Themoocher:
You make everyone sound like BNP loyalists.
Reading some of the comments on the “in or out of the EU poll” thread, some of the stuff spouted on the thread started after the Paris attacks,the “Do you flash foreigners out” thread and the way lots of members conduct themselves on here in general when talking about foreigners, its hard to see why anyone would think that…
It’s a while since i joined in this one, been lots of interesting points made.
I see many are still convinced it’s down to EE drivers that the pay is pants for so many, well that does have its merits but look at things a bit differently, try looking at things from a different perspective…;
short history lesson…drivers became lazy, didn’t want to rope and sheet…job deskilled…wanted automatic boxes…job deskilled…didn’t want to touch the load, handball you wot??..job deskilled and made easy…wanted ever more comfortable lorries that a chimp could drive…job made easy and now desirable.
see where i’m going with this, when you allow, demand even, that the job is both dumbed down and made ■■■■ easy for people to spread their arses on the seat and vegetate, don’t be surprised when it starts to become attractive to the great unwashed in ever greater numbers, the recently redundant or failed in other career (actually thats badly put, cos often its others careers that have vanished or changed like ours has and nothing they could do about it, no offence meant) types who know full well they can go and get a lorry licence for a little over £2k and hey presto instant lorry driver, when it was graft and ropes and sheets and changing your own wheels on the side of the road you didn’t find so many non transport people in transport.
the only way to get out of the rut and get better wages is to seek out parts of the industry that require more input than sticking the bloody thing in D and pressing the pedal, any bugger can chauffer a modern lorry its no more difficult than a car and in many cases a sight easier, so what benefit does an employer get by paying twice what he needs to in order to provide a bum on that seat.
in a previous life someone might have said go west young man, well now i humbly suggest if you want better terms in lorry work its a case of go find something that needs graft and brains and higher than average skill and might be a bit on the mucky or anti social side (hours wise) to boot, might have to suffer a cut down cab, and no that doesn’t go against your 'uman rites, if you have skills (and that includes being a good representative for your company) to offer you are worth more, the more skills the more involved the job (or more customer facing where companies are very customer focused) the more desirable and valuable you make yourself.
oh and while on the subject of being desirable employee (better paid), taking the ■■■■ out of your current job by taking sickies or other ways of doing as little as possible for your wage and generally doing damage or having accidents isn’t going to get you that reputation that is the key to the better jobs.
Also in reply to certain comments about traditional unions, the union top brass are not the union, the boys and girls who work with you who join the union and elect and support decent stewards ARE the union, you are the union where you work, and like it or lump it, i know cos i’ve been doing this a long time now, unionised jobs are in almost all cases the best paid with the best conditions, that fact is indisputable.
eezeer:
Many mention the problem of EU Drivers taking up our Jobs.
Well I think the PDU have a UK at the end and so if enough join then maybe we can ask it tackle those issues, and maybe protect some of our jobs somehow.If we do not speak as one and protect our jobs then the EEs will continue to take them over.
So some of you slagging the PDU do have an issue and it is the job security
Wow, racism to throw in as well? I was wondering how long it would take for the organisations true colours to come out. What a great bunch of people to be associated with. Is this where former BNP members now hang out? If Eastern Europeans are taking UK drivers jobs its because they’re competent and actually get on with it instead of whining and ■■■■■■■■ about every damned thing like a girl. It certainly isn’t because they’re getting paid less because I’ve yet to come across one who does.
Juddian:
It’s a while since i joined in this one, been lots of interesting points made.I see many are still convinced it’s down to EE drivers that the pay is pants for so many, well that does have its merits but look at things a bit differently, try looking at things from a different perspective…;
short history lesson…drivers became lazy, didn’t want to rope and sheet…job deskilled…wanted automatic boxes…job deskilled…didn’t want to touch the load, handball you wot??..job deskilled and made easy…wanted ever more comfortable lorries that a chimp could drive…job made easy and now desirable.
see where i’m going with this, when you allow, demand even, that the job is both dumbed down and made ■■■■ easy for people to spread their arses on the seat and vegetate, don’t be surprised when it starts to become attractive to the great unwashed in ever greater numbers, the recently redundant or failed in other career types who know full well they can go and get a lorry licence for a little over £2k and hey presto instant lorry driver.
the only way to get out of the rut and get better wages is to seek out parts of the industry that require more input than sticking the bloody thing in D and pressing the pedal, any bugger can chauffer a modern lorry its no more difficult than a car and in many cases a sight easier, so what benefit does an employer get by paying twice what he needs to in order to provide a bum on that seat.
