Why I hate POA

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Just have a look at this job advert! :imp:

FULL TIME Class 1 Driver - Southampton
Backline Logistic Support Services Limited - Southampton
£37,440 a year
The Job
This is an excellent full time position for a Class 1 Driver in Southampton. You will be making palletised deliveries across the country and will be guaranteed a minimum of 12 hours a day, Monday to Friday (this could be less but you are paid the minimum 12). Hours are usually 6am – 6pm.
This is a Temp to Perm position with the client so after the temp to perm period you will be employed directly by the client.
About You
You must have your HGV Class 1 licence (Cat C+E)
You must have a valid CPC and Digi card
Reliable & hard working
Less than 6 points on your licence
For insurance purposes, candidates with DD, DR or IN10 convictions will regretfully not be considered for this position
Benefits
£12.00 an hour with plenty of overtime available if desired. Ongoing driver training available and PPE provided.
How to Apply
Hit Apply now and we will call you back!

Now I may be cynical, but I’m guessing you’re going to earn that £12 x 60 hours x 52 weeks! :neutral_face:
And have overtime whether you like it or not, while a spotty bod looks to maximise ‘the asset’ :cry:

We can’t opt out of the WTD for logical safety reasons, yet are routinely expected to work very long days, day in, day out.
All thanks to POA and Breaks not counting towards an average man’s working day! :unamused:

I’m not saying that 37k plus is to be sniffed at, it’s more the fact what 60+ hours of commitment are routinely expected in this job…

2

Evil8Beezle:
We can’t opt out of the WTD for logical safety reasons, yet are routinely expected to work very long days, day in, day out.
All thanks to POA and Breaks not counting towards an average man’s working day! :unamused:

I’m not saying that 37k plus is to be sniffed at, it’s more the fact what 60+ hours of commitment are routinely expected in this job…

We are scum. We don’t deserve the same hours of work that Victorian factory workers had 150 years ago. Get over it. :wink:

3

60 hours + for £37500 a year (or £721/ week)
what that really means to a normal person is just about twice the hours any civilised person with a life (kids ,wife , dog , bit on the side etc ) would be expected to work . So 2 weeks work for what looks like a "good wage " (£37500)
The reality a 30 hour week for £18750 or £360 a week .
The word that comes to mind starts with a C and ends with a P and has an R and an A in it as well .

4

Which means a 40 hour week pays 480.
A working class wage

5

commonrail:
Which means a 40 hour week pays 480.
A working class wage

Fair point, but is there overtime rate decent?
Or if I don’t fancy it, can turn it down? :open_mouth:

I’m not arguing money, just the expectancy/forced conditions…

6

It’s flat rate,which is not exclusive to haulage.
Last factory job I had paid time and a quarter after 40.
Job before was flat rate 7 days a week
Fabricator/welder

7

And I worked 7 days a week…for 7 months

8

And what sort of cowboy ins company are they using to not insure re driving convictions especially for trivial IN10’s… :unamused:
And…cunningly worded to entrap the unwary…tossers :smiling_imp:

9

Evil8Beezle:

commonrail:
Which means a 40 hour week pays 480.
A working class wage

Fair point, but is there overtime rate decent?
Or if I don’t fancy it, can turn it down? :open_mouth:

I’m not arguing money, just the expectancy/forced conditions…

Assuming distance pallet work and ‘usually’ not more than 12 hour shifts and minimum 12 hours pay means what it says surely that’s more or less as good as the job gets. :bulb: :confused:

10

AndrewG:
And what sort of cowboy ins company are they using to not insure re driving convictions especially for trivial IN10’s… :unamused:
And…cunningly worded to entrap the unwary…tossers :smiling_imp:

IN10 is driving without insurance hardly trivial.

11

Sounds like agency

12

It is an agency advert, and thus it is quite likely to be a pack of lies.

13

Its the “usually” 12 hour shift bit that gets my alarm bells ringing.
That usually means that youll be doing 13/14/15 hour days and only paid for 12 but once in a blue moon you get an 11 hour day and its “ah see, swings and roundabouts”

14

Evil8Beezle:
… £37,440 a year …

All points above are taken on board, but when I was a lad, our boss would pay us a fair day’s pay for a fair week’s work.

These days, it’s a given that the hours are maxed on most jobs.

Now in all fairness (and joking aside) that rate isn’t too shabby when you view it from oop North, and there are plenty of guys who are on less than that for the same (or longer) hours.

