Pimpdaddy:
I wonder why they don’t replace their fleet regular ie every 3 years like most outfits do!?
…Umm. Because other fleet operators have to replace the totally knackered vehicles, but RM ones have still got mileage to come as PN57’s yet… 
DonutUK:
…running a big fleet of red trucks…yes, it’s the Royal Mail!They have to be the biggest cowboy outfit in the UK…none of their motors seem to have functioning speed limiters, their drivers are incapable of the most basic aspects of driving I.e. the use of mirrors or indicators, in fact their drivers are the worst I see every day, from the little vans who are obviously driven by employees who have severely limited mobility judging by their need to park no more than 3ft from their delivery/collection regardless of how dangerous or inconvenient their vehicle is…right up to the Artic drivers who seem to think that an indicator is something to be used after they have pulled out in front of you not before…or believe that it is your responsibility to avoid the arse end of the trailer when they want to come back in instead of allowing a safe distance to develop before trying to scrape the bugs off your bumper with their rear under run bar!
Because they are “ROYAL MAIL” it seems to make them immune to investigation from any prosecution via any other tax paying quango. Like the police, vosa, elf and stupidity ect. If I remember correctly all their driver training is done in house without the need for a government booked test and pass number.
When I first quit the rigs, I done agency for them. And the general attitude from the TM was don’t fret, you will never be tugged in a RM vehicle.
Good luck to them really, they are a bankrupt company only surviving because of the Liberals. Their days are numbered thanks to the Unions, good riddance soon hopefully.
DrivingMissDaisy:
Snarley:
I deliver regular to mail centres, and I agree, some of them are mad.Did you know that the start rate class 1 is £27k pa !!!
You say that as if you think it’s something wonderful?
So if they work 52 weeks a year, on a 48 hour week. They earn £10.82 an hour.
Sounds a good hourly rate, but because they are Unionised, they are limited to any overtime, so on the hours they can do (Thanks to the Union) they basically draw £275 a week.
Pay peanuts, employ monkeys folks… Oh and join a Union folks, it will do you wonders. 
Pimpdaddy:
I wonder why they don’t replace their fleet regular ie every 3 years like most outfits do!?
10 years or 1M kms
i know a lad who drives for royal mail and he really does think that the law doesnt apply to them.they go to some of the printers we go to and have a 1hr max turn around time so the goods in pull them round when i once confronted one of them about it he replied we are carrying the queens mail…and when did you last see one in a vosa check point because i dont think i ever have.
thing is iv lost all confidence in royal mail anyway right from post men upwards our postal delivery service is now a shambles i caught our postman just putting a parcel collection note though my letter box without knocking to see if i was in, so i went out and said where is this parcel he said in my van but you have to go collect in now because you was not in, had a bit of a do with him but got my parcel the lazy sod 
Youre all slating posties but how many of you when youre lost have asked a postie for directions?
ironstipper:
DrivingMissDaisy:
Snarley:
I deliver regular to mail centres, and I agree, some of them are mad.Did you know that the start rate class 1 is £27k pa !!!
You say that as if you think it’s something wonderful?
So if they work 52 weeks a year, on a 48 hour week. They earn £10.82 an hour.
Sounds a good hourly rate, but because they are Unionised, they are limited to any overtime, so on the hours they can do (Thanks to the Union) they basically draw £275 a week.
Pay peanuts, employ monkeys folks… Oh and join a Union folks, it will do you wonders.
WRONG. Try calculating this on a 36.25 hour week which is what this is based on. =£14.32 per hour.
I understand the op is banging on about the subject of royal mail but as the title suggests the biggest dodgy operator how many on here can name big companies turning a blind eye to their drivers running bent? We all bang on when the small haulier and his drivers get caught red handed and punished but we all know who allows drivers who tip on break. I done a trunk from Hoddesdon to Avonmouth and was told upon return the usual driver finishes an hour earlier what took u? My answer was i dont tip on break and took a break at the services on the way back. Needless to say i was never asked back. The usual driver was salaried so used to tip and reload on break everyday and probably still does. There is the same going on everyday and i can name the companies but why bother as it would only be down as hearsay. So my question to all agency drivers how often have you been in this position?
DAF95XF:
Youre all slating posties but how many of you when youre lost have asked a postie for directions?
Last time I did that, he told me to get lost as he doesn’t give directions
colin.f.whitetrans:
My answer was i dont tip on break and took a break at the services on the way back. Needless to say i was never asked back. The usual driver was salaried so used to tip and reload on break everyday and probably still does. There is the same going on everyday and i can name the companies but why bother as it would only be down as hearsay. So my question to all agency drivers how often have you been in this position?
You are right!
Slavery is on some Place introduced again.
