Reading various posts on here got me thinking. The public seem to absolutely hate lorries with a burning passion. It’s bonkers. I can’t think of another transport provider where the vehicle is so hated or the operator of so vilified. Reading some of the cyclist and local parish moaning blogs about lorries made me mad. Why are people so short sighted? Where on earth do they think their goods come from?
I wish there was one singular powerful union propping up the lorry industry like the RMT of the rail world. If there was then I think it would be high time another - grind to halt - was called for. This time not over fuel prices but just to remind Giles and Kate of Ealing how their bog roll and milk came to be in their basket, and without wagons, the supermarket’s price promise can do one, as its worth jack all if there’s nothing in the warehouses. It would show those Ayatallah narcicist supermarkets a thing or to at the same time. And when that’s bad, wait until the fuel runs out without the tankers. Or the meat without the fridges. Still bothered about thundering lorries up your street?? I bet you’d pay a grand for one full of your choice supplies after a month of not shopping.
Tbh I gave up giving a monkeys about it a while back.
Not cos I don’t care about public perception - I do to a certain degree but purely down to the fact of who it actually is who does the “hating”.
It always seems to be the ivory tower dwelling , retired major type or the “opinion on everything but solution to nothing” Internet/media campaigner.
They cannot see past the end of their noses at real world issues and what actually happens to make sure that their little henrietta/Tarquin gets their macro biological goats cheese segments for the packed lunch to their oh so upper class “grammar school”.
They have an inbuilt need to be heard on whatever right on issue they can jump on so that they can add activist to their list of dinner party topics.
Therefore anything they say holds no gravitas or evidential value to me or anyone I know. And tbh won’t affect anything other than filling up a few bytes on an internet server.
Spot on there the type who move to the countryside then try and get the farm next door shut down as the farmer is up at 5am with the combine and tractors going full bore come harvest time.
You never will have a Union like the RMT or the USA Teamsters
To many do all the talking when they are in a crowd but as soon as they leave the yard and go the road they change into Individuals,and run as they see fit,only changing when the are near returning to base.
Drivers are their own worst enemy
Freight Dog do you really think trucks and there drivers rule the country the shops may run out without us but they would also run out without all the pickers and loaders unless you think you could back on a bay then pop into the warehouse pick your load then load it before taking it to the store you may get one load every other day . Everyone is just as important and truck drivers are just a small part of a big chain
If the public are made to “hate” heavy goods drivers - then that same public will be deaf to any public health and safety issues the drivers may bring up as well.
Things such as “Why do we have to work a 55 hour week as standard, when the rest of the non-transport local workforce is on a 35-40 hour week?”
…Then the same public wonder why we’re so dog-tired we crash when we’re merely doing those hours to earn the same money as 20 years ago.
It feeds on itself. The manipulators at the top have a lot to answer for. Gotta pay top dollar for Lawyers, Bankers, & anything else in a suit on over £50k - but NO top dollar for the rest of us who do a far more important day-to-day job. Right?
Conclusion: Driver’s actual TIME ON SHIFT hours should be limited, and enforced rigorously. The hourly rate rises to take up the slack, thus employing a lot more drivers on fewer hours for the same money. The public is safer, the driver is back on equal terms pay with the rest of the world, and the job still gets done.
Can’t afford to pay that much? - Who’s fault is that then?
Lobby your MP as to “Why fuel duty is so high for commercial traffic”.
Lobby your MP as to "Why it’s OK to employ a driver with points, just so you can pay less, but NOT ok to “positively discriminate” in job adverts…
Lobby your MP to stand down, and you take their place.
mac12:
Freight Dog do you really think trucks and there drivers rule the country the shops may run out without us but they would also run out without all the pickers and loaders unless you think you could back on a bay then pop into the warehouse pick your load then load it before taking it to the store you may get one load every other day . Everyone is just as important and truck drivers are just a small part of a big chain
I always say this but many think we do the most important job in the world. We are just one cog in a big machine.
I don’t think the general public hate truckers, but probably more accurately a very small element of the truck driving industry. We all know which ones. The idiot ‘professional’ drivers that think riding 6" from the car in front at 50mph shows industry in a good light (irrespective of circumstances). The clowns that don’t have the power to overtake another truck, but still continue to block the other lane for miles on end, causing bedlam behind. The skip drivers that have no concept of what a net is, as half their load gets deposited in the path of following cars. The list could go on, but we are not talking about errors of judgement, but deliberate acts of anti social behaviour that does nobody any favours.
Get the idiot element of so called ‘professional’ drivers off the road and perhaps then the public perception of HGV’s will improve. Many drivers though, remain their own worst enemy.
LIBERTY_GUY:
I don’t think the general public hate truckers, but probably more accurately a very small element of the truck driving industry. We all know which ones. The idiot ‘professional’ drivers that think riding 6" from the car in front at 50mph shows industry in a good light (irrespective of circumstances). The clowns that don’t have the power to overtake another truck, but still continue to block the other lane for miles on end, causing bedlam behind. The skip drivers that have no concept of what a net is, as half their load gets deposited in the path of following cars. The list could go on, but we are not talking about errors of judgement, but deliberate acts of anti social behaviour that does nobody any favours.