in a previous life someone might have said go west young man, well now i humbly suggest if you want better terms in lorry work its a case of go find something that needs graft and brains and higher than average skill and might be a bit on the mucky or anti social side (hours wise) to boot, might have to suffer a cut down cab, and no that doesn’t go against your 'uman rites, if you have skills (and that includes being a good representative for your company) to offer you are worth more, the more skills the more involved the job (or more customer facing where companies are very customer focused) the more desirable and valuable you make yourself.
oh and while on the subject of being desirable employee (better paid), taking the ■■■■ out of your current job by taking sickies or other ways of doing as little as possible for your wage and generally doing damage or having accidents isn’t going to get you that reputation that is the key to the better jobs.Also in reply to certain comments about traditional unions, the union top brass are not the union, the boys and girls who work with you who join the union and elect and support decent stewards ARE the union, you are the union where you work, and like it or lump it, i know cos i’ve been doing this a long time now, unionised jobs are in almost all cases the best paid with the best conditions, that fact is indisputable.
There are a lot of stereotypes there.It was possible to find very well paid trunking work,especially international demounts,with no load handling.Just as it was to find zb general haulage jobs driving equally zb wagons for useless money.While personally I’d actually probably be prepared to earn a bit less to drive something with a decent fuller box in it than a modern automated heap.The common link being that the best jobs are usually over subscribed dead mans shoes.Adding to the labour supply with immigrant labour won’t help that situation.It just reduces job opportunities for all in all cases. 
Conor:
Wow, racism to throw in as well? I was wondering how long it would take for the organisations true colours to come out. What a great bunch of people to be associated with. Is this where former BNP members now hang out? If Eastern Europeans are taking UK drivers jobs its because they’re competent and actually get on with it instead of whining and ■■■■■■■■ about every damned thing like a girl. It certainly isn’t because they’re getting paid less because I’ve yet to come across one who does.
Not whining and ■■■■■■■■.Which is why they are on here moaning about how bad things in their own countries.So they decide to run away from their self inflicted economic problems and impose them on others,by over supplying foreign labour markets where they think things are better.When they are only ‘better’ because of the whining and ■■■■■■■■ of previous generations of western workers with a lot more bottle than they’ve got. 
As for racism no that’s what the nazis did.On that note try to get a job driving a truck in Australia or Canada and see how ‘racist’ they are to their own by your logic.
Yes CF, it was possible to find a virgin years ago too so they tell me, but we’re arn’t still in the 70’s and 80’s were in the bloody awful 21st century and if we want to keep ahead of the pack we have to do what we have to do, the jobs of which you talk do not exist any more because constant 80mph night trunks doing 400 miles a night are thankfully a thing of the past.
Yes course there’s lots of stereotypes, or i’d have had to prattle on even bloody longer and bored even more poor sods witless, unchecked immigration is a massive problem for Britain and we’ve been stupid enough as a nation to not only join the EU, but as the electorate continue every time to elect the same bunch of crooks whilst expecting a different result, (that may not apply to you and i but it does apply to the vast majority of the electorate who presumably haven’t been kicked in the ■■■■■■■■ enough yet and can’t get enough of it), and they’ll vote to stay in the EU soon of that i have no doubt, so a reality check, the situation we find ourselves in is only going to worsen.
Wingeing endlessly about immigrants isn’t going to make a scrap of difference, they aint going away and the country is about buggered now re-population let alone when its pushing 100 million, so all we can do as drivers is to make ourselves more desirable than a n other and get the plumb job and make it last as long as we can.
How did you get your current lorry driving job, how do you keep it, how would you advise a young or new driver to get ahead of the pack, today not 30 years ago?
Juddian:
Yes CF, it was possible to find a virgin years ago too so they tell me, but we’re arn’t still in the 70’s and 80’s were in the bloody awful 21st century and if we want to keep ahead of the pack we have to do what we have to do, the jobs of which you talk do not exist any more because constant 80mph night trunks doing 400 miles a night are thankfully a thing of the past.Yes course there’s lots of stereotypes, or i’d have had to prattle on even bloody longer and bored even more poor sods witless, unchecked immigration is a massive problem for Britain and we’ve been stupid enough as a nation to not only join the EU, but as the electorate continue every time to elect the same bunch of crooks whilst expecting a different result, (that may not apply to you and i but it does apply to the vast majority of the electorate who presumably haven’t been kicked in the ■■■■■■■■ enough yet and can’t get enough of it), and they’ll vote to stay in the EU soon of that i have no doubt, so a reality check, the situation we find ourselves in is only going to worsen.
