obviously there are a lot of drivers here who have been in this game a lot longer than i have but it seems that there are a lot of rants and complaints on this forum in recent years, myself included (the vast majority of my work is tesco ) and possibly one of the worst for it
is the transport industry really deteriorating that much for drivers or have drivers always found something to moan about? im not being cheeky but i am curious as to whether there is more to moan about or simply new things to moan about
Problem is Scanny, if you were paid ÂŁ100 per hour for what youâre doing now, you would still find something to moan about. Human nature 'n all that jazz ken?
scanny77:
is the transport industry really deteriorating that much for drivers or have drivers always found something to moan about?
Always.
scanny77:
im not being cheeky but i am curious as to whether there is more to moan about or simply new things to moan about
Same old things and the majority are either meaningless or easy to sort out.
This is one of the easiest, stress free jobs it is possible to do. You work by yourself so no office politics. You can pretty much please yourself what you do when, within reason. You donât have to look at the same old thing out of your office window. What could be better?
So what if the security guard is a bit of a â â â , says more about him than you. So what if some car driver does something stupid, your better than them and it really doesnât make much difference to your day. So what if that truck you let on the motorway holds you out there, back off and pull in behind, says more about them than you. So what if the guy in front wants to stick to the speed limit on the single carriageway, why do you want to speed for your boss anyway? So what if there is a traffic jam and you are late for your booking, you tried but failed and unless you caused the jam it was because of something you had no control over anyway. So what if the planners have given you an impossible run to do, stick to the limits and the rules, do your best and fail. They might learn after a while.
Seriously, really listen to the moans and complaints in a truck stop or RDC waiting room and you will realise that most of them are over things so trivial that they really shouldnât be [zb]ing up that drivers day to such an extent.
The classic example that proves drivers moan just for the for the sake of it was on here a while back when âsomeoneâ complained that their planner had asked if it was possible for them to do an extra job instead of just telling them to do it. Because he had the audacity to ask politely the planner had no backbone apparently. When you read and hear something like that you know you cannot take the moans and complaints seriously and too many drivers think they have to moan or they arenât a proper rough, tough trucker.
fair point Steve and i have to put my hands up to it. im not happy unless im moaning about something or other
i understand the trivial moans just being people getting through their day but i was thinking more along the lines of some posts regarding VOSA, the police, companies, regulations etc rather than some numpty cutting you up. there does seem to be a lot of changes in the last 8 years that i have been in the job full time but i cant say whether the regulations etc have accelerated in that time or has increased difficulty been an ongoing problem for drivers. the transition from log books to tacho and the mandatory fitment of limiters are the only big ones that i can think of that happened prior to my joining the industry but presumably there were other things to endure.
i suppose the question is whether the frequency of changes and whether there has always been something to adapt to every few years (something i tend to attempt to resist at first) or are there more changes in a shorter space of time more recently or has it remained fairly consistant?
scanny77:
i suppose the question is whether the frequency of changes and whether there has always been something to adapt to every few years (something i tend to attempt to resist at first)
You put a lot of effort into moaning and resisting when it is so much less effort and less stressful to either adapt if you feel you can work within the change or go and do something else. The regulations are not that complicated, trouble is most drivers donât actually bother to learn them. The same drivers who moan about VOSA and the police, if you arenât doing anything wrong you really donât have to worry about them, are often the same drivers who put a lot of time into moaning about âthe foreignersâ and how they get away scot free. For a long time on here there were complaints about the foreigners getting away with things and we had the introduction of fixed penalties to give the authorities more power to deal with this situation. Now I see the same members who complained about the foreigners getting away with it complaining about the fixed penalties. Drivers will, and always have, found stuff to moan about. Itâs nothing to do with any one particular thing, although as a species we tend not to like and actively resist change - as you readily admit to doing, and that will always be the way.
i can hardly deny trying to resist change or criticise anyone else for it. i was a year behind everyone else when the digital tacho was introduced but for me it isnt about doing something wrong or getting caught, its a matter of principle. sticking with the digital tacho, i was running around using wax charts and doing my job. then the government says i need to pay ÂŁ38 to run around doing my job and that is what i resented.
now it is the same thing with the drivers CPC. we are all running around doing our jobs and again, the government have said we have to pay to run around doing our jobs. it is change for the sake of it which will not help us but will cost us. there will no doubt be some things learned by some drivers even as a refresher or with laws that have changed but no experienced driver will learn 35 hours worth of new information and that is especially true for those who use this website as there is a wealth of information right here. and its free!
someone doing something wrong out on the road is completely different to the examples i have given for the simple reason that 10 seconds later, they are gone and out of your life, probably forever. when it comes to regulations it is different because it is something that we all have to learn to adapt to no matter how futile they are, or give it up altogether. it is arguably a choice but i dont see it as a choice when it is being forced upon us, i would call that a potentially life changing decision
Well I got my digi card and it didnât cost me anything, in fact it earned me money. I will be getting CPC training and again it isnât costing me anything, but I should get at least a couple of decent argume⌠err discussions out of it, it just depends how you go about it.
