Carl:
no the tacho is alive and well in germany mal its just alot of them choose to ignore it
cheers for the clarification carl, you never know some of the things you get told are right ■■■■■■■■! 
but, some choose to ignore it? fair play to the gerry’s then, i like there style.
scanny77:
Mal:
, most of the countries on the continent dont take the stupid regulations seriously and ive heard they are amazed that we actually do!not only that but our authorities allow them to ignore the law over here whereas british drivers get prosecuted wherever we stray. doesnt anyone else think something funny is going on?
i bloody well do think there summat funny going on, these [zb] that run us are allways favouring the foriegner over there own people, what type of ■■■■■ are they?? they are not good people, ■■■■■■■ the lot of them!
never trust anybody wearing a suit scanny, you wont go far wrong mate! 
Coffeeholic:
I actually take a perverse pleasure in telling people what I do for a living, if they ask, and seeing their attitude change and then they look down their noses at me. I couldn’t give a [zb] what they think, it’s their problem not mine, and I think it says more about them than me.
I apologise in advance to all if I go over old ground because I have not read this thread until today, and then only flicked through it but a couple of things stand out for me.
The above quote from Neil is spot on. I have always loved doing that, in the early days the usual reply was ‘oh, you don’t sound like a lorry driver’ to which I would say ‘how should I sound then?’ To be honest I find this attitude less and less these days, maybe because I live in a country that appreciates its truck drivers. Most of my friends, apart from mates at the old firm, are professional people or skilled artisans, French, Dutch and English, and are interested in my experience as much as they are of any others.
As regards the abysmal pay which has always been typical in the industry it boils down to supply and demand, as has been said. It’s a great life and too many people are prepared to put up with all the hassle to do it. Forget what you have heard about 50,000 drivers short (more like 50,000 short drivers ) put about by all and sundry in Britain and elsewhere. If you’re experienced and in the right place at the right time (I always have been, in the right place first, and experienced as well later) you will have no trouble in finding a job, but bosses aren’t desperate and will only pay you what they can get away with.
Salut, David.
david, i think really decent people, whatever their station in life are usually sound about anything, and what a bod does for pay is not something they sneer at. in fact they might well be genuinely interested in it and ask genuine questions, as their brains are curious due to intelligence.
snobs on the other hand again, wahtever their station are invariable ignorant and tiny minded ■■■■■■■■■ and working class ones are some the worst ive ever met, are allways masturbaters of the highest order, and only asreholes as sad as they are ever take any real notice of em! winding them up is a good participant sport that i can reccommend 
Spardo:
If you’re experienced and in the right place at the right time (I always have been, in the right place first, and experienced as well later) you will have no trouble in finding a job
this is very true. the pay does vary though. some pay a decent wage, some pay as little as possible and end up paying 3 times as much for long term agency (i know a company who offered me a job at £5 per hour on a rigid. they dont have any of their own drivers and 1 of their agency drivers has been there around 5 years now. ON AGENCY!
on the other hand, i have landed a job in Scotland now. i dont have a start date as the job is dead mans shoes and staff turnover is low from what i have heard. not surprising really when i have been offered a £28k starting salary which goes up to £31k after so long and the guy i will replace is retiring at 55. not many drivers can do that 
Mal:
cheers robin! im no expert, but a lot of the blame comes from the eu. we british govt are pretty good at inventing useless [zb], but the eu are stellar. the ironic thing is, most of the countries on the continent dont take the stupid regulations seriously and ive heard they are amazed that we actually do!
You’re not alone. Here in Finland it feels also like every rule and regulation coming from EU are blindly accepted. It is also overseen how these rules are followed to every detail.
Luckily/sadly trucking is one of the few professions where regulations aren’t enforced by the book, mostly because lack of police funding. Here police usually also use common sense and it’s unlikely to get fined becouse of taking one or two minute too short break or if driving time is little over allowed, but those violations have to be occasionally. This use of common sense also allows you to continue driving at friday evening and not to stop for nightly rest when only 20 km from home.
