Representatives from Unite have organised a meeting with the shadow secretary of state for transport, Maria Eagle, to discuss the issue after claims were made to the union that drivers are working up to 80 hours a week — nearly double the working time directive.
The union is claiming that three or four companies which operate out of Felixstowe are “intimidating” their drivers into breaching the directive and it amounts to “systematic abuse” of their employees.
Does the tachograph really give the right picture of what happens when the driver is out all week and does this 80 hour week really happen? What do the drivers themselves say?
You have your tacho showing no more than 48 hours driving, but with unlimited amounts of POA which means the driver’s time is being wasted, but they are not being paid in many cases.
If you only have 32 POA hours booked each week, you’re going to be doing an 80 hour week without breaking the drivers hours rules, BUT tearing up the WTD rules which don’t seem to be enforced, as they apply to indoor workers too, who also systemically breach them.
I wish these unions would leave well alone. The last thing we need is some div in parliament deciding we can only do x amount of hours. We all know we don’t want to do 80 hours a week, but they’re few and far between. A restriction on hours would really cost me. As I’ve said before, I only really do just over driving hours. Right now I’m laying on the bunk, writing this. It counts towards my weekly average, 71 last week, but it’s hardly work is it. Only doing the same as when I park up, but I get paid to do it now
POA counts the same as break for the WTD , so doing 32 hours a week POA does not mean you have broken the WTD.
Thats how I understand it anyway.
OP, I dont want to appear rude , but when someone writes something like you have on their first post, there is usually an underlying reason for it.
If this isnt the case please accept my humble apologies, but do you have an interest in this, i.e. youre a union rep, journalist, or some other official trying to gain information about working practices at various companies.
I know this may sound paranoid but its happened in the past and this is an open forum.
OVLOV JAY:
I wish these unions would leave well alone. The last thing we need is some div in parliament deciding we can only do x amount of hours. We all know we don’t want to do 80 hours a week, but they’re few and far between. A restriction on hours would really cost me. As I’ve said before, I only really do just over driving hours. Right now I’m laying on the bunk, writing this. It counts towards my weekly average, 71 last week, but it’s hardly work is it. Only doing the same as when I park up, but I get paid to do it now
toowise: POA counts the same as break for the WTD , so doing 32 hours a week POA does not mean you have broken the WTD.
Thats how I understand it anyway.
OP, I dont want to appear rude , but when someone writes something like you have on their first post, there is usually an underlying reason for it.
If this isnt the case please accept my humble apologies, but do you have an interest in this, i.e. youre a union rep, journalist, or some other official trying to gain information about working practices at various companies.
I know this may sound paranoid but its happened in the past and this is an open forum.
Not quite, POA doesn’t count as break, it just doesn’t count as work, there’s a difference, if you did 4hrs 15 mins of work and 2hrs POA then 2hrs of work, you’d be breaking the WTD, however, if you did 4hrs 15 mins work, 2hrs break, then 2hrs work, you wouldn’t
OVLOV JAY:
I wish these unions would leave well alone. The last thing we need is some div in parliament deciding we can only do x amount of hours. We all know we don’t want to do 80 hours a week, but they’re few and far between. A restriction on hours would really cost me. As I’ve said before, I only really do just over driving hours. Right now I’m laying on the bunk, writing this. It counts towards my weekly average, 71 last week, but it’s hardly work is it. Only doing the same as when I park up, but I get paid to do it now
+1
It might hardly be work but it is time away from home and family that I would rather not spend in a tin box. I work to live not live to work. Granted the wages may not be as good, but 70 hrs to me are two weeks in one. I have heard this before about the unions wanting to get things like this sorted. The environmental impact of companies has been big for years which is now taken seriously, the next thing is ethical trading of companies. Is working employees 70-80 hrs a week ethical?
OVLOV JAY:
I wish these unions would leave well alone. The last thing we need is some div in parliament deciding we can only do x amount of hours. We all know we don’t want to do 80 hours a week, but they’re few and far between. A restriction on hours would really cost me. As I’ve said before, I only really do just over driving hours. Right now I’m laying on the bunk, writing this. It counts towards my weekly average, 71 last week, but it’s hardly work is it. Only doing the same as when I park up, but I get paid to do it now
+1
It might hardly be work but it is time away from home and family that I would rather not spend in a tin box. I work to live not live to work. Granted the wages may not be as good, but 70 hrs to me are two weeks in one. I have heard this before about the unions wanting to get things like this sorted. The environmental impact of companies has been big for years which is now taken seriously, the next thing is ethical trading of companies. Is working employees 70-80 hrs a week ethical?
As has been said a million times before, for most truck work (not all) it’s inevitable that you’re not going to do 37.5hrs a week.
There’s traffic hold ups, break downs, queues at rdc’s or depots or delivery points etc, there’s the actual travel time of getting here and there, it really is just one of those things, and if anyone in trucking doesn’t like it, they know where the door is.
It is never going to change, the unions do this now and then, then it all pipes down again, I think it’s to get new comers into the industry thinking they’re joining it as it’s about to change
The trouble is Wayne, 9/10 drivers don’t pass their test and go from a 9-5 job and jump straight onto distance work. They work up. Vans and 7.5s. Doing local work, maybe for a manufacturing firm with set hours. Then class 2, usually local work again, skips or tippers or multi drop job and knock. Then they get a class 1 and do the 2 years on the trolleys for an agency, again pretty set routines, day in day out, 8 and the gate on Friday etc. Then they get all starry eyed and think it’s time do the up the road bit, when in reality they can’t hack it, so spend the next 30 years ■■■■■■■■ on the internet about how bad the industry is. If you want 9-5 routine, there’s plenty out there. For me the jobs not about that. I start Monday and finish Friday. Anything in between is what pays the bills
toowise: POA counts the same as break for the WTD , so doing 32 hours a week POA does not mean you have broken the WTD.
