The way I see it, it’s like this:
You boss, me driver.
You tell me to go somewhere, I go there.
If I don’t fancy going there, “Tough [zb] Driver, off you trot.”
Quite simple really. Nothing to it. So long as the above is within the bounds of legality and your normal working hours/days, there is absolutely nothing to get arsey about.
Or maybe not…Cos judging by some of the rants I’ve been forced to listen to recently, I’m missing something vital out of the above… 
Discuss. 
What you’re missing is that people are starting to get a little sick of working more hours than a kid in a Taiwanese sweatshop banging out Nike trainers 12hrs a day in order to make 10% less than the National Average Wage.
It’s a bit off in this day and age that you still qualify for “poverty handouts” from the Govt despite working a 60hr week.
You may be boss, I may be driver but I want to be home with the family just as much as you.
for me it depends on the type of work you’re doing
tramping its a case of leave sunday and they called the tune till friday.
the few times ive done day work ive always done 12 on 12 off with the odd exception due to unforseens.
I can agree with both Lucy and Conor on this one.
I’ve worn both a driver’s hat and a TM’s hat in my time, so I’ll venture an opinon from both points of view.
As a driver.
I still agree with both Lucy and Conor. A driver goes where they’re sent, provided that it’s legal etc. My point is that if we don’t like the job, we can vote with our feet. There’s a driver shortage, so market forces will prevail. The well-run firms paying the best wages and running the best trucks will tend to retain their drivers. The type of firm with a revolving door, and possibly horses ■■■■■■■ outside the office, will struggle. A driver’s advantage these days is that there’s a driver shortage coupled with over-capacity in the industry. IMHO, it’s far better to be a driver now than when I started. Back then, if you didn’t like it, there were 10 drivers queueing for your job, so your choice was clear. Like it or lump it.
As a TM.
I’d be very careful how I’d treat drivers for the above reasons. A TM has to realise that, if the job is cut to the bone, they’re probably “buying” work at the quote stage. The TM will never own up to this, so the drivers get the wages that Conor described. Years ago, I was on the receiving end of that too!! There’s a saying in transport, “any fool can send a loaded wagon down the road…” The problem that the TM faces is getting a decent rate and having customers pay on time. When dealing with old-hands that I knew, I’d explain that if you want to choose your destination, you should approach a travel agent. If you want to work, you’ll go where you’re sent. That was back in the day… I’d think very carefully as to whether I’d say that these days though…
Conor:
What you’re missing is that people are starting to get a little sick of working more hours than a kid in a Taiwanese sweatshop banging out Nike trainers 12hrs a day in order to make 10% less than the National Average Wage.It’s a bit off in this day and age that you still qualify for “poverty handouts” from the Govt despite working a 60hr week.
You may be boss, I may be driver but I want to be home with the family just as much as you.
But Conor, if you go back and read what I wrote properly this time, I said within your normal working hours/days[/b]. If you as a driver go and take a job where the hours/days aren’t what you actually want, surely that’s your own problem, not your gaffer’s?
That’s the point I’m trying to make here, I guess…Why take a job knowing what’s involved, and then whine and whinge when, quelle surprise, the job turns out to be what it says on the tin?
It doesn’t matter what the specifics of the job are, if you’re only being expected to do that job, where the hell is the problem? So what’s with all the mithering?
Lucy:
The way I see it, it’s like this:
You boss, me driver.
You tell me to go somewhere, I go there.
If I don’t fancy going there, “Tough [zb] Driver, off you trot.”
Seems simple enough to me
If you don’t like it, there’s plenty of other jobs out there.
It’s taken me a long time to get where I am working now and 1 month in I am quite happy. Yes I would like to go further afield but I was told at the start “we’ll put you on locals and see how you get on and then maybe in about 3 months…”
I’ll just get on with it and see what happens in the new year, failing that, locals is fine, home every night.
well take yesterday lucy i had a right rant at my boss i’d asked a while back if i could be finished 5pm last night as i had things to do i didnt tell him i asked and he said yes so on thursday he gave me the option of running a couple of hours down the road to make sure i’d be back tomorrow night yeah fine i said he needed a job doing and he was trying to accomodate my needs so a bit of give and take we all get along lovely. so i tipped ormskirk batley and barnsley (bearing in mind he’d told me i was running back empty) so i rang up from barnsley at 1pm to which he asked me if i fancied going to sheffield for steel i said no as i wanted to be back early he said no do you want to go for steel so after a mouthfull of £$%^&($£"£ i told him why not it’s friday and i always get fu*** up the backside on a friday and i slammed the phone down i rang up from sheffield to say i was loaded and the little ■■■■ didnt have the balls to speak to me rather shout things to his lackeys to tell me …git
in this day and age weather it be lorry driving or shelf stacking theres got to be a degree of tolerance between worker and employer this isnt the dark ages no more
steve
stevelw2007:
i always get fu**** up the backside on a friday and i slammed the phone down i rang up from sheffield to say i was loaded
steve
I think that’s your downfall 
I’ve done exactly the same and the more you do the more they want. He knew you would reload Sheffied that’s why he gave you the lip service you needed for an early finish.
