HGV drivers professional? Not any time soon

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

I’m getting dispondent. For ages, years even, I have argued the toss about HGV drivers being a cut above the rest able to work through problems thrown at us and not just sit there wringing our hands wondering what to do. We were special, a clan, a band of brothers if you will. Now I wonder why I even bothered.

My enforced 10 month break last year has allowed me to view those I work with a more critical eye; it depresses me greatly.

And what do I see around me? Stupidity. Absolutely unbelievable things done by people who must be completely devoid of all rational thought. I seriously think many of them should go to their doctor and see if there’s actually a functioning brain in between their ears. These aren’t just things done by people who’ve recently started driving for a living but by people who’ve been doing it for years. I honestly look at many of them and wonder how the hell they ever got a job. And believe me, I thought that would be virtually impossible in a company where all you have to do is drive from A to B, drop a trailer in a trailer park, have a break then pick up another trailer and go back to A but yet they manage to make it 100 times harder than it needs to be not only for themselves but other drivers around them.

This last week I’ve seen:
A driver whose been driving donkeys years, has even been on the company training course in less than a year but is completely incapable of changing gear with any competency.

Another driver with gearchange problems. Couldn’t work it out EVEN THOUGH THERE’S A BIG DIAGRAM RIGHT NEXT TO THE GEARSHIFT IN PLAIN VIEW SHOWING YOU HOW. Give you a clue. Push gearstick forwards, you go up a gear. Pull it backwards, you go down a gear. :open_mouth:

A driver waiting in front of the trailer next to me. His trailer isn’t ready but mine is. THe bays are tight and he can see I’m going to pick mine up but rather than stick it in gear and pull to the right a few inches, he sits there watching me struggle. THE BEST BIT? I asked him why he didn’t move and he said “Didn’t think I needed to, you didn’t ask.” WHY SHOULD I NEED TO ASK? THERE’S A 4" GAP BETWEEN THE TRAILERS. OUR MIRRORS OVERLAPPED AND I HAD TO REVERSE AROUND YOUR MIRROR YOU DUMB MUPPET. HAVE YOU NO BRAIN? :imp:

A driver completely incapable of getting into a gap inbetween two trailers that was 20ft wide. He’s only been driving the thick end of 20 years.

And the final straw…
Two idiots on the M1 who drive for Bedfords on the Palletline contract in consecutive numbered lorries. One muppet decided to overtake the other. For 9 miles this continued. 2 miles after idiot A overtook idiot B, idiot B decided to try to overtake idiot A. Cue another 9 mile ovetake.

I’ve given up. I’m not going to renew my PDA sub as I don’t feel we’ve a fighting chance of changing anything when more than half of the workforce is incompetent of doing what is in essence a fairly basic job. I don’t think we have the right to even think of calling ourselves professionals when so much of the side let us down by such shining examples of gross stupidity and lack of common sense, all in the public eye.

THe Times (I think) ranked us in with cleaners and van drivers. Now I can honestly say I see why. :cry:

2

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

I like you conor, have a bad day did you :question:

This reminds me of life in genral back there.

3

Well done for highlighting a problem within the industry. The way I see it is that companies are so desperate to get drivers and to get the goods out asap that any training is just an afterthought. A good majority of companies are ‘run’ by the drivers simply because the spotty oiks behind the desks dont know what they are doing, and are too scared to tell the drivers what they are doing wrong through fear of losing them.
If you want professionals you need to start at the top, this then reflects upon your workforce.
Im out on the road 60 hours a week on see it all the time, its a shame but unless there is a major shake up within these companies then I afraid this is going to continue.

4

Doing some agency work for a well known parcel delivery company a few years ago one of the drivers took me to one side, driverx from y he’s on 000 either don’t leave untill after him or watch your mirrors he warns, the guy is a nutter & nealy had another driver off the road the previous week.
Drivers like the one above & those who find working for companys who pay peanuts or those who run on the limiter or those who think its OK to bend the rules by just a little are all part of the problem.
How can we ever exspect others to respect us if we do not respect ourselves.

5

Havent we always known that there are drivers and there are Drivers?

After almost 20yrs of mickey taking wages and conditions the majority of the Drivers have retired or simply gone somewhere else.

6

The spotty oiks are usually gimps who have either worked in the warehouse or just left university. Either way, they normally have had no driving experience and in my experience most of them are quite clueless when it comes to matters such as drivers hours. As long as those loads have shifted off that desk then nobody gives a monkies!

As for proffesional drivers I think you hit the nail on the head Alan! Some clown came roaring past me on the M6, mobile phone in hand, travelling at about 70! Where did I next see him? Queing in front of me at the DC! After being stuck on the next bay to him I noticed no O Licence & out of date tax on windscreen. I bet that wagon’s been running like that for ages :exclamation:

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Full Throttle:
! After being stuck on the next bay to him I noticed no O Licence & out of date tax on windscreen. I bet that wagon’s been running like that for ages :exclamation:

try reading this

8

Hear hear Conor, totally agree.

