How can the rates ever improve

[winseer]

Speaking of that Star Trek scenario - “The economics of the future are somewhat different” and yet not explained how and why, because it’s like asking a Roman Emperor to imagine a mass production factory that’ll be around in a couple of millennia after him.

Is a Meritocracy suggested? That’s also the idea behind other “sci fi future” scenarios too.

It’s not the size of your wad, or your daddy’s wad, but what YOU can do or can’t do that decides how far you can climb in life.

Seems like a good idea, and yet it’s yet to occur in history. Perhaps for Neanderthal/Sapiens reasons?

[juddian]

Winseer:
It’s not the size of your wad, or your daddy’s wad, but what YOU can do or can’t do that decides how far you can climb in life.

Seems like a good idea, and yet it’s yet to occur in history. Perhaps for Neanderthal/Sapiens reasons?

I think the nearest we came to that was with the scholars of the grammar schools.

Nulabour and the modern version of what was once the Tory Party have no intention of allowing such abominations to exist, those well educated boys and girls who come through the grammar system might actually have some sense of duty, honour, morals, decency and fair play about them, that would never do.

Another good reason to vote UKIP, to bring back grammar schools, give our children and grandchildren a real chance in life.

[carryfast]

newmercman:
Carryfast, I’m not for one minute suggesting that the free market is a perfect system, but it’s the one I have to work within, so I do the best I can under the circumstances. I would do the same under a union environment.

Carryfast, before you start, I’m not changing my mind about militant unions, especially in the BL fiasco. However the governments, the bankers and big business have completely [zb]ed the world economy.

Look at how media is force feeding things to move attention away from the real issues we face. Take the current anti islam propoganda, it has a lot of people excited, yet what is far more dangerous than a few mad muslims is the fact that multinational conglomerates are poisoning us with our food so they can make more money. This and and a million other things that will have a profound effect on the human race is conveniently swept under the carpet. Carpet that the conglomerates have paid for. The Police, under instructions from above, are allowing muslim only areas to further stir up public opinion so that they continue to get away with it.

The sad fact is that the only way to change things will be to take over the current establishment and to do that we need leaders, those leaders will expect a larger share of the pie and the cycle will start all over again with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

When you factor in the difference between the pre Reagan ( and to some extent pre Nixon ) US economy as opposed to post Nixon and post Reagan and the pre EEC and pre Thatcher UK economy as opposed to the post EEC and post Thatcher UK economy it’s easy to see that what the Western economies had,in the former of those cases,was actually what can be and actually was achieved when you give the unions carte blanche to demand as much from the capitalist system as they can get,working with ( not against ) a government and banking system that understands Fordism and that then takes the brakes off and let’s the thing roll.Which is how and why those US and UK economic growth and trade figures were what they were then,as opposed to what they are now.

As I’ve said ‘if’ Shore had won the Labour Party leadership battle instead of Cllaghan and ‘if’ the US had elected leaders of the quality of Truman,Eisenhower,Kennedy and to some extent LBJ,instead of Nixon and Reagan,you can bet that the economic growth which applied in the US during the post war years and especially 1960’s and here up to 1972 would have continued at the same rate. Instead of which as we know the two economies plummeted into a screaming nosedive having been thrown to the global free market economy and the moneterist agenda of the bankers.

You’re already around 80% of the way to understanding what’s happening in that post.All you need to do now is throw away everything that Thatcherite ideology seems to have told you in respect of what happened at BL and look at what’s actually happened to those Western economies since they went down the moneterist,global free market economy,service industry led route.As opposed to what they had going in North America and the UK at least up to the early 1970’s.

[carryfast]

Winseer:
It’s not the size of your wad, or your daddy’s wad, but what YOU can do or can’t do that decides how far you can climb in life.

There’s a big difference between the idea of workers co operating to keep wage levels as high as possible with just the aim of stopping the undercutting of income levels,as opposed to the communist idea of collectivising and removing private ownership of property. The inter generational transfer of wealth and assets being one aspect of the right to private ownership of property.As we’ve seen it’s often been that confusion,in the aims of the working class,to improve living standards within the capitalist system,as opposed to blindly and misguidedly following the bs communist agenda,which has set the working class back years,having allowed such bs to be allowed to infiltrate union leaderships and union policies.That issue in many cases often being what differentiated/s the aims of the US unions as opposed to their British counterparts over the years.IE the aims of the British working class and it’s so called ‘Labour Party’ representatives have too often been all about living in a state provided house while moaning about the intergenerational transfer of privately owned housing.All based on some bs socialist crusade which in reality is just the politics of envy.

