And from you too Juddian, For some reason I always thought you were a little older than me. Probably from your well thought out and eloquent replies to different threads on here. Yourself, along with Harry and Robroy, and one or two others whom my memory forgets, always seem to be the voice or reason and tell it like it is.
We have seen the best days of this job, and admittedly I have worked for some absolute cowboys back in the day. But it was a learning curve for us youngsters, and those Cowboy firms were the ones who gave us our start because the old hands wouldnt put up with their games. As we grew and became more experienced then we found better jobs in respect of decent employers, but I found even then that the actual owners of those firms, the ones who took you on in the first place, didnt keep a tight reign on the transport office staff. Many a time in conversation with particular bosses… when you did see them, ended up annoyed with how the transport staff had ran you ragged and then stepped in to chastise them and work levels tended to drop back to a more acceptable level.
But my last firm, a private family firm, whom I thought were absolute professionals showed their true colours not while I was working for them, although we four drivers were kept really busy when fully employed, but in retirement during Covid when they wanted holiday or sickness relief, or an abnormal workload dictated the rental of another tractor for a few days or weeks. Then you seemed to be treated as just another jockey . I think the old saying that you are only as good as your last load is still rife amongst many hauliers. I cant speak for the big names (what ones are left!) because I only worked for small companies. Take care, thanks for the reply.