Ever heard of united well this is something that this industry has been crying out for since i joined it 40 odd years ago…and it still hasnt happened…we have had new unions starting up and promising the earth…where are they…where is the decent standard of living for the professional drivers out there…decent tackle to do the job…decent working conditions…we can only get the above if all the drivers were to belong to one union…and supported each other…but it may be a case of im alright jack..but in reality it will never happen..we will never be united.and im getting too old to really care anymore…the people who supposed to represent us at government level are not doing it…i will name one Lord Sainsbury…yes the same one who looks after his own interests along with his other cronies whose interest in transport only seems to benefit the r.d.cs..and not general haulage..hence the w.t.d. cos it dont affect them..if it did..it wouldnt have come about....on another note..how is it that the french drivers seem to make a good living from the 48 hour week..and are in the process of reducing that to 37...oh well gotta go cos im too looking for a job now xmas is outta the way and the bank balance is not looking too good.
have a nice day
Truckyboy, I agree wholehartadly whit what you saying, but we’re our own worst enemy. has anyone ever seen a united bunch of truck drivers? We’re all induviduals, we all do the job off our own back with little interference from anyone, so it takes a great deal to get us all togeather without a load of in fighting and backstabbing - just look at any goods in yard when people want to get tipped and get home, human nature I think it is 
. Personally if I could get away with taking home in 48 hours as much as I do for 60, I’d be quite happy with it. As a general rule, I do about 50 odd hours a week (when the work’s their 
) and can live quite happily on that, as their’s just me with very little overhead, but for a driver with house kids and all the rest of the expense that goes with that, then frankly I can see why they don’t want the 48hr week unless their’s a comparative rise in wages to go with it - you shouldn’t have to put 60 + odd hours in, but to make a “decent” living then that’s what it takes. I would love to take home £400 odd pounds for 48 hours, but I doubt it’ll ever be allowed to happen.
truckyboy:
Ever heard ofunitedwell this is something that this industry has been crying out for since i joined it 40 odd years ago…and it still hasnt happened…we have had new unions starting up and promising the earth…where are they…where is the decent standard of living for the professional drivers out there…decent tackle to do the job…decent working conditions…we can only get the above if all the drivers were to belong to one union…and supported each other…but it may be a case of im alright jack..but in reality it will never happen..we will never be united.and im getting too old to really care anymore…the people who supposed to represent us at government level are not doing it…i will name one Lord Sainsbury…yes the same one who looks after his own interests along with his other cronies whose interest in transport only seems to benefit the r.d.cs..and not general haulage..hence the w.t.d. cos it dont affect them..if it did..it wouldnt have come about....on another note..how is it that the french drivers seem to make a good living from the 48 hour week..and are in the process of reducing that to 37...oh well gotta go cos im too looking for a job now xmas is outta the way and the bank balance is not looking too good.
have a nice day
i’ve been in the industry 20 years and the union you speak of does not exist, i have tried both tgwu and urtu and neither of them are worth anywhere near what they ask for in subs/dues or whatever else they like to call the money we pay them that they waste doing nothing about everything.
the only thing the unions are really interested in is making your boss and every other transport operator pay what they can’t afford to either put bums on seats or to settle ficticious claims of harrassment, discrimination, malpractice, wrongful dismissal, hurtful comments and all sorts of other made up stories that some people try to pass off to get something they are not entitled to for nothing.
where were the unions when the gov introduced the medical for drivers at the age of 45? they are only just now getting around to asking that someone other than the driver pays for it (urtu 2004).
what is the unions stance on wheel clamping of trucks?
what did the unions do back in the 80’s when motorway service areas started to charge for overnight parking of trucks?
why has no drivers union ever offered to take over the running of a truckstop or purpose build one for truck drivers?
they claim to understand the industry and to stand up for the drivers but they really only want your money, if they thought much about something to do then at the same time they sat at the table to discuss the pay review for tesco drivers they would be asking for a quicker turn around for the visiting drivers and better facilities on site for those many hundreds of union members that visit the rdc’s daily and the many hundreds of non union members that may actually join if they did.
and i cannot be the only driver on here that is running decent tackle, earning decent money and decent working conditions and these are in my opinion an understatement of my own working conditions and environment.
Seems like a fair point well put Johny.
I have the same opinions of unions, politicians, traffic wardens and estate agents.
They are all there to line their own pockets 
come the revolution comrade!!! there are drivers out ther inc myself who enjoy going to work, 
yes even being at work for 70hrs and enjoy being paid an good wage for the hours,days and weeks that i do
so in this so called FREE world that we enjoy (yes my grandad fought in the war) who are you to call someone who enjoys work and the hours they work an SCAB.
scabs as in the miners strike and where are our coal fields now? gone. like our transport industry will be!!! gone off to an russian company.
bring in the WTD no thanks not for me, change my life style no thanks. being told “you will not work more than 48hrs” well they can shove that.
Seeing as its a fairly quiet evening, I am going to hijack this thread for a moment 
I am reading Comical Motor as well as typing and spotted this:
Exel faces tribunal over dismissal.
Thompson (union rep) was told to drive a truck from Droitwich to South Wales in the afternoon despite a local (union ) agreement that “long runs” would not start after 4pm. He also refused to drive the vehicle because it had a record of breakdowns.
The company agreed to swap the vehicle to be used but the driver refused to leave because it was too late in the day
That is the sort of things unions have done, to my mind this bloke deserves the sack, unless he started at 1am and his 15 hour spread was up.
How can 4 pm be considered too late to do a run? How can Midlands to Wales be considered a long run?
The sad thing about this case is that Exel will probably lose and have to pay some lazy union rep compensation.
It reminds me of days when electricians had to change light bulbs but a plumber had to be called too if the light was out in the toilets
But what time did he start? Excel used to have a habit of keeping you sat around for hours waiting for a run. Maybe the guy had been at work for 6 hours already and only want to do a 12 hour day not a 16 hour day. He may have had arrangements for that evening! Why should companies have a monopoly over our time? I choose the hours and jobs I do, not the company I work for. I work to live not the other way round.
There is no mention of the time he started, but if that was the reason or that he had something planned, you would think that mentioning that to the company would have some impact. Instead it looks like he just refused because he could.
If Mr Thompstone is a member here maybe he could stick up for himself.
Maybe the full story will come out when the case gets to appeal.
My point was that Unions are not going to improve working relations for us.
The URTU rep we had on a parcel company forbid drivers to speak to the transport manager without a union rep being present 
Well. The company I work for have shelved their annualised hours contracts. It timed so well with the release of this WTD stuff I reckon it’s linked.
Hmm. Lets see. I am on one rate, 36 hours a week part time, work 4 days in 7 with one of them falling on a weekend. I don’t get overtime, weekend rate, night rate, early start rate, saturday, or sunday rate. One rate. All the time.
Makes life so simple when filling in the timesheet hours 
I get the same pay every week, every thursday and it makes life so easy and stress-free it’s great. If I want more money I can go back to the agency for the other 3 days.
However, the minumum shift per day is 6 hours. I could only be out for an hour, and it’s still 6 hours, but long jobs can go on a lot longer than expected. My job is not just made up of driving, and I would say that is only about half of the job… But the whole shift is what I get paid by…