gardnersmoke:
An intelligent man would probably say ‘They are taking the lorry driver for granted’ That old saying ‘If you’ve got it a lorry brought it’ has never been so true and the other famous saying ‘If the roads be the veins of Britain then the lorry is the blood’ should worry government ministers but i honestly believe they really do not fear Britain’s lorry drivers which says alot about 'our ’ standing in this country. They havn’t thought this thing through correctly otherwise you would be earning £100 an hour !! God they’ve had enough warnings…remember the tanker drivers strike, it only lasted days, brought the country to a halt. Has anyone else contemplated what the hell would happen if every lorry driver decided not to get out of bed for a week?..So next time a manager or politician talks about you like you’re a nobody just remember it’s only your good nature that stands between a good wage and anarchy !!..On the ‘should I go back into driving’ note?..Nah!!..give it some more thought when the powers that be come to their senses.Thank you and goodnight.
Actually those in charge have been rather more clever than you give them credit for, and because drivers are easily bamboozled they’ve aided and abetted, even welcomed, their own increasingly unimportant role in the transport industry.
The miners a case to point, Thatcher groomed the breakaway miners then shafted them dry when the time was right just like the NUM lads?..OK thats a simplistic version of events but working people getting into bed with big business and their paid front men/women doesn’t usually bode well for those self same working people once they no longer suit the purpose of the moment…shades of ‘‘your country needs you’’ till the wars over then you’re just another bloody working class nobody?
Back to lorries, there was a time when a lorry wouldn’t go anywhere unless a lorry driver of some competence and reasonable strength got behind the wheel and drove it, increasingly drivers have got lazier and went for ever less physical work, understandable up to a point.
They didn’t want handball, who does, then they didn’t to rope and sheet…now its gone full circle and VOSA want to see secured loads in curtain siders and they’re moaning again about having to secure loads…will they ever see the bigger picture i don’t know, when any fool can carry a load any fool will do it.
Also they signed their own eventual redundancies by welcoming and now demanding lorries that drive themselves, all that’s needed in an awful lot of driving work now is the ability to see and steer is enough to run a good proportion of the country’s distribution, should drivers decide to down tools those in charge could train up enough people to replace them in next to no time, the age of the lorry chauffeur has arrived and drivers have welcomed it with open arms, their own hard won previous premium wages for skilled and manual work gorn out the window in most cases, Christ they don’t even need to find their own way any more what with pratnav and apps.
Go onto the trainees forum and you’ll find lots of people are passing Class 1 tests (of increasingly dubious worth IMO, bit like degrees in yoghourt knitting) in a matter of hours of on road training, well they will do, auto box, point and squirt, no need for gear control, no worries about brake fade or anything else…its all in the past doncha know … be under no illusions they can replace most of us (there will always be specialised un/loading operations but any bloody fool can chauffer the lorry there and back) in a blink of an eye…oh and by the way be under no illusions that we’ll be leaving the EU no matter who gets in and whatever promises are made, a constant oversupply of willing ever cheaper labour is what our country’s economy is now based on, divide and rule rules, it always has done it always will i’m afraid.
You only have to look at the train drivers, they didn’t allow their jobs to be undermined, cheapened, deskilled, and they protected their proper jobs by sticking together in one union, we had much to learn from the train drivers and we blew it.
Yes their time will no doubt come when they’ll be automated out, but they’ve had a ■■■■ sight longer bite of cherry than lorry drivers had.
Well you have to dream haha! Of course I MIGHT just win the lottery and then a classic commercial may appear in my ownership, however I believe that you have to buy a ticket to stand much of a chance of winning? 