[newmercman]

So what’s the answer? I’m not alone on my view of unions. I’ve written several published articles on unions. I agree with the fundamentals of a union, it’s the way that they are run that I disagree with, both on a management and shop floor level.

Union leaders in the beginning were driven by passion and the goal of fair treatment for union members. That was good.

Once unions were established the passion was gone and the leaders were corrupted by their new found power, they became no different to the people they were protecting their members from. That was bad.

Also bad was the lowest common denominator principles which only encouraged mediocrity from the workforce, thereby turning public opinion against unions.

I don’t have as much time on my hands as you (too busy making my bosses richer:grin:) but we were discussing sleeper cabs in a topic and I brought up the refusal by the unions to allow sleeper cabs at BRS, it was when BRS Midlands welded a cage into F88s to stop drivers laying on the bunk.

My point was, no matter how ridiculous that sounds, if the unions had got their way, drivers would not be parked in laybys with no facilities for eating/washing etc or being charged exuberant rates for pitiful facilities at truckstops and MSAs.

Instead they would be sleeping in motels or similar. The dosshouses of the 60s and 70s would have moved with the times and not only would comfort have improved, you can bet that renumeration would also be a little more than it is now and it wouldn’t be used as a way of artificially inflating take home pay.

See, I’m not quite the Thatcherite you assume

[solly]

Constantine:
Solly,

Never a truer word said in Jest!

Maybe when rioting starts in the streets when the middle class and twitter users are turly affected something will happen, but alas by then it will all be too late!

Maybe it’ll all turn out for the good and we’ll become a monetary free society a bit like Star Trek

Or more then likely it’ll turn into 21 days later and we’ll all be eating ourselves, yep that’s the reality coming for me and you…whoops C

Nice one Constantine.
Although I wasn’t quite hinting at a “Monetary Free Society” as you put it.
Money, as I’m sure you know is created out of thin air. It was perfectly demonstrated by “President Lincoln” way back when to pay for a war IIRC. And again IIRC by JFK, and latterly to “Bail Out” the “Banksters”. The difference being that the US Government “Created Money” was Interest Free to the whole nation who were never so prosperous, and debt free, but alas the all powerful Private Bankers through their bought-and-paid-for mouthpieces in government and media put-paid to that.

With some effort and a lot of public support it can and should be done again so the worlds population can prosper. Not just the “Filthy Rich” and governments who do their bidding by ensuring that the worlds population are forever in “Debt Slavery” to these odious people through the “Free Market Economy” and “Globalisation” agreements.

[solly]

newmercman:
Solly, I think I know where you’re going. Inflation is the root of all monetary evils, there is no need for it, the only reason it exists is so the rich get richer and so the government can take more of our money to squander and line their own nest.

Agreed. Although “Governments” are only carrying out the directions of their sponsors and policy-makers, who are not the electorate, but ultimately happen to be the huge “Private Banksters”.

[carryfast]

newmercman:
So what’s the answer? I’m not alone on my view of unions. I’ve written several published articles on unions. I agree with the fundamentals of a union, it’s the way that they are run that I disagree with, both on a management and shop floor level.

Union leaders in the beginning were driven by passion and the goal of fair treatment for union members. That was good.

Once unions were established the passion was gone and the leaders were corrupted by their new found power, they became no different to the people they were protecting their members from. That was bad.

Also bad was the lowest common denominator principles which only encouraged mediocrity from the workforce, thereby turning public opinion against unions.

I don’t have as much time on my hands as you (too busy making my bosses richer:grin:) but we were discussing sleeper cabs in a topic and I brought up the refusal by the unions to allow sleeper cabs at BRS, it was when BRS Midlands welded a cage into F88s to stop drivers laying on the bunk.

My point was, no matter how ridiculous that sounds, if the unions had got their way, drivers would not be parked in laybys with no facilities for eating/washing etc or being charged exuberant rates for pitiful facilities at truckstops and MSAs.

Instead they would be sleeping in motels or similar. The dosshouses of the 60s and 70s would have moved with the times and not only would comfort have improved, you can bet that renumeration would also be a little more than it is now and it wouldn’t be used as a way of artificially inflating take home pay.

