As all LGV drivers are aware Truck driving can be very long hours 10,12,15 hour days or nights, does anybody think or heard that drivers hours will be limited more in the future for the sake of road safety or does any driver even think they should be limited even further ?
If I tell you what I think, do you promise to reply within the next three and a half years?
Lol yeah go on Scanner enlighten me
I think they will be reduced in some form or other. Not out of concern for drivers but because any restriction on the hours you can work creates jobs for other people. As we have seen since the expansion of the EU, jobs must be created at all costs to disguise the fact that there aren’t enough to go around. Look at Driver CPC “training”, enforcement, consultants, compliance managers, H&S, security etc etc etc. There are thousands upon thousands of non-jobs that exist solely to give work to otherwise unemployable people and keep the figures looking good. It’s a matter of time, the Working Time Directive is just the start.
Brilliant answer that, one that I would never of thought of, so it’s one to look out for in the future, I do agree they will be cut back one way or another cheers scanner for your valid input
I’m blushing now! 
Lol get out of ere lol
Haulage rates will have to rise dramatically for hauliers to put more drivers on to cover journeys that are nowadays done by one driver. There will obviously be new legislation over the coming years, but until haulage rates improve, not many hauliers will be around to do the work.
So looking at how the hourly rate has declined and if that continues, in future when they reduce hours you can work, won’t truckers have to take on another job so they can get a living wage? 
I was informed Saturday during my cpc that drivers hours would be more heavily monitored by vosa and the like during the next few years. I often clock up 60 hours a week sometimes more, my instructor accused me off having a bad attitude towards the WTD laws when i stated working 48 hours a week would ■■■■■■■ the industry. It is, off his opinion that I and every other driver who works excessive hours are contributing to the level off unemployment. My response to this was if the government want to contribute towards my mortgage, road tax, fuel duty, car insurance food and utility bills, stop making us pay more stealth taxes like the cpc course i was attending and I will gladly drop my hours by a third a month, until then I will continue to take all the hours available to me and reap the benefits off having a comfortable standard off living. It was after this response that i was told my attitude was bad. When we had bad weather last year the limit on driving hours was lifted because supply’s to supermarket etc were not being met. Now put everyone on a 40 hour week and see what happens, you cannot in one instance claim it is unsafe for drivers to work long hours and then encourage them to when it suites. It is either safe or unsafe. It is becoming a joke that my fiancées friend can have a baby, tell the council she lives alone get a 3 bedroom house and all the benefits under the sun whilst her boyfriend cohabits with his wage as well(notice i said my fiancees friend i refuse to go round there)then knock the likes off me and many other drivers for working to many hours to pay our own mortgages/rent and provide a better standard off living for ourselves. I can afford to live on the WTD/drivers hours but we all know the only way to make a good wage is to do the hours and why shouldn’t I be able to. I would like to add i rarely max out my actual weekly driving time and alot off my day can be made up by “other work” I do not feel I am dangerous, i take my breaks and have my weekly rest periods and in the grand scheme off things probably work no where near the hours alot off people do. We will no doubt be restricted further in the near future to less hours but it won’t last long when mrs Cameron etc pops to waitrose to find the shelves half full and finds there’s no petrol on the way out for her jag.
(Apologise it started out a quick opinion and turned into a long rant )
alder:
So looking at how the hourly rate has declined and if that continues, in future when they reduce hours you can work, won’t truckers have to take on another job so they can get a living wage?
If they reduce the hours you can work, you won’t be able to take on another job (not legally, at any rate).
So many forget a week lasts for 168 hours so it would not be unreasonable to work 100 of them.
Armagedon:
So many forget a week lasts for 168 hours so it would not be unreasonable to work 100 of them.
Hi five that man lol
I would like to see a maximum time on duty of 12 hours - not 15.
15 hours on duty is causing deaths due to tiredness. 9 hours rest is too short.
It makes no allowance for travel time to and from work.
I would like to see a maximum daily drive time of 11 hours - not 9 or 10.
Fixed minimum break of 30 minutes after 5 hours drive or 6 hours on duty.
60 minutes break - at driver’s option and written into employment law.
I would like to see a weekly/fortnightly drive time of 66/121 hours not 56/90.
I would like to see a minimum weekly rest of 24 hours in week 1 and 48 in week 2.
