Its coming up for T&D’s 30th year and we would like to know what you all think has been the biggest changes in the industry, and specifically as far as drivers are concerned, for better or worse, over the last 30 years …
Please be aware that comments made in this thread MAY appear in the magazine
My view?
Best- The vehicles are a world apart from when I started- driver comfort is at a point that we could never have dreamed of
Worst - Communication- Being given a slip of paper telling where to collect from and where you were going, and being told to ring in when empty- being left to decide how to do the job yourself was one of the attractions of the job, with modern instant communications, tracking routing etc, it seems there is no independence of thought/decision making left for the driver
Rikki-UK:
My view?
Best- The vehicles are a world apart from when I started- driver comfort is at a point that we could never have dreamed of
I concur.
Worst - Communication- Being given a slip of paper telling where to collect from and where you were going, and being told to ring in when empty- being left to decide how to do the job yourself was one of the attractions of the job, with modern instant communications, tracking routing etc, it seems there is no independence of thought/decision making left for the driver
Agreed, but I think a better example would be the completely OTT H&S bull ■■■■ that is rampaging throughout the industry. My post some months ago about how you have to dress up like an oil rig worker to collect some bagged palletised aggregate from quarries is a perfect example of where it’s heading. Give it 10 years and you won’t be allowed in a Tesco RDC without same.
Most cabs have improved greatly over the last few years which is defo a good point
Mobile phones trackers being told which way to go how to do the job all the H&S stuff ( although I now mainly work with what we call adult H&S or back to how it used to be ) all the PPE you need ok there is some need for some but it is over the top
Sat nav although if used correct they are fine as they are only an electronic map you need to watch the road signs & markings plan your route better take a paper map as well ( it helped me on more than 1 occasion this week )
There are a lot more road works then used to be more traffic on the roads but everything has to be booked in & they expect you to be on time every time
RDC / Pallet work has killed a lot of work especially tramping although still some tramping
Wages not changed much but everything has gone up
All the cards we need to carry no licence both parts digi tach dqc card ( any other ie ADR etc ) with today technology why cant it all be on 1 card that we need or 2 driving licence 1 for the rest
The expense for new drivers coming into industry then low wages at the end
The continue expense to keep working ie the cpc ( which as we all know is a farce ok idea ok but not implemented well digi every 5 years medical licence renewal
Facilities at some places could be improved for drivers
One of the biggest changes that are not purely physical is the comeradery (or lack of) in the earlier days other drivers would help with loading, folding a sheet or a temporary repair to get you home, there are exceptions but the rule today seems to be every man for hisself.
The loss of so many manufacturers; Foden, Leyland, Seddon Atkinson, ERF, Maggie Deutz, Ford, Berliet (do they count? I remember seeing a couple of them)…In the next 30 years the truck sales league tables will probably feature just 3 manufacturers.
The loss of so many well known firms (big and small); From a tipper background I can recall the names of Redlands, Readymix, ARC, Hoveringhams, Kingston Minerals, Hall and Co, Tilcons, Blue Circle, and Castle Cement.
There should be at least 5 pages on zb agencies.There are lies damned lies and what the girl at the agency tells you.
Over the last 30 years I’ve watched the demise of the good old fashioned truck stop with home made fresh food ( even be it sausage and chips you knew the chips were from proper potato’s.
The good being able to have communications yep having the mobile phone … You try finding a payphone and when you do or could 30 yrs ago it was on a junction with nowhere to park to ring the boss to find out where your back load was coming out of.
Best: The standard of training including Driver CPC has improved the view of drivers in logistics.
But it could get better and CPC should include a mandatory session in first aid.
Often we professorial drivers see more accidents than others do.
Worst: Those knocking Driver CPC -
If we want to be professional then 35 hours training every 5 years is a little to ask as this can include HIAB & ADR towards the 35hrs of training over the 5 year period.
The wages & conditions some companies & agencies on offer are an insult, but then EU migrants are cheaper.
But do they have the knowledge and road craft that home drivers have?
the cabs are much better but i hate auto gear boxes, you lose to much acceleration, just when you might need it, like at roundabouts, i think there dangerous and i just wonder how many bumbs will be as a result of someone trying to get going from a roundabout but crawls out rather than a good old boot down and get going. you can always sit there at the roundabout for a good half hour i suppose but then your going to be late for a timed delivery
timed delivery’s should be outlawed as well in my eyes as there a risk in the driving game. we all get held up and then have to try to make up the time lost. that means danger to me so why the h@s havent outlawed this practice i will never know ?