See, I’m not quite the Thatcherite you assume

I think we’ve reached agreement in that there are good aspects of unions v bad aspects.In the British case it was that issue of socialist/communist infiltration of the union movement and in the US case arguably organised crime.Which just leaves the question of who really gained from all that bearing in mind that the idea of a few at the top getting ( very ) rich off the backs of the workers is,as I’ve said,basically a communist idea not a capitalist one and the workers had nothing to gain from such infiltration.

All of which,bearing in mind the increasingly close ties between the Western governments,investment and banking systems,with governments like the Chinese Communist Party at least since the Nixon and Reagan administrations,suggests that such infiltration was a conspiracy which went to the top,which the workers,together with most of their union leaderships, weren’t bright enough to understand.No surprise that such a conspiracy would involve the assassination of leaders like JFK to ( eventually ) be replaced by those like Nixon and Reagan which is why the western economies are where they are now.

As for the idea of day cabs and hotels those hotel car parks might need enlarging a bit and there’s no way that the idea would work with tachographs instead of having the flexibility of log books to get to the hotel without running out of driving time first.

[eddie_snax]

As an aside to this OP, but related, I got a surprise the other day whilst talking to a gang of guys tipping the container I’d delivered. One of them told me he’d stopped doing agency driving to do agency “devanning”. And he seemed genuine about it.

The way he explained it was that agency driving is done by the hour and the rates are “dropping like a bloody stone”, devanning they go as a gang of 3 or 4, and get a set amount per team per box, obviuosly more for a 40’ than a 20’. Basicaly 2 hrs a 20’, 4 hrs a 40’ some variation for number off cartons and weight. the 40’ that I had on was priced at 3.45, the 4 off them cleared it in less than 2, and had the next box ready to go as soon as ■■■ break was complete.

Upshot appeared to be 3 boxes booked to last 11 and a quarter hours were on Target to be cleared in under 6-7 hrs. Makes there hourly rate alot better than driving, and no hours regs, or any of the other rubbish involved in this job

[constantine]

Solly:
Although I wasn’t quite hinting at a “Monetary Free Society” as you put it.

Etc.

With some effort and a lot of public support it can and should be done again so the worlds population can prosper. Not just the “Filthy Rich” and governments who do their bidding by ensuring that the worlds population are forever in “Debt Slavery” to these odious people through the “Free Market Economy” and “Globalisation” agreements.

Thanks Solly, it was the only drastically opposite example of what we have in the world as we speak that I could think off and that wasn’t a great example really as its pure fiction.

Also slightly off topic, the same thing started to happen to the UK during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic War with regards to banker’s drafts. They were underwritten by the banks to pay for the government’s involvement in the British and Allies battles to overthrow Napoleon’s stance against us and then later on the grip over the various Empires both countries had built/wanted.

And that was mainly to pay for supplies and the very low wages that the soldiers got back then to try and keep them in the lines and therefore fighting on.

Debts were usually only paid back by allowing battle bounty to be “given back to the banks to sell” to pay off the debts or even give the bankers preferred contracts to supplies items to the Navy and Army accordingly.

However as the fighting esculated from the start in 1793 (French Revolutionary Wars) to the first Peace Treaty…we had the creation of…yep you’ve guessed it Income Tax in 1799.

Supposedly created to pay for the previous battles and try to clear the massive debts the country had run up during the fighting, after peace had started!

It was then used to contribute to the main effort during the Peninsular War. For all the famous battles histroy remembers for commanders like Nelson, Wellington and even Bonaparte. As the banks were starting to be less interested in the fighting and paying for it all.

Unknown at the time we still had at least another 16 years to go before that all finished at Waterloo.

Interestingly the country did overthrow and repeal the Income Tax a year after the Battle of Waterloo.

Perhaps one day we might challenge the powers that be again about certain issues to make every human life better. As its looks like we never cleared the National Debt for a very long time after that, nor really improved human civilization as a whole.

As it seems we are still making the same mistakes fighting the world nearly 220 years on and people complaining about getting less wages compared to so and so etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. So I’m very sure it won’t be solved in my lifetime then!

C

[alamcculloch]

As the army are making a whole lot of squaddies redundant there will be a fair number of them wanting to swell our ranks.I dont see the rates or any thing else improving soon.

[winseer]

Drivers taking jobs in other industries once the upturn comes will create a proper shortage.

Who’s coming in at the bottom end after all?

Drivers hours regs make it damned hard for anyone holding a full time job to do a few hours extra on agency each week. This means those who actually DO the agency work will have to avoid actually taking a full time job in the first place - to get the pick of jobs and rates at least.

