Im not sure about this law and every one i ask does not know, How can people tell you how much you can work 
I have never worked less than 55 hours a week in my life. Where are all the drivers going to come from to do the work? All the drivers i know will lose over £100 a week and the companys can not afford to employ extra staff the type of work we do it just CAN NOT work, we dont work sundays and a half day saturday how can it work? So can someone tell me is this going to be law for drivers? can we opt out? is there any way out of this? PLEASE HELP 
rickard:
Im not sure about this law and every one i ask does not know, How can people tell you how much you can work
Nope No way out!
Companies will have to learn to afford to employ more staff or they are history!!
As fas as loosing £100 a week …well i am not so sure! they will be such a driver shortage drivers will be naming their own price!
some drivers think it wont work some think it will
I will tell you for a fact it WILL because transport keeps this country running and guess what!!! YOU have the vocation that every company needs! A Class ! driving Licence! Hold on to your hat and enjoy the ride!!!
Its just my opinion no doubt you will get others!
I totally agree with you {THE CRITIC} this law will bring sanity back to the industry.The law of supply and demand will ensure that experienced profesionall drivers can look forward to improved pay and conditions.It won,t happen overnight but it took 2 decades of working with the present rules to ruin the industry.
dont you think that those that are all knowing would allow this ruling if they had’nt thought of something to combat driver shortage?
Just a thought, so dont go slagging me off yet…
Blunkett & co are trying to pass new laws to allow FOREIGN workers access to work in uk, now it dont take much common sense to see if Uk is so short of drivers wouldnt it be easy to take POLISH, BULGARIAN ROMANIAN CZECH & SLOVAK drivers into UK…!!!, then they can force DOWN the wages…!!! cos they will work for less! 
rickard:
How can people tell you how much you can work
Hmmm the word Tacho’s also spring to mind here
Metalhead wrote:
Hmmm the word Tacho’s also spring to mind here
What are they for then?? 
THE CRITTIC… To union jack I say this. Any person coming to this country legally will have to pay the same for his food, his roof over his and his familys head. He will see other drivers being paid more and move to those companies who do treat there employees well.He may even join a union who will ensure his rights are not abused.This has been going on since the fifties when we integrated jamaicans to drive our buses.Do not worry mate if we all stick together it will be okay?
Im all for a decent wage…
I work for a company owned by Saint Gobain…part of the jewsons group…
They took us over a year or so ago and JEWsons is about right…
Amongst other things they have taken from us is the points you get from the fuel…i mean…how tight do they want to be??
That was about the only perk us drivers get.
And on top of that…we get a 2%…yes a whole round 2% pay rise.
that dont even cover the council tax increase…
These people that sit on their big fat backsides behind their nice desks in their nice iar conditioned offices should go and sit outside in the car park next time it rains or snows and feel how it really is for us.
Lets face it we all dont just sit behind a wheel of a nice ward air conditioned cab.
I cant for the life of me understand a driver who is against working fewer hours it has taken years to get employers to allow us to run sensibly, we dont want 18-19 hour days…sometimes longer when they wanted the truck back from the weekend…run back from spain in one hit…those days are gone…so the majority should welcome the W.T.D. another feather in our caps…no driver need take a cut in wages either…it means that hauliers will have to put the rates up if need be,something that should have starterd to happen years ago…at the moment mini cabs earn more that most truckers…true…our cabs here in london charge £1.50 a mile…not the black ones…but mini cabs…and they are not licences either…its not the law in london…get a car …pay your rent and you are a cabbie…any way a mate of mine runs a large company on international work…thought it would be easy to employ romanians…so he did…for a bit…ministry came down…asked to see their licences .told him to get rid of them or pay for their tests…it seems that no person may drive a british registered truck.unless he has a british licence…and thats the same in europe//belgium registered must have a belgium licence…dutch registered…must have a dutch licence…and i know cos i have a friend who lives and works in belgium…and another in holland…both of them british…european regulations only allow driving on your own licence for 1 year…so if the poles…romanians…bulgarians.etc want to come here to drive…whos gonna pay for them to take their tests..and they have also been bought up on the left hand culture anyway..and a loaf of bread costs the same no matter what the nationality..and what about accommodation..the cheapest in london at the moment for a 1 bedroom flat is £800 a month + bills....and im sorry fellow truckers…blair…blunkett…or anybody else…i am not a racialist…but i would not sit idly by and let johnny foreigner take over my job…and put me on the rock and roll…sorry…it aint gonna happen…have a nice day…
You need to be a E.U. citizen to drive E.U. vehicles.And your licence has to be from your country of residence,if you change countries you have one year before you must change it.Sorry truckboy but I’ve driven Dutch reg. lorries for years on a German licence and have never had a problem with Police or ministry in E.U. but I did have some fun,U.K. passport,German licence,Dutch lorry,they didn’t know which language to use.ha!ha! cheers Joe.
weedkiller, This is a very small world we live in about 10% of my companies work is for Sainr Gobain based right here in Granville, NY.
Truckyboy, Well said mate 
we used to campaign and fight tooth and nail for a law shortening drivers working week, now they have one back there, everyone seems to be compaining 
I wish they would do it here
My licence has an EU flag on it, I can drive trucks from any European Country.
St Gobain opened up a new glass factory near goole, but the transport was subbed out, and paid crap money.
Weedkiller:
I work for a company owned by Saint Gobain…part of the jewsons group…
They took us over a year or so ago and JEWsons is about right…
No need for that. It’s 2004 not 1934.