Can’t count how often got my Shift cancelled or cut short as i put too many Defekt reports to garage or refused going out with overloaded Axle or bad Load.Not by small Hauler,but by a Famous retailer
ironstipper:
DonutUK:
…running a big fleet of red trucks…yes, it’s the Royal Mail!They have to be the biggest cowboy outfit in the UK…none of their motors seem to have functioning speed limiters, their drivers are incapable of the most basic aspects of driving I.e. the use of mirrors or indicators, in fact their drivers are the worst I see every day, from the little vans who are obviously driven by employees who have severely limited mobility judging by their need to park no more than 3ft from their delivery/collection regardless of how dangerous or inconvenient their vehicle is…right up to the Artic drivers who seem to think that an indicator is something to be used after they have pulled out in front of you not before…or believe that it is your responsibility to avoid the arse end of the trailer when they want to come back in instead of allowing a safe distance to develop before trying to scrape the bugs off your bumper with their rear under run bar!
Because they are “ROYAL MAIL” it seems to make them immune to investigation from any prosecution via any other tax paying quango. Like the police, vosa, elf and stupidity ect. If I remember correctly all their driver training is done in house without the need for a government booked test and pass number.
When I first quit the rigs, I done agency for them. And the general attitude from the TM was don’t fret, you will never be tugged in a RM vehicle.
Good luck to them really, they are a bankrupt company only surviving because of the Liberals. Their days are numbered thanks to the Unions, good riddance soon hopefully.
As one of those “in house trained” as you put it, I’d better point out that when you’re put on the HGV1 training (as it was then) you get sent to an outside driving school approved by DVLA. You do your test at the heavy goods testing station like everyone else, and you can pass or fail when appointed a government examiner like everyone else.
As it’s my 22nd birthday of my C+E today of all days, I have to say that the suggestion that anyone can hand out LGV licences without going through the proper public system is laughable.
The Union has no power. It’s had no power for many years, which is why around 80% of the workforce has been cut over the last decade without a serious miners-style strike taking place. Pay has been falling in real terms since 2002, although basic pay has been falling slower than other companies who actively increased hours for the same pay so £500 for a 56 hour week is commonplace today in the industry.
The main financial issues of RM are having it’s pension pot looted for 17 years by the firm not paying any money into it, leaving a black hole today.
Couple this with being forced to deliver the competition’s mail via the so-called “downstream access” which forces RM to deliver the work AND lose money on it AND help the competitor put their own overpriced mail through letterboxes at RM (therefore taxpayer) cost.
The suggestion of “good riddance”? - Look forward to collecting all your post at a local private depot, and paying a fee to pick it up.
If RM fails, that’s what is going to happen to the rest of the industry. No one else has any interest whatsoever in putting mail through letterboxes other than RM.
Like the NHS - support it or lose it. If we lose the NHS then anyone who can’t afford private will just die in places like Stafford.
Note that “Stafford” is currently blamed on the “NHS” in the stage-managed political arena rather than the crooks that run it. Even an unmasked crook can’t be brought to book, so there’s where the real power lies.
It’s overpaid SUITS who ruin businesses, and then try and palm off the public with the notion that it’s all the “general staff’s fault” when it’s their racing to the bottom in reality.
colin.f.whitetrans:
I understand the op is banging on about the subject of royal mail but as the title suggests the biggest dodgy operator how many on here can name big companies turning a blind eye to their drivers running bent? We all bang on when the small haulier and his drivers get caught red handed and punished but we all know who allows drivers who tip on break. I done a trunk from Hoddesdon to Avonmouth and was told upon return the usual driver finishes an hour earlier what took u? My answer was i dont tip on break and took a break at the services on the way back. Needless to say i was never asked back. The usual driver was salaried so used to tip and reload on break everyday and probably still does. There is the same going on everyday and i can name the companies but why bother as it would only be down as hearsay. So my question to all agency drivers how often have you been in this position?
This is the main reason I’ve left the full time industry. If “job and knock” means running bent, then I don’t want any part of it.
Job and knock to me years ago meant being able to do a London multi drop 2 hours quicker than everyone else, because I knew my way around so well. I had my full break, didn’t speed, and everything was above board. Today, if you self-tip on break (as a full timer) whatdoya get? - make 45-60 minutes?
Not worth it. Very little gain for risking one’s licence I agree.
As agency of course, I have no interest in getting back early and docking my own pay! This is why agency has come to suit me better than the FT job I left after 22 years.
There are a few others that agree with this stance, but the industry still has more drivers wanting full time work “no matter what the ethical cost” than there are full time jobs, so as it stands, we’re still voices crying in the wilderness. 
whens the last time you saw a supermarket lorry in a vosa chexpoint? thye just ignore the big boys.