Since full time jobs are dwindling, and so many people hate the idea of being on agency, there’s got to be a large number of drivers prepared to hang up their keys in the next 18 months - ie in time for the DCPC which they won’t be bothering to get at their own cost.

So who’s going to be left after the cull?

(1) Drivers tied down to their full time jobs, no spare hours/not allowed to work agency on the side
(2) Drivers on agency currently aged 65-67 who are hanging out their retirement for whatever reason. How many of them are going to be gone in the next 18 months?
(3) Agency drivers who are already flat out, and can’t squeeze any more hours in

add to this at admin level:

(4) Employers who are having trouble with their insurance cover for some reason. Surely the “6 points OK, don’t worry about damage, because it’s covered” days are nearly done?
(5) Clients of agencies who insist on ■■■■-everyone-off practices like cancelling at last minute, forcing rates to get on their knees and lick, and demanding drivers in for stupid o’clock starts with the plummy shifts being the ones that still get cancelled. Once saddled with a “joker” reputation, who’s going to be queueing up at their gate come the upturn having been screwed over just too many times beforehand?
(6) Dodgy office practices that conspire to fiddle drivers out of their hard-earned. These include Umbrella fees, claiming taxbacks one is not entitled to, paying short or not at all, and clipping hours at both ends, costing half an hour’s pay each shift.
(7) Firms who insist on illegal practices like “answering the phone in the (moving) cab” - ie constant pestering from planners when the jobs of “driver” and “planner” used to be the same person sitting in the cab at the wheel! Missed opportunity to save some money for the firm there.
(8) Yards who don’t ask enough questions of their staff other than “Are you prepared to do all this for minimum wage?”
…Could be escaped convicts, illegal immigrants, or don’t hold proper licences. turning a blind eye to drivers turning up for work ■■■■■■ out of their skulls is not unheard of either.
(9) The fuel price has not dropped, which keeps transport a damned high-overhead business. Imadinnerjacket has gone, and yet the premium built into the OIl price has not deflated as yet. This could change at any minute of course, but I’m not holding my breath.

There are therefore multiple reasons that rates could rise, but few reasons they can fall much further. It’s easy to predict more falls when the rates have done nothing BUT that for the past few years, but a long-term trend cannot turn around until everyone believes it’s actually “going to last forever”. That’s the nature of trends.

[steptoe]

What about the influx of Romanians and Bulgarians that our illustrious government is intending to let in the UK to work (most will claim benefits and thieve but some will work for ■■■■ all) and then we will be getting Turkey in the EU. I don’t think there is any hope of improvement in our industry with the clowns in power that we have. Only consolation is that the rest of North west Europe ( that’s the bit that grafts a bit) is equally fed up, and is more likely to do something about it.

[carryfast]

Winseer:
Drivers taking jobs in other industries once the upturn comes will create a proper shortage.

Who’s coming in at the bottom end after all?

Drivers hours regs make it damned hard for anyone holding a full time job to do a few hours extra on agency each week. This means those who actually DO the agency work will have to avoid actually taking a full time job in the first place - to get the pick of jobs and rates at least.

Since full time jobs are dwindling, and so many people hate the idea of being on agency, there’s got to be a large number of drivers prepared to hang up their keys in the next 18 months - ie in time for the DCPC which they won’t be bothering to get at their own cost.

So who’s going to be left after the cull?

(1) Drivers tied down to their full time jobs, no spare hours/not allowed to work agency on the side
(2) Drivers on agency currently aged 65-67 who are hanging out their retirement for whatever reason. How many of them are going to be gone in the next 18 months?
(3) Agency drivers who are already flat out, and can’t squeeze any more hours in

add to this at admin level:

