As there is no such thing as a union for owner drivers or haulage associations for just owner drivers, I wondered whether or not owner drivers would be interested in forming thier own association or club of sorts.
I am thinking that an owner driver would be classed as a five vehicle or less operation. This would not allow the larger companies to have access to our “club”
The aim of such a “club” would be to bring together all us owner drivers and we could at last make the industry recognise how important we are and how much we contribute to their business.
I am not looking to cause conflict but rather a united front which would in turn be a voice of all owner drivers in the UK.
Rules and regulations are something that I have thought about but before going down what will be a long path, I thought I would float the idea amongst all you “OD’s”
This is not to promote myself in any way but merely to pose the question, could we actually get together as a single force.
quid a mile and a mars bar club nice one rob. seriously though i would be interested in something like an O/D club i much prefer to chat to a fellow sufferer at a rdc or in a cafe ect than talking to your average employed aimer who will bore you with how little he earns / how he only has a space cab while the polish driver who only started this morning has got the new super space . and before the aimers cry fowl i am sure they get bored listening to us moan about rates and the price of derv. horses for courses i guess.
I seem to remember there was an owner drivers club, or summat, when I had mine 89-93, and a few tippermen got together to get arc by the ■■■■■■■■, i need a memory test though, maybe someone else remembers, was there an OD’s club before?
Don’t you think part of the problem is the industry is so fragmented already? If we could speak with one voice (more or less!) we might make progress.Why do we need the RHA AND the FTA? The T & G AND URTU and others? Cos divide and rule works and each of these organisations has a vested interest (namely themselves) in maintaining the status quo.
i’d be interested i think, although i’m no union man, this furom has proved it’s worth for me and many others so something on a bigger scale would be a good idea.
thinking in terms of legal backup if you have a prob with the ministry etc, fuel cards at a good rate negotiated on the fact it,s for a couple of thousand wagons
and maybe even a minmum rate!
tartanraider:
Don’t you think part of the problem is the industry is so fragmented already? If we could speak with one voice (more or less!) we might make progress.Why do we need the RHA AND the FTA? The T & G AND URTU and others? Cos divide and rule works and each of these organisations has a vested interest (namely themselves) in maintaining the status quo.
and none of those mentioned have any interest what so ever in owner drivers, in fact unofficially they’d all like to see all drivers working for big firms as of coarse would all those big firms owners who finance the likes of the RHA and FTA even though many would have started as one man bands them selves!
at the moment, it’s getting increasingly difficult for anyone to start up, many existing o/d’s are being held to ransom by firms offering ridiculously low rates in the knowledge those o/d’s have to be out earning something, many firms who use a lot of subbies get away with blatantly making false promises to get lads to go with them, many get away with not passing on fuel surcharges that they’ve got from their customers and we all pay well over the top for insurance for no apparent reason. any sort of body/club association that could possibly make even a small difference to those problems can’t be a bad thing in my eyes.
aprt from those who have posted a comment on here I have spoken to a number of other od,s who also feel that a form of “club” is required for us to be able to join together, open to all od’s regardless of type of vehicle.
I will investigate the options further and post them on here as and when I can as I am away most of the week and only get on here at the weekend.
Thanks for the feed back and lets hope that if the drivers cannot all band together at least we owner drivers can
First let me define what it is I am proposing, not a union as that would entail a lot of officialdom which I do not believe will get us anywhere. If we think more in terms of the Co-operative which, by the number of members, the costs of insurance, tyres etc. would be reduced dramatically. Also once up and running we could act as our own freight forwarders thereby cutting out the middle man and keeping all the profit.
What will it cost??
This is down to all of us as this is just an idea at the moment I cannot give a fixed cost but I would be dissapointed and surprised if it was more than £20 per annum per o/d.
I am still working on this so I will keep you all informed.
Funnyfut. I seem to remember something along similar lines in the early 90s I think it was called Hacketts. There was a piece in one of the trade papers [ commercial motor I think ] at the time outlining how they would get us all together & save us money on tyres/ insurance/ breakdown cover ect. I rang to sound them out but they wanted £100. plus per year with nothing concrete in the way of savings . I didnt go ahead at the time. They were based in Sussex or Kent if memory serves. It all folded up a couple of years later. Maybe something less formal is the answer to start with, get a club together and see how it progesses and take it from there. You can count me in as I do think there is a need for something that could bring O/Ds together.
I think that what Funnyfut is proposing is an All round type of group that could also bid for larger contracts that would be serviced by O/D’s still giving the customer good service & reliabilty of dealing with an O/D but giving the O/D’s the profit instead of having the work handed down 2 or 3 pairs of hands before it gets to us.
At the same time with enough members you could negociate better deals on fuel,tyres,insurance even new or used equipment etc etc
Say 15 members are due to renew & they all agree they want 480 SSC’s
An order for 15 could be placed at a discount the the individual O/D’s could pay for the extras they want by separate negociation
nice one rob. seriously though i would be interested in something like an O/D club i much prefer to chat to a fellow sufferer at a rdc or in a cafe ect than talking to your average employed aimer who will bore you with how little he earns / how he only has a space cab while the polish driver who only started this morning has got the new super space 
. and before the aimers cry fowl i am sure they get bored listening to us moan about rates and the price of derv. horses for courses i guess.