I must have missed the small print… you’re on sixpence a fortnight during the 10yr probationary period. :grimacing:

I’m seeing this as being similar to annualised hours, which means that the boss’ swings are ‘usually’ bigger than your roundabouts.

15

Oh my ■■■■■■■ god,

Shock horror, trucking job advertised at 60 hours per week.

2 weeks work in one week, really? How many people do you know who works 30 hours per week on a full time job?

Why is it truck drivers, sorry some, have the notion that only truck drivers are working more than 40 hours per week? I’ve done cheffing, big hours, I’ve done race mechanicing, whatever hours are needed to get the bike on the grid. Farming, I went back to trucking for less hours, my most was 120 in a week, that’s seanonal, but we still classed a flat week as 55. I’ve done engineering / maintenance, fair enough a quiet week I’d do 40, but again, ultimately enough to get the orders out the door / the machine fixed.

How many jobs that say, a 3k, 2 week course or less will will give you 37k?

If you want 40 hours trucking, them jobs are out there, I’ve done it, probably averaged 38 hours, with a rough average of 42 hours pay, short days with minimum 8 hours pay and 1 or 2 days with a bit of ot. But just don’t expect graduate wages for doing them.

Yes when the 48 hour was introduced, I wanted it to be 48 hours, forget breaks and poa, I argued it on here, but the majority didn’t want a cap on working hours. But I just don’t think it’s as bad as some people like to make out, yes I always want more money, but I’ve got myself a decent job that suites me. So I’m not planning on putting my aldi shelf stacking application in like many suggest, but I’m pretty sure pretty much no one currently driving a truck does

16

I’ll sit in my lorry Monday morning…and fill my time sheet in,to drag 600.
Rest of the week is a "us and them "scenario.

17

The problem for those of us who don’t want to work excessive hours , is the sheer number of those that do.

It’s ridiculous really to anybody on the outside looking in; we have legislation (WTD) in place to protect us from excessive hours, yet drivers all across the industry have chosen to agree to hauliers requests to abuse the POA/break mode on the tacho head to effectively fiddle the system.

We are never going to have driver unity on the issue of hours to be able to effect change. The cab happy/lorry driving enthusiast workaholic types are always going to be at odds with the other guys who just want to get parked up/go home, yet we all have to work under the same umbrella.

18

rob22888:
The problem for those of us who don’t want to work excessive hours , is the sheer number of those that do.

It’s ridiculous really to anybody on the outside looking in; we have legislation (WTD) in place to protect us from excessive hours, yet drivers all across the industry have chosen to agree to hauliers requests to abuse the POA/break mode on the tacho head to effectively fiddle the system.

We are never going to have driver unity on the issue of hours to be able to effect change. The cab happy/lorry driving enthusiast workaholic types are always going to be at odds with the other guys who just want to get parked up/go home, yet we all have to work under the same umbrella.

This^^^^^

There are a couple of adages/analogies that sum up your very accurate post mate.

Drivers are, and always will be their own worst enemies.

Turkeys voting for Christmas.

and if I was to be very harsh…

You can’t educate pork.

Your second paragraph about the introduction to WTD,… there would lie the key at that time, to what we all should have done to make t.s and c.s better for us.
If it had been carried out and conformed to the letter by us, instead of agreeing to the poa cop out, (that both the govt and the hauliers wanted, not to mention the likes of Tesco) the wages would have become obviously quite a bit less…but on the other hand so would production.

If we had been willing and able to weather that storm, it would have got to the stage where something would HAVE to be done to make the job attractive again, and re.group the drivers that would have probably jacked…ie improved t.s and c.s in terms of hours in line or close to other industries.

A simplistic view, but with thought and organisation it may have worked.
The argument counteracting that I predict will be ‘‘but rates and prices would go up’’… maybe so, but why is it expected and taken for granted that a driver has to carry, and subsidise that as it is, by readily accepting low wages and/or excessive hours on a low ratio.

Ok, I drive a truck, I aint an economist, so if my view is naive, so be it, but the principle is there in theory, to sort the job out.

However, I suspect it is both too late, and a bit like ■■■■■■■ against the wind due to the characters in the job you mention in your last paragraph, those who have gone a long way to ■■■■ up this job by their attitudes and blind subservience. :bulb:

19

Wtd…lol
I lived in a shed, round the back of Toyota… for the best part of a year.

20

stevieboy308:
How many jobs that say, a 3k, 2 week course or less will will give you 37k?

For a 60hr week? Shelf stacking at Aldi with no need to spend the £3k and a lot safer work environment.