i miss the old days were drivers had to have a lot of skill in there job, they had to plan there route, find there way around the country using just a map and a - z or just stop off at the first garage you would come to in the town your delivering for directions or stop off at the local cafe or butty bar. are there any cafes around anymore ? lol
i miss starting up the old trucks the smoke would blow out and you would let your engine run for a while so it could warm up lol go and have a natter with the lads with a cuppa while its warming up
no cab heaters were a pain as well for night outs i could just imagine some of the drivers of today having to cope in the freezing cold and rain dripping in the cabs lol
the job was as rough as a bears arse years ago
i am proud i grew up in driving from them early years
i am a professional driver never had a crash in all my years on the road ( 26 ) so thats not to bad a track record and now someone new with a cpc card will be more qualified then me with all my years of doing the job and all the experiences i have grown from in the game.
the cpc card its the last straw for me i dont have one and i will not be able to drive a truck from September so its 2 fingers up to the industry from me, and its a kick in the teeth for all us drivers who have been doing the doing over the last 20 30 years and who have stuck with transport from when the early days were hard.
we should of been given grandfather rights on the cpc card, but now its just another money rip off scam, and i am very disappointed with drivers all over who could of said no i am not paying for this card and stuck together on it
but then i am also disapointted in the so called drivers who enjoy nothing more than running into a transport office to grass someone up who has had a smoke in the cabs or report other drivers for things. we used to help each other out not stab each other in the back
So, 1984/5, some of the best times to be a lorry driver, no mobile phones, OK so we had the spy in the cab (tacho) but speed limiters were a voluntary thing and few companies bothered with them.
Relatively quiet roads, nearly every vehicle on the road was British registered and the small company where i worked at the time we had Brit drivers and one German ex POW who was one of the most honourable hard working and decent men i have ever known, Irish lorries would be driven by Irish lads, French etc the same, Eastern Bloc lorries would be driven by hard working thoroughly competent blokes who took their time and knew what they were doing.
Camaraderie was still there in spades, not just between colleagues but drivers still talked to each other, on nights out you’d probably find yourself walking down to a nice little pub and having a pint or two with other similar lads.
Cafes were still around.
We managed to do the job without being covered in hi vis’, we still roped and sheeted or chained our loads on…but mostly you were not thought odd by taking a pride in your vehicle or the way you did your job.
Lorries still had to be driven then, was only some foreign tat that had synchro gearboxes but good well made tough foreign stuff like MAN’s and DAF’s (no comparison to the electronic modern equivalents) still had proper gearboxes too.
Thats what i enjoyed about lorry driving, i wanted to go out and drive a lorry, i never asked for a lorry that drove itself for me, braked for me, controlled traction for me changed gear or anything else, i wanted to earn my spurs by learning how to do the job properly and earning the respect of the old school.
Lorries still required a lorry driver to drive them, thats what i miss most of all now, a chimp wouldn’t get them out the gate in the first place, you learned not to play a tune on your constant mesh or twin splitter or whatever because you took a pride in controlling your vehicle properly in all aspects, you drove the vehicle to make it last hence you used the Jacob or other auxilliary brake correctly and took a now seems silly pride that your lorry never needed brake linings or a new clutch…it wasn’t arse licking it was pride in the job.
These faceless logistics companies that have helped destroy the industry were in their infancy, and in practice were often premium jobs back then with endless waiting lists to get on board, lots of jobs were still own account, and just as now (the few remaining) were usually the very best jobs going.
Course some drivers who had fantastic jobs on years old contracts sickied themselves out of jobs, you’d think time served blokes would have had the nous to look after the best numbers but, and this hasn’t changed one bit, some of them just can’t help themselves taking the ■■■■…they deserve a slap round the kisser with a wet fish.
For the rest of us sickies were unheard of, we went to work with bandages, sprains, breakages and all sorts, we needed the money.
Companies generally had time served, experienced in all aspects of transport Transport Managers, good TMs recruited directly because they, unlike some twerp who was at college last week, knows a lorry driver when they see one.
Most companies bought and maintained their own vehicles, and in most cases specified them correctly for the job, hence places like Kwik Save bought day cabbed small tractor units with windows all round because they made the perfect urban delivery tractor, a bloody great 550hp full size overhigh sleeper with not a single window behind the drivers head and an auto gearbox is about as much use as a chocolate teapot in urban back door delivery world, but that, apart from some supermarkets still running their own, is what they have to get about with now, its ludicrous.
Waffled on long enough now, i bet you’re hoping there’s not a part 2, well there might be… 
i might start going on about training people to control a lorry competently instead of pass a bloody test.
skypilot:
Best: The standard of training including Driver CPC has improved the view of drivers in logistics.
But it could get better and CPC should include a mandatory session in first aid.
Often we professorial drivers see more accidents than others do.
Worst: Those knocking Driver CPC -
If we want to be professional then 35 hours training every 5 years is a little to ask as this can include HIAB & ADR towards the 35hrs of training over the 5 year period.