Karl86:
I was informed Saturday during my cpc that drivers hours would be more heavily monitored by vosa and the like during the next few years. I often clock up 60 hours a week sometimes more, my instructor accused me off having a bad attitude towards the WTD laws when i stated working 48 hours a week would ■■■■■■■ the industry. It is, off his opinion that I and every other driver who works excessive hours are contributing to the level off unemployment. My response to this was if the government want to contribute towards my mortgage, road tax, fuel duty, car insurance food and utility bills, stop making us pay more stealth taxes like the cpc course i was attending and I will gladly drop my hours by a third a month, until then I will continue to take all the hours available to me and reap the benefits off having a comfortable standard off living. It was after this response that i was told my attitude was bad. When we had bad weather last year the limit on driving hours was lifted because supply’s to supermarket etc were not being met. Now put everyone on a 40 hour week and see what happens, you cannot in one instance claim it is unsafe for drivers to work long hours and then encourage them to when it suites. It is either safe or unsafe. It is becoming a joke that my fiancées friend can have a baby, tell the council she lives alone get a 3 bedroom house and all the benefits under the sun whilst her boyfriend cohabits with his wage as well(notice i said my fiancees friend i refuse to go round there)then knock the likes off me and many other drivers for working to many hours to pay our own mortgages/rent and provide a better standard off living for ourselves. I can afford to live on the WTD/drivers hours but we all know the only way to make a good wage is to do the hours and why shouldn’t I be able to. I would like to add i rarely max out my actual weekly driving time and alot off my day can be made up by “other work” I do not feel I am dangerous, i take my breaks and have my weekly rest periods and in the grand scheme off things probably work no where near the hours alot off people do. We will no doubt be restricted further in the near future to less hours but it won’t last long when mrs Cameron etc pops to waitrose to find the shelves half full and finds there’s no petrol on the way out for her jag.(Apologise it started out a quick opinion and turned into a long rant
Seems my prediction was depressingly accurate and is already happening. Karl, I know someone in exactly the same situation as your fiance’s friend and I do the same thing - refuse to go there. I also think that all this legislation is geared to suit large operators, who can easily pass costs on to customers or sub the unprofitable work out to small operators who will always be around to lap it up. We all know how work is awarded in the real world and we all know how close big business is and needs to be to governments. Obviously there’s only one real government in Europe and what they want they get.
Yep unfortunately scanner I think your right. The way it’s going they’ll be no room for the small family business I work for, and it’s the same In all aspects off haulage. We are paid well but he’s the kind off boss that doesn’t like to hand his money over unless we’ve bleed atleast once in the week for it lol. The problem is it suites me to be able to do the hours I want to I want to have nice things that I’VE worked for and if the hours are enforced on what I should be doing that would mean a new driver at my place, less margins and more hassle for him and if he’s earning to be fair we do well out off it too. I’m not condoning working dangerous amounts of hours and running bent but its as if its getting to the point common sense is now out off the window.
Karl86:
Yep unfortunately scanner I think your right. The way it’s going they’ll be no room for the small family business I work for, and it’s the same In all aspects off haulage. We are paid well but he’s the kind off boss that doesn’t like to hand his money over unless we’ve bleed atleast once in the week for it lol. The problem is it suites me to be able to do the hours I want to I want to have nice things that I’VE worked for and if the hours are enforced on what I should be doing that would mean a new driver at my place, less margins and more hassle for him and if he’s earning to be fair we do well out off it too. I’m not condoning working dangerous amounts of hours and running bent but its as if its getting to the point common sense is now out off the window.
That would all be well and good if I didn’t hear government after government describe small firms as “the backbone of our economy” then in the next breath introduce another rule or form of taxation or import some more cheap labour, I find that deplorable. Common sense is long gone and it’s not likely to return any time soon.
I think the only time 9hrs is enough is when your bed is behind the drivers seat. If you have to travel home, talk to wife and kids, shower, eat, prep for tomorrow then go to bed and get 6hrs if your lucky then get up have a coffee get dressed and have a wash go back and have another 15hr day its not enough! At least not for me!
NewLad:
I think the only time 9hrs is enough is when your bed is behind the drivers seat. If you have to travel home, talk to wife and kids, shower, eat, prep for tomorrow then go to bed and get 6hrs if your lucky then get up have a coffee get dressed and have a wash go back and have another 15hr day its not enough! At least not for me!
Seconded. If I do a 15 hour day that means a 7pm finish, 25 minutes to get home; By the time I’ve seen/put my 2 year old son to bed, washed and eaten, it’s time for a maximum of 5 hours sleep before getting up again. I like to work late on a nightout run as the following day is shorter, and I’ve slept more.
NewLad:
I think the only time 9hrs is enough is when your bed is behind the drivers seat. If you have to travel home, talk to wife and kids, shower, eat, prep for tomorrow then go to bed and get 6hrs if your lucky then get up have a coffee get dressed and have a wash go back and have another 15hr day its not enough! At least not for me!
+1