If a driver throws fifteen [zb] into me because I’ve asked him to do a late run (which he has the hours and is still being paid for) that driver shouldn’t expect much respect from me in return. (but strangely always does)
On the flip side - I’ve always found as a driver that people will be incredibly kind and/or respectful to you as long as you are polite, don’t turn up to their yard like a bull in a china shop expecting an instant tip and a brew.
The amount of drivers (and other people) I have met who think that respect is a one way street pointed exclusively at them is astounding.
My first TM told me one fantastic thing - never take your bad day into someone elses yard. I didn’t really give it much though at the time but it is true - drivers get back what they give and it makes a lot of them very bitter people.
Winseer:
I suggest therefore that being treated badly is an endemic thing among larger haulage firms these days.
My last job before I changed careers was working for DHL for about 5 years and it was the best job I ever had in the industry.
Treated fairly, trusted to get on with the job and minimal interference from the office because they knew if things weren’t going to plan they would be the first to know about it. Knew what I was doing well in advance and could go a whole week without even speaking to the boss. Rare occasion you needed time off a short notice because something had come up? You got it. Rare occasion he needed a favour from you because a situation had developed? He got it. A two way street of mutual respect and understanding.
I, too, have heard good things about the cushy number that is/was DHL. This was from a number of contractor drivers working there on a rolling contract whilst I was put in there for odd days on agency.
Do such cushy numbers still exist at DHL or has it gone the way of other courier firms - T&Cs been changed to make the job now crap?
…I didn’t realise what a cushy number I was on as full time RM until after I left. Did you find out in retrospect about DHL as well?
The prospect of going to work, getting in a truck and being out in it all shift, coming back, chucking my keys in, and going home having spoken less than a dozen sentences all shift - always appealed to me. I miss that from my full timer days. This, modern “heart on sleeve” approach in the name of “selling myself” isn’t working well for me at all these days. If I shut up though - no one would know that I exist, and I still wouldn’t be getting any job offers.
pjv444:
I have been with a few different company’s through agency and full time in the last 20 years and it is disgusting the way drivers are treated and spoken to. I don’t mess about with the likes of these kind of people as iam disliked by agency’s and bosses in the past as I speak my mind and tell them straight, don’t speak to me unless you see me as a human being and not a piece of meat with a £sign.
I know every other driver has experienced the lack of respect in this industry and quite honestly no matter how much or how little the pay is there is not one company better than the next, what iam saying is that there needs to be a change in attitude towards drivers and that starts with the company bosses,managers etc.
so where do we go from here to demand better conditions respect and professional drivers pay, after all how does ford,asda and Tesco not to mention building materials etc get to there stores and warehouse’s, I wonder. as a driver I don’t want to be doing this job anymore I have seen enough but what is needed is a complete shake up and change in conditions etc, but is there a union that could have the b…s to stand up and say? I rest my case. mabe we should look to the French drivers for answer’s…
Hiya mate, you probably didn’t intend to get as much hammer on your first post, but welcome to Trucknet, and don’t be put off by it
I know things aren’t perfect in co/driver PR, but I don’t think it’s quite as bad as you say. Can’t comment on agencies, although I know a mate of mine that is constantly [zb] ed about and only( in my opinion )because he just sits back and takes it regardless.
I have worked for one firm in particular that were really good with me, and in return I would have (and did) do any job or favour they asked as I knew they looked after me. I have also worked for a particular Dutch outfit that were a bunch of [zb] s, so consequently I reacted accordingly to them.
It also works the other way, if a driver is a right arrogant [zb], his firm will react the same way to him. Standing up for yourself, as I certainly do, is acceptable but only if you do it with respect and politeness, if a driver goes in like a bull at a gate, effin & jeffin, then he deserves to be [zb] upon by his firm in my opinion.
On the other hand if a firm gets a good driver that ‘plays the game’ they should reciprocate, …it’s a two way thing.
Got to agree about the French, they don’t ■■■■ about and get things done, it won’t happen here as most drivers today have no balls and only complain to other drivers. one of the many reasons that I laugh at the Foreign driver haters on here.
Let’s hear your response to what has been said by everybody on here, and don’t let these nasty truckers… ( I said truckers not [zb] s, although there are a few of them on here also ) put you off posting again .
Thanks for your openminded thoughts and iam sorry to see that there is so many toilet roll holders in the truck industry, I treat people with respect Iam ex forces and can see the faults in most companys, as I was 8 year away from driving trucks running my own garage etc but iam sorry to be back in an unrespected and underpaid job as Iam a person who gives a 100% in everything I do and I demand to be given respect for giving respect. many thanks for your reply.
Winseer:
I’ve always had trouble getting work with big companies
Probably because if you’re work attitude is anything like your TNet attitude you probably spend the first 4 hours of the day waffling on about something or other instead of getting to the point/getting the job done.
