We are in a strong position as postings to this site show but we do need to know what we want to acheive and what employers need to satisfy. So it might be a good idea ro write to our union(s) stating what we want
e.g.
£40k pa for a 40 hour week.
Double pay for overtime
£100 night out allowance
Usual holidays
I guess that employers would welcome a clear cut proposal around which thay can negotiate rather than the current scrum.
This would allow drivers to have a family life and even a hobby.
Union? How many drivers are in a Union?
Optimum:
We are in a strong position as postings to this site show but we do need to know what we want to acheive and what employers need to satisfy. So it might be a good idea ro write to our union(s) stating what we want
e.g.
£40k pa for a 40 hour week.
Double pay for overtime
£100 night out allowance
Usual holidays
I guess that employers would welcome a clear cut proposal around which thay can negotiate rather than the current scrum.
This would allow drivers to have a family life and even a hobby.
Not very ambitious, why usual holidays ? Why not double them like everything else ? 
Regards John.
old 67:
Optimum:
We are in a strong position as postings to this site show but we do need to know what we want to acheive and what employers need to satisfy. So it might be a good idea ro write to our union(s) stating what we want
e.g.
£40k pa for a 40 hour week.
Double pay for overtime
£100 night out allowance
Usual holidays
I guess that employers would welcome a clear cut proposal around which thay can negotiate rather than the current scrum.
This would allow drivers to have a family life and even a hobby.Not very ambitious, why usual holidays ? Why not double them like everything else ?
Regards John.
Why not triple.
Employers are going to drag there heels either way, they want to see if the government is going to buckle and cave in to pressure to reopen the floodgates.
Last thing employers want is to actually pay drivers a decent wage only for the government to open the floodgates to foreign drivers.
Very true and bearing in mind the perpetual influxes, chez Dover, on a daily basis, l guess this plethora of doctors, Dentists,Radiologists etc will simply have to dumb down their expectations a tad and strap into the odd Scania or Daf, until they get their bearings of course and further enrich our lands by supplying us with copious quantities of little Mohammads and Winstons. Kalergi-Plan shaping up beautifully it would appear. 
Oh look. It’s the monthly “we should form a union” thread again. Maybe time for a thread called “things that’ll never happen” to put all these union threads in.
Got a point though. The best jobs with best terms/pay/etc I’ve had have all been unionised.
Unlike my last lot, no union, bare minimum terms, lowest pay in the local area and so on…
The only reason there aren’t more places unionised is because there’s so many meek, all mouth, spineless drivers within the industry. Those who talk tough but do nothing to back anything up.
Decent unions don’t encourage members to go for pie in the sky ridiculous terms, for many good reasons.
What 40 hours are we talking about here, 7am to 3pm over a 5 day week, cos you expect to be paid for breaks within a £40k for 40 hours, will the lads doing back shifts, nights, weekends, bank holidays get any extra, because the distribution industry is now 24/7 364 days and nights a year.
Aim for unreasonable terms and the company won’t be able to compete.
I too have spent (thankfully) most of my driving life in unionised companies, in the best places the union made it clear the good pay depended on giving value for money, also where full sick pay is paid don’t take the ■■■■ out of it, company no makee monee no lovely loot to spare for pay increases.
My experience has been, the proper companies have been happy to pay well so long as you give them some graft for it.
Failure to provide value for your good terms leads to own account operators handing the whole job over to the usual suspect logistics mobs, this is part of why the industry is in its present state, go too silly with pay demands and once this bubble has burst wecould easily be back to normal.
toonsy:
Got a point though. The best jobs with best terms/pay/etc I’ve had have all been unionised.Unlike my last lot, no union, bare minimum terms, lowest pay in the local area and so on…
The only reason there aren’t more places unionised is because there’s so many meek, all mouth, spineless drivers within the industry. Those who talk tough but do nothing to back anything up.
No, that’s nonsense. Unions are FOR the meek, all mouth no-trousers drivers. If they simply grew a pair, unions would have no place or need. All unions drivers that are not the shop steward are the problem not the solution. Just ■■■■■■■ grow a pair and learn how to stay no, instead of acting like big babies needing someone else to do all your dirty work.
DCPCFML:
toonsy:
Got a point though. The best jobs with best terms/pay/etc I’ve had have all been unionised.Unlike my last lot, no union, bare minimum terms, lowest pay in the local area and so on…
The only reason there aren’t more places unionised is because there’s so many meek, all mouth, spineless drivers within the industry. Those who talk tough but do nothing to back anything up.
No, that’s nonsense. Unions are FOR the meek, all mouth no-trousers drivers. If they simply grew a pair, unions would have no place or need. All unions drivers that are not the shop steward are the problem not the solution. Just [zb] grow a pair and learn how to stay no, instead of acting like big babies needing someone else to do all your dirty work.
What nonsense about unions being for being for the meek all mouth and no trousers Drivers,all depends how big the Company is. For instance 50-60 +Drivers and 2-3 hundred + warehouse staff in 5-6 depots no Company is going to listen to an individual Drivers demands for more money,wage-n/out -meal allowance or anything else. Depot Manager /TM can only,in most circumstances authorize out of pocket expenses and any changes that improve the day to day running. Any major changes its HQs department and they will more than likely ignore dealing with individual Depot requests. Thats the time when Depot Union Reps get their heads together and go in collectively,and make theIR requests / demands.
