Fuckin truck drivers

[juddian]

One of the things that changed the job was companies shifting from proper hourly pay, overtime calculated on a daily basis, nights and weekends at proper premiums with overtime rates on top of those premiums.

If you did the hours you got the money, that was fair system all round.

Bonus schemes, mileage rate, salaries, percentage, job and finish, or combinations of these and other schemes lead to planners being able to dictate the earnings of drivers and/or the hours of work they need to do to earn £X, then you get collusion with chosen ones earning large for easy or short periods of work meanwhile those not in favour and the easy going and reliable grafters get shafted, this is no good for drivers as a whole and no good for companies either because good people who don’t play the mate’s game get cheesed off having the ■■■■ taken and bugger off to pastures new and before you know it such places as indulge in collusion/bullying end up staffed with game players.

[hipsway]

i

robroy:

lolipop:
My last job had in the T&Cs 12 hrs max then park up, we would hear many say I don`t do nights out as an excuse for going over and running in on 15.
.

Yep, pricks of the highest order. so instead of doing a more reasonable 12 hour day, and taking 11 hours off fresh in the morning for next shift, they opted for 15 hour day, presumably 9 hours rest which included them going home, tea short sleep. and then returning to the next drudge, , so they can be… ‘‘in me own bed’.’
If you '‘Don’t do nights out’ get another job on days with another firm, instead of [zb] ing up the job for the rest.
I know exactly what you mean mate.

While I agree a 12 hour shift is long enough for me, I’m not going to say that should apply to everyone. I certainly wouldn’t resort to pejorative language as you have against others who may wish to work longer hours than you care to, provided the extra hours are done legally. So what if they want to be in their own beds at night, or wish to work extra or do an extra shift. FFS as long as people are getting paid to work extra hours why should it bother you or anyone else for that matter. It’s people like you that appear more preoccupied with what others are doing instead of concentrating on their own job. Have you never thought it could be you that needs to contemplate a career change if you find the job a “drudge”.

[dozy]

You’re taking the ■■■■ rob , you’ve spent months sat on your ■■■ / drinking beer on furlough , then you’re moaning about other drivers , most of whom have kept this country going whilst putting there life’s on the Line ( yes lots of us are high risk due to health issues ) , I’d be keeping a low profile after the stunt you pulled !!! Though you’ve the brass neck not too !!!

[robroy]

hipsway:
i

robroy:

lolipop:
My last job had in the T&Cs 12 hrs max then park up, we would hear many say I don`t do nights out as an excuse for going over and running in on 15.
.

Yep, pricks of the highest order. so instead of doing a more reasonable 12 hour day, and taking 11 hours off fresh in the morning for next shift, they opted for 15 hour day, presumably 9 hours rest which included them going home, tea short sleep. and then returning to the next drudge, , so they can be… ‘‘in me own bed’.’
If you '‘Don’t do nights out’ get another job on days with another firm, instead of [zb] ing up the job for the rest.
I know exactly what you mean mate.

While I agree a 12 hour shift is long enough for me, I’m not going to say that should apply to everyone. I certainly wouldn’t resort to pejorative language as you have against others who may wish to work longer hours than you care to, provided the extra hours are done legally. So what if they want to be in their own beds at night, or wish to work extra or do an extra shift. FFS as long as people are getting paid to work extra hours why should it bother you or anyone else for that matter. It’s people like you that appear more preoccupied with what others are doing instead of concentrating on their own job. Have you never thought it could be you that needs to contemplate a career change if you find the job a “drudge”.

Firstly mate I ain’t preoccupied with what others do, in fact I don’t give a toss I was commenting on the point made to me,.and giving my take on it.
These guys can work 24 hours a day and burn themselves out for all I care, but if it has an effect on future ways of working for other drivers and the likes of myself ,.as implied in the case of ‘lollipop’, that is when I show concern.
His firm set them a job to do, giving them decent t.s and c.s to do it, which was not good enough for those select few.
Are you that naive to believe that the boss of this company, when he sees what these guys are doing, that he will not impose new rules on the other drivers, if they were on salary they’d end up doing 3 hours a day more work for the same amount, and lose their night out money.
This type of thing has always happened in the haulage industry, the actions of one or two having an adverse effect on the rest.
It.s ‘people like you’’ who can not see anything wrong with that sort of thing,.that perpetuates the situation, and yes I’ve often thought of a career change, but why should I let the type I mention force me out of the job.

[conor]

robroy:

nomiS36:
I think you need to retire [emoji23]

Tell me something I don’t know.
If I could afford to retire and prioritise in maintaining a decent (social) lifestyle I’d leave all this [zb] behind tomorrow, never look back, and certainly go nowhere near a [zb] truck again.

