“The conviction of 15 drivers at Eddie Stobart’s Teesport depot for drivers’ hours and tachograph offences has resulted in the company’s North East O-licence being cut by 140 vehicles for three months.”
Drivers running late, were told to drive with no digi cards.
Link?
toby1234abc:
Drivers running late, were told to drive with no digi cards.
How much of a stranglehold does the company have in its drivers if they agreed to do that?
We may take the ■■■■ out of Dozy but at least he isn’t a yes man for them.
toby1234abc:
Drivers running late, were told to drive with no digi cards.
Late…
FFS This is what comes of PLANNING shifts for 15 bloody hours.
The 15 hours facility should be used only to give slippage to those drivers doing a max TWELVE hour shift, and running into delays… 
Lobby your MP - because fining Storbart’s finest isn’t going to stop the next 16 hour guy delayed by only an hour - from crashing and being a danger to themselves and others. 
The entire 15 hour planning bull needs to be removed from the CULTURE of professional driving.
Instead, we have a system where some fool yards think they need to get 3x15 hour shifts out of you “to get their money’s worth” every damned week. It’s not even as if Stobarts are the best payers.
Did a day at Stobarts, Appleton last Friday, and there was a driver in the yard who had done 15hours, but still had to go upstairs to do debrief and hand his keys in etc. I would have parked the vehicle in the yard and clocked off,leaving them to sort it out. Did that a few times in those circumstances at NFT.
Whos at fault here, Stobarts or the Drivers?
My employer could ask me to do something illegal, but id say no.
I’d find a layby and get my head down, they can sort it when i wake up or send someone to pick my unit up.
Theres stupid people behind the wheel aswel as in the planning offices.
Don’t think that it’ll make much of a difference to the Teesport operation tbh, firstly they will not have used up the full allocation of vehicles allowed on the O licence so they’ll not really be “losing” 140 vehicles, and secondly I imagine that as a paperwork exercise they’ll on paper out base any curtailed vehicles at another depot that has space on it’s O licence and simply continue on as before.
the nodding donkey:
Link?
This one route-one.net/legal/stobart- … acho-data/ appears to negate the assertion that drivers were being told to pull their cards (although apparently the TC didn’t believe that Stobarts were completely unaware it was going on).
Concretejim:
Whos at fault here, Stobarts or the Drivers?My employer could ask me to do something illegal, but id say no.
I’d find a layby and get my head down, they can sort it when i wake up or send someone to pick my unit up.
Theres stupid people behind the wheel aswel as in the planning offices.
Drivers to blame 100%.
Lack of balls and backbone to tell the planners to go and ■■■■ themselves, …end of, no further discussion needed.
robroy:
Concretejim:
Whos at fault here, Stobarts or the Drivers?My employer could ask me to do something illegal, but id say no.
I’d find a layby and get my head down, they can sort it when i wake up or send someone to pick my unit up.
Theres stupid people behind the wheel aswel as in the planning offices.
Drivers to blame 100%.
Lack of balls and backbone to tell the planners to go and [zb] themselves, …end of, no further discussion needed.
+1
robroy:
Concretejim:
Whos at fault here, Stobarts or the Drivers?My employer could ask me to do something illegal, but id say no.
I’d find a layby and get my head down, they can sort it when i wake up or send someone to pick my unit up.
Theres stupid people behind the wheel aswel as in the planning offices.
Drivers to blame 100%.
Lack of balls and backbone to tell the planners to go and [zb] themselves, …end of, no further discussion needed.
Although the Public Inquiry was told that planning issues were only a factor in one particular case - in all the others the drivers were alleged to be simply pulling their cards so they could finish early…
robroy:
Concretejim:
Whos at fault here, Stobarts or the Drivers?My employer could ask me to do something illegal, but id say no.
I’d find a layby and get my head down, they can sort it when i wake up or send someone to pick my unit up.
Theres stupid people behind the wheel aswel as in the planning offices.
Drivers to blame 100%.
Lack of balls and backbone to tell the planners to go and [zb] themselves, …end of, no further discussion needed.
^^^this,couldn’t agree more the planners will push drivers as far as they can, its the drivers doing it who’s at fault and blame stobarts office bods for it as an excuse for not telling em to chuff off as they aren’t prepared to drive illegally.
roughyed:
Did a day at Stobarts, Appleton last Friday, and there was a driver in the yard who had done 15hours, but still had to go upstairs to do debrief and hand his keys in etc. I would have parked the vehicle in the yard and clocked off,leaving them to sort it out. Did that a few times in those circumstances at NFT.
If close to 15 hours, I’d be popping my card to get it downloaded, chuck my keys in and get out that gate.