(4) Employers who are having trouble with their insurance cover for some reason. Surely the “6 points OK, don’t worry about damage, because it’s covered” days are nearly done?
(5) Clients of agencies who insist on ■■■■-everyone-off practices like cancelling at last minute, forcing rates to get on their knees and lick, and demanding drivers in for stupid o’clock starts with the plummy shifts being the ones that still get cancelled. Once saddled with a “joker” reputation, who’s going to be queueing up at their gate come the upturn having been screwed over just too many times beforehand?
(6) Dodgy office practices that conspire to fiddle drivers out of their hard-earned. These include Umbrella fees, claiming taxbacks one is not entitled to, paying short or not at all, and clipping hours at both ends, costing half an hour’s pay each shift.
(7) Firms who insist on illegal practices like “answering the phone in the (moving) cab” - ie constant pestering from planners when the jobs of “driver” and “planner” used to be the same person sitting in the cab at the wheel! Missed opportunity to save some money for the firm there.
(8) Yards who don’t ask enough questions of their staff other than “Are you prepared to do all this for minimum wage?”
…Could be escaped convicts, illegal immigrants, or don’t hold proper licences. turning a blind eye to drivers turning up for work ■■■■■■ out of their skulls is not unheard of either.
(9) The fuel price has not dropped, which keeps transport a damned high-overhead business. Imadinnerjacket has gone, and yet the premium built into the OIl price has not deflated as yet. This could change at any minute of course, but I’m not holding my breath.

There are therefore multiple reasons that rates could rise, but few reasons they can fall much further. It’s easy to predict more falls when the rates have done nothing BUT that for the past few years, but a long-term trend cannot turn around until everyone believes it’s actually “going to last forever”. That’s the nature of trends.

All of which seems to miss the inconvenient facts that there is actually no real shortage of drivers in the present labour market when all the angles of supply and demand for drivers are factored in.

The fuel cost issue isn’t going to go away because it’s mostly caused by a tax problem to provide protection for the big business rail freight industry lot.It’s got nothing whatsoever to do with the relatively small fluctuations in pre tax fuel prices which are actually lower in real terms than they were in 1973.

Then there’s the basic inbalance in road transport capacity compared to demand for it’s services which is basically caused by that fuel taxation issue and the lack of economic growth in the economy in general.Without a return to a manufacturing based economy and the total removal of road fuel taxation I wouldn’t want to bet on your scenario.

[riverdrive]

I run a driver recruiting agency in Leeds. All these newbies you say coming into the scheme happily taking “buttons” to do work isn’t what I personal want.
I deal with huge clients mainly in the North East and West Yorkshire and I offer my best drivers fantastic rates for decent work. I get feed back off the clients in terms of how well the driver did? If they worked efficiently? etc. If that driver has got a bad feed back report I will unlikely use that driver again even if I was only paying him £7 p/h.

At the end of the day I want drivers who are good, reliable, experienced and professional to supply the best service possible to our clients.
If we don’t supply the best service what are the chances that they will call me again to supply them with a driver. Highly unlikely!
If I see the drivers doing a good job I will pay them a hell of a lot more simple because I want quality.

Yeah it might cost me a little bit extra but for the sake of giving the clients the best quality drivers I’m happy to do so.

[winseer]

RiverDrive:
I run a driver recruiting agency in Leeds. All these newbies you say coming into the scheme happily taking “buttons” to do work isn’t what I personal want.
I deal with huge clients mainly in the North East and West Yorkshire and I offer my best drivers fantastic rates for decent work. I get feed back off the clients in terms of how well the driver did? If they worked efficiently? etc. If that driver has got a bad feed back report I will unlikely use that driver again even if I was only paying him £7 p/h.

At the end of the day I want drivers who are good, reliable, experienced and professional to supply the best service possible to our clients.
If we don’t supply the best service what are the chances that they will call me again to supply them with a driver. Highly unlikely!
If I see the drivers doing a good job I will pay them a hell of a lot more simple because I want quality.

Yeah it might cost me a little bit extra but for the sake of giving the clients the best quality drivers I’m happy to do so.

If a driver is not going to be used, then perhaps agencies should be more honest about when you are “sacked” rather than just left languishing on the books waiting for the phone to ring, unaware that they’ve been blackballed.
Could it be because so many “blackball” moves by client and agency combined would be very dodgy if put before an industrial tribunal, and let’s face it, who among employers can be arsed to have anything to do with that?

“Fred Bloggs is not going to be used by this agency anymore everyone… Don’t phone him ok?”
"Wot’s he done? Trashed kit? Thumped the Guvnor? Nicked something?"
Ahem. Their secretary found him creepy AND he left the seat down in the toilets, further upsetting the female staff, because the ladies is broke, and they are currently using the gents. He could have brought some bog paper in for us, but that was too much like hard work for him that sitteth upon the mighty scania throne."

Office Politics Lesson #63
If ladies like you, then ‘three inches is enough’.
If they don’t like you, then nine inches is ‘too small’.