I’ve been pulled twice by vosa driving RM (once a 600 on waterloo bridge, and once a 17t near Handcross on the A23) and once pulling a nagel fridge, being pulled into Fleet services.
This is since the inauguration of VOSA, so it’s not really that often I concur.
Everyone gets pulled at every firm, but as VOSA told me themselves whilst chatting on one of the pull-ups.
"We’re looking for people seriously taking the mick, like driving 5+ solid hours without a break, 80 hour weeks back to back, MOT failure vehicles, and no tax/insurance. The main reason we don’t pull the big carriers as much is because on these latter points, the big firms are straight down the line, and behave themselves. If it’s just a driver with a dodgy tacho, then we’re not going to be able to judge that from driving behind them as much as a vehicle being in a poor state of repair or no tax disk etc."
Made enough sense to me at the time. I’ve kept my “no faults/infringements found” notice they’ve given me too, as I understand they’re quite rare! 
colin.f.whitetrans:
I understand the op is banging on about the subject of royal mail but as the title suggests the biggest dodgy operator how many on here can name big companies turning a blind eye to their drivers running bent? We all bang on when the small haulier and his drivers get caught red handed and punished but we all know who allows drivers who tip on break. I done a trunk from Hoddesdon to Avonmouth and was told upon return the usual driver finishes an hour earlier what took u? My answer was i dont tip on break and took a break at the services on the way back. Needless to say i was never asked back. The usual driver was salaried so used to tip and reload on break everyday and probably still does. There is the same going on everyday and i can name the companies but why bother as it would only be down as hearsay. So my question to all agency drivers how often have you been in this position?
Unless you are “self tipping”…what is the problem with putting it on break whilst you get tipped?
If you are on a bay for an hour, doing sweet fa while your trailer is unloaded, why can you not have a break? Most places have somewhere to grab a coffee, take some food in with you…sorted.
I think all the argument was about self tipping, and not taking breaks on bays.
Personally, I’ll take a break wherever I see fit, if I know I’m going to be there over an hour. 
I’d say myself that banning someone from their cab whilst being tipped is more against common sense health and safety than any imagined dastardly deeds that might go on should one STAY in one’s cab whilst being tipped, like a sensible person would.
Advantages:
You can feel the progress of your trailer being unloaded/reloaded. If work stops, and a green light doesn’t appear, then you might chase up why that bod going off shift has left it all in the air for example.
You’re not going to get mown down by some crazy no-speakie-English forkie screaming at you to get out of the way in Moldovan because he’s jammed his controls… Staying in your cab is the safest place, like sitting in your car during a thunderstorm. 
…and of course you can have your creature comforts like watching a dvd, listening to the radio, getting your head down, eating your packed lunch.
Disadvantages:
You might ■■■■ off some jobsworth staff at nobbies/tescos/wherever who insist that you should sit in a cell with no seats for god knows how many hours whilst they decide if they need some extra agency warehouse staff in to start tipping you about 3 hours from now, if you’re lucky. 
…ck 'em. I’ve been doing this long enough to know what’s common sense safe, and what’s not.
I didn’t sign any “rules to the yard” when I entered the place, so I don’t feel the need to follow any rules other than laws of the land as enforced by the police on all. 
At best if it’s company policy EVERYWHERE in the firm, I’d follow it as well. I don’t like this “local hitler laws” system where the rules vary from depot to depot even among the same outfit…
Dangers? Driveoff: Pull your red button out, disconnect your airline, or even uncouple and park your tractor in some dark corner where you’ll not be harassed - assuming you know you’re gonna be there “well over an hour” let’s say. Obviously depends on having to surrender the keys as well, but if you HAVE surrendered your keys, then what’s the beef over “driveoff” now? Red button stops “Oops I’ve kicked the handbrake off listening to truckers tunes on Classic FM” - and that’s assuming you’re on a downslope off the bay!
Some places I’ve been too don’t let you uncouple, because “it’s against health and safety to load a standing trailer” - Is it --ck!! How do they get loaded the rest of the time then?
Sorry if i was not clear enough when i said self tipping. I have no problem on a bay tipping taking a break but self tipping doing up curtains and coupling up and moving curtains again was the position i was in. Their is a huge parcel company does trunk from Scotland to England every night and the run takes roughly 4hr 15 and then the regular driver then drops his trailer and then helps reload his own by moving and closing curtains and back out the yard normally in 50 minutes. Good for him he is salaried and i would do the same myself but its not fair to expect everyone else to do it when they are standing in. What annoyes me is they will have a smart comment knowing full well what the full timer is up to and try to make you feel as if you are not as good as their employees when what they should be doing is forcing their own drivers to take a legal break. A nine hour drive with no break doesnt matter if the office staff cover it up