Unless there’s union recognition at the company its possibly a waste of time being in one of the two main lorry driver unions, not sure how Unite would have performed in your case Robroy, but speaking as i find the area office has been very helpful with ongoing situations where i am, similar help and advice plus legal expertise always available in my previous work too whenever an issue needed clarification.
I started out in my lorry driving life in the URTU, but had no dealings with them whatsoever and within 3 years i’d moved jobs and transferred to TGWU (now Unite) and i’ve been a member almost the whole time since.
Have no interest in the union leadership or their political affiliations.
You are right to cancel membership, seeing how the help and advice you received amounted to the square root of sod all.