[carryfast]

Winseer:

RiverDrive:
I run a driver recruiting agency in Leeds. All these newbies you say coming into the scheme happily taking “buttons” to do work isn’t what I personal want.
I deal with huge clients mainly in the North East and West Yorkshire and I offer my best drivers fantastic rates for decent work. I get feed back off the clients in terms of how well the driver did? If they worked efficiently? etc. If that driver has got a bad feed back report I will unlikely use that driver again even if I was only paying him £7 p/h.

At the end of the day I want drivers who are good, reliable, experienced and professional to supply the best service possible to our clients.
If we don’t supply the best service what are the chances that they will call me again to supply them with a driver. Highly unlikely!
If I see the drivers doing a good job I will pay them a hell of a lot more simple because I want quality.

Yeah it might cost me a little bit extra but for the sake of giving the clients the best quality drivers I’m happy to do so.

If a driver is not going to be used, then perhaps agencies should be more honest about when you are “sacked” rather than just left languishing on the books waiting for the phone to ring, unaware that they’ve been blackballed.
Could it be because so many “blackball” moves by client and agency combined would be very dodgy if put before an industrial tribunal, and let’s face it, who among employers can be arsed to have anything to do with that?

“Fred Bloggs is not going to be used by this agency anymore everyone… Don’t phone him ok?”
"Wot’s he done? Trashed kit? Thumped the Guvnor? Nicked something?"
Ahem. Their secretary found him creepy AND he left the seat down in the toilets, further upsetting the female staff, because the ladies is broke, and they are currently using the gents. He could have brought some bog paper in for us, but that was too much like hard work for him that sitteth upon the mighty scania throne."

Agencies in general are all about clients paying a premium because they have to usually because in general the work is of a type which most drivers don’t want.IE local multidrop,building deliveries or boring distribution type jobs.If you’re looking for something like regular long term placement doing full load long distance uk/international container or general haulage work then things would be a bit different.In which case it would be all about long hours and wages that don’t reflect the hours put in or time spent away from home that’s assuming you’re lucky enough to even find a job in those sectors and that situation is nothing new in many cases.While those jobs are very rarely found working for agencies.

[winseer]

Around these parts, there are a glut of 40 hours per week contracts for catering delivery firms that never seem to get filled.
My own personal dislike of that particular job is the flat shifts, early starts, and a low C2 hourly rate.

I do supermarket stuff myself, when there’s nothing else available of course, as yes, I do find that dreary.
I prefer night trunks of 10-12 hours in length, with the option to book 15 if there’s any holdups on the roads, getting tipped etc.
I’ve never had a problem driving on motorways all night long for over the two decades I’ve already been doing it.
This, in turn, probably suits me most for the full load depot-depot stuff which you describe.
No buggering around in the centre of town, no rush hour traffic, fewer indoor staff getting under your feet, and no hassle.

[carryfast]

Winseer:
Around these parts, there are a glut of 40 hours per week contracts for catering delivery firms that never seem to get filled.
My own personal dislike of that particular job is the flat shifts, early starts, and a low C2 hourly rate.

I do supermarket stuff myself, when there’s nothing else available of course, as yes, I do find that dreary.
I prefer night trunks of 10-12 hours in length, with the option to book 15 if there’s any holdups on the roads, getting tipped etc.
I’ve never had a problem driving on motorways all night long for over the two decades I’ve already been doing it.
This, in turn, probably suits me most for the full load depot-depot stuff which you describe.
No buggering around in the centre of town, no rush hour traffic, fewer indoor staff getting under your feet, and no hassle.

^ This.That’s how I ended up doing 15 years of night trunking because it was the best of a bad lot.Although 10 + hour shifts and hub systems or long runs at 56 mph aren’t an easy way of earning a living.The best days of night trunking were pre speed limiters and job and finish running direct long distance depot to depot runs.

[riverdrive]

I am honest in how I run the business, whether that’s rates or the relationship I have with my drivers. If I don’t believe the driver has done a good job I will speak to him and get his side of the event. See if he had any problems whilst on the job which may not have been entirely his fault.
If he hasn’t done a good job I will tell him and explain that due to poor performance on a job we will most unlikely use you again.
This is a business at the end of the day, you guys want decent pay and in return I want a decent performance and a good feedback from my clients. I’m not prepared to throw money at any driver willy nilly to complete the job but in more hours than it should have taken or if he has not supplied the best service possible.

It works on the basis of I’m giving you the opportunity to work for these clients that I have in return for a good performance on my behalf. If you do that I’m happy to reward my drivers with a fantastic rate and more work and contracts.