bigvern1:
The place where you used to work…The flour suppliers? They are in full flow. I know cos’ I watch them leave and come back almost every day.
Is that how people call it when they are agency/contractors and don’t want to admit it? 
windrush:
Yep, the last place I worked at 50% of the drivers left the same day as me!There were only two of us driving there though so maybe that doesn’t count?
Pete.
I’ll raise your 50% Mate, firm I was working for in 2009, had 100% of its drivers leave on the same day, Both of us, yes there were two off us working there
We both went to work for the same company
Janos:
Before Maritime took over Roadways late last year there were about fifty odd sub-contractors and a substantial amount of their own drivers. I believe they have about eight sub-contractors left, and as of December last year at least 21 of their own driver had left. Those figures may be corrected upwards. I have never known anything like it. Nor such a blinkered and arrogant company. Anybody know of similar happenings in their respective depots?
all I will say in reply Janos is that the busiest person at bift (tamworth) is the driver assessor. and its not because they are expanding.
When Downtons took over C&H loads left . C&H had a steady work force although a few went when they shut Tilbury and moved to Chatham but still a reasonably happy work force then Downton came along and turned it into a real miserable place to work .Even a depot that was pretty much a dead mans boots place has long termers leaving now. Talking to an ex workmate this week they are even taking on new pass drivers ( not having a dig at them ) and bods that cant utter a single word of English both unheard of in the past
Hey M.A.N…say more! I suspect his Manchester colleague is rushed off his feet too. Would like a bit of feedback over this if possible, as not much has been said on here.
Chester, that sounds exactly like the situation at Roadways. Loads of long term staff, a happy and loyal workforce, and it is gone in an instant.
What is it with these big privately owned companies? They come in with a confrontational attitude, with a mission to ‘improve’ an old company that has enjoyed decades of organic growth but can’t compete with these ruthless rate cutting, race to the bottom types of operation, ala Maritime, Stobart, Downtons etc etc, and in trying to improve it, they just destroy it completely. They almost always have management and staff that are hard faced and totally corrosive to morale and make working for them a complete misery, which leads to the inevitable ‘mass exodus’.
Interesting reading the cringe inducing internal Maritime rag. After pages of boasting of this and that, the biggest challenge facing the company this year is ‘driver churn’. (their expression for turnover of staff). I wonder why? doh!
Let me see according to the RHA (dubious I know)
45k drivers due to retire
34k new drivers over the next 2 years,
= 11k driver shortfall
Less those leaving due to ill health, other work and those hauling their own produce
Flipflops having been, seen the state of things and gone home and told their mates not to bother…
Winseer:
bigvern1:
The place where you used to work…The flour suppliers? They are in full flow. I know cos’ I watch them leave and come back almost every day.Is that how people call it when they are agency/contractors and don’t want to admit it?
Do you mean me? I don’t work for that company or an agency. There is more than one employer in their yard!
I worked for a subby in bift for 2 years it was a nice little number. 2 jobs a day,all local, average 8 hour days,we was planned from roadways Southampton by the best planners I have worked with in 36 years of driving. then marmite came in and the change was ridiculous they took all the good work for themselves all the crap for the subbys ,apart from the chosen few. arguing on the phone just to try and get a decnt job,continually pestered on the phone and the so called head planner is a arrogant ■■■.
I had the pleasure of having a private chat with the arrogant ■■■ who was telling me this is how we do it and this is the way you will do it.
I now drive for ocado. 
If a job’s crap, or changes turn it into a crap job then move on - simples.!!!
Over the years I encountered drivers driving decrepid trucks that shouldn’t be on the road, questionable loads and tales of companies that expect drivers to ‘find’ extra ropes and straps - - for find see steal… Yet the drivers seem petrified to leave??
Liberty Guy, some of those Roadways lads had been there man and boy, and the office staff too. Most could trace their employment or involvement back to OCL days, me included. Difficult sometimes when that is all you have known, and maybe there is a pension involved.
Thanks M.A.N. That sums up what happened in Manchester too. If every depot was the same, that must add up to some shift in staff away from those gits in Maritime.
nick2008:
dunno about here in the uk but in France they is queuing all around the docksTAXI
Southamptons experiencing serious flip flop ingress at the moment,especially the container game.Containerlifts just bid adios to its last Englishman i heard this week and several other firms are being eyed up from Rom and Bulg,every return from my holidays i witness a wide variety of languages on my dashboard read out,alongside foodstuffs abandoned in the cab,items missing etc.
bigvern1:
The place where you used to work…The flour suppliers? They are in full flow. I know cos’ I watch them leave and come back almost every day.
Yep, revolving door place. A couple are agency, one’s been there 20 years and “you’re lazy if you don’t carry the stuff” sort of driver, one’s contracted there for two years because they paid for his class 1. Three of the others are working their notices (one was meant to’ve left yesterday but he’s a bs merchant-if his lips move he’s lying), the other has his own rather nice run with one night out a week. One other really nice bloke is picked on because he does things his own way and doesn’t care if it’s not the “traditional” way. The rest are agency mates.
Talking to a mate of mine at AKW! 9 left because they put the drivers on salary! 