Drivers are constantly moaning about how we are regarded, how we arenât treated with the respect we deserve and how we should be regarded as respected professionals and not just labourers. So there is now a scheme - albeit a bit of a Mickey Mouse one from our point of view but the general population wonât know that - which is designed to make us more like other professions were they have ongoing training and whatâs happening? Yep, drivers are moaning about it. If you donât want to do it, donât do it. No one is holding a gun to your head, you can say no, walk away and do something else. Contrary to popular belief there is work out there, in the 4 and a bit weeks I took away from this job recently I had a choice of 4 jobs I could have gone and done, but none of them were as easy as this so it would have been stupid to take any of them. So I might have to fork out ÂŁ19 quid to renew my digi card, works out to about 7 pence per week, and I will have to sit through a few hours a year of some bloke talking â â â â â â â â which all in all seems a small price to pay to be able to continue doing this when the alternative is, actually having to put some effort into working for a living.
mickey mouse or not, the public wont know anything about this scheme at all. any mention of it will be completely disregarded as they are not interested in how well trained the driver is. its a big dirty truck clogging up the roads and getting in their way. a moronic perspective but i think its a fairly accurate description of the mentality of the general motorists opinion of us.
i agree that this is an easy job but there are easier ways to make a lot more money. start with the people who dream up all the â â â â â â â â that we are hit with from companies or governing bodies. if companies are that worried about their profits, why dont they start with making these muppets redundant?
Ever noticed how when in a truck you donât seem to be considered a human anymore?
Couple of examples;
There was a woman on telly a while ago going on about how bad her life was and to quote
what she said âI thought I could just get on the motorway and turn the car into the front of a
truck, then it would be all overâ
FFS, what about the poor guy driving the thing whoâs gonna have to live with killing someone!?
And the people who dip their headlights for the car in front of you but put the high beams back
on as soon as itâs past, do they think trucks drive themselves or something?
Not to mention the ugly, â â â â â â â â frustrated, menopausal wenches you find in âgoods inâ!
I agree, itâs in our nature to moan but itâs not like weâre short of things to moan about is it?
How many other jobs can you think of where you get a ÂŁ200 fine for leaving 5 pieces of paper
at home (tachos, like I did last week)!? And treated like some sort of low life even though youâre
the one person who delivers what a certain person requires despite all of the aboveâŚ,
scanny77:
mickey mouse or not, the public wont know anything about this scheme at all. any mention of it will be completely disregarded as they are not interested in how well trained the driver is. its a big dirty truck clogging up the roads and getting in their way. a moronic perspective but i think its a fairly accurate description of the mentality of the general motorists opinion of us.
And their opinion affects your day how? Does it really matter what anyone else thinks as long as you are happy with yourself and teh way you do the job?
scanny77:
i agree that this is an easy job but there are easier ways to make a lot more money.
Really? Tell me where I can make more than ÂŁ37K, that is within my skill level and I do not have to break sweat. Can sit on my arse all day and not have to work with anyone else. Which has a bunk in my workplace I can use as and when I want/need to. Where I can listen to the radio or audio books for most of my working time and get a constantly changing view outside my office window? I couldnât find an easier way to make what I do and I was looking very recently.
Your problem is you have fallen for the myth that this is a hard job, that everyone is out to get you/us and that you/we have to moan about everything. Iâve read your posts on here over the years and most of the situations and grief you find yourself in seem to me to be mostly self inflicted, or at least you allow them to happen, and bring extra âproblemsâ onto yourself by worrying what other people are doing or thinking.
Over the years we have been treated to your posts on here about various so called problems and unfairness and how it makes this job so unbearable, such as. Many post on how you didnât want a digi tacho card, you got one and it cost you what, 14p per week and has the potential to increase your income by many, many times that. Tesco/the agency are treating you badly, yet you still go in there and still work for the agency. You wonât drive an auto and put a lot of needless effort into avoiding having to drive one. Why? Do they pay you less if you drive an auto or is it just that you have never bothered to learn the skills needed to drive a truck with an auto box? Yes you do need to learn how to drive them as they are not like an auto car and it doesnât make you less of a driver when you havenât got a stick to stir the box. Every complaint I have ever seen you make about an auto box only confirms you actually have no idea how to, use one, bit of effort in learning how to drive one and that is one less thing to [zb] up your day when you arrive at a client to do a days work.
Most of the stuff I have seen you rant and moan about is meaningless stuff easily sorted with not much effort or doesnât actually matter in the big picture but it all contributes to your constant downer on this job and the feeling that every little thing is designed to personally make your life more difficult.
