fleetspeak.co.uk/5-reasons-truc … FsLw0XbOYs
Only 5?
(1) Agency pays more, causing resentment OF agency BY full time staff…
(2) Less than half of full time truckers are “Trampers” - so “too much time away from home” won’t apply to the vast majority, and I debunk this as a reason for “leaving”.
(3) Managers that give conflicting instructions that get you into trouble with another manager, managers that push you to cut corners to make deadlines, and managers that just grate - are easiest solved by avoiding the 9-5 treadmill.
(4) “Schedules” are not a problem - when you’re being paid by the hour/salaried with open docket (overtime)
(5) Unfair Pay is when you get told it is a high amount - but that higher rate is only for premium shifts you never actually get. Eg. Night rate on Bank Holidays. ALL jobs - should define hourly rate as the LOWEST with anything “above” that not counting on the job description. Eg. Supermarket work these days pays £10-£12ph basic PAYE - the lowest rates.
If you work Bank Holidays, Nights, Weekends, Overtime - it’ll be somewhat higher than that, maybe over £20ph in places…
I’ll add (6) here: “Contractual Abuses” - when the job is supposed to be a 40 hour week, but one ends up working 50-60 hours most weeks - NO overtime payable until over something silly like 55 hours… “Banked Hours” can also be abused, so that any “early knocking-off” must be paid back by “stitch-up” runs where one ends up being sent out on a “troublesome” pick-up, likely to take that shift’s length to the 12-15 hour mark - or even an unscheduled night out! Betchya it’ll end up being a friday PM when that happens as well, of course! 
One could easily come up with a list of other “Contractual abuses” I’ve not mentioned here… I’ve only highlighted the ones I’ve come across the most often in this line of work…
5 reasons for keeping a job…The word “no” Quite simple really.
To turn it round:
If you are a TM and want to keep drivers, then treat them as human beings and not objects.
Winseer:
(1) Agency pays more, causing resentment OF agency BY full time staff…(2) Less than half of full time truckers are “Trampers” - so “too much time away from home” won’t apply to the vast majority, and I debunk this as a reason for “leaving”.
(3) Managers that give conflicting instructions that get you into trouble with another manager, managers that push you to cut corners to make deadlines, and managers that just grate - are easiest solved by avoiding the 9-5 treadmill.
(4) “Schedules” are not a problem - when you’re being paid by the hour/salaried with open docket (overtime)
(5) Unfair Pay is when you get told it is a high amount - but that higher rate is only for premium shifts you never actually get. Eg. Night rate on Bank Holidays. ALL jobs - should define hourly rate as the LOWEST with anything “above” that not counting on the job description. Eg. Supermarket work these days pays £10-£12ph basic PAYE - the lowest rates.
If you work Bank Holidays, Nights, Weekends, Overtime - it’ll be somewhat higher than that, maybe over £20ph in places…I’ll add (6) here: “Contractual Abuses” - when the job is supposed to be a 40 hour week, but one ends up working 50-60 hours most weeks - NO overtime payable until over something silly like 55 hours… “Banked Hours” can also be abused, so that any “early knocking-off” must be paid back by “stitch-up” runs where one ends up being sent out on a “troublesome” pick-up, likely to take that shift’s length to the 12-15 hour mark - or even an unscheduled night out! Betchya it’ll end up being a friday PM when that happens as well, of course!
One could easily come up with a list of other “Contractual abuses” I’ve not mentioned here… I’ve only highlighted the ones I’ve come across the most often in this line of work…
Dunno what supermarket you are basing this on but mine is a hell of a lot more than your 10-12ph and thats basic days without any enhancements eg any hours worked 1400-2200 “late premium” 2200-0600 “night premium” and OT premium over 45hrs.
I would have thought total surveillance, micro-compliance, and insufferable H&S policies would have scored highly.
If the terms & conditions were explained correctly Why accept the job ■■
A great many get disillusioned when the “novelty” wears off.
Pass their test swing the motor around as though they are still driving a car,most on TNUK have come across them
After the initial probationary period and they have to start “work” putting in all the hours allowed nights out etc etc having to think for themselves, nobody to wipe their nose for them.
