Stanley Mitchell
If you realy think the price of fuel doesn’t matter and you can just pass it on no wonder you got out of haulage you and people like you that use to run trucks but give it up and allways no better than people that have been through tuff times and are still hear working should realy think before you speak.
The industry is hard but if we all gave up you wouldn’t have a job. 
Wanting to speak to people from Felixstowe Peterboro or Northampton would not get a true feel although they have also had a downturn Felixstowe is still one of the busiest places in uk & Northampton with all the Hubs is in the golden Triangle the only thing thats happened down there is agency rates have dropped.
Get up tp Rikki land & a true picture
i thought all the press covered the fuel protests highlighting the plight of the hauliers ,we wer nt out for a sunday drive.
the goverment did nt give a monkeys then and wont give a monkeys now even though we had loads of support from the public. high fuel costs not a lot of work not rocket science.no jobs.
JOBE:
Stanley MitchellIf you realy think the price of fuel doesn’t matter and you can just pass it on no wonder you got out of haulage you and people like you that use to run trucks but give it up and allways no better than people that have been through tuff times and are still hear working should realy think before you speak.
The industry is hard but if we all gave up you wouldn’t have a job.
I can see Stanleys point and have been through the same discussions with a bank manager, they are the ones that will lend you umbrellas but want them back when it rains. There are far too many trucks chasing too little work, especially since the UK manufacturing industry has shrunk.
Companies like British Steel, Corus etc who had a major impact on the haulage industry when they closed or slimmed down, automotive manufacturers and suppliers moving the operation abroad. Inland waterway wharves who had a niche market into the hinterland are not economical anymore as the customers are not there.
The worlds chemical industry is slimmed down too and many plants have closed through legislation and moved to less stringent environments, this helps the hauliers on the east coast a little as they move containers coming in from China. I don’t hear the same screaming of zenophobic rants against far east importers as I do of eastern bloc drivers.
From my youth, I could make a list of the companies who have disappeared, most of them heavy industry or at least major employers in impoverished areas. Steel manufacturers supplied the shipyards, ships brought in the raw materials, British workers assembled or manufactured items that we could sell to rest of the world. All this industry kept a haulage business strong, now all the derelict brown field sites are supermarkets, shopping centres or leisure parks. the trucks are carrying things people don’t want & cannot afford between massive regional distribution centres often less than 30 miles apart.
Did we mention there are too many trucks on the road and fuel is too cheap.
gb1:
Seems to me to be an ideal opportunity for Rikki to act as spokesman for the industry. Being well informed as to whats going on at all levels, as you are, you should seize the chance to speak on our behalfs. It would certainly be more than the FTA and RHA have ever done.
think this is the best thing ive heard be said int his thread.
i think rikki should do the talking on behalf of us if the bbc person comes round.
Blunder Man:
It’s not a case of being reluctant to go camera Truckless old boy
Rikki-UK:
having spoken at length to Truckless…She seems to be genuinely looking at how the industry is hurting at the moment
Never assume Blunder Man, she’s got you down as a chauvenist already!!
On a serious note, whatever the remit of the show and whoever speaks on behalf of our industry, the BBC will do as it pleases.
Personally I don’t think it’ll make one jot of difference to our industry especially in the current economic climate.
Truckers are hurting, “Who cares?” will be the answer.
Well, Ive never been called a BBC old college boy before!
Anyway of course this wont be the perfect piece in your eyes because it is a news story so it cant cover everything.
But, in theory next Thursday Mark the reporter should be putting out his piece and interviewing a live guest every hour on breakfast tv and the news channel, so hopefully we can get a lot of your points over.
But be aware it is only a couple of minutes to each news story. at least we will be informing the public of what has happened in your industry because they are not aware.
We are doing our best and it looks like a lot of you will be at the Trucknet stand on Monday and you can chat to Mark _- Im sure you can spot a BBC reporter.
Sometimes our research and stories get picked up by the papers, it is already going to be a big subject on the regional BBC Look East programme that night using our ideas and research and then adding some local ones of their own. Hopefully national radio will pick this up too - who knows? We are tying it in with figures showing how many fewer trucks are on the road - but remember many car drivers are pleased about this as they are getting to work quicker.
Meanwhile we will be live at the Orwell Crossing truckstop next Thursday 7th - as long as the country does not get enveloped by swine flu - cos that would be a news story thats bigger. Ill buy you a coffee and you will spot that Im not a BBC boy!!!
At the mo we have the possibility of 2 haulage companies- who have had to really tighten their belts, and hopefully some of you lot at Truckfest and maybe a driver we can do a bit more with.
