Just been told that our company has recruited 2 drivers from an agency in Belgium ,
The first started on Monday, Romanian guy never drivers in the uk or a right hand drive truck rate of pay he’s getting yet to be disclosed our company is a small gas supply company with only 3 drivers these drivers supposedly are going employed just to bring gas into the uk from Belgium for onward delivery by us but our boss wants me to train these guys on how to load and unload out road tankers I see them coming over and doing deliveries as we’ll then shipping back I ain’t to pleased with all this the other drivers I work with think I’m reading to much into it and say they will train them I’ve been with this company 10 years and it’s a very we’ll paid job should I just roll with it and train them■■?
Happy sole:
Just been told that our company has recruited 2 drivers from an agency in Belgium ,
The first started on Monday, Romanian guy never drivers in the uk or a right hand drive truck rate of pay he’s getting yet to be disclosed our company is a small gas supply company with only 3 drivers these drivers supposedly are going employed just to bring gas into the uk from Belgium for onward delivery by us but our boss wants me to train these guys on how to load and unload out road tankers I see them coming over and doing deliveries as we’ll then shipping back I ain’t to pleased with all this the other drivers I work with think I’m reading to much into it and say they will train them I’ve been with this company 10 years and it’s a very we’ll paid job should I just roll with it and train them■■?
No!
He who pays the piper 
You don’t HAVE to train them - you could resign instead 
Train 'em up (coz if you don’t, someone else will), and if they try to get rid of you THEN you take the firm to the cleaners. Just my two penn’orth…
The Sarge:
You don’t HAVE to train them - you could resign instead
It just annoys me how my colleagues think it’s not an issue there’s obviously a reason these guys are coming over as we currently go over to Belgium to do it the problem is the other two drivers don’t like saying no to the boss but if we stuck together we could possibly stop this happening and not train these guys the job is very specialist and takes at least 3 months before you get into it I’ve been on it ten years and still learning
Yup, you could possibly stop it happening. You could possibly keep your job as it is. You could possibly end up out of work due to the firm becoming unprofitable. You could go with the flow.
Your choice.
The Sarge:
Yup, you could possibly stop it happening. You could possibly keep your job as it is. You could possibly end up out of work due to the firm becoming unprofitable. You could go with the flow.
Your choice.
The firm believe me isn’t unprofitable I’ve seen there profit margins on what they do this is all about greed and Getting more out of the drivers for less no 2 ways about it
As I said - your choice.
Happy sole:
The Sarge:
Yup, you could possibly stop it happening. You could possibly keep your job as it is. You could possibly end up out of work due to the firm becoming unprofitable. You could go with the flow.
Your choice.The firm believe me isn’t unprofitable I’ve seen there profit margins on what they do this is all about greed and Getting more out of the drivers for less no 2 ways about it
I would go to the Boss and tell him I know more about running his company better than him and will not be training these foreign drivers, then start looking for another job where I would make the decisions. 
Are you in a union, hope so, this situation is crying out for one…all sorts of things wrong here to my thinking.
Gas movements, there must be hundreds of relevant regulations that cover this type of work, starting off with are you qualified to train, are your colleagues, who’s going to sign these trainees off as competent, are you going to be held responsible if one of these geezers blows a gas depot clean off the map?
Assuming you get coerced into this, and i wouldn’t be volunteering, if you don’t have a union and suspect you don’t or you wouldn’t be asking here :-
i’d make the training last as long as possible, and teach them only the bare minimum and as slowly as possible, its going to be a long haul anyway due to the complex nature of the job and the communications situation, they get nothing in writing from you (unless you’re qualified to train), no signing them off as competent, and you accept no responsibility whatsoever for anything that goes wrong once they’re on their own.
If you refuse outright though, then the company could invoke disciplinary procedures, again this situation is crying out for union representation and negotiation.
In practice, if the job is as complicated as you suggest, then there is every chance that the venture won’t go quite as the company expects, this type of thing didn’t work on the cars either.
Some might think my attitude is wrong, well teaching your replacements how to replace you isn’t my idea of the utopian european ideal that some others might think marvellous, if your mates want to write their own P45’s thats up to them.
I expect this has all been by word of mouth so far, nothing in writing?
I think the first thing i would do is to write to the company pointing out the pitfalls, qualifications, responsibilities etc, you as a very experienced hand should be able to come up with dozens, that way if they force you to do this you have written proof of your legitimate concerns, and the companies written overruling of those concerns should things go pear shaped.