Are you a DCPC trainer? Singing it’s praises and saying “logistics” makes me wonder. Some courses should be mandatory, like drivers hours and tachos but first aid would give the public the idea we’re all part time medics. Don’t get me wrong nothing wrong with basic doing basic first aid (I’ve done a couple), but there must be others out there that can’t be done with asking mannequins if they’re alright?
lol @ Juddian post
we must be of the same era as i totaly understand were your coming from lol
i had to paint my own waggon wheels and take care of my truck as it was mine : )
Eton twin split gear box erf tractor unit with bright red painted wheels lol i was a real king of the road and we drove like kings of the road as well, we didnt chase around like loonys we looked after the rest of the road users, the cars who cut us up we would spot a mile away and be ready for it lol mind you to get a heavy load going again having to go through all the gears was hard work so we had to learn how to drive and use the speeds corectly so we are not changing gears all day long
my old bosses driving assessment was to put a half filled cup of water on the dash board and you couldn’t spill a drop lol that would soon teach you how to drive with a load on
now its all abs brakes and drive like a car can drive.
no need for the ways we were once taught i suppose. i did mangage to aviod roping and sheeting jobs on my jounrny in the game but thats because curtiain siders were popular so there was lots more work going around that wasnt just flat decks but i have done my fair share of flat deck work in my time
funny enough Juddian i once worked for christian salvesen who had the quick save contract many moons ago out of birchwood warrington and your right about the cabs needing glass all around for shop work, some of the places we would have to get into blind side etc it just wasnt funny but i guess its how we just got on with it
but it was a good read on your post but then i am a dinosaur the same as you mate happy times indeed : )
Most of what has been said already I agree with. (maybe not with the guy who thought mobile phones in cabs are an improvement, at least then you contacted them when you wanted, not vice versa)
One of the biggest negative changes in the job is the advent of agencies and the power they have gained over the years, going from when drivers hired their services out on a when they wanted to work basis, to the way things are now. ie.where the agencies have the drivers by a cupped hand waiting for them to cough too much power, and the money they cream off could be paid directly to the driver if employed direct.
skypilot:
Best: The standard of training including Driver CPC has improved the view of drivers in logistics.
But it could get better and CPC should include a mandatory session in first aid.
Often we professorial drivers see more accidents than others do.Worst: Those knocking Driver CPC -
If we want to be professional then 35 hours training every 5 years is a little to ask as this can include HIAB & ADR towards the 35hrs of training over the 5 year period.
The wages & conditions some companies & agencies on offer are an insult, but then EU migrants are cheaper.
But do they have the knowledge and road craft that home drivers have?
What a load of ■■■■■■■■. Clearly deluded or a DCPC trainer.
desypete:
the cpc card its the last straw for me i dont have one and i will not be able to drive a truck from September so its 2 fingers up to the industry from me, and its a kick in the teeth for all us drivers who have been doing the doing over the last 20 30 years and who have stuck with transport from when the early days were hard.we should of been given grandfather rights on the cpc card, but now its just another money rip off scam, and i am very disappointed with drivers all over who could of said no i am not paying for this card and stuck together on it
You claim to be so good at the job yet lack the ability to move with the times…
Probably best you hang up your keys and go empty your ■■■■ bag drive.
If you’re not paying, why the Luddite behaviour? It’s not difficult to sit in a classroom, be told where the free tea and coffee is, and switch off everytime someone interrupts the trainer with yet another tale from the golden days. Christ you don’t even need to fill in the end of session quizzes.
To those who have to pay for it, or attend on Saturdays etc, I sympathise.
Saaamon:
desypete:
the cpc card its the last straw for me i dont have one and i will not be able to drive a truck from September so its 2 fingers up to the industry from me, and its a kick in the teeth for all us drivers who have been doing the doing over the last 20 30 years and who have stuck with transport from when the early days were hard.we should of been given grandfather rights on the cpc card, but now its just another money rip off scam, and i am very disappointed with drivers all over who could of said no i am not paying for this card and stuck together on it
You claim to be so good at the job yet lack the ability to move with the times…
Probably best you hang up your keys and go empty your ■■■■ bag drive.
Absolute ■■■■■■■■ mate 
You are confusing moving with the times with taking whatever b/s is handed to you with no resistance, standing in a queue with your pants around your ankles, as most modern day drivers do today.
I admire the guy for standing up for his principles… however self detrimental it will be to him in the long run. I just wish that I could afford to do the same, I would get out of this crap over regulated poorly paid job tomorrow if I could but why should I let the ■■■■■■■■ drive me out.
I feel sorry for drivers that were not in this game when it was a good job, if you think it is now you either haven’t been in it long enough, or are deluded, or both!
By the way what planet does Skypilot live on 
OK, part 2 you didn’t want… 
The present day.
