drew128:
i would rather host ann summers parties
Now there is a great idea… Hi Vis Stockings.
Don’t you start!!! 
Come on Chas, what’s the punch line ? (or is this another Rule 16 defying post ?)
Now girls and boys no need to throw the toys out of the pram just because he issued a post you don,t agree with.
That is what the forum is for “to express your opinions” I thought!
He was only offering an opinion just like the halfbaked idiot on J. Vine who said ALL lorries should only be on the road at night.
We would all like to have weekends off but as the sensible ones of us know that is utopia and that doesn,t exist either (except in the mind)!
In the real world as one post says a lot of companies for “production” reasons cannot shut down and need deliveries 7days a week & 24 hrs a day.
But to take a sensible view of 7 day working the people who want everything to be avavilable in the shops on sundays are the ones who “DON,T HAVE TO WORK THEM” !
As a former employee of one of the major supermarkets who was given the option of work weekends or no job (but not any more) then I have been there & done it.
I can assure you that it is no fun working weekends and having days off in the week when your family / wife is at work but that is so called progress but some jobs have to be covered.
I remember a total idiot who I had the misfortune to speak to about transport a couple of years ago who had the idea to remove ALL HGV,s off the road and replace them with “Mechanical Horses” (3 legged Scammell Scarabs to the ones who don,t know what I mean, he was a railway fanatic and said they managed years ago with them) and when I pointed out that for example how many of these would it take to stock up the local Sainsbugs on a daily basis and then multiply it by something like 10 times for drivers / warehouse staff etc. apart from vehicles just for one store alone and you can see where the costs outweigh the benefits and then start paying something like 5 or 6 times what you pay now for your weekly shopping then you can see where the costs are based.
Unfortunately transport is and always has been a 7 day week even before the greedy supermarkets bowed down to the greed factor and opened 7 days a week, (thanks to B&Q who started it along with Asda and the rest jumped on the bandwagon) lets face it no matter what day you shop you will only buy a weeks shopping whatever day it is!
I can remember the Scottish drivers (e.g. Gibbs of Fraserburgh, Christian Salvesen , Munro of Aberdeen, Bon Accord etc.) all running down to London on a saturday so as to be in London for monday morning deliveries etc.
and having their “day off” away from home because the job required it.
I am lucky now as I have a job where on containers we don,t work sats or sundays or bank hols except when we are away on a friday night (which is very rare).
Transport cannot run in this country as it does in the likes of Germany where there are no HGV,s allowed on the road from midnight sat. to midnight sun.
It is the pure greed of the likes of the big supermarkets etc. that dictates the needs of transport as there are only a small amount of companies that need 7day / 24 hr transport but to go back to the buffoon who said on radio 2 that HGV,s should only be on the road at night where does he think all the night drivers / night workers are going to come from as he is probably not one of the ones who will have to work them and then there is all the furore about that age old problem at night called “Noise” !
Lets go and load / unload at 2am outside his house and see what the reaction is then!
Obviously a first class plonker who hasn,t got any idea about how to run transport and as even though I hate the man, (John Prescott) said he is just another car driver who hates wagons and has been held up by them on some occasions.
NEJ:
We would all like to have weekends off
Not all. 
It’s each to their own. I have two kinds of days, working and non working and the actual day of the week they fall on is irrelevant as far as I am concerned. I don’t make a big deal about the weekend but of course if some idiot wants to pay me extra because it is a Saturday or Sunday I’ll be kind enough to let them even though I would do it for the same as any other day. 
NEJ:
I can assure you that it is no fun working weekends and having days off in the week when your family / wife is at work
Again horses for courses, I like being off when the majority are working
NEJ:
Transport cannot run in this country as it does in the likes of Germany where there are no HGV,s allowed on the road from midnight sat. to midnight sun.