I shocked myself the other night. Decided to take a look at the household finances, work out how much I need to maintain current lifestyle and still pop a meaningful amount into my pension. It appears that through a combination of luck and some half decent life choices in the past 5-10 years I can meet my goal with a 3 day week. So that’s the plan, I’m just going to do 3 days a week. Just got to figure out which.

I leave the banging in the hours to the heroes who want to go chasing the money.

Who am I kidding?

[trevhcs]

Supatramp:
… that it has just become another job for many folk.

From my perspective, I’ve got no connection with any “trucking” family and came to this pretty late at 40. It was partly a way to get out of another job and partly to scratch a long term itch.

I look at pics and descriptions from the 70s and 80s and genuinely wonder how you did this job. Eatons, sheeting every load, belching engines, no night heater (done that) and plank for a bed.

Honestly…I think beyond the pay, the job was about the level I would expect from Victorian Britain if that’s what bosses expected. Those conditions deserved massively high pay and you probably couldn’t do more than 10 hours or you’d die from exhaustion…if the cigs didn’t kill you first.

I do have nothing but a huge amount of respect for the long termers, but there were also a few things which didn’t make sense to me.

• There’s been a lot of talk of you could just walk out of one job on Friday and into another on Monday. I dont know how common this was, but it sounds pretty crappy for the hard working boss who’s suddenly a driver down.

• I have heard that it was hard to get into this job unless you were one of the family, ie: you knew someone who worked in it else bosses wouldn’t touch you incase the others or union didn’t like it.

• People see all unions to be the same . Creaming it off at the top and basically doing nothing for the workers beyond hot air. For example, where I now live was built on coal mines so you’d think big union support.

Nope…mention National Union of Miners and you’d think they sacrificed the first born. In their eyes the NUM destroyed their jobs, their pits and even at the time they were so hated, they had to ship in pocket line workers from the NE. People have long memories.

• Ultimately, I know the licence says vocation, but really it isn’t. Its a reasonably skilled job with a replaceable workforce vs a job that took years to learn and was really hard. And “yes men / women” do exist, but they do in every industry and I’ve seen them screw it up in several.

Oh would I do this job for 30 years…no f’ing way!

[keepthefaith]

robroy:
After making a couple of posts on different threads, and after reading them back, one thing has just dawned on me, I have came to a surprising conclusion about myself. (No not that one ) …
Even though I am a driver myself, (and have been for more years than I care to remember ) being in this job so long has made me,… wait for it …Hate my fellow drivers.

The old adage of drivers being their own worst enemy has never been more prevalent today since I started this job.
I’ll explain.
They are a strange breed.

Directly or indirectly they are the reason we work ridiculous long hours that belong to 1930s t.s and c.s, they are responsible for the crap money we are on, basically because over the years they have allowed themselves to be treated like crap.

Many of them who work for the same firm as you would stab you in the back as soon as look at you.
Many of them have a goal in life to be looked upon as their boss’s best mate, …it never happens btw, as the boss is neither interested in that idea, or stupid, he knows the score, but these guys are far too thick to see that, so they will do or say anything to achieve their pointless goal.

Many of them will [zb] up a good job, for the reason above.

If somebody has the onus to say, ‘Hang on that can’t be achieved in my time’ along pops one of these heroes to prove you wrong, make you look a [zb], and end up making you do more work for the same money.

Lay bys are now virtually a first option for parking, because drivers did not kick off about having to park in them, enough for their employers to fight for proper facilities for their employers…see the Kent parking thread.

Very few have any empathy on the road for you anymore, many are incompetent, most of them are stress heads without a second to spare, succumbing to pressure…and all the rest of the Trucknet old boring subjects.

So basically you can all go and [zb] yourselves.!!

There are lots of other reasons that I can not be arsed to think of, but thankfully there ARE still quite a few decent drivers left (aka ‘The minority’ ) , most of my circle of friends are so in fact, but mainly because I tend to ignore the d heads in the job, and treat them with the contempt they deserve…

Anyhoo that is my grump over for today, off to make a coffee and prepare for a relaxing day watching the football.

rob you need to take a break from driving,
take a year out when the covid pandemic subsides, if you are young enough retrain for something else
it isn’t doing your health good also working weekends and taking breaks through the week isn’t the best of lives
when people start ranting they are letting off pented up steam have a break have a kit kat get out before its to late .all said with the most sincerest of regards

[henrys_cat]

robroy:

GORDON 50:
I normally agree with most of your posts but I think this might be a bit unfair, yes, drivers don’t stick together like they used to but then who does? There may be 1 or 2 industries where this still happens but I believe the union actions in the 70s (which lets face it was a bit militant with striking for 30-40% pay rises) has lead to popularity of the extreme opposite (Thatcher), which in turn lead to the culture of fear of losing ones job, and this is still with us toady.
.

