I pay good money to the Road Haulage Association for my company membership.
In return they promise to stand up and fight for the haulage industry both here and abroad.
Why is it then that nothing ever seems to be done?
All my money is doing is allowing them to send out piles and piles of junk mail in the post to me every week!
I wouldn’t even mind if it was good junk mail offering me something beneficial for my firm - but its the same junk week in week out!!
I would have hoped that good money would go to a better use - (for those who aren’t members of the RHA, it isn’t cheap! The more motors you got, the more you pay!)
I personally would like to see the RHA attacking the Government of this country and its policies directly - and stop sending me all this crap in the post which is just a waste of my membership fees.
Direct action is needed - not a ■■■■ leaflet offering tacho analysis.
It comes to something as well when I feel like a foreigner in my own country.
Port of Dover in the truck lanes.
How many Brit trucks?
Nearly every trucker on a ferry nowadays is Polish, Bulgarian, Albanian, Turk, Yugo, Checkoslovhoweveryouspellit, or some other nationality you’ve never heard of!
I feel like a foreigner doing my job in my own country.
This is the sort of thing the likes of the RHA need to tackle with positive and direct action - but they don’t.
RHA Spring Conference 2006 - Malta
Following on from the success of this years RHA 60th Anniversary Spring Conference members are already provisionally booking rooms for next years event, which is to be held in Malta between 18th and 21st May 2006. To make sure you are one of the lucky ones contact Jan Mills now at j.mills@rha.net or download the attached brochure and complete the booking form
RHA Annual Lunch
Savoy Hotel, London - Wednesday 5th October 2005
In this, the Diamond Anniversary year of the association, attendance at the Annual Lunch will be a great opportunity for members to meet old friends, as well as new ones. National Chairman, Willie Oliver, would like to meet as many members as possible at this unique event and present his thoughts and hopes for the future of this industry of ours.
To book your places please contact Jan Mills on 01932 841515, or e-mail Jan at: j.mills@rha.net
Cost of attendance is £99.00 per ticket (£116.32 inc. VAT)
That is because instead of fighting your corner in the transport industry, they are all planning their next jolly boys outing.
The RHA and FTA have nothing in common with Road Haulage
I don’t even open any of that stuff they send out anymore, they do love a coloured bit of paper don’t they? I hope they never send me anything important as it all goes straight in the shredder still in the envelope, apart from the National Directory of Hauliers, it goes straight in the bin being to large for the shredder.
In that case why do you still pay for a service which is not delivering, I some times wonder why i still pay into the URTU, non of these so called representative bodies seem to represent my point of veiw. and before anybody mentions, Bazman nor does he.
Just sent this e-mail to RHA head office at Weybridge.
Wonder what reaction I’ll get back?
Rikki - hope you don’t mind me name dropping this site - but in my opinion, our industry needs someone to fight in our corner, and thats why I joined the RHA. If they don’t know how we feel - whats the point?
To the RHA
Why is it that most of the people I talk to are not satisfied with the RHA or your counterparts the FTA?
I pay my subs, and what do I get in return?
Junk mail!
Week after week it drops through my letter box.
Bright coloured paper offering me crap services that I don’t want from you.
I can get tacho analysis anywhere I want.
Why did I join the RHA?
I thought you wanted to change the way UK hauliers are treated.
I thought you stood up for UK firms.
All you are interested in is making a quick couple of quid for the fat cats at the top.
Take the 2006 conference for example… MALTA??
Are you taking the mick or what?
We need help to create a level playing field against the foreign firms and our corrupt British so called Government - but where are you lot when it comes to organizing direct action? Bloody Malta!!
I think you should check out just what the average UK truck driver and owner drivers etc. are saying about you and what you are doing to help us.
Try checking trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/index.php
It might help to open your eyes a little.
I for one will not be continuing with my membership after this year - its a waste of time, and in my opinion - so are you.
Ian Young.
Ian Young Limited.
Newcastle-Under-Lyme
Staffordshire.
RHA Member
Can’t agree more. I joined at a truckfest. RHA advert was a great deal for owner drivers. I was told there was good discounts using services which RHA were affiliated to, and would get my membership money back through the savings using such services. NO I DID’NT !!!. Like Ian has said ,why do the RHA like sending nice colour bits of paper with useless info. Like Wheel nut has stated, WHY MALTA? Get a grip ,we are the driving force,we pay the membership we want people in charge who want the best for the UK Transport business. If you want conference’s in Malta, get yourself a franchise in" Betterware". A lot of drivers and transport companies aren’t happy, and you the RHA, aint making things better. GET out there ,speak to people, start acting as a professional body, use our money for a good cause, not your sun tans.
The RHA is not and was never designed to help owner drivers, small operators or their staff. It is more to do with the large companies, 300 / 400 trucks. The FTA are more representative of multi - nationals like Exel, Wincanton Salvesan and TDG all of who force rates down and take work from small operators.
Wheel Nut:
The RHA is not and was never designed to help owner drivers, small operators or their staff.