Coffeeholic:
Well I got my digi card and it didnât cost me anything, in fact it earned me money. I will be getting CPC training and again it isnât costing me anything, but I should get at least a couple of decent argume⌠err discussions out of it, it just depends how you go about it.
i want to be in the same classes for your cpc training lol.
Coffeeholic:
Well I got my digi card and it didnât cost me anything, in fact it earned me money. I will be getting CPC training and again it isnât costing me anything, but I should get at least a couple of decent argume⌠err discussions out of it, it just depends how you go about it.
i want to be in the same classes for your cpc training lol.
what neil doesnt know is ROG has signed up for the same course
Coffeeholic:
Well I got my digi card and it didnât cost me anything, in fact it earned me money. I will be getting CPC training and again it isnât costing me anything, but I should get at least a couple of decent argume⌠err discussions out of it, it just depends how you go about it.
i want to be in the same classes for your cpc training lol.
what neil doesnt know is ROG has signed up for the same course
Oh come on, now youâre just teasing me, Iâm hearing the song âPerfect Dayâ in my head right nowâŚ
Coffeeholic:
Well I got my digi card and it didnât cost me anything, in fact it earned me money. I will be getting CPC training and again it isnât costing me anything, but I should get at least a couple of decent argume⌠err discussions out of it, it just depends how you go about it.
i want to be in the same classes for your cpc training lol.
what neil doesnt know is ROG has signed up for the same course
Having ploughed my way through Mr.Coffeewotsit,s in depth study of Scanny77 post, and the problems faced by this poor guy throughout his career. I have come to a couple of -(probably highly contentious) -conclusions.
(1) Scanny 77 needs to learn to " go with the flow" a bit more. Otherwise, the good folk at those Tesco RDC,s which seem to cause him such insurmountable problems during the course of his working day , will realise that he is an excellent target for a âWind the driver upâ campaign, which they use in order to lighten up their miserable lives.
(2) Now the Mr.Coffee seemes to be semi-retired,or summat, ( I haven,t had the time to work that out yet) , and in the happy position of now earning more than he did when he was combining his All expensespaid Euro-tours with his role as an Author; Should he not set himself up as TNUK and T&D,s very own Agony Uncle.At an even bigger salary. He could then dispense help and advice to all those on-line whingers who seem to spend most of their day , making their own and others lives a misery, with their constant moaning aboutâand in no special order-- The BossâThe wagesâThe waggon ( âwhy won,t my ZB of a gaffer give me an SSSSSSCabbed 730HP Scanny for my 4 day job doing Tossco deliveriesâ), and not forgetting the one and only, the cause of much of their problems Mr.Eddie ZB Stobart. It might even be worthy of full Social Services status. With a 100+K per annum Salary.
On a personal note. I retired after a 30 year career as a juggernaut jockey, 10 years ago. (I also did 20 years of other jobs prior that). I often say that I still miss the job. Then , in my more rational moments ,and after taking my medication,when I take into consideration, The Tacho Regs/The Digi Card/ The WTD/Vosa/ Angus the Bogey man of the M5/M6 and his colleagues/the CPC/Beverley Bell and Co. etc etc.I realise that the job is not now as pleasurable as it once was, and that I am zb glad that I can, as I am about to do, get into the Garden so as to avoid the flack which will shortly be heading in my direction, , and wait until opening time when I can go and sit with a couple of jars in the pub Garden, until some moaning old tooat of a pensioner arrives to complain about his lot in life, coz after a lifetime of 40 hour weeks, he only gets half as much in Pension Income, as I do, after a lifetime of 70-80-90-100+ Hours of graft per week, for 50 years. I then up-stakes and get back to the garden and watch the birds bobbing about. I sometimes spend hours looking at that C+E license that I still renew each year,just for the craic, coz I am a sad , (but fit as ZB thanks to all those years of handball and R&Sing),tooat
On a more serious note I sympathise with those who now find the job to be a stressful one. You have my Best Wishes. Relax. Go with the flow. ZB em all. Get in touch with Mr.Coffee, get some career advice, then you too could spend your time âSmelling the Coffeeâ
you do seem to be missing one major thing Neil. over the years i have moaned about a lot of things but i have always just got on with it. i dont like autos in cars or trucks but that is personal preference more than anything else just like we all have our own preferred trucks but when it comes down to it, whatever i drive, i drive it and get the job done. thats why they keep me coming back.
what i dont like is the bull that goes with the job. i know what i have to do and i dont think being allowed to get on with it is asking too much. most companies seem quite happy with handing the keys and paperwork over and letting the drivers do their job, especially when an assessment has been passed proving the driver can drive
i did give you an example of an easier job. one of those muppets that should be made redundant instead of sitting around inventing new ideas to mess people around and trying to justify their own position within a company
) and possibly one of the worst for it 
