Bacon Sandwich:
I pay for my digicard because it’s my card, it belongs to me not the company.
Spot on, my card, my licence, my choice who I work for. Simple!
Paul
I thought I was a whingeing git (well after all I am) I moan about crap uniform, crap boots and stuff like that, but out of shame I could ask for them to pay for my digi. Not a prayer, they’d end up demanding that I used it. (That was a joke, by the way)
I paid for my training and tests. CPC, and medical, as well as digi. Stops them having any hold over me, I want to drive for a living, and these are the so-called tools of my trade.
Would a painter turn up without a brush? A brickie without a trowel? A bus driver without a hatred of passengers or HGV drivers?
I drive buses ,keep the tips coming and I will love you loads.
I paid for my own digicard, back in the days before most people had one. I was on for CFT Services at the time, and when Chris (the gaffer) updated his fleet he asked all the drivers - 60 or so - to apply for their digicards and put in a claim to get a refund from petty cash. Those of us who’d already got ours were given £40 extra in our pay packets as expenses. He was a good bloke to work for; he also used to positively encourage us to pay the higher parking fee at MSAs so we could have a meal on the company, as he put it.
Personally, while I would be willing enough to pay for my own card if I worked for an agency, if I was full time I’d expect the company I worked for to pay for anything like that. If I need it to do the job, it should really come out of their pockets. Freightroute have paid for my DCPC and will soon be paying for my ADR refresher … why they draw the line at my digicard (or would if I didn’t already have it), I don’t know.
PaulNowak:
Would a painter turn up without a brush?
If he was a self-employed painter, then he’d be a plonker if he turned up without a brush.
If however he was employed by a company, as most of us lorry drivers, truckers and steering wheel attendants are (as shown in a recent poll), then it would be reasonable to assume that the company would provide the brushes.
It’s one of the perks of being employed; the employer foots the bill for things required by their employees to carry out their duties.
There seems to be a lot of employed people on here who get a false sense of pride from paying for their digi-cards. 
…and employers are rubbing their hands with glee because of them. 