You might find puting it in writing and demanding written responses and instructions might shove a spanner in the spokes.
The Romanian drivers will require a DCPC if driving for a EU company in the EU. Just a few more qualifications they will require and ADR possibly ■■?
Happy sole:
The firm believe me isn’t unprofitable I’ve seen there profit margins on what they do
]
Ah this old crap that employees without a clue inevitably come out with.
No you haven’t seen their profit margins at all. At best you’ve seen two figures - what they pay for the gas and what they sell it for. What you haven’t seen is the firms accounts with all the list of all of their outgoings so you have absolutely no idea what the profit margin is.
If I buy a widget for 10p, sell it for £10 which is 100 times what I pay for it and sell £1million worth in a year my profit isn’t £990,000. My profit is the £1m less my running costs. And if my running costs are more than the gross income the fact I’m selling stuff for 100 times what I pay for it doesn’t make me profitable.
Are you a qualified and certified trainer ■■ If not and you train the drivers and they ■■■■ up its your head …
Juddian:
Are you in a union, hope so, this situation is crying out for one…all sorts of things wrong here to my thinking.Gas movements, there must be hundreds of relevant regulations that cover this type of work, starting off with are you qualified to train, are your colleagues, who’s going to sign these trainees off as competent, are you going to be held responsible if one of these geezers blows a gas depot clean off the map?
Assuming you get coerced into this, and i wouldn’t be volunteering, if you don’t have a union and suspect you don’t or you wouldn’t be asking here :-
i’d make the training last as long as possible, and teach them only the bare minimum and as slowly as possible, its going to be a long haul anyway due to the complex nature of the job and the communications situation, they get nothing in writing from you (unless you’re qualified to train), no signing them off as competent, and you accept no responsibility whatsoever for anything that goes wrong once they’re on their own.
If you refuse outright though, then the company could invoke disciplinary procedures, again this situation is crying out for union representation and negotiation.
In practice, if the job is as complicated as you suggest, then there is every chance that the venture won’t go quite as the company expects, this type of thing didn’t work on the cars either.
Some might think my attitude is wrong, well teaching your replacements how to replace you isn’t my idea of the utopian european ideal that some others might think marvellous, if your mates want to write their own P45’s thats up to them.
I expect this has all been by word of mouth so far, nothing in writing?
I think the first thing i would do is to write to the company pointing out the pitfalls, qualifications, responsibilities etc, you as a very experienced hand should be able to come up with dozens, that way if they force you to do this you have written proof of your legitimate concerns, and the companies written overruling of those concerns should things go pear shaped.
You might find puting it in writing and demanding written responses and instructions might shove a spanner in the spokes.
Listen to this man. He talks a lot of sense.
The Sarge:
Yup, you could possibly stop it happening. You could possibly keep your job as it is. You could possibly end up out of work due to the firm becoming unprofitable. You could go with the flow.
Your choice.
And if you keep going with the flow you could end up on £7ph!
I was parked up on Sunday with 3 Bulgarians pulling Belgium trailers and I asked myself why. Is it because they are better than the Belgians? are they better than us? I doubt they’re any better but I suspect they’re a lot cheaper and because we live in a very greedy country then we are going to see a lot more of this.
This is going to drive wages down, I’ve seen it happening at a local business close to home. Full of hard working, decent polish manual workers but on minimum wage and it would seem, grateful. I’m told that wage increases only happen when the government increase the minimum wage. The company, (French owned) must be loving it.
To the OP, perhaps you could steal your bosses thunder by telling him of your concerns. No need to be anything but polite but tell him how you see it panning out. You could gauge by his reaction what the future for you might hold. Our bosses don’t like to be seen as the liars that they often are so I think it’s unlikely that he will tell you your safe if in fact he is looking at removing you.
Juddian:
Are you in a union, hope so, this situation is crying out for one…all sorts of things wrong here to my thinking.Gas movements, there must be hundreds of relevant regulations that cover this type of work, starting off with are you qualified to train, are your colleagues, who’s going to sign these trainees off as competent, are you going to be held responsible if one of these geezers blows a gas depot clean off the map?
Assuming you get coerced into this, and i wouldn’t be volunteering, if you don’t have a union and suspect you don’t or you wouldn’t be asking