Sad thing is that this lack of control also allows unfair competition as there are “much” drivers and operators who simply don’t care about regulations. I’ve read from one artic driver who was on mileage pay and after he got busted in control check “H&S police” (someone who has authority to check working conditions on any company but doesn’t have police authority) checked his working hours and what he had got from those hours. When converted to hour pay it was little over 3.5 €/h… Way below minimum wage which currently is 9.83 €/h for an artic driver.
Sadly there is also some kind of tendency amongst press which is slowly diminishing general publics opinions about truck drivers. One thing which also affects to this is increasing number of car drivers which only think car as a tool to move from place A to place B while brains are idling. Becouse of these we (truck drivers) have more suspicious view for cars and give less help to car drivers like indicating “now it’s good place to overtake me”. So respect is decreasing on both sides and circle is ready. I guess this is quite same scenario which happened over there much earlier, maybe becouse you have much bigger traffic flow than is situation in Finland.
im sad to hear that you seem to suffer the same with being led by mules as we do! if only common sense had anything to do with reality, we would all be a lot better off! damnd the bloody beuracrats!
The haulage industry is crap …full stop…but theres something there that keeps us at it…for so many years…the industry has been no different since i started…(we had chariots and horses ) …we are treated like pieces of ■■■■■ and always have been…and probably always will be…what incentive is there to entice our kids into this profession…they have watched their parents living apart all week…maybe seen the divorce…or separation…the long hours…the low wages…the weekends…then get cramped into a small shed that they call a sleeper cab…with very few places to park…unless your lucky…
i`m now doing the work i started out doing, with almost the same hours, and less money than 20/30 years ago…although some may say its a good wage…i dont consider it good because of the responsibility i have, the costs involved, and the risks i have to take…for not many thanks…so i dont blame the youngsters for not joining our club, for wanting to spend more time with their loved ones, and weekends with their kids…
Ps for MAL…dont do them containers to LIDL you gotta unload it yourself…using their fork lift trucks…and dont worry …i`ve already reported them to H&S…so maybe things will change…
bob, those lidl lot want kicking into touch mate, so good job for you reporting the ■■■■■■■!
truckyboy:
…(we had chariots and horses )
You had horses 
I’ve still got the marks of the shafts 
(where we get the term ‘shafted’ from )
Ps for MAL…dont do them containers to LIDL you gotta unload it yourself…using their fork lift trucks…and dont worry …i`ve already reported them to H&S…so maybe things will change…
I do hope you are not holding your breath Bob, those sods have been at it many years now. Personally I refuse to cross a Lidl threshold no matter how cheap their prices - I know how they keep those prices down 
. More power to your elbow, let us know any result.
Salut, David.
paul@midway:
I wouldn’t bother entering the industry if you have no plan’s to stay in it , your already having doubt’s before even doing the job . I find it intriquing that some people use the word “freedom” There is no freedom to truck driving , fair enough your on the road and you can pretty much do as you please but miss a booking time or something similiar and your going to be in the [zb] if you have no sensible explanation for being late other than useing the word " freedom "
Well that obviously depends on the job you do doesn’t it. I haven’t actually done a job yet that had much in the way of booking times and deadlines, and most of the ones that did were actually invented by the office to try and panic you into rushing, but if I can’t legally do it then the deadline gets missed. That said, just the very fact that in most jobs you are somewhere different every day, meeting new people, sleeping in a different place every night and possibly going abroad gives the job an aspect of freedom that you could never get in an office or factory where you are part of a workfoce governed by set procedures, times, breaks etc. I can say this because I’ve recently left that life behind and at the moment my life driving, although sometimes very tiring due to long hours etc, is incredibly free compared to what I was doing, and yes it will be much the same with the drivers cpc and all the other nonsense, but it just adds more worry, more hassle and more paperwork and in return will achive absoluetly nothing, which is why I’m 110% against all these EU directives, including the wtd which despite working 60-70 hours a week (fine by me) still only equals 40-50 hours due to the loopholes, so it leaves me asking the question, why even bother with it? whats the point in all the hassle when nothing changes? and that just seems to the the direction of haulage, more and more paperwork which does nothing for your lot apart from increase your workload and stress.
Danneke,you have P.M. Maybe a job for the boy.cheers Joe.
paul@midway:
I think 2006 will be the year i hang my licence up and if all goes well i will not be keeping my hand in …
wait for me im coming with you.