I know what you are saying, but the 70s were 40/50 years ago ffs, you would think that a happy MEDIUM would have evolved between times then and times now, but the anti Union propaganda taught in school history lessons, and the Thatcher governments sale of workers council homes, preventing strikes (mortgage commitments) seems to have prevented that…Ffs Hit me on the head, I’m morphing into Carryfast.

I believe strongly in Unions, in their literal sense, and for the reasons of their origins and existence only , but I am the first to agree with your 70s examples, the tables did turn, to the point where the tail was wagging the dog, and things HAD to change, problem is they changed to a direct opposite end of the spectrum where all the fought for employees rights to fairness went down the khazi.
Today it is an unarguable FACT that those who work for Union based firms have better Ts and C.s, just because that does not fit in with general misguided opinion on here, does not alter the facts.
I have rang mates who are on literally 2x as much a rate as me for working bank hols for instance, and getting the same rate for running back in on a Saturday, than I work all day for, and those are only two of many examples…but we are getting off the subject here.

I don’t think you can blame anything to do with the Unions for employees attitudes, or in this case drivers attitudes towards each other, I really do not know what it is.

When I started most of the older drivers were a different calibre, I really looked up to these guys, they taught me a lot. They got on with their work, but on the whole did not take any [zb] from their firms, and yes did stick together, not in a brotherhood type of ■■■■■■■■ sense, or all for one and one for all, but in the sense they helped each other out, and as far as I remember never (VERY rarely at least) dropped each other in it, certainly not ‘‘grassed’’ others up,
There will be some come back at me with the obligatory ‘rosy specs’ adage, and sure there were cases to prove me wrong, but that is how I genuinely remember it starting out as a young lad.

Look ! I am the first to admit to adopting a look after myself and [zb] everyone else stance in the job nowadays, but the thread subject, along with employers attitudes and policies have led me to this …what is the alternative ?

I think a lot of it is the way things in business have changed over the years, less small firms and more logistics companies that micro manage everything and pay as little as they can get away with. This puts a bottom on the rates, then you have the morons who think they’re doing great by getting £1/hr more as a Ltd company so they can fiddle their tax, but don’t see that they’re worse off than the PAYE lads on the same job with less fall backs if anything goes pear shapped.

Training has to be done ‘properly’ now, more so because of the blame and sue culture that we live in to protect everyone. I’m the same as you Rob, I learnt from the old hands and picked things up from guys who were willing to show me it out on the road. I have repaid this in the past and still do occasionally with selected individuals, but its getting less and less.

I don’t think it’ll ever change, and only get worse especially as the logistics lot dumb the job down further with set routes, planned breaks etc. There will still be the odd niche firm who treat drivers right, but they are few and far between and getting less and less, and harder to get into as the ones that are there know they’re onto a good screw.

[the_maoster]

Man up ya big ■■■■■■■■ pansy!

[wheel_nut]

All I can say is, go and work in an office environment on their money and come back in six months and tell us about it.

Try a sales job, vehicles, animal feed, catering supplies, building materials,.

six months!

[albion]

Drivers can be their own worst enemy. My lot TUPEd over and the new firm don’t give them much hours because my pay rates are higher than theirs.

TUPE time limit over and all but one have signed up to a new contract. Because they believe they will get more work.

The one holding out worked out on a recent job that they would have got 120.00 quid more for that one admittedly long day.

But its OK, they should get more hours. Mad, absolutely mad.

[robroy]

keepthefaith:
rob you need to take a break from driving,
take a year out when the covid pandemic subsides, if you are young enough retrain for something else
it isn’t doing your health good also working weekends and taking breaks through the week isn’t the best of lives
when people start ranting they are letting off pented up steam have a break have a kit kat get out before its to late .all said with the most sincerest of regards

Cheers mate.
Look, don’t get me wrong, if I came across, or even regularly come across on here as some kind of ranting neurotic, you could not be more wrong.
The post was partly tongue in cheek,.I don’t ‘hate’ drivers really, but the ones I mention which you come across every day, I just treat them with the contempt they deserve.
I don’t let things get on top of me,.I’m the most laid back guy you could meet.
I’ve been through bankruptcy where I lost my home many years ago ffs, I just got on with it, it’s what I do.

