Don’t know if anyone saw this in this months truckstop news, but this guy talks sense
Shallow pockets
I would just like to point out that while a certain wellknown
national haulier may look to be the logistics firm
to end all logistic firms, with the up-to-date fleet of
Scanias, Volvos, MANs, DAFs and a big supermarket
contract, let’s take a driver’s view.
The basic rate for this company’s HGV Class 1 driver is, I
believe, £7.20 per hour. This is just £1.45 above the basic
minimum wage. Now to get this licence, the cost can be
anything from £1000 to any figure you like to mention,
depending on how good you are. If you are lucky, you may
get a job and be given a motor and trailer that would
probably cost in the region of £120,000, and maybe more -
and that is before you get the trailer load.
You could then be put to work on the supermarket
contract and expected to do at least two runs a day. Maybe
in those two runs, you’ll need to do four store deliveries and
end up doing 15 hours that day. You would then be expected
to start again after nine hours, and could then be sent out
for another 15 hours.
Now, some drivers may be earning in the region of £500
to £600 per week, depending on the runs they are given and
whether they may be trampers on days or nights. They get
£12.50 a day as a meal allowance, and £5 a day bonus,
plus their night-out allowance - and when you take this into
account, it sounds a well-paid job.
But the reality is that for £7.20 per hour you could get a
monotonous job in a warehouse, stacking shelves in a
superstore or even a driving job at a local council with an
index-linked pension at ratepayer’s expense, and be in your
own bed every night.
So why not do that, then? Well, the reason drivers opt for
the Class 1 licence is because it was supposed to be a
professional job being done by professional and competent
people; but are they treated that way by the public or their
employers? You can bet your life they aren’t. How many jobs
are there where Big Brother is watching every move you
make while you are busy doing the most demanding job in
road transport.
You can see drivers asleep in lay-bys during the day and
night because there are not enough truckstops around the
country with the facilities they require. Knutsford Services on
the M6 has a ban on HGV vehicles, and this can’t be right.
Has anyone questioned this? I think not. Yet this service
area requires HGV drivers to deliver their food and drink.
HGV drivers contribute a lot to these areas all year round,
and this is how they are treated. Disgraceful.
Some telematic systems fitted to vehicles can tell where
the driver is any minute of the day, whether he is moving or
stationary. Operators can contact you any time of the day or
night and ask why you are not driving, why your vehicle is
stationary, why you took those breaks, etc. In no other
profession that I know of do employees have to put up with
this sort of harassment while doing their job. You can be
expected to drive 4.5 hours non-stop before taking a 45-
minute break, yet government advice is to take a rest after
2.5 hours.
There was a notice during the Christmas period, I am
told, that was put up in a well-known supermarket’s
despatch office by an operator that asked drivers to alter
their shift pattern for Christmas and New Year. But because
the response was not to the company’s liking, they said any
extra cost the company had to endure would be taken out of
the next round of wage negotiations. And this is a company
that says it is proud of its workforce and treats its employees
with great respect.
I am now retired, but have been involved in the transport
industry since 1970, and I can honestly say the only thing to
have improved for drivers is the quality of the vehicles.
Wages may have gone up in gross terms, but basic wages
have not. I can remember when drivers were paid time and
a half for overtime after 40 hours, and double time for
Sunday running.
Some firms pay even less than the above examples. I
heard from a driver friend that they only get £7.50 per hour
for Sunday, and £6.50 per hour basic - just 75p above
minimum wage.
How long is it before someone is going to realise HGV
drivers are the backbone of this country, and without them
all superstores and industry in general would be brought to
a standstill in a week. If only all transport drivers in logistics
and general haulage had the backbone that the T&G and
United Road had back in the ‘70s, and united for a decent
basic rate - just like the tanker drivers. Why should they not
have £31k basic per year? After all, their wheels keep the
country running.
An older trucker, by email
Well said that man.
Oh I wonder who he was talking about… 
Did you know I have a mate called cough Eddie?
Smack on with your comments Okey Didley Dokey, only trouble is with drivers, they all moan about the pay and conditions etc, but will not stand up and be counted when its crunch time, they will all shout their mouths off, but not to their boss.