Get the idiot element of so called ‘professional’ drivers off the road and perhaps then the public perception of HGV’s will improve. Many drivers though, remain their own worst enemy.
JF ■■■■■■■ out of the window Fleet msa few weeks ago!
I think the industry that the hgv belongs to makes a difference. I deliver foodstuffs now but I did do some tipper work. The general public will often say “good morning” when I’m getting the taillift out more than they would if I was driving a tipper or skip wagon. Look at the public perception of Stobarts for example.
Cotswoldcrunch:
I think the industry that the hgv belongs to makes a difference. I deliver foodstuffs now but I did do some tipper work. The general public will often say “good morning” when I’m getting the taillift out more than they would if I was driving a tipper or skip wagon. Look at the public perception of Stobarts for example.
I wish there was one singular powerful union propping up the lorry industry like the RMT of the rail world.
that would be the RMT that were activley seeking members from this industry but found it very difficult as too many not interested if enough form one company approach them they will happily represent you with your employers know many bus/coach drivers have joined
Having been back driving for a year now Liberty guy has got it spot on. How and why do you think the public out there should respect us when some of you ■■■■■■■■■ behave and drive the way you do, at the moment I drive because I get paid very well but in conversation I sure as hell don’t tell people what I do. sorry guys we only have ourselves to blame. Daz
I started on the lorries in 63 the public perception was slightly better then but the conditions regarding long hours and low wages were the same as now. And I don’t think that will ever change the call for a single union was tried by the URTU but it never really achieved anything near the target because of the TGWU having such a hold coupled to the fact there are so many O/Ds and small firms that would never consider a union. That coupled to the fact that RATE CUTTING RULES means nothing will ever change in road transport. Eddie.
Lorry drivers can not be trusted to be honest.
Before tachographs came in,they were fiddling their log books and their employers.
Then speed limiters came in.Even now i speak to drivers who milk the job out to rip off their employers.
To add certain operators whose policy is 56 mph all day on all types of road.
To end,the know it all driver at the Rdc waiting room who verbaly abuses and swears at goods in staff.
On the subject of unions, yes we would be better off with a transport only union, and if i wasn’t already in a company with good (Unite) representation, good steward choice is vital whatever union you choose, then i would certainly suggest to my oppos that RMT would be worth considering…where i work the management/worker relationship is as good as any, so everyone’s happy.
As some posters have already mentioned, drivers are their own worse enemies, how many posts do we have to see where they can’t race to the bottom quick enough, want to do more hours not less for the same money with blingier lorries with higher numbers on the doors, bonkers.
I’ve been lucky in my driving years, i’ve had some crap jobs and in later years following one good decision some very good jobs…never forgot what it was like before though (and how easily it could be again), so i believe in appreciating the better jobs and doing my best for the company so they make a profit, keep our customers happy, and i see me time out in a good number.
In every case, those jobs that paid well and had proper terms and conditions were properly unionised, whether you like unions or don’t doesn’t make a scrap of difference, if you want good t’s and c’s unionise yourselves and use your loafs by not taking the pee, or do the other thing, don’t.
Winseer:
Gotta pay top dollar for Lawyers, Bankers, & anything else in a suit on over £50k - but NO top dollar for the rest of us who do a far more important day-to-day job. Right?
Another senseless rant.
The job of the lorry driver is no more or less important than that of the shelf-stacker, order picker or the guy on the forks, because if they didn’t do their jobs then food would never find its way to the supermarket shelves either. And actually the cleaner as well, because if the supermarket never got cleaned it would probably get shut down by Environmental Health. See what I am alluding to Winseer?
As for your attempted point regarding banker, lawyer and so on: you actually have to devote some serious study towards gaining the qualifications necessary to do those kind of jobs. You can become a lorry driver in a matter of days. That’s why they get paid £50k and over and your average driver doesn’t. It really is that simple.
In Europe drivers are treated with respect.
Free parking and eat like a King for a cheap price.Nimbies like to moan for the sake of it.Action groups set up to stop progress on developments that are benificial to the enviroment.
Wind turbine farms seem to upset people, and solar panel farms.
They can not see the new sites from where they live but will stop it.
Google Lorry Watch.
Coffin dodgers working for free nicking nasty juggernauts thundering up and down the street they "OWN " ?
Cotswoldcrunch:
I think the industry that the hgv belongs to makes a difference. I deliver foodstuffs now but I did do some tipper work. The general public will often say “good morning” when I’m getting the taillift out more than they would if I was driving a tipper or skip wagon. Look at the public perception of Stobarts for example.
Dropping with a tescos rigid around London, it galls me the amount of the public who push past the narrow gap between my moving tail lift, rather than just walk around the outside. FFS if one of those cages topples, who’s gonna be making the claims? This applies to any Tesco express where you have to drive onto the small car park forecourt of the shop to unload…
The public are their own worst enemies, especially anyone on two legs, two wheels, or thinks they have two spheroids between their legs.
Gotta pay top dollar for Lawyers, Bankers, & anything else in a suit on over £50k - but 
Fleet msa few weeks ago!