Agencies, they can be a good thing in theory, but in practice too many are not honest and straight with their drivers, but sometimes the drivers who use them are not reliable enough nor play the game fairly either and can be just as dishonest.
Logistics operators,
Lowest common denominator rules, do they realise how insulting it is for a bloke with umpteen years of haulage of various descriptions under his belt to have to ring some youth younger than his own kids at the RDC for redirection because of a motorway closure because he’s got a double decker on the back…they might employ chimps on a regular basis but by lumping the good guys in with them and assuming every member of staff is at lowest denominator point you destroy all pride and self sufficiency morale in the better staff…the very ones you should be encouraging to work for you.
I know a bloke who was failed on his assessment for a local RDC, i also know the assessor from old, he failed the bloke due to some petty box he failed to tick on the check sheet.
Now this bloke’s been driving lorries longer than me, he’s spent 25 years on car transporters, he spent umpteen years before that on general haulage, he doesn’t have prangs nor sickies and he’s forgotten more than this assessor will ever know, but he was failed, it would be funny if it wasn’t so typical of the box ticking mentality now prevalent, it was only an agency job by the way.
He should of course have been interviewed by a real transport manager if the client or the logistics mob had such a thing, had he called where i am now he would have been welcomed in with open arms, and not a poxy agency either…as it is he was snapped up within a month by another transporter operator who isn’t an idiot, i’m actually pleased that he was failed, he was far too good for that bunch of arses to abuse, let them recruit another bod who really needs to be redirected to avoid stuffing the thing into a passing low bridge.
Treat people with respect, i’m fortunate and i bloody know it, i work for a very old fashioned employer thats been around well over 100 years, one where the customer is the most important person in the company and staff are treated with respect, they also offer class leading terms and conditions, the result is a motivated workforce who respond in kind with respect and, apart from the odd idiot that has forgotten what they have, realise just what they have and do their level best to make sure the job stays as it is for ever.
My journeys into the world of RDC’s has shown the above calm mutually respectful attitude to be anything but, some miserable sneering ignorant staff, stupid comments a complete lack of basic courtesy and manners in some cases bordering on hostility, outright bullying and even threats of violence, i have personally been threatened with a smack in the face, by a woman believe it or not on admin in a supermarket RDC not 15 miles from where i live, my crime?, to forget my phone and ask politely and apologetically for the keys for the lorry back after i’d signed out, she and her oppo were sat down in the evening enjoying a film on the telly and she had to move 10 feet to get the keys…i was in no position to do anything about it, she had an oppo there i’m a newish agency scum bag…had i complained who’s going to believe me and whats going to be the result, yes me blacked and labelled a trouble maker?
This isn’t always the case of course, i’ve met some really nice people too, polite courteous and friendly, and yes i have seen aggressive alleged drivers going into some of these places with a horrible disposition about them, it isn’t all one way and we should remember that.
The nasty aggressive or talking down to attitude shouldn’t exist anywhere, but its a reflection of the times we live in, there are few gentlemen and ladies left in the outside world, and our political leaders are, with few exceptions, charlatans liars and traitors so its rather simplistic of old ■■■■■ like me to expect to find old style manners in the workplace, a great pity still.
Drivers have changed over the years, from when drivers were predominately long termers who wanted to be lorry drivers from an early age, thats now changed and many drivers are on their second third or more careers, often enough using redundancy pay from their main jobs to gain a licence and become vocational drivers, nothing wrong with that, but the attitude of many of the newer breed isn’t what the old school had…and for old school attitude, age and time served has nothing to do with it, i know some young drivers who are old school and will be begged for in years to come, and some old drivers who i wouldn’t pay in shirt buttons.
Some drivers are money grabbers, they want only the best jobs and winge and wangle their way until they get what they want, not prepared to take the rough with the smooth.
Lorries, blimey where do you start, yes they’re comfy now warm/cold as it suits you, you can vegetate to your hearts content, just put it in drive and steer… and what a truly horrible experience being reduced to a steering wheel attendant is.
I hate modern lorries, i hate the auto gearboxes, i hate the ridiculous idiotic messages that appear on the screen for no reason, i hate the lack of skill required to drive the things.
There, that’ll do for now…might get wound up enough to do a part 3 load of tripe, but for a nominal tax free fee i could be persuaded not to… 
Bring on Part3 Juddian you talk a lot of sense, an uncommon thing on here most of the time. An accurate account of how the job has changed over the years.
Got to disagree on not liking modern trucks auto boxes etc, although there is no longer any skill required to drive them I wouldn’t like to go back to driving some of the heaps of ■■■■ I have driven in the past.
Everybody who has not should drive (or try to drive ) just once a non power steering, crash box motor, just to see how different it was, but I definitely prefer my modern Actros.