DCPCFML:
No, that’s nonsense. Unions are FOR the meek, all mouth no-trousers drivers. If they simply grew a pair, unions would have no place or need. All unions drivers that are not the shop steward are the problem not the solution. Just [zb] grow a pair and learn how to stay no, instead of acting like big babies needing someone else to do all your dirty work.
Complete and utter trash as usual from the man who does agency work.
The government aren’t going to be opening the floodgates, not that it would make any difference with a Europe-wide driver shortage
For me, nightout money you should be paid day rate, as technically you’re still in possession and in control of that vehicle. Its like the whole unpaid breaks ■■■■■■■■, if you parked up on your 45 left your truck went shopping came back and it was gone its on your head. Its a joke
Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
toonsy:
Got a point though. The best jobs with best terms/pay/etc I’ve had have all been unionised.Unlike my last lot, no union, bare minimum terms, lowest pay in the local area and so on…
The only reason there aren’t more places unionised is because there’s so many meek, all mouth, spineless drivers within the industry. Those who talk tough but do nothing to back anything up.
Why did you leave a good job with the best terms/pay/etc?
Are the foreign drivers going to work for a lower rate if they do come back? I would imagine they would want the higher rate or go back home again.
Unions are a complete and utter waste of time, serving no purpose other than to poorly represent you in a disciplinary procedure at work. None of the current wage rises we’re getting, not just in truck driving but in all the sectors seeing large rises, have anything to do with any of the unions. The workers themselves refusing to be taken advantage of any more and working for the highest bidder have managed to achieve in a few months what the unions haven’t been able to achieve in the last 30 years.
Over the last 30 years unions haven’t prevented the deterioration in terms and wages of lorry drivers, the drivers unions sat there silent accepting everything the companies dictated to them over the last 16 years when it came to pay. They’ve not prevented in cab cameras, they’ve not prevented anything they’ve said they are against, they’ve not achieved improvements in facilities and they’ve not achieved anything they said were their goals.
The people who run them are all self serving tossers only in it for themselves. Bob Crow refused to give up his council house even though he was on £145,000 a year. Len McCluskey the head of Unite got several cheap loans from the union before they helped him buy a £700,000 flat in London by giving him a £400,000 loan all funded by members,
The last time unions were worth having was in the early 80s before Maggie cut their balls off. `
Conor:
Unions are a complete and utter waste of time, serving no purpose other than to poorly represent you in a disciplinary procedure at work. None of the current wage rises we’re getting, not just in truck driving but in all the sectors seeing large rises, have anything to do with any of the unions. The workers themselves refusing to be taken advantage of any more and working for the highest bidder have managed to achieve in a few months what the unions haven’t been able to achieve in the last 30 years.Over the last 30 years unions haven’t prevented the deterioration in terms and wages of lorry drivers, the drivers unions sat there silent accepting everything the companies dictated to them over the last 16 years when it came to pay. They’ve not prevented in cab cameras, they’ve not prevented anything they’ve said they are against, they’ve not achieved improvements in facilities and they’ve not achieved anything they said were their goals.
The people who run them are all self serving tossers only in it for themselves. Bob Crow refused to give up his council house even though he was on £145,000 a year. Len McCluskey the head of Unite got several cheap loans from the union before they helped him buy a £700,000 flat in London by giving him a £400,000 loan all funded by members,
The last time unions were worth having was in the early 80s before Maggie cut their balls off. `
How old are you Conor? Most of the unions were long destroyed by 1990 - didn’t you hear of the miners strike? That was “silently accepting” was it? Unions got you every right you currently have at work - without them you would still be dressed in rags, working 22 hour days for tuppence hapenny a day - like they still are in union-less South east asia.
It wasn’t the unions you were describing - it was the tory government and the business class.
ag1992:
For me, nightout money you should be paid day rate, as technically you’re still in possession and in control of that vehicle. Its like the whole unpaid breaks ■■■■■■■■, if you parked up on your 45 left your truck went shopping came back and it was gone its on your head. Its a jokeSent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
ag1992:
For me, nightout money you should be paid day rate, as technically you’re still in possession and in control of that vehicle. Its like the whole unpaid breaks ■■■■■■■■, if you parked up on your 45 left your truck went shopping came back and it was gone its on your head. Its a jokeSent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
If you are on an unpaid break & you want to leave the vehicle then do so - nobody can stop you.
Expense wise nothing is ‘on your head’ when you are PAYE. Not the truck, the load or anything you hit.
That risk belongs to the business; never you.
However, be careful as a break is defined as:
“A break is any period during which a driver may not carry out any driving or any other work and which is used exclusively for recuperation. A break may be taken in a moving vehicle, provided no other work is undertaken.”
I don’t know about you, but I never find shopping helps with recuperation.
When you are on your daily rest there is even less doubt about how little responsibility you have for the vehicle or its load:
"A rest is an uninterrupted period where a driver may freely dispose of their time[/i]."
If you want to go shopping, feel free - it’s the law.
Source:
gov.uk/guidance/drivers-hou … vers-hours
when the (god) tachograph came in the guise of safety…more like keeping an eye on the driver to get every minute out of him,the job and the hours should have been looked at and put right but what did we get 15 hour spread overs (safety ) dont make me laugh…no we have been done over time and again that is why young ones do not want to know