9

This could explain why I’ve been trated like a simpleton since working for an agency. You get sent to work for a haulier normally a large logistics company and get given loads of instructions, do this, do that, take this route, wipe you *** here etc. The job is simple really take this truck full of goods to somewhere and get rid of it, get somebody to sign you paperwork, phone for instructions and go to where you have been sent and re-load. Do all this and bring the truck back in one peice without hurting anybody.
To be honest its another reason I like working for smaller firms, the boss normally has done the job so understands, this isn’t always a good thing, an you sometimes have to use you brain and work things out, because the job isn’t always take these pallets to this easy to find RDC.

10

yous talk about people in the office not knowing the job. we have just had a lad come from our kilmarnock depot as the traffic controller,this lad nice lad but he has got one problem does not have a driving licence.this might seem childish to someone out there, and no doudt it will.but i.m sorry if you apply for a traffic controllers job it helps if you have a licence and it helps if you have an incline of the areas that you are sending vehicle’s too.this lad is meant to have a wealth of experiance yes but not in the traffic area.like today i had three jobs on no probs 1 at newhouse 1 at bishopbriggs and one in clydebank gets a call to go and get full load from hillington great nip over erskine bridge 15mins i’m there.gets there 12noon,left 14.35 past two off our trucks heading into glasgow,got to depot 15.05.thought company in glenrothes must only need one trailer so went in to get fuel card and get early finish. this guy said can you get 2nd trailer from glenrothes, i said your joking it should be there by 15.00hrs and its 15.15 now.the time i get there it will be 16.40.thats ok he said.i replyed no its not ok the later i get back means the night trunks get away later ( knock on effect) yeah so not my problem was his reply. i thought why do i bother trying to tell this guy. give him enough rope i thought.bear in mind the said contract in glenrothes is worth 5million .will see if he learns his lesson once he gets the family jewells chewed tomorrow. :laughing:

11

Know what you mean kit-kat

Was doing some agency work for one of the large supermarket DCs a few years back. One of the easiest jobs I have ever done! Anyway, gets my delivery notes for the store then told I have a load to collect out of one of the breweries, 26 pallets of beer! I’d picked up loads from this brewery before when I was on general haulage, maximum 24 pallets in a wagon plated at 40ton. Check the plate on this wagon and it’s 32ton ! Tell the supervisor behind window “Is this correct? 26 pallets will put me overweight!” She replies: “Well what does it say on the notes? If it says 26 pallets then it’s 26 pallets !” So I thought b******s, let’s see what happens!

Tip at supermarket, off to brewery, loaded with 26 pallets, onto weighbridge & the wagon’s grossing over 41ton! Phone the DC and they say “Didn’t you know you’d be overweight, we normally only load 18 pallets !” spend the next few hours waiting for pallets to come off ! (some easy overtime :laughing: )

When I eventually return to the DC the transport manager wants to check my tacho cos he thinks I’ve been draggin the day out (as if I would :blush: ).

With tacho in hand and examining the evidence, the 1st thing he asks me is “E.D.R. & S.D.R ! what does that mean ?” :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

…and he’s the manager,( just moved from out of the warehouse !)

…Every Little Helps !!! :wink:

12

Got half a mile from the yard and the beast starts revving it’s nuts off. I phone the yard and say start me another unit up, I’ll be back in a mo. They reply: “What’s wrong with it?” I reply “It’s revving it’s nuts off. I can see a scrapheap challenge happening here :unamused: . BTW I need someone to authorise me to move it in case it destroys the engine on the way back. “Reply: put your throttle lock in.” My reply " I have you dipstick.” I get back to the yard to find the unit they started up without tax or O Licence (it’d ran out 4 days previous). When I informed his nibs, he went ape because one of our drivers had taken it out last week and the unit was back every night. He was well impressed when I got to the next one and VOR’d that for a scrubbed tyre :smiley: . I’d love to have been a fly on the wall when these drivers got back today.

I see what your saying. I see it on the road as well. Asking people to move their artic so I can deliver to the place they’v parked in front of for no other good reason that they’re a ■■■■ and getting a definatley negative response is a much seen occupational hazard :unamused: (well by me anyways but maybe I’m just unlucky). I’m sorry but with that sort of attitude I can’t see you getting much joy.

13

you hit the nail on the head conor,nuff said mate. :wink:

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I wouldnt argue with what you write Conor, but Im surprised you only just noticed it, really I am, I dont ever remember it being much different. It seems to me that just now things do seem worse, but maybe thats just because theres a hell of a lot more of us on the roads than 25 years ago. I cant remember the figures, but ive seen them.

Mal.

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kitkat:
…snip…but i.m sorry if you apply for a traffic controllers job it helps if you have a licence and it helps if you have an incline of the areas that you are sending vehicle’s too…:laughing:

So using the same reasoning the best doctors are sick people? :bulb: :bulb: If he does not have a license doesn’t mean he does not have a brain. If he makes mistakes and learns from them why should that be a problem?

