A deal has been struck which will see more than 1,000 lorry drivers get a pay rise - and spend fewer hours on the road.
Drivers with north-east of England-based ACC Distribution are to get an 18.5% pay rise over two-and-a-half years, coupled with a huge reduction in working hours.
The deal follows new European legislation, due to be introduced in 2005, which will limit the time drivers can spend behind the wheel.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/3234540.stm
Vince
the co-op done a similar thing in this part of the country( peterborough) some 5 months ago.
my company also done the same some 6 months ago. 
This was how I was hoping things would go but nobody could know for sure,let’s hope it’s a pointer to the futire
Vince you are quick this was poste on the PDA news forums a couple of weeks ago 
Grim Reaper:
Vince you are quick this was poste on the PDA news forums a couple of weeks ago
Well, Im a full-time truck driver, and at the weekend Im the father of 5-y-o twin boys, so as you will understand, I don`t get the chance to see everything on the internet.
Apologies to the PDA if they covered this story first, I first read it in last week`s Commercial Motor.
Vince
Well if it makes you feel any better Vince, I did’nt know about it until I read your post, so it was worthwhile putting it on here after all 
What I want to know is, who is ultimately going to be ‘paying the bill’ for all these increases in drivers wages?.. YOU the drivers and all the other consumers out there, as far as I can see it will be paid for by higher prices in the marketplace, so in the long run no-one will really be better off anyway, right?
Spot on Cliff,someone has to pay for it,but hopefully it will mean more money in our pockets 
What I want to know is how they are going to enforce this law, for as we all know the foreign registerd vehicles will be sticking to this law the way they do to tacho law, leaving us as even less cost effective an option, what with tacho & WTD to stick to.
How many more jobs have to be lost to foreign registerd vehicles braking EU laws whilst operating within the UK before this goverment wake up & starts protecting us against this illegal compition.
I`m sure it will lead to an equivalent rise in haulage rates but this is long overdue anyway.
If you divide the retail value of the load in your trailer by the increase in haulage rates, this only comes to a tiny amount- a fraction of 1%.
Now is the time for drivers to consider how to cope with the extra money and the more time with the kids.
Most importantly, this might be the thing which solves the driver shortage.
Mugs who are prepared to work 15 hours a day and 70 hours a week seem to be in very short supply at the mo…
Vince
Mug■■? I resemble that!
WOW i’m a mug as well
Cliff the tight fisted CLOWNS that opperate general haulage companys,the same ones that have exploited and ripped drivers off for the last 30 years or so 
THEY ARE THE ONES WHO WILL PAY. Besides even if we do pay a bit extra at point of sale come march 2005 we will have a decent living wage to do just that Who wants to work 70 hrs a week for 300 quid? thats 150.00 a week based on a normal 35 hr week.As for 15/16 hr days WHAT AN ABSOLUTE JOKE? Its 2003 for gods sake.It`s time this industry AWOKE to that fact I for one am made up that they are being FORCED TO COMPLY .Come march 2005 they WILL pay.Trust me
Your argument summed up then Cliff is: 10p on a loaf,and 10p on a pint of milk.This price increase is for TRUCK DRIVERS and their FAMILYS only then 
Yeh right mate.
March 2005?, enlighten me Tony.
That is when the WTD comes in with no opt outs except for ODs
personally, i may have to pack up my job because i cannot do it in 48 hours, if i am to remain in my job and work only 48 hours per week then i am going to be spending a lot of weekends away from home for the sake of 12 to 18 hours per week more than the 48, so i get an excellent wage at the moment for about 60 to 70 hours per week, the best job i have ever had and i get home every weekend on a saturday and don’t go back to work until tuesday but because some poncey herbert thinks we are hard done to and the likes of some people here and the unions agree with them i am going to lose out on valuable time at home, i think not, i don’t break the law now but i will be doing when this restrictive practice comes in or i will be quitting the industry altogether.
any driver that thinks they will be better off when the wtd comes in is living in cloud cuckoo land.
‘wake up it’s the 21st century’ and there are lots of non eu drivers waiting for tony and his cronies to give them green cards once they sign up to the eu.
Johnny,
You break the law you pay the price.Just as i would have to if i did…With respect Tony.
‘wake up it’s the 21st century’ and there are lots of non eu drivers waiting for tony and his cronies to give them green cards once they sign up to the eu.
Spot on Johnny. I dont think there will be any driver shortage thats for sure.[/code]
I hope all you who are optimistic are justified and the others, not.
But let me tell you what happened here in France when the socialist government introduced the 35 hour week.
First of all, everybody laughed and said that their Boss wanted 35 hours per day, never mind a week. Then we had a meeting in the yard one Saturday morning with the Boss and a Man from the Ministry.
I tried my best to keep up. The Boss can spout for hours when he gets into his stride (at the recent Christmas"do" he read 5 A4 pages about how hard done by French hauliers are compared to the Brits, Scans, Dutch Germ…etc. Ring a bell?)
Anyway the upshot as my mate explained was that at the moment we get paid 200 hours a month salary, win or lose, and now we will get the same money for, wait for it, 195 hours! Took me ages to work out why I was still rolling 85 odd hours a week till the rep told me it is only driving time they are counting. Put it on break or available for the rest. Every month or so we might get a Friday or Monday off if you had too many hours in but the trouble was you didn’t know till the day before, no chance to plan anything.
One side effect, good and bad was that Saturday mornings if you were back you washed down, without pay, but it was a great social occasion because a lot of us got together for “casse croute” which literally means breaking a crust, but in reality involved 15F in the pot and someone went for wine, cheese, ham, bread and coffee. Not a bad way to start the weekend! This came to an end because the Boss was told by the Ministry that we all had to put tachos in so he employed a man to do it all for us. He worked all day Saturday and Sunday morning and was a part time fireman during the week. The government would say look, creating jobs.
Salut, David.