Thats how I understand it anyway.
OP, I dont want to appear rude , but when someone writes something like you have on their first post, there is usually an underlying reason for it.
If this isnt the case please accept my humble apologies, but do you have an interest in this, i.e. youre a union rep, journalist, or some other official trying to gain information about working practices at various companies.
I know this may sound paranoid but its happened in the past and this is an open forum.
Not quite, POA doesn’t count as break, it just doesn’t count as work, there’s a difference, if you did 4hrs 15 mins of work and 2hrs POA then 2hrs of work, you’d be breaking the WTD, however, if you did 4hrs 15 mins work, 2hrs break, then 2hrs work, you wouldn’t
not quite vosa count the first 45 mins of a poa as break, well that was what i was told when i got pulled last year for a tacho check,by the vosa bod checking my cards
toowise: POA counts the same as break for the WTD , so doing 32 hours a week POA does not mean you have broken the WTD.
Thats how I understand it anyway.
OP, I dont want to appear rude , but when someone writes something like you have on their first post, there is usually an underlying reason for it.
If this isnt the case please accept my humble apologies, but do you have an interest in this, i.e. youre a union rep, journalist, or some other official trying to gain information about working practices at various companies.
I know this may sound paranoid but its happened in the past and this is an open forum.
Not quite, POA doesn’t count as break, it just doesn’t count as work, there’s a difference, if you did 4hrs 15 mins of work and 2hrs POA then 2hrs of work, you’d be breaking the WTD, however, if you did 4hrs 15 mins work, 2hrs break, then 2hrs work, you wouldn’t
not quite vosa count the first 45 mins of a poa as break, well that was what i was told when i got pulled last year for a tacho check,by the vosa bod checking my cards
toowise: POA counts the same as break for the WTD , so doing 32 hours a week POA does not mean you have broken the WTD.
Thats how I understand it anyway.
OP, I dont want to appear rude , but when someone writes something like you have on their first post, there is usually an underlying reason for it.
If this isnt the case please accept my humble apologies, but do you have an interest in this, i.e. youre a union rep, journalist, or some other official trying to gain information about working practices at various companies.
I know this may sound paranoid but its happened in the past and this is an open forum.
Not quite, POA doesn’t count as break, it just doesn’t count as work, there’s a difference, if you did 4hrs 15 mins of work and 2hrs POA then 2hrs of work, you’d be breaking the WTD, however, if you did 4hrs 15 mins work, 2hrs break, then 2hrs work, you wouldn’t
not quite vosa count the first 45 mins of a poa as break, well that was what i was told when i got pulled last year for a tacho check,by the vosa bod checking my cards
Only when double manning
Tacho will reset driving time due to being stupid, but 45mins POA only counts as break if it’s in 2nd slot and you’re double manning as Green said
If VOSA told you that your 1st 45mins counted as a break, they either made a mistake and thought you’d had it in 2nd slot, he was an idiot or he just couldn’t be arsed, but either way it was incorrect info.
It’s a free country (or meant to be) so if you want to work that long then that’s your choice. I’m perfectly happy on 50hours Mon-Fri, no booking POA but if people want to do more, fair enough.
Too many people not minding their own business.
NathanB:
It’s a free country (or meant to be) so if you want to work that long then that’s your choice. I’m perfectly happy on 50hours Mon-Fri, no booking POA but if people want to do more, fair enough.
Too many people not minding their own business.
I would support a cut in hours. 15 hours a day is not safe in my opinion. Some companies see it as a target not a limit. Then you get the old chestnut ‘well other drivers do it’.
NathanB:
It’s a free country (or meant to be) so if you want to work that long then that’s your choice. I’m perfectly happy on 50hours Mon-Fri, no booking POA but if people want to do more, fair enough.
Too many people not minding their own business.
And too many greedy or overworked employees driving trucks falling asleep at the wheel ploughing into the back of stuff ?
I couldn’t give a toss if a shelf stacker falls asleep it’s usually a different outcome to a ‘professional/any’ driver falling asleep,
toowise: POA counts the same as break for the WTD , so doing 32 hours a week POA does not mean you have broken the WTD.
Thats how I understand it anyway.
OP, I dont want to appear rude , but when someone writes something like you have on their first post, there is usually an underlying reason for it.
If this isnt the case please accept my humble apologies, but do you have an interest in this, i.e. youre a union rep, journalist, or some other official trying to gain information about working practices at various companies.
I know this may sound paranoid but its happened in the past and this is an open forum.
Not quite, POA doesn’t count as break, it just doesn’t count as work, there’s a difference, if you did 4hrs 15 mins of work and 2hrs POA then 2hrs of work, you’d be breaking the WTD, however, if you did 4hrs 15 mins work, 2hrs break, then 2hrs work, you wouldn’t
Sorry yeah thats what I meant .
I see the OP still hasnt answered my question yet ?
NathanB:
It’s a free country (or meant to be) so if you want to work that long then that’s your choice. I’m perfectly happy on 50hours Mon-Fri, no booking POA but if people want to do more, fair enough.
Too many people not minding their own business.
And too many greedy or overworked employees driving trucks falling asleep at the wheel ploughing into the back of stuff ?
I couldn’t give a toss if a shelf stacker falls asleep it’s usually a different outcome to a ‘professional/any’ driver falling asleep,
I could be greedy and try to fit an extra load in today but my next one’s back to base so a coffee is in order before going to load it…