Thankyou
Truckless:
Meanwhile we will be live at the Orwell Crossing truckstop next Thursday 7th - as long as the country does not get enveloped by swine flu - cos that would be a news story thats bigger. Ill buy you a coffee and you will spot that Im not a BBC boy!!!
So next thurday peeps when BBC are at the orwell truck stop everyone must make sure when every they with in eye/ear shot of the crew you must start coughing/sneezing complain of a high temp etc. that way the industry story can be shoe horned in as well as covering the swine flu, simple 
Sorry Truckless I thought you were Titless as well, but as you have a front bottom, I will change the to Old College Gel.
LMAO Blunder Man.
Truckless, if you come up to the North West you’ll find plenty of truck drivers who are struggling for work.
Keeping it Southern-Centric dosen’t give you the full picture of the state of our industry, merely a one-dimensional snapshot.
As so many lads have remarked on here.
There’s a lot more than the recession that needs looking at. (hijackers, traffic commisioners, RDC’s, parking, clampers, muslim terrorists, immigrants, bad drivers.)
If you want to come for a run for the day, it’s not a problem.
bring a cup, and an empty bottle.
Why have you chosen felixstowe?
lymm truckstop is the most central location for every haulier in the country.
JOBE:
Stanley MitchellIf you realy think the price of fuel doesn’t matter and you can just pass it on no wonder you got out of haulage you and people like you that use to run trucks but give it up and allways no better than people that have been through tuff times and are still hear working should realy think before you speak.
The industry is hard but if we all gave up you wouldn’t have a job.
Jobe,
I`m sorry, but, you have missed the point completely, Fuel / Derv, is a COST, you pass it on.
At No time do you cost your drivers wages at a level which leaves you out of pocket, same with insurance, R+M, road tax, ect., so why the hell does derv get treated as a special entity ■■?
If it costs £10 per litre, you pass it on @ £10 per litre, I`m sorry chap, but, its a plain fact of business, you pass on ALL costs.
I`ve got a bloke pricing up a building job for me, what do you think he will say, if I ask him to charge me 50% of what it will actually cost him to do the job ?
ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD 
On the other point you raised, I got out of operating trucks, because I got offered a price, which I could not refuse, it also came at a time when I could see where this industry was going. I have been asked so many times since, by people who I consider to be very good hauliers, how did you know when to sell ■■?
The time comes, when you can see that all your hard work and hard earned money is being undermined by the government / customers / staff / competitors, you name it, they are all after a piece of YOUR cake.
I am also still involved in transport, I drive “freelance” for legal law abiding companies, I do a bit of consultancy work for firms wanting another angle on their operations, these people seem to appreciate my input, so, I`m not just standing back and critising hard working lads like your self.
I am just pointing out the obvious, I made my money by listening, a lot of what I have learnt over the last 30 years has come from the “old school” hauliers, you are entitled to your opinion, and I`m not going to fall out with you.
I saw one your trucks yesterday, a nice looking piece of kit.
Truckless:
‘…it wont be as good if people dont talk!..’
‘People not talking’ is possibly a similar reason why a bloke likes having a mobile office to himself …plus I cannot imagine anyone here needing to be immortalised on YouTube as a whinging lorryist.
For my part I’ve had my agency rate cut by £1/hr whilst currently being sceptical at who is ripping the michael - the agency(s), the client or Europe?
Maybe ask viewers if we’d be in this situation if our government wasn’t sending £40m per day as a net contributor to fund our membership of the EU - whilst eastern European driver brethren live five to a room in Milton Keynes bedsits whilst also claiming child-benefit to send home to Poland…
Stanley Mitchell:
My only worry, will there be anyone left to actually carry the loads ■■?
The polish/latvians/chech’s …anyone but the english.
Truckless. Will you and mark be going to truckfest at haydock?
I’m not comeing all the way down to orwell to talk to someone called mark. people called mark don’t generally have ■■■■.
would love to help you out,and give you an insiders view on the car industry,but alas,im in the north with the rest of them!!
hiya,
read this thread every word, thank god i’m retired, time to do over would be a roadsweeper or something sounds to me everybody’s unhappy with the industry wasn’t like this in my day hauliers looked after lads who could do the job, they was after all the lifeblood of the firm they worked for and i personally had respect shown, if i didn’t i moved on, i think the job was doomed when operators licences became like confetti too many cut price sharks chasing too little work, and how many of those jokers have gone to the wall blaming fuel priceing and greedy drivers who incidently only wanted the rate for the job, return to the old days and i may resurrect the old class 1.
thanks harry long retired.
Its not a problem, i’ve not got the face for TV anyway it’ll make all the female viewers moist
He’s no got a face for radio either. 
Truckless, Did you get any at Truckfest??
Are you willing to reimburse cost of fuel if so I will appear for you…