16

That is something I get a great deal of enjoyment from as an agency driver. You turn up at somewhere new and they treat you like an amoeba. Then, having been allocated a vehicle you go back in and say " its got two bald tyres"., or “it took 3 gallons of oil to get it onto the dipstick” or something similar. They usually have no idea about the state of some of their vehicles and are completely embarrassed by the fact that an “agency amoeba” has been through their fleet and taken them off the road. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do “the ashtray’s full” type defects but if it isn’t legal I won’t take it.

17

Qhunter:
That is something I get a great deal of enjoyment from as an agency driver. You turn up at somewhere new and they treat you like an amoeba. Then, having been allocated a vehicle you go back in and say " its got two bald tyres"., or “it took 3 gallons of oil to get it onto the dipstick” or something similar. They usually have no idea about the state of some of their vehicles and are completely embarrassed by the fact that an “agency amoeba” has been through their fleet and taken them off the road. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do “the ashtray’s full” type defects but if it isn’t legal I won’t take it.

I don’t get enjoyment from it QHunter, it just needs to be done. I must explain that it’s a small family firm so that’s about a 1/3 of his artic transport capability off the road and it’s caused him a right headache. He had the good either sense or honesty to turn around and say well done mate. The others should have sorted it out. Turns out they havn’t been doing their jobs properly anyways so he’s sent them home wilst the defects are sorted. He doesn’t take kindly to stunts like that (unprofessionalism). It could make life very difficult for him indeed :wink: .

18

Ok, I’ll qualify my statement slightly. I enjoy doing that at firms where their initial approach to you is that you are agency because you’re you can’t get a proper job and that must mean that you’re (a) stupid, (b) useless and (c) don’t know what you’re doing so we can tell you to drive a wreck and you’ll just take it anyway(yeah, right, thats why I’ve been with the same agency full time for 8yrs??).

Funny that I’ve never come across this problem with the smaller firms.

The wprst one I had (and I’ll name them as its true and they were terrible) was Exel Logistics (Mars contract) at Slough. I was given the keys to a 10yr old FL7 (oh, joy) and having put engine oil in it, replaced several lights and put the roof lining back in place I set off round the yard in search of the trailer. As soon as I touched the brakes it snatched the steering wheel out of my hands all the way to full lock. No braking effort to the FNS brake at all. I gave it a quick visual check and tried it again but it was the same. I took it back and went to the office where I was told “yeah, we;ve heard it pulls a bit to one side but it’ll be ok”. I asked the TM to come with me and I;ll show him what it was doing. His attitude was already aggressive and he stormed out with me and got in the passenger seat. I thought I’d show him what this thing would be like at Road speeds and they had a big enough yard for it not to be dangerous. I got to just under 30 and stood on the brakes. The unit dived to the left and started to turn. It kept turning and the back tyres let go and we performed an almost perfect 360 before coming to a stop pointing the the same direction we had started. “and you want me to take this onto a public road?” The servicing was done at another site and there was no-one available to look at it so I was signed up for the day and sent home. I called the agency (who are good friends as well as my employer) and told them what had happened and told them to get the kettle on as I was on my way in. When I got there Exel had already been on the phone banning me from site and asking for a replacement driver to be sent. When the agency said they were standing by me and that the vehicle was in my opinion (and therefore theirs too) unfit to drive the chap simply hung up.

Never mind professional drivers, isn’t it about time we had professional hauliers?

19

I agree with what you say Conor,But wouldn’t you have shown MORE professionalism if you’d have just took a sharp intake of breath and politely asked the offending driver to move over a bit? Like i’ve said in other posts, There is no consideration or courtesy on the road anymore, We all want to be first in the queue at delivery points , We all want to get tipped first so we can spend more time in the canteen or on the bunk or , if your the right height, your feet draped over the steering wheel, i could go on and on.
When traffic is moving slowly on the motorway why do people insist on driving bumper to bumper? Why not drop back and leave more space so you don’t keep dabbing the brakes? I just ease off and let all the other muppets whizz down the road and wait for the screech of tyres and the brake lights coming on like an electronic mexican wave . I think that transport managers should have at least 5 years on the road before driving a desk . I’m glad i work for a small firm where the gaffer drives the “spare” wagon and the office is his home address. I used to work for a large firm but got fed up of the backstabbers and brown tonguers… Now i’m off for a pint to chill out!!!

20

Mal:
I wouldnt argue with what you write Conor, but Im surprised you only just noticed it, really I am, I dont ever remember it being much different. It seems to me that just now things do seem worse, but maybe thats just because theres a hell of a lot more of us on the roads than 25 years ago. I cant remember the figures, but ive seen them.

Mal.

It’s not something that I’ve just noticed BUT it would appear that the driver shortage has ensured those who would normally be unemployable are now taken on by firms, whereas before they would only get work at agencies, so its more prevalent in uniformed drivers. And no, I’m not having a dig at agencies; hell I did 8 years with agencies myself and remember the countless times I went to a firm as an agency driver and getting told I was the best driver there. Unbelievable when all I did was get on with the job and exercise a little common sense. Hmm, might go back - that way I only have to deal with idiots at a firm a week at a time.

Sadly lack of common sense appears to be a society problem so not likely to be resolved anytime soon especially with such lovely things as the ISO9001/2 “It’s not my job, it’s his” certifications.