I have just left employment for very similar reasons - start a new job Monday 
Hope it turns out better 
My bad week started last week when I broke my teeth. I tried to get some time off on Friday but when I mentioned an early finish my job was cancelled.
I tipped in Nottingham last Thursday and because I live near Derby and had to load Ashby at 6am on Friday. Ideal so I called the dentist got an appointment and told the planner. That was when he cancelled my Ashby job which wasnt cancelled but given to another driver from Belgium. My load was now from Manchester at 2 pm so I left the appointment open and went to Manchester a bit earlier.
Anyway I managed to get loaded and had a temporary repair on my teeth.
So after 24hours at home I shipped out Saturday to France, tipping Sunday. after a couple of trips back to the UK I was then loading Wednesday for Banbury, tip Thursday. Ideal, so I arranged another appointment at dentist and needed 2 visits in the day. 10am and 1600
Wednesday evening I get a call from a driver asking where I was. Im in Aalst, why? Oh I am taking your trailer to Banbury Why? I asked. I need to get home he told me. Me too I replied as I called the muppet planner. So what am I doing? Why are you swapping trailers again? Well Mark has to go home, he was weekended last week in Belgilum.
Tough. I shouted, I took 24 hours to help you. I have been struggling all week having to eat soup through a straw and I have arranged to go to the dentist. again
But you didnt tell me you wanted to go home again because you were home last week. I know we shouldnt presume, but loading for the UK on Wednesday and tipping about an hour from home on your 6th day, I did presume. Instead the planner had me down for loading again in Aalst for Roosendaal on Friday.
I hope he got stuck with that load, because I ended up with a drop and swap in Birmingham 
My teeth are fixed again and Im on solids
Conor:
What you’re missing is that people are starting to get a little sick of working more hours than a kid in a Taiwanese sweatshop banging out Nike trainers 12hrs a day in order to make 10% less than the National Average Wage.It’s a bit off in this day and age that you still qualify for “poverty handouts” from the Govt despite working a 60hr week.
You may be boss, I may be driver but I want to be home with the family just as much as you.
Conor, I agree with the last part of your post - everyone wants more time with their family no doubts about it.
However, to compare driving a wagon in a civilised Nation to making trainers in a sweat shop is ridiculous. These kids really earn their pittance. I don’t know what you earn or a care for that matter but I guarantee it is at least twenty times more than them kids and for less work and in better conditions.
If you want an example to demonstrate your ‘suffering’ I suggest you use a better example. 
[quote ;
still agree with both Lucy and Conor. A driver goes where they’re sent, provided that it’s legal etc. My point is that if we don’t like the job, we can vote with our feet. There’s a driver shortage, so market forces will prevail. The well-run firms paying the best wages and running the best trucks will tend to retain their drivers. The type of firm with a revolving door, and possibly horses ■■■■■■■ outside the office, will struggle. A driver’s advantage these days is that there’s a driver shortage coupled with over-capacity in the industry. IMHO, it’s far better to be a driver now than when I started. Back then, if you didn’t like it, there were 10 drivers queueing for your job, so your choice was clear. Like it or lump it.]
Where? Not down here in Sussex, Crap wages and no jobs!
Would move but too much hassle plus why should I
The only driver shortage is the story made up by agencies to get more seats on bums. In the sister site Road Transport.com there is a story about the upcoming driver shortage in 10 years when all the recent arrivals go home to better pay and conditions. Its happened before, everyone went to work in Germany, now the Germans are having to travel to get work
The way I see it is you only get abused if you allow it. I make it quite plain to the office, that between 5am on Monday and 6pm on friday you can do with me as you please, but i have another life other than work with a family at home, so dont expect me to work weekends unless by prior arrangement.
It seems to work well and dont really get any problems apart from the odd stupid request on a friday lunch, like a Glasgow to London, so after a quiet reminder that if you want the wrath of my missus at the office window, then its not a problem
Totally agree with what Lucy has put, these same people would be moaning no matter what the hours and pay.
We’ve some on our contract, no matter what what combination of jobs they get their not happy. Some moan about it being a dirty job, well get one delivering to RDC’s not building sites then.
I’ve been called various names before because I just get on with the job, but my only stipulation at every job I have is that if I need to get back for family reasons I’m back, either with their agreeance or not. If not, then I clear my cab when I get back. Never had to yet.
I think the thing Lucy is misunderstanding is the concept of " Normal hours and working days".