My work pattern suits me fine btw,.I get a weekend starting from a Saturday anytime between lunchtime, or worse case 7pm,.I can count on one hand how many Sat nights out I have had since I started my present work,.and still have a couple of fingers left.

As for re.training, not young enough,.and tbh no desire to,.I just keep my head down and do things my own way, whilst trying my best to ignore the d/heads.
Thanks for the advice anyway.

[robroy]

the maoster:
Man up ya big ■■■■■■■■ pansy!

Thanks mate,.I’ll keep aspiring to be more like you, never told you this before but you’re actually my hero…, but don’t tell anybody.

[happy_trucker1]

I must admit I do agree with the original poster.
I did have a 10 /15 year break out of transport but the pandemic and being made redundant has brought back into the game .
Pretty much long distance 1 or 2 nights away a week driving an 18 tonner.
The difference I have found in drivers from my past driving experience is massive.
To me with many drivers is that they want to be finished before the day starts .
And this shows during their day . Pushing in , no patience and aggressive driving .
The amount of drivers who tailgate driving right up the arse of the truck in front is frightening,all for the sake of 1 or 2 mph .
My first stint of my transport life people were in transport because it was a way of life but now it’s just a wage for some ( a lot of the newbies )
I just get given what I’m gonna do and leave the yard and do it to the best of my ability .
No what’s on tomorrow or what is Bob doing blah blah .
Ring in to say tipped etc get given my next job and off I go again .
I’m courteous to my fellow employees only about 10 of us but that’s it . I don’t get involved in any chit chat usually just a good morning etc etc .
I learnt my lesson on the 2nd week there .
I rang a driver who said when I started if you have any problems give him a call .
Few days later I rang him how to get to a certain customer and told him where I was as I was really struggling to find it . When I told him where I was ( WHAT THE FXXK DID UOU HO IN THAT WAY FOR ) blah blah when I was back at the yard later that week the all the drivers knew I had gone in the wrong way . They also all knew I had 2 nights out that week .so ever since I ask nothing and tell them nothing just do what I’m told to do by management and keep myself to myself without being rude . I also have no interest in what any one else is doing .
By just looking after myself and doing things in what I believe is the correct way keeps me busy and enjoying all that I do .

[adam277]

I was far happier doing warehouse work and being on a forklift then driving a truck.
At most firms if you are a truck driver you are barely a name.
You come in grab your keys and off you go.

[darkside]

British workers are among the worst idlers in the world, the UK rewards laziness, and too many people in Britain prefer a lie-in to hard work.

[switchlogic]

Henrys cat:
I think a lot of it is the way things in business have changed over the years, less small firms and more logistics companies that micro manage everything and pay as little as they can get away with. This puts a bottom on the rates, then you have the morons who think they’re doing great by getting £1/hr more as a Ltd company so they can fiddle their tax, but don’t see that they’re worse off than the PAYE lads on the same job with less fall backs if anything goes pear shapped.

This is partly why I spent over half my career working for Irish companies, it’s more like the job used to be in UK. I.e less box ticking, more about personal relationships, can walk into office or ring the boss up if you have a problem and you’ll know it’ll get sorted (the boss being man who signs the cheques rather than some jumped up TM with an attitude problem), can ring the boss up to tell him his year old Scania and fully loaded fridge is on its side in a bog and his first question is ‘are you ok’ followed by ‘don’t worry we’ll get it sorted’ which involved his brothers (who were owners of company too) and their sons in trailer all day unloading 20t of frozen beef by hand, Bosses that built the company. Bosses (in my specific cases) who can give you directions to the chippy in town or Rome Market because they’ve done everything they ask drivers to do and then some.

[switchlogic]

robroy:

the maoster:
Man up ya big ■■■■■■■■ pansy!

Thanks mate,.I’ll keep aspiring to be more like you, never told you this before but you’re actually my hero…, but don’t tell anybody.

HOW. VERY. DARE. YOU! How very dare you cheat on me

[the_maoster]

switchlogic:

robroy:

the maoster:
Man up ya big ■■■■■■■■ pansy!

Thanks mate,.I’ll keep aspiring to be more like you, never told you this before but you’re actually my hero…, but don’t tell anybody.

HOW. VERY. DARE. YOU! How very dare you cheat on me

It’s gonna be a viscous fight over his affections Switch. Back to back, walk ten paces forward, turn, and fire scatter cushions at each other!

My second will deal with you Sir.

[robroy]

Ooooooh !
I’m all giddy, they’re fighting over me.