made no difference. My current average is 42.5hrs.
We have heard of a large powder tanker firm which has gone for the 26 week average and told the drivers to carry on as before, the company will monitor their hours and towards the end of the period give them paid rest days to compensate. But they haven’t realised yet that the way they are planning it they will have no drivers in for the last 3 weeks of the period. The drivers aren’t bothered cos they are all have agreed a salary package with the company.
I have read that one company had 3 trucks come back fully loaded on the first day of the WTD
Explain how that works then
Wheel Nut:
I have read that one company had 3 trucks come back fully loaded on the first day of the WTD
Explain how that works then
We had a total of 8 wagons scheduled to go from rugby to newport, 1 was changed so left 7 wagons with drivers all starting at the same time. Half hour in the yard getting p’work and checking vehicle, a 3 hour drive each way and 45 mins on return to reload and fuel up - leaves less than 3 hours on site at newport assuming no problems on the run down, on site or on the run back.
It takes 45-60 mins per tank to blow the load and it all had to go into the same silo so we were looking at 5-7 hours on site…simple maths shows not all the wagons would be unloaded and this was explained to the office before we left that at least 2 would come back, probably 3…maybe 4 but still we were all sent down.
Now I can see lots of ways round this whilst remaining within the rules of the WTD, but our firm has said they are not interested in POA’s so therefore the clock starts ticking when we book in. Add to that the bad feeling over proposed salary and conditions, none of the drivers are really willing to put themselves out for the company till it’s resolved.