Typical pessimistic moaning truck driver drivel.
switchlogic:
Typical pessimistic moaning truck driver drivel.
I get the impression that when ODD was typing this, and he gets to the end of his line of sight, rather than move his head, he presses “Enter” as you would do on an old typewriter. 
Nothing wrong with that, especially if he’s an old boy, but it doesn’t half make the post incredibly long.
Dave the Renegade:
Smack on with your comments Okey Didley Dokey, only trouble is with drivers, they all moan about the pay and conditions etc, but will not stand up and be counted when its crunch time, they will all shout their mouths off, but not to their boss.
Correct!
Okey-Didley-Dokely - you say “HGV drivers are the backbone of this country” and overall you’re right. The problem is, most of them haven’t got any backbone!
(Especially if you give them a big shiny truck!)
Bit of confusion me thinks, I didn’t write this letter it was published in truckstop news and I thought the guy talked sense
Dazza:
switchlogic:
Typical pessimistic moaning truck driver drivel.I get the impression that when ODD was typing this, and he gets to the end of his line of sight, rather than move his head, he presses “Enter” as you would do on an old typewriter.
Nothing wrong with that, especially if he’s an old boy, but it doesn’t half make the post incredibly long.
It was a little trick called copy and paste, I don’t type more than 20 words at a time 
The bottom line is that our wages are set by the Law of Supply and Demand. The letter writer might as well bellyache about the Law of Gravity.
on the same page i think it was, there was an atricle about a container truck that had hit a bridge in Thorne, Doncaster.
the last line in the article was about the drivers ability to see the road signs showing the bridge height, according to the author of the article, it was “pretty clear that the driver is in need of an eye test”
well, from the evidence in the photo, the driver should not be held responsible for that accident.
in the photo, the bridge is clearly signed at 14’9"
a high cube container is 14’6"
so, my question to you all is, if you know your overall height is 14’6" would you go under a bridge signed at 14’9"?
i know i would
Email sent to truckstop news about it too
Harry Monk:
‘…The bottom line is that our wages are set by the Law of Supply and Demand. The letter writer might as well bellyache about the Law of Gravity…’
Ditto
shuttlespanker:
a high cube container is 14’6"
Iw we had an applause button the witer of that letter would be issued with infinite Applause Very true letter IMHO
I have long thought that the Truckstop News letters page should be re-titled “Whingers’ Corner”. I guess you wouldn’t be able to find time to write a letter as long as this to Truckstop News if you had anything better to do, like “having a life” or something.
Well said Harry. He seemed to know all about the mystery company,s ( Eddie Stobart ), wage structure. He is probably one of their drivers, recently retired, and getting all that pent-up misery off his chest. 
He sounds as if a couple of nights out with you and your mates on the old Carlsberg Special Brew would do him a power of good.
shuttlespanker:
on the same page i think it was, there was an atricle about a container truck that had hit a bridge in Thorne, Doncaster.the last line in the article was about the drivers ability to see the road signs showing the bridge height, according to the author of the article, it was “pretty clear that the driver is in need of an eye test”
well, from the evidence in the photo, the driver should not be held responsible for that accident.
in the photo, the bridge is clearly signed at 14’9"
a high cube container is 14’6"
so, my question to you all is, if you know your overall height is 14’6" would you go under a bridge signed at 14’9"?
i know i would
Email sent to truckstop news about it too
I would, a hicube box is 9’6", the average height of a skelly is 5’ over the pin (the highest part) so what with that adding up to 14’6" I would go under anything marked at over 14’6" without worrying about it, if I did then hit the bridge I would then drive something a lot lower from that point on, let’s say a Ferrari or Lamborghini, I’d have enough money after I sued the arse off of the DOT for marking the bridge height incorrectly 
As to the original post, bang on the money, I especially cannot believe the bit about an MSA having a truck ban, surely that’s against the law?
It goes to prove how dedicated we all are at our jobs, that not only do we put up with all the crap that comes our way during a ‘normal’ day, we sit in front of a computer reading/writing about it when we’re off duty, it’s either that we’re oustanding professionals or we need to get a life