Fair comments about the 15 hour situation, i don’t agree with it being abused, OK once in while when everything goes ■■■■ up it might have to be done, but a days work should be sensibly planned at 12 hours max (and not 12 hours rushing round like an idiot either, thats how our work is planned, so our days vary between 7 and 12 hours on average, which i think is fair, i average 43 hours a week.
Those old enough will remember we used to have a 12.5 hour spreadover till we had to standardise with EU, gained the tachograph and to ensure ultimate safety for everyone increased the working day to 15, good move eh?
If you feel strongly enough why not write to your MP, if they’re any good, and also write to the Traffic Commissioners office, hell direct to the chief engine driver herself Beverly Bell, then there’s the petition route.
The more official chiefs that receive letters like this puts them on notice that there is what could be considered by many unsafe working practices out there, and once notified of how bad things are by not taking some action they are in effect condoning such hours of work.
You won’t be popular with some drivers mind who are still living in 1963 and can’t cope without 70 hour weeks, if they could only see the wood for the trees and realise they should be earning that sort of pay for 50 hours max.
And i hesitate to say this but unionised jobs rarely do such slave hours.
I really don’t have an issue with 15’s. I’m early 50’s. To be fair multi drop 15’s are pushing it a bit. I did two tens last week, it felt like I had hardly done anything. Good job we are all different
Mickey mouse:
Nobody should be allowed to work 15 hours. If you start at 4/5 am you should be home watching tv at 3/4pm at the latest. But as long as the law permits then transport companies will take the pee out of drivers. The law needs changing asap.
Then you’d be moaning about having to night out nr to base due to unforeseen delays .
It’s up to the driver how he reacts to pressure from his company boss.
Some of our lot tell (and sometimes complain) about their constant 3am starts, their max hours every week, their reduced rests, their leaving the yard at 0005 on a Mon morning after sleeping in the yard etc etc, and I sometimes wonder if they work at the same firm as me and do the same job …they do btw
Worst run for me is the 7am drop in Newcastle which I normally get on a Monday. The downside of having one of 3 low trucks that can actually get to the loading bay. I’ve asked to run out on a Sunday for this only to be told by the office that I can but I won’t get Sunday rates or night out money. Something to do with the client not willing to pay for it apparently. This is annoying as we do Watford which is only 20 miles more going south yet we get Sunday rates and night out money for that run.
Mickey mouse:
Nobody should be allowed to work 15 hours. If you start at 4/5 am you should be home watching tv at 3/4pm at the latest. But as long as the law permits then transport companies will take the pee out of drivers. The law needs changing asap.
Then you’d be moaning about having to night out nr to base due to unforeseen delays .
No I wouldn’t be moaning. I would be parked up waiting for my gaffer or a colleague to collect me and take me home. I wouldn’t ‘night out’ in a wagon if it was the last place on earth!
Mickey mouse:
No I wouldn’t be moaning. I would be parked up waiting for my gaffer or a colleague to collect me and take me home. I wouldn’t ‘night out’ in a wagon if it was the last place on earth!
Not a REAL trucker then?
Where’s me hard hat.
Seriously though I’ve always had nights out down as part of the job as a driver.
If you don’t want nights out as a driver, it’s a bit like joining the Army and saying.‘‘Don’t want to go on tours, want to be home every night’’
Always thought rightly or wrongly daymen/nightmen were just playing at it.
I may be wrong but I seem to recall Mr Mouse here giving us the benefit of his tramping experience and jacking it because he didn’t like staying in lay bys.
I would also jack it if I had to stay in lay bys.
To get back on thread I would deffo find that tiring and exhausting as a driving job (not to mention sad and boring)
I reckon that “light sleepers” have the worst of it as trampers - hence why they are expected to park in laybys at night rather than during the day, what with all that racket…
Tue job is what you make of it especially where nights out are concerned. Some just can cope sleeping a cab personally im the kind who wont pay for parking or use services if I can help it company will pay it out if I do park but but I always find I have a worse nights sleep on a truck stop or services. Usually ill park at a customers or retail park/industrial estate. Most of our customers delivery points are on smaller estates that are quiet and many are in the middle of nowhere so a good nights sleep is usually easy.
an eight hour day is long enough in this stressful, responsible job so why do we accept long hours?
We are scared of the traffic clerk/boss/TM, scared we will be sacked, scared our wages will be docked, scared other drivers will think we are soft, scared the office staff will laugh behind our backs or is it self esteem. We can do it albeit through gritted teeth. But how do we decline that order, "Sorry mate, you’ve got to do another run?
Sorry, but I’m knackered.
Thank you for the offer but I do want to have a family/social life
You gotta be joking
F orf
If there was to ever be some kind of national effort to get down driver’s shifts to a maximum of say, 10 hours, 12 at the outside…
We’d be seeing a LOT more “trailer swapping” jobs out there.
I reckon we’d need to double the number of industrial estates available to truckers to DO those swaps then.
NOT all this bull about “Can’t go here - this is a town! Can’t go there either - that’s a village! - Can go to the industrial estate - but don’t even think about STOPPING on the service roads…”
Either we want a booming economy with ever more transport on our roads - or we don’t.
It worries me that governments left, right, and centre - seem to be moving towards “We don’t” all the time.
“Why can’t we have a booming economy where all our income as a nation comes from licking the ■■■■■ of foreign millionaires who want to hide their money here?”
seems to be what they desire…
You never hear about what else places like “The Caymans” or “Sark” does - do you? - They are moneyboxes for the rich - and that’s it.
Mickey mouse:
Nobody should be allowed to work 15 hours. If you start at 4/5 am you should be home watching tv at 3/4pm at the latest. But as long as the law permits then transport companies will take the pee out of drivers. The law needs changing asap.
11 hours? You call that a ■■■■■■■ shift?
To be honest I can deal with 15 hour days, but I can’t be doing with 9 hours off (or less) before you’ve got to be climbing the steps back into the chair. Say it takes 1hr 20 (40 mins each way) to get to work. So you’ve got 7hrs 40 off now. Dinner: 1 hr to make and eat (if your loving partner hasn’t made it for you ). Chill with beer: 1hr. So then you sleep for about 4, then up to make and eat breakfast, chill with another beer, then into the car to get back into the truck, if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky it’s not loaded so you’re sat about in the ■■■■■■ “drivers waiting room” for 3 hours.
I can see the appeal of doing nights out (extra pay, no rushing to and from work), but that’s where the 9 hour rest should stay. In the cab.
If we get back to yard and he wants an early start and there’s only 9 hours between then and start he pays us night out even if we decide to nip home as a small bonus which is fair I think.
midlifetrucker:
If we get back to yard and he wants an early start and there’s only 9 hours between then and start he pays us night out even if we decide to nip home as a small bonus which is fair I think.
Yeh he sounds a good boss, and it is fair.
However as some have said, by the time you get home, shower, tea, chill out and all the rest of it, plus get up in time for, and to complete, the journey to work it aint enough ‘rest’ in real terms.
Ok you get the ‘‘I only need two hours kip a night’’ heroes/knobs , but those guys do eventually come a cropper, a matter of time so who tf cares about them.
It does lead to tiredness.
for everyone increased the working day to 15, good move eh?
). Chill with beer: 1hr. So then you sleep for about 4, then up to make and eat breakfast, chill with another beer, then into the car to get back into the truck, if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky it’s not loaded so you’re sat about in the ■■■■■■ “drivers waiting room” for 3 hours.