In fact I have no trouble performing the job at all, being on my own most of the time as we are in this industry. We don’t live in a meritocracy however, so a boss is more worried about a prospective employee playing golf with him, voting Tory, aiding and abetting him in breaking the law when appropriate, and being the sort of guy he can have a drink with when off duty. I just want to do the job well, go home, get paid, not talk to anyone unless spoken to. Disaster strikes when someone talks to me, and I’m unable to just abuptly answer with a single word, and walk away - which appears to work for others. I resent the fact that there is this prejudice against me as an individual instead of noticing the fact I get the job done without incident, and go the extra mile if necessary to get it done. Alas, this counts for nothing in today’s godless bullcrap society where being a monied, popular bignob counts for everything.
I shouldn’t have to become something I’m not just to get a job FFS. Expecting someone to act against their nature is a dangerous way to play anyone in this world - and eventually makes losers of all involved, one way or another.
Me “waffling on” however does result in me failing at interview stage in over 99% of all interviews I’ve attended. It’s quite expensive actually, because I nearly always get shortlisted for interview, thus incurring the expense of attending one, only to be thrown to the wolves for being a social ■■■■■■■ once there. Alas, it’s not illegal to treat people like me in this downright nasty way, thus there’s not a jolly lot I can do about being what I am.
Interestingly, people like yourself might take a dislike to me (ie they don’t know me at all in person) whereas when I meet the many drivers that I do going about this line of work - I’ve not been “spotted” by my behaviour at large as yet. It’s easy to confuse me with “one of the lads” when I’m amongst them essentially. It’s the higher-ups that I have the trouble with - not the other drivers.
It would be nice if Haulage companies could show more respect by judging people like me on my work performance - instead of personal interests that I don’t have in common with them, and are not relevent to doing the job well in any way whatsoever.
Would you want one surgeon to operate on you because he’s a shaking-handed chump who’s got a good golf handicap - or another surgeon because he’s damned good at his job, but is as abrasive as “House” to those around him?
With a decision like this, the knee-jerk one made by the daft majority would be to “go with the popular guy, and just cross your fingers he doesn’t kill you” wouldn’t it?
There has been too much narrow minded people that have jumped to conclusions of there own regarding my post, mabe some folk cant see for the fog, shame though.
in your opinion,met one or two anti agency muppets myself,i soon tell them what I think of them,and they don’t like it,nine times out of ten these anti agency muppets are all mouth
I’m anti agency but not anti agency driver, so does that include me?[/quote
sorry too all who seem offended by my post, but I give respect and dress clean for work the disrespect is in all corners, at delivery points, warehouse and especially company owners, managers etc, not too mention incompetence at distribution centres. As for agencys they only take names and addresses and claim to have all this work then phone you once a month in the middle of the night. anyway only a handfull of you have nothing but negative comments so I will go and talk to the many drivers that have experience.
At a few places I been to,the Agency guys were treat better than full -timers…
No offence m8 but alot of agency men are not up to the job thats why they are given easy work ,
what a load of codswhallop biggest pile o tripe i’ve heard in a long long time…Lots of agency drivers are mature experienced drivers who don’t want full time contracts most have a knowledge of trucks and work patterns that you can only dream to aspire to…get of your bloody high horse and start smelling coffee instead of sniffing glue pillopck
People always get a cheery ‘owyergoinmate’ from me, along with a smile. That applied when I was a driver too. I can’t remember coming across anyone who was as bad a nobend as some on here claim to meet on a regular basis. My attitude has always been that I sign on, do my work and sign off. What happens in between is of little or no concern to me. I didn’t go to work with the hump because of what happened the day or week before. It’s as I said before, you get what you give, and if you do come up against a real poxy misery, let them get on with it.
F-reds:
I’ve never had any disrespect from anybody. But I try hard not be [zb] to people.
I love my job. I love driving. If it goes the way it has the last 6-7 years I’ll be ok
shame OP is so jaded
tell us in the next 37 years when your not so wet behind the ears
I definitely won’t be. Wet behind the ears I may be, but if I was half miserable or jaded as some drivers I have met, I would have found a new vocation. Pronto!
peterm:
People always get a cheery ‘owyergoinmate’ from me, along with a smile. That applied when I was a driver too. I can’t remember coming across anyone who was as bad a nobend as some on here claim to meet on a regular basis. My attitude has always been that I sign on, do my work and sign off. What happens in between is of little or no concern to me. I didn’t go to work with the hump because of what happened the day or week before. It’s as I said before, you get what you give, and if you do come up against a real poxy misery, let them get on with it.
Wise words. I did get wound up by ignorant people, but on reflection it’s better to rise above them as they lack the breeding to be treated as an equal.
one of the many reasons that I laugh at the Foreign driver haters on here.
) put you off posting again 
.