Wouldie:
If the truck comes off in your hand like chocolate it will with Vosa. What disturbs me these days is no one stands up for themselves when asked to do something or drive something “dodgy”. I’ve got a family or a mortgage, I need experience, are some of the excuses people use for doing it. Its wrong. Its your licence to lose don’t allow someone else to lose it for you. I understand the need for experience and a job, but don’t let that cloud your judgement. If they expect you to do something illegal either on the driving front or using unroadworthy vehicles, there not worth working for, agency or firm. Get advice from a union or citizens advice about them not paying you the full hours. We all make mistakes including the [zb] in the office who wouldn’t know one end of a truck from another, and usually don’t have a licence(These days).
i can only put it down to experience and i can assure you i wont be doing it again. your right about the office, one day they tried to send me to collect 8 pallets in a 5t Isuzu
As someone mentioned earlier there doesn’t appear to be many office “types” who’ve done any driving these days. Years ago the guy you spoke to with a problem was an ex driver who’d worked for the same firm as you for the last 30 odd yrs and was now spending his winding down years in the office. They were worth there weight in gold with there advice, directions etc, but of course you had to pay them in the “old days”.
Keep in doing what you’re doing, if down the line they give you the boot then they will only be doing you a favour as they sound like a right bunch of cowboys to work for. It’s coming up to the Christmas period so there will be plenty of work to be had. Might be worth to start looking now and get out rather than be kicked out. It’s your licence at the end of the day and its you that will have to live with the consequences if anything happens. You have a little experience now, just bend the truth slightly when asked at future interviews etc. don’t say you have 3 months experience driving, just say you have good experience driving, and so on.
markoc:
I agree, try and stick with as long as you can. I’m over in Ireland too and I know what some of those places are like.
There’s some decent firms there though who don’t mess you about once you’ve got some experience.
Are you in the north or south ?
I’m from county louth mate, yeah I’ve heard good things about a few Irish company’s like dixons and keenans, so ill definatly be calling round to them with my cv,do you know of any other good places I can try?
jay0:
a 14 year old lorry that is completely unroadworthy and the metal strut that the rear lights are screwed on to fell off the chassis as it was rotten with rust and was breaking up in my hand like chocolate as I tried to tie it back on with a piece of twine
And I know for a fact that they don’t take a proper break and drive like lunitics because they’ve told me this themselves, most of them don’t even bother with tachographs.
Walk out, shop them to VOSA, sue for constructive dismissal, go back to paint shop.
Basically as everyone else has said, keep at it, don’t speed, don’t break any laws. Get done what you can get done. If he wants you to dodge the tacho and that have him put it in writing.
Be careful do your best and look for something better
Bale Bandit:
Basically as everyone else has said, keep at it, don’t speed, don’t break any laws. Get done what you can get done. If he wants you to dodge the tacho and that have him put it in writing.
Be careful do your best and look for something better
This ^
Some things to consider though.
Working for a company like this is going to give you a LOT of experience very quickly.
The longer you can hang on in there, the easier it’s going to get.
This is a slightly busy period after the summer holidays. It’s going to ease off again soon, then there’s going to be the build up to Christmas. As the saying goes, “You ain’t seen NOTHIN yet”. You’re going to need every scrap of experience you can get to cope with that.
IF you can stick it out till after Christmas, you’ll be almost in a position to walk into any job going. Other hauliers know the company you work for, they know how he operates. They’ll be quite happy with the 6 - 9 months ‘on the road’ experience with this crew and reckon you’ll have crammed in 2 years plus in that short time.
I wouldn’t jump ship at the first opportunity, consider all the options first and make sure it is a step up, not sideways or down.
Hi guys, a few observations from me on this subject;
I also am a newly qualified driver, have been doing class 1 for a couple of months only, having been given a start with one the outfits in the London area.
I’m driving a few years old lorry with with many things I notice are as not as I think they should be, when it comes to road worthiness of my unit and the trailers.
What I’m surprised about, is that from what I’ve spoken to the other , very experienced drivers, working for this company for many years, as well as for many years before this one, is that they all take breaks during the time they do some work, loading and unloading and the TM actually expects me to do the same.
We work hard, do many hours in a week and, I am seriously knackered at the end of the week, and we are all expected to take breaks when unloading or loading, during which time we need to do something, we do not sit and play computer games but actually do work.
One of the reasons it’s been allowed to happen this way in my view is that many if not actually most of all those so called “old hands”, experienced, long time drivers, so called “professional drivers” , have allowed this kind of culture to settle in their workplace, and we newly qualified ones need to adjust to it, play by the same rules or are seen by TM and the company in general, as trouble makers, not willing to “help the business”, not willing to do what every other driver is doing and have been doing since always.
so, before you (not all) so called " experienced drivers " begin to slam us newbies for willing to bend the rules and willing to work for peanuts take a good look at yourself and what kind of “culture” have you helped to implement in your workplace (unofficially).
thank you
hkloss1:
One of the reasons it’s been allowed to happen this way in my view is that many if not actually most of all those so called “old hands”, experience, long time drivers, so called “professional drivers” , have allowed this kind of culture to settle in their workplace, and we newly qualified ones need to adjust to it, play by the same rules or are seen by TM and the company in general, as trouble makers, not willing to “help the business”, not willing to do what every other driver is doing and have been doing since always.
thank you
Very true. First rule of man-management is to divide and rule. Drivers being their own worst enemy are, just like the company, motivated by immediate greed, so will never organise themselves to get things put right. Hence few union members.
A brilliant and true post from hkloss1.
On multidrops i did wonder how the lad that did an area could do it all and still get tacho breaks in.
Tipping on breaks is turn a blind eye culture where the driver is not resting.At places like Aldi and Lidl Vosa know it is a tip where you unload your own load on battery fork trucks.
Some would put the tacho on rest while doing this.Vosa would find the tacho on the wrong mode and say it is fraud.
If a newbie had an official and proper break and not be working on it the phone would be going asking what took you so long to get out of there.My normal driver does this and gets there in such a time.
Ask the manager to sign a clause to work on break and watch them run off behind the counter and refuse to sign it.
If there is an accident the police can foind out the time of the days activities to see if working on break.
The manager at Middleton told me Vosa grab the truck keys while the drivers are in the warehouse unloading and check the mode switch.Foreign trucks had magnets on while tipping on breaks.
jay0:
a 14 year old lorry that is completely unroadworthy and the metal strut that the rear lights are screwed on to fell off the chassis as it was rotten with rust and was breaking up in my hand like chocolate as I tried to tie it back on with a piece of twine
And I know for a fact that they don’t take a proper break and drive like lunitics because they’ve told me this themselves, most of them don’t even bother with tachographs.
Walk out, shop them to VOSA, sue for constructive dismissal, go back to paint shop.
@Ched, Wakey wakey mate, he’s already stated he’s based in southern Ireland, no vostapo here and would have virtually no chance in a constructive dismissal case, only option is to move on when possible and look at this as a learning experience, lots of us who started here have been in a similar situation, that’s what makes us the best drivers in the world
i worked for a company like that for one day as an agency driver,i knew by looking at the vehicle it was unroadworthy,it was confirmed when i drove it and about 5 min later i drove back in the yard threw the keys on the desk and told him where he could put the motor, two days later i was told it was re MOTD the day after i bought it back and it had failed,since then if i feel the vehicle is unroadworthy i will not touch it,my point is allways trust your instinct if you feel the vehicle is not right,as other drivers say,its your licence