If anything tried to waylay me - I’d be making a fuss.
A lot of managers have learned over the years that “Getting a fuss out of yours truly” is not something to be desired - let alone chased. 
What they are hoping of course, is that you’ll do anything like “de-briefs” and other office stuff “Unpaid, and off-book” as you’ve already popped your card. I turned up for an agency shift at Dartford DHL Sainsburies 4 years back, and they asked to do stuff like licence checks, etc. before I commenced my first shift. They explained that when I’d done this, I’d be issued with a clocking card, and be booked on.
I said "I’m here, and uninsured unless you book me on right now, and do all that other stuff within the shift’s hours"
(I’d already wasted a prior session attending an “unpaid assessment” - the last time I actually did one unpaid I hasten to add…)
Now, you’d think they might get arsey about that if they intended me to do a 15 hour shift which I have thoughtlessly “wasted” 40 minutes of doing paperwork on their time instead of mine…
But in the end, they refused - so I turned on my heel and left.
I’m not interested in working for any chicken$h!t outfit that intends getting me to break the law - just so they can save a few pennies off my wages and donk it all away on that 9-points OK driver who’ll smash up some kit on his first day there instead.
You’d be falsely stating that you finished at the 15 hour mark, even if you don’t end up going out the gate to the car park for another 90 minutes say. As long as the firm doesn’t have to pay you as you’ve aided and abetted them in docking your pay - they don’t give a toss.
THIS is the culture that needs eradicating from the industry - as the public see it as “The next truck driver who’s gonna run over their loved one the driver didn’t see for yawning”
Whilst I’m on my high horse - I’ll add that “Jet lag shift change demands that take advantage of the 9 hour daily rest laws” - need to be stopped in transport culture as well.
If your shift time is say, 6am-7pm monday to friday, how would you like it if after arriving home at around 8pm after a shift, you then got a call asking you to come in at 4am because a “2 hour change is reasonable” and “you’re still getting 9 hours off between shifts”…
or…
You turn up for work at 10am - only to be sent home again, and asked to come back in at 6pm because you’ve been moved onto nights, and no one could be arsed to tell you.
I wouldn’t want to put up with crap like this in the name of ‘agency flexibility’ - let alone in any full time job these days.
I find the best way to avoid both issues such as these - is to get a fixed duty, and stick to it. I prefer nights, and will only do a day shift (being opposite to my regular pattern) by prior (eg. over 48 hours notice) arrangement.
Bugger any enforced jetlag which puts both the driver, the company property, and the public in danger. 
So Drivers get penalized and the company , but isnt it about time the planers where penalized personalty if its shown that they constantly push drivers to the limits but i agree you need to grow a pair and stand up for your self
BJD " isn’t it about time the planers where penalized personally if its shown that they constantly push drivers to the limits"
that’s a fair point.
Roymondo:
the nodding donkey:
Link?This one route-one.net/legal/stobart- … acho-data/ appears to negate the assertion that drivers were being told to pull their cards (although apparently the TC didn’t believe that Stobarts were completely unaware it was going on).
Pure class shown by Stobart, his defence appeared to be, “well no-one else checks the VU against the driver data so why should we?” Pricks.
It also says there systems were generally good, but there was “a hole”. I’ll say, an ■■■■■■■ who can’t read what is on a computer screen in black and white. 
To put the curtailment into perspective they had 540, now down to 400.
bjd:
So Drivers get penalized and the company , but isnt it about time the planers where penalized personalty if its shown that they constantly push drivers to the limits but i agree you need to grow a pair and stand up for your self
Of course not, just because something is “planned” does not mean it has to come to pass if it will not comply with the rules. It’s up to the driver to know the rules well enough to be able to complete their days work within the rules.
If they can’t, they deserve to be punished, as does the company for not educating the drivers about the rules when they were breaking said rules. And that’s exactly what has happened.
Winseer:
FFS This is what comes of PLANNING shifts for 15 bloody hours.The 15 hours facility should be used only to give slippage to those drivers doing a max TWELVE hour shift, and running into delays…
Lobby your MP - because fining Storbart’s finest isn’t going to stop the next 16 hour guy delayed by only an hour - from crashing and being a danger to themselves and others.
The entire 15 hour planning bull needs to be removed from the CULTURE of professional driving.
Instead, we have a system where some fool yards think they need to get 3x15 hour shifts out of you “to get their money’s worth” every damned week. It’s not even as if Stobarts are the best payers.
To be fair the madness of EU regs that stop someone driving at 9 hours driving time in a world of traffic hold ups and a 90 kmh motorway limit doesn’t help. 