They also find the money is crap for the hours away along with all the usual crap from TM `s etc
Loss of their “social life” no mid-week football no nights down the pub not seeing their Family
Many will never make it driving for living long term as long as they have a hole in their backside.
lolipop:
A great many get disillusioned when the “novelty” wears off.
Pass their test swing the motor around as though they are still driving a car,most on TNUK have come across them
After the initial probationary period and they have to start “work” putting in all the hours allowed nights out etc etc having to think for themselves, nobody to wipe their nose for them.
They also find the money is crap for the hours away along with all the usual crap from TM `s etc
Loss of their “social life” no mid-week football no nights down the pub not seeing their Family
Many will never make it driving for living long term as long as they have a hole in their backside.
Your third paragraph is an interesting one.
“Having to think for themselves”?
Some will quit if they need to make a decision. Some will quit if they have all autonomy stripped away by micro management.
Such is life
The figure of 35% quitting in the first 90 days is shocking, surely the industry should be concerned about issues over driver retention, but instead they think the solution is more gimmicks and PR to recruit new drivers into the industry, who will also leave after a short while when the realities of the job doesn’t match the hype they were sold.
muckles:
The figure of 35% quitting in the first 90 days is shocking, surely the industry should be concerned about issues over driver retention, but instead they think the solution is more gimmicks and PR to recruit new drivers into the industry, who will also leave after a short while when the realities of the job doesn’t match the hype they were sold.
Are they quitting driving altogether?
Or is it a sign that crap companies will take on newbies, who get out to go somewhere better?
Of course, as you say, if they’ve been sold a Yorkie Bar dream, reality has kicked in.
Those leaving within 90 days, also sometimes think I’ll accept the job with the unsociable shifts and once I’m in I’ll swap. Only to find there’s 10 drivers in front of them waiting to swap to the better shifts or they are on a different contract to the old boys who don’t have to do the unsociable shifts.
muckles:
The figure of 35% quitting in the first 90 days is shocking, surely the industry should be concerned about issues over driver retention, but instead they think the solution is more gimmicks and PR to recruit new drivers into the industry, who will also leave after a short while when the realities of the job doesn’t match the hype they were sold.
A massive number of drivers are now employed and regarded as bums on seats at the various logistics giants, between which operators there is barely a ■■■ paper’s width of difference.
Managers of all levels in these places are not really responsible for recruiting and retaining suitable quality staff, because increasingly in too many cases they aint quality staff themselves so wouldn’t have a clue what to look for or how to attract and retain quality, so if 50 or 500 or 5000 drivers a week swap jobs between said operators it makes no odds cos all they do is steer basically, because so many of these places have dumbed the job down to the lowest level imaginable, during each dumbing down phase they gradually grind the good staff’s morale and pride in the job down till they simply give up and either leave the industry altogether or swap onto the last remaining and rapidly dwindling number of jobs where they are still allowed to take a pride, think for themselves as much as possible, ie be lorry drivers.
Yes that’s a generalisation i suppose, and there are good and bad to be found behind the wheel and behind the desk in all parts of the industry, but this relentless demoralising of good people by assuming they must be at cabbage level is destroying our industry at a level we haven’t seen before, i for one absolutety refuse to be assumed to be at that level and so should every self respecting lorry driver out there.
Some of us have been lucky enough to find jobs where we are still appreciated, left alone more or less to get on with our jobs because we don’t need to be micromanaged, but the chinks in the armour are appearing even in those places, where the standard of replacements as the older staff retire need constant micromanaging and need vehicles/systems that can do everything but steer for them, and the fleet condition and attitude about the place deteriorates because lack of pride and lowering of skills, which demoralises those remaining prideful drivers further still, it might only take the retirement of a stubborn old school TM who knows the difference between the types, then gets replaced by a pointy shoe gel haired box ticker, that can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and hey presto before you know where you are thats the end of another good job as the logistics giant’s suited pointy shoes step through the door.
Drivers also have to take their share of whats gone wrong, there have been many brilliant jobs ruined (and its still happening) by greedy selfish lazy bone idle twerps who want the best pay but don’t think it need be earned and who couldn’t help themselves take the ■■■■ out of the decent terms and conditions they were lucky enough to enjoy, ie the sick note mob, the any excuse we can find to not do our jobs mob, the not my lorry so no need to look after it mob.
muckles:
The figure of 35% quitting in the first 90 days is shocking, surely the industry should be concerned about issues over driver retention, but instead they think the solution is more gimmicks and PR to recruit new drivers into the industry, who will also leave after a short while when the realities of the job doesn’t match the hype they were sold.