Wingeing endlessly about immigrants isn’t going to make a scrap of difference, they aint going away and the country is about buggered now re-population let alone when its pushing 100 million, so all we can do as drivers is to make ourselves more desirable than a n other and get the plumb job and make it last as long as we can.
How did you get your current lorry driving job, how do you keep it, how would you advise a young or new driver to get ahead of the pack, today not 30 years ago?
To be fair it didn’t take 80 mph to do a 400 mile + trunk. 
That’s a great question.How would anyone advise someone now in an environment where we’re just going to sit back and not try to reverse the immigrant workforce over supplying an already over supplied workforce issue.By accepting it isn’t going away.
In which the government is ideologically opposed to road transport thereby handing the initiative to the foreign competition.With a resulting extortionate road fuel taxation regime which takes even more money out of the potential wage pot while at the same time reducing demand for drivers even more.
Realistically the answer is probably as always in either the owner driver route.Or ex pat one in which Australia,NZ or Canada is the only very small and ever reducing hope in a regime that’s rigged against its own. 
I think I’m the same as everyone else.
No one has a problem with immigration at a controlled level.
Come on 300 000 to 500 000 EE semi skilled workers coming off the boat every year.
Of course it’s going have an effect as there more cheap labour to fill jobs at the lowest possible wage.
As Hgv licence, fork licence are easy tickets to obtain. Makes sense to come to the uk and do that.
Been a member on here and TW a long time.
Pat Nicholson campaigned really hard against the CPC by becoming a Trainer and then charging Drivers £50 a time and still does.
(now thats what you call campaigning against it)
Fail to know much about the PDA as you never hear about anyone it has helped if it has, so cannot comment.
As you are so wise tell us all, what has the PDA actually achieved to help drivers as a voice in the Industry in the 14 years? (not heard of anything)
just a dot different is all that is needed for a domian name so fail to see the PDU will worry
By promoting someone else does no good in undermining another
They might both have a place in this Industry within their own right
let each get on with it.PS, I thought it was now the PDF a bit different to pdu
Thanks to Connor I have sat and read all 10 pages of this thread this morning.
When I got to the post above on page 7, it was strangely familiar 
I’d last heard this sort of thing in a Court room in December 2010 as a result of threats to contact all of the PDF’s charity sponsors with spurious allegations about myself and the charity. This was a direct result of our RUFUSAL to support a campaign AGAINST the DCPC 
On 22nd January 2015 the Trustees of the PDF made this statement public.
The Trustees of the Professional Drivers Foundation, known as the PDF, have been made aware of a Union called PDU-UK.
In order to clarify the situation the Trustees would like to make it absolutely clear that despite the similar name and slogan, the PDF is a charity for lorry drivers and not affiliated with any other organisation.
We do not have, and will never have, any link with any union whatever the similarity of its name may suggest.
However, the Trustees do note that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Now, let’s look at this scenario (purely ficticious, but close to reality)
Driver lives in Cornwall but tramps all week. Has a young family of 3 children and a mortgage, Just manages to squeek by every week but has no savings. He has a bad accident in Aberdeen and is hospitalised for 3 weeks. Wife and children need to visit and haven’t the money for travel expenses or accommodation. This is where the PDF steps in. We can, and do sort these sort of problems out in less than 24 hours even with cash if need be.
We know how proud drivers are, quite rightly so.
How would you like it if when you returned home from hospital you saw the PDF bragging about the help they’d given you all over Facebook, the forums and in the Transport Press?
You would feel, exactly like I would, thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed 
That in a nutshell is WHY you don’t hear of the work we’ve done in helping drivers and it will always remain that way, as long as I’m involved with the PDF.
A suitably anonymised log is available for all the grants we make, but we will never publicise what we do to satisfy accusations of us doing nothing.
…and by the way, I charge £60 not £50, my training is good, not cheap
Pat
I’ve signed up too, although I have some questions and I agree with some of the critical comments on here. I’m also a Unite member, and very unhappy with how little influence I’ve got in the union, but I am willing to kick up the dust and try to do my bit to change things. As a female non-British driver I need support to defend my corner and I hope PDU will.
Yoni:
I’ve signed up too, although I have some questions and I agree with some of the critical comments on here. I’m also a Unite member, and very unhappy with how little influence I’ve got in the union, but I am willing to kick up the dust and try to do my bit to change things. As a female non-British driver I need support to defend my corner and I hope PDU will.
Keeping dreaming sweetheart.
Yoni:
I’ve signed up too, although I have some questions and I agree with some of the critical comments on here. I’m also a Unite member, and very unhappy with how little influence I’ve got in the union, but I am willing to kick up the dust and try to do my bit to change things. As a female non-British driver I need support to defend my corner and I hope PDU will.