These normalities are very dependant on what the employer thinks is normal on the day and usually the norm is what he decides will get the job done.
Sadly the job has not improved in these terms from when I started 40 years ago (except for the trucks)regardless of a driver shortage ( in fact it has got worse with the changes to drivers hours from the 12 and a half hour day.)
As far as the argument “if you don’t like it get another job”, why not say " if you don’t like it do something about it". and try to make driving a better job.
And as for saying that between Monday morning and Friday tea time the boss can do what he wants, does no driver have a life of their own Tuesday to Thursday?
i know I do , and a family that i want to see now and then.
I don’t misunderstand the concept at all Del, although I suspect you misunderstand the context. I meant within the bounds of your normal hours for your job, whatever they may be. Whether those hours are reasonable in this day and age is another debate completely…In this case I’m talking about the hours/days you agreed to when you took the job.
Some people moan no matter what.
Being agency i suffer it, working one place i was there over a year. They have offered me a full time job but ive refused it because i cant work weekends due to family comitments, the company even offered to let me work just weekdays but i said that would be unfair to be allowed not work weekends when others have to.
Anyway i’ve even trained new drivers.
No probs i go out do runs, the way we worked was out of the days you would typically get 3 days which were easy, say 7am start finish usually by midday. Then you would get 2 days doing longer distance typically a 7am-7pm, got you some extra overtime.
Not a problem till a couple of new guys started, and TM left. Then suddenly its the full time drivers who have been there less than me demanding they get all the easy jobs and give the agency driver (me) all the long 12 hour shifts. So i end up doing all their long shifts and they are doing short ones everyday.
I dont really care either way, its overtime. At the end of the month they have a hissy fit because they release they are getting paid a lot less loosing the overtime doh ! So then they start demanding to get their overtime shifts back and now its a problem because the agency driver is getting all the OT, so they demand i get put on all the short shifts, again doesent bother me much its the summer working half days suits me 
Eventually got fed up with the carry on and left, with them picking and choosing shifts, because i was meant to be covering a specific run and they would demand it was changed. Then they would go out do the run and not know it and not get it all done, then guess who would have to cover their asses the next day.
I left and TM is on the phone asking me to come back, told him where to go.
thats fine Lucy, but most drivers who have been working for the same company for more than 2 years have seen their normal hours altered by the WTD, as most companies have used these regulations to increase the working week to a minimum/ maximum/normal week of 48 hours.
Allied to this is the preponderance of companies to move to a 5/7 day working week, also wanting to move to a 24 hour operation.
When these changes take place AFTER you have entered into a contract then you have 2 choices.
Run away or fight for your rights.
( and before anyone starts to talk about changes to contract allowing you claim constructive dismissal, forget it. Most of these alterations take place with the recognised trade union agreeing to them and do not constitute a change of contract)
Well welcome to the world. It’s called evolution. Companies and demands evolve, it’s the very nature of the industry. If you want things to be exactly the same day in day out like clockwork move to another industry
One thing i will say tho depends what company you are with.
Fair enough Lucy if your boss or TM is an ex driver or even someone who knows how long it takes to get places, knows how long it takes to get tipped certain places.
No problem with decent TM’s but as a agency driver going lots of different places the runs seem to be organised more and more by people who have never been behind the wheel of a truck, and basically don’t have a clue.
Was working a place my run was Somerfields East Kilbride 8am delivery 10 pallets, then Tradeteam Cambuslang booked in for 9.30am. Anyone who knows Somerfields EK will know getting in and tipped in 1hr 30mins is unlikely to happen, never mind the drive from EK to Cambuslang. End up outta Somerfields at 11am and Tradeteam knock back my delivery and its that bloody drivers fault, what the hell has he been doing to be so late for a delivery.
Same with you’ve been out all day and got 1hrs 30mins driving time left and you get asked to nip across to Edinburgh from Glasgow at 4.30 in the afternoon. Its only 40mins in the car they think.
Last night i went from Glasgow to Warrington in the late afternoon, heard radio jam at larkhall on M74, so told TM before i left i could be late, make sure you tell driver i am meeting to swap trailers to wait on me. Get stuck at Larkhall get stuck on M6 at Forton, get stuck on M6 near Charnock Richard have to take 45mins early, really late no one has informed driver i am meeting. I come back up the road get stuck at Charnock Richard. Get back to depot in Glasgow where the hell you been everyone else is back by 2am. Try and explain about accidents, roadworks and people fleein the cities for Blackpool, the Lakes etc… making roads busy they walk away tutting thinking driver is at it.
lets not forget the classic Glasgow to Aberdeen, oh ok youyr in Aberdeen just nip across to inverness, for some reason a lot of non drivers think Aberdeen t Inverness is 20mins alogn the road !