Midnight Saturday to 22:00 Sunday and there are stil trucks on the road, just less of them than other days. :wink The period from 22:00 Sunday into Monday morning is just about the most dangerous time on the roads of countries who operate a weekend ban with over tired drivers trying to get to their first drop. You are right though, Germany can’t really be compared to the UK as most of their shops and supermarkets close around midday Saturday until Monday morning and the companies who work weekends are in the minority, although this is beginning to change I understand.
Neil has beat me to it about the supermarkets and shops closing in most of Europe.
How about the guy who lives in Dingwall or Newquay and is 10 hours from home on a friday evening. He will love the idea of parking up for the weekend.
This is a wind up surely?!?!
What a mess Monday mornings would be without the weekend boys and girls.
And if I choose to work at weekends I can earn stupid amounts of cash for only five or six hours work.
So, I for one vote to keep weekend working!
Chas Malthouse:
Have been truck driving since 1978 and have been just about everywhere in the UK. I am not a caravanner. Obviously there will be no replies from people who do not do their daily checks. Have made so much money from the job I now only need to work part time. Yes including some weekends. Just trying to get some of you guys thinking? why trucking? You may be better off in another industry.
Do I detect a whiff of bovine odour in the air 
Are you a politician Chas, if you are then you will be aware that Blairs new ‘pay as u drive scam’ will put a lot of trucks off the road permanently. So no HGV’s to worry about anymore.
The company that will be fitting the hardware to vehicles, has just made a substantial donation to the Labour party. Which is why Blair is ‘railroading’ the legislation through parliament at lightening speed
Hi “flying fenman” firstly let me say it is not a wind up and never was meant to be.
You say good luck to all the people who want to work weekends and I do agree with you wholeheartedly on that (and I am not patronising you either).
What I was getting at was the fact that as it was in my (enforced change of) contract to work weekends and these days became “ordinary time” paid days not as you say “silly money” for a few hours work which incidentally I have no problem with as if people wish to earn extra money for overtime good luck to them and make as much as possible in the process.
Being paid time + 1/2 or double bubble for working weekends is what should happen but in the broad spectrum of weekend working for supermarkets etc. that does not happen I can assure you.
I did it for nearly 5 years and the previous 13 years were as you say “silly money” which made it worthwhile but what I was getting at was in the early days “we had the option to work or not” but with sunday trading being the norm that option was removed under threat of accept it or we will force it on you with 90 days notice (not a nice way to treat your loyal employees) who have always (at the time) accepted all changes to benefit the company and the depot !
A nice way to treat your employees by using “Bullyboy” tactics when all the ones who are forcing you to work weekends are all mon/fri saps (shiny a**** penpushers) to you & me.
I can remember the days when we used to go down the road on a sun and return fri or away mon back sat and you were paid double bubble for going away sun and time +1/2 for running back in sat.
If people want to work for ordinary time at weekends that is their choice but what I am getting at is some professions i.e nursing and emergency services accept this as part of their normal pattern of work but what did we do before the shops opened on sundays we all got by and still did o/time at weekends for extra pay.
Lets face facts we all work to live (not the other way round) and there is such a thing as a work / life balance but there seems to be too much emphasis on all the shops must be open at weekends and unfortunately they have to be serviced.
Ad Infinitum
Hello Nej.
Actually, I used to work for a supermarket myself (till October 2006) and yes, we did get paid roughly about ‘time and a half’ on Saturdays, and ‘time and three quarters’ on Sundays.
I do take your comments on board about being made to work weekends. I don’t like being forced to work weekends, or at any time for that matter. I don’t mind working at weekends at all. Indeed, my rota at Somerfield fitted in very well with my life out of work. I just don’t like the thought of having to .
We used to have what were called ‘Compulsory’ work days that fell on a weekend. I used to have one every third Sunday which was fine really because I could have a day off in the following week. It was the issue of it being ‘Compulsory’ that irritated me!!
In my current job I get paid very well for weekend and Bank Holiday working. I would not do it otherwise. We don’t have to work any weekends at all.
If people work at weekends and don’t receive remuneration to reflect this, then with respect, ‘more fool them’.