They’d be concerned if there was a shortage, but there isn’t a shortage.
The third who quit in 90 days are just backfilled by agencies, by another round of new blood, or by opening the doors to another poor country.
I think a lot of drivers ■■■■ about hopping from one job to next in search of something that doesn’t exist - the perfect job.
Every driving job comes with its compromises. That may be silly start times, weekend work, longer hours, below par pay, physical work, dirty work, repetitive work, not left alone, class 2, longer commute than you might like etc. etc. You just have to look at the whole package on offer at a job & decide what compromises your happy to accept vs the benefits.
Stick around somewhere for a bit as well and you generally find you get looked after a bit better, rather than forever being the new guy.
It is a shame that employers across the spectrum - feel they somehow MUST go along with this “deception” thing of making a job look better/worse than it really is…
Examples would be the firm that tells you it’s £500pw for a 48 hour week - but in actual fact, you only work 35-40 hours, 'cos it’s “job and knock” culture there…
OR
A firm that says £600pw for a 40 hour week - but in actual fact you’ll be working 55-60 hours per week, with overtime being “unpaid” and “when required” (always if unpaid - right?)
OR allowances that only seem to kick in AFTER you get booked off each day…
“Overtime after 9 hours” - do 6x9 hour shifts with an hour off for breaks = 48 hour week, no overtime - 6 shift working week.
The Devil will ALWAYS be in the detail. You need to be a mathematician to work out how to “play any system” these days…
I’m still waiting to find out or work out how exactly one “Profits” from doing Tramping work - what with the way “allowances” are paid for this type of driving… 
rob22888:
I think a lot of drivers ■■■■ about hopping from one job to next in search of something that doesn’t exist - the perfect job.Every driving job comes with its compromises. That may be silly start times, weekend work, longer hours, below par pay, physical work, dirty work, repetitive work, not left alone, class 2, longer commute than you might like etc. etc. You just have to look at the whole package on offer at a job & decide what compromises your happy to accept vs the benefits.
Stick around somewhere for a bit as well and you generally find you get looked after a bit better, rather than forever being the new guy.
A year ago, I went to spend agency across Christmas doing RM work for the highest hourly rate I’d ever had - £19.48ph. The constant back-biting, scrutiny, lefty-style moaning, no back-up from one’s colleagues, and downright ‘political office lies and scheming with nobs on’ experience I had in the 4 months I spent there (longer than I was expecting, to be fair…) - leads me to believe that you earn every penny of such a premium rate.
If it were NOT for the anti-social aspects I’ve outlined - it would have been the “Perfect Job” of course…
Now THIS Christmas at RM - we have an impending STRIKE coming up:
I wonder how THAT is going to work, requiring the most thick-skinned of agency workers to cross them picket lines and all… 
I’m wondering if I should put my hat in the ring again - just to rub everyone up the wrong way this coming Christmas, post-Brexit as we’ll hopefully be by that point… 
There’s worse things than being called a “Scab” I’m sure.
I’d be very wary of crossing official picket lines, even more so these days, only wants some bugger to recognise you and your name goes on ze list tommy.
Might not make a scrap of difference of course, but you never know what the future will bring, but thinking of it from the job overall if they’re striking its for a reason, if they lose then RM will be yet another wrecked job and you can forget £20 an hour agency rates in the future because the place will be stuffed with foreigners prepared to work cheap and you won’t get a look in because it becomes another version of closed shop.
Did no one catch the fact it’s a US based company that did the “study” and although not explicitly mentioned quite likely refers to American trucking companies and their drivers
ETS:
Did no one catch the fact it’s a US based company that did the “study” and although not explicitly mentioned quite likely refers to American trucking companies and their drivers
Yup, straight away as no doubt did most if not all of the respondents above.
Very little difference in basically civil western countries, the issues with drivers are still much the same, time away could well be longer in the States and we have different stresses because our country has been deliberately overpopulated and the multicultural rats in a cage results should becoming obvious even to the traitorous politicians/apparatchiks responsible.