I saw a notice from Unite in the drivers canteen at Trinity terminal Felixstowe, It mentioned that if there was no money in container/road haulage, why are there so many big buy outs going on, are the big boys lying by saying they cant afford to pay drivers more?
Also it also mentioned what it wants for its members.
£500 a week
50 hour week
and 5 weeks payed holidays a year.
Would you be happy on the above wage?
More to the point would anything be done by this union, to get what they think is fair for there members.
Yes they can pay more, they have no problem when it comes to pay for fuel rise after a budget, price rises for new trucks that cost more because of euro 4 5 ect or when it comes to putting drivers through the silly driver cpc,what was that about 50 hours it is 2010 man loads of people are on 35 and fourty hours now we are worth a grand a week now when you think about what a skilled driver does.The driver is the main link in a truck but the least in most cases thought of
Most of the big companies will have fuel escalators built into their contracts, so fuel going up for whatever reason, shouldn’t affect them. Our contract says no vehicles over 5 years old, even though ours don’t do heavy mileage, drivers cpc is a legal requirement like having an ADR license for Haz goods, so it has to be done. The trouble from the drivers perspective is that there is no legal requirement on wages beyond paying minimum wage, so after that it’s down to supply and demand in the driving market, ie there are plenty of drivers out there at the moment and they do work for low money. I’m not saying it’s right, it’s just the way I see it.