Haven’t you read their policies they done want non-British drivers joining,they want you all out of the country
xichrisxi:
Yoni:
I’ve signed up too, although I have some questions and I agree with some of the critical comments on here. I’m also a Unite member, and very unhappy with how little influence I’ve got in the union, but I am willing to kick up the dust and try to do my bit to change things. As a female non-British driver I need support to defend my corner and I hope PDU will.Haven’t you read their policies they done want non-British drivers joining,they want you all out of the country
You clearly can’t read.
Carl Usher:
Yoni:
I’ve signed up too, although I have some questions and I agree with some of the critical comments on here. I’m also a Unite member, and very unhappy with how little influence I’ve got in the union, but I am willing to kick up the dust and try to do my bit to change things. As a female non-British driver I need support to defend my corner and I hope PDU will.[emoji38] [emoji38]
Keeping dreaming sweetheart.
I will, and I’m not your sweetheart.
eezeer:
Many mention the problem of EU Drivers taking up our Jobs.
Well I think the PDU have a UK at the end and so if enough join then maybe we can ask it tackle those issues, and maybe protect some of our jobs somehow.If we do not speak as one and protect our jobs then the EEs will continue to take them over.
So some of you slagging the PDU do have an issue and it is the job security
Clearly I can’t Yoni. 
xichrisxi:
eezeer:
Many mention the problem of EU Drivers taking up our Jobs.
Well I think the PDU have a UK at the end and so if enough join then maybe we can ask it tackle those issues, and maybe protect some of our jobs somehow.If we do not speak as one and protect our jobs then the EEs will continue to take them over.
So some of you slagging the PDU do have an issue and it is the job security
Clearly I can’t Yoni.
That’s posted by Eezeer isn’t it, that’s not from the PDU website.
Yoni:
xichrisxi:
eezeer:
Many mention the problem of EU Drivers taking up our Jobs.
Well I think the PDU have a UK at the end and so if enough join then maybe we can ask it tackle those issues, and maybe protect some of our jobs somehow.If we do not speak as one and protect our jobs then the EEs will continue to take them over.
So some of you slagging the PDU do have an issue and it is the job security
Clearly I can’t Yoni.
That’s posted by Eezeer isn’t it, that’s not from the PDU website.
So one would tell you Eezeer,despite his protests that he isn’t,is directly linked to the PDU have a read through his posts and the PDU Facebook posts the are strikingly similar.
xichrisxi:
Yoni:
xichrisxi:
eezeer:
Many mention the problem of EU Drivers taking up our Jobs.
Well I think the PDU have a UK at the end and so if enough join then maybe we can ask it tackle those issues, and maybe protect some of our jobs somehow.If we do not speak as one and protect our jobs then the EEs will continue to take them over.
So some of you slagging the PDU do have an issue and it is the job security
Clearly I can’t Yoni.
That’s posted by Eezeer isn’t it, that’s not from the PDU website.
So one would tell you Eezeer,despite his protests that he isn’t,is directly linked to the PDU have a read through his posts and the PDU Facebook posts the are strikingly similar.
That’s then still a personal opinion and not official PDU statement. I’ll look into it, but still, the more non British drivers join them the stronger their voice internally. Let’s face it, if they don’t support non British drivers they have no chance of success. Without non British drivers there won’t be a transport industry in this country.
Due to a full in box this morning (thats what she said).
Off topic a bit but I would just like to announce that my club the DDC wont be launching ever due to it being a quickly cobbled together hybrid ponzi/pyramid/HYIP/Union scam scheme and you 30 odd silly buggers who have offered me £5 already need help.
Although I would have welcomed EE members unlike pdu aparently.
Still catching up with this thread but some great points being raised, nice to see the Nazis get a mention though as per Godwins law.
By now everyone should realise that our eezeer is a lot more than a £25 member of the pdu.
Yoni:
I’ll look into it, but still, the more non British drivers join them the stronger their voice internally. Let’s face it, if they don’t support non British drivers they have no chance of success. Without non British drivers there won’t be a transport industry in this country.
I have to +1 this Yoni, as I work with a lot of Polish, Romanian, Izbekistan, Anyoneseenstan drivers. A great bunch who are working away from home or have relocated here for a better life. I admire you all as for me to upsticks from the UK would take a level of bravery I do not have.
Back to topic I see eezeer has dropped a bit of a clanger with the UK only insinuation and a massive U turn is needed or even a PDU-turn. PDU now needs Barrie Tozer to be informed of this discussion (like he doesnt already know) and to participate if just to clarify the PDU’s position on our EE brothers and sisters being welcome in the union or unity thing.