Recently Malc they have been running campaigns specifically designed to attract more smaller companies and owner operators as members.
I accept those comments Neil, but if you look at the directors list, there are more large company people than smaller operators. Probably due to falling numbers they need to keep the holiday fund topped up.
Maybe the RHA will pay lip service to yourself and Ian but at the end of the day, they will look after their own. (in my opinion of course)
I have the same opinion about the transport unions, they are only interested in membership numbers, and are seeking to recruit membership from the newer members of the EU
Surely if they are sending out junk mail, this is a profit earning exercise & not one that is using your membership funds.
Many companies pay very good money for customer hit lists, so this is presumably a very nice earner for them.
Wheel Nut:
Maybe the RHA will pay lip service to yourself and Ian but at the end of the day, they will look after their own. (in my opinion of course
I agree Malc. I only use it for the odd Euro News updates, an insurance policy which will assist me if I am sick or injured over the water, or even get my sorry dead carcass back home, and I can run under their T&C’s. The rest of it they can keep.
daxi:
Surely if they are sending out junk mail, this is a profit earning exercise & not one that is using your membership funds.
Many companies pay very good money for customer hit lists, so this is presumably a very nice earner for them.
It’s not other peoples junk mail daxi, it is all for their own services. You receive an envelope with 8 - 10 or more sheets of badly printed A4 paper advertising various things they offer, and you get the same thing every week and sometimes twice a week. At the same time they suggest to members of the International Group that they should opt to receive the news flashes by email instead of post or fax to keep costs down.
And in addition to joining the RHA, you then have to pay extra to join the specialist groups such as Tankers, Refridgerated, Heavy Haulage etc.
Unless you are involved with Livestock Haulage which is free,
In the beginning all these membership clubs are a good idea. Organisations like the:
RHA,
FTA (Freight Transport Association)
BMF (British Motorcycle Federation)
MAG (Motorcycle Action Group)
Then they all seem to become an exclusive club for the top men & women, while not really helping the members who put them there.
I will end my rant here, I only paid my membership once
Idid get a discount on Eurotraffic but that deal has ended
As everybody has mentioned above they do nothing for us that we can see & if we cant see (they’ll say a lot goes on behind closed doors) what they are doing it can be nothing of any signifigance.
Where are they on the Brit Disc - thrown out the window to do a secret deal on LRUC & wheres that - thrown out the window
Where are they on fuel duty & essential user rebate or even increasing vat to 30% ?
Where are they on increasing rates?
Where are they on the flood of cheap labour coming into the country?
Where are they on fuel surcharges on rates?
Where are they on direct action? If there were a series of one day- days of action by all their members then the government would have no choice but to listen and if the one days dont work have some weekly - fortnightly -monthly until sombody does somthing.
They are holding a very large gun but at the moment are just firing blanks
I’ll tell you where they are either
In a 5 star hotel in London
or
In a 5 star hotel in Malta
getting their fat lazy arse’s even fatter off our backs
Wheel Nut:
And in addition to joining the RHA, you then have to pay extra to join the specialist groups such as Tankers, Refridgerated, Heavy Haulage etc.
Unless you are involved with Livestock Haulage which is free,
In the beginning all these membership clubs are a good idea. Organisations like the:
RHA,
FTA (Freight Transport Association)
BMF (British Motorcycle Federation)
MAG (Motorcycle Action Group)
Then they all seem to become an exclusive club for the top men & women, while not really helping the members who put them there.
I will end my rant here, I only paid my membership once
sorry malc but i have to disagree with you about mag (motorcycle action group), although i am not a member (due to not having a motorbike for some time) i regularly read their magazine (mag) which is passed onto me by my employer (who refuses to join the rha because they cannot tell him what they have ever acheived) and the mag news is full of things that they have done - not just the charity events but other motorcycle related campaigns and acheivements.
unlike the transport industry bodies - mag have managed to unite the riders of motorcycles into an actionable body.
dartford crossing - free passage for m/c’s due to an action campaign by mag where the bikers turned up in hundreds and caused chaos at the booths whilst each biker got half undressed to get some change from their pocket then had to get dressed again before proceeding.
the same was tried at humber bridge last year without result but is going to be tried again - whilst doing this they always consider the people caught up in the demo’s and will allow disabled people through, ambulances etc and others that have a genuine reason to be allowed through.
the biggest difference between us (truck drivers and bikers) is that they have mp’s who ride bikes, maybe only in the summertime but they are still bike sympathetic mp’s.
how many truck driving mp’s do we know?
so until we have an mp who is or was a truck driver we won’t have a voice in parliament.
back to the topic - what we need is an action group that actually does take action, a jack russel and not a rottweiller, a group that will keep the pressure on and not launch into a viscious act of savagery only to find itself muzzled and locked away until the day it’s put down.
there are plenty of groups out there claiming to be something but it appears that all they want is to be something for themselves.
i suggest the next time your rha/fta/urtu/tgwu renewal comes up you withold the fees until they tell you what they have done for you over the past 12 months, if they haven’t done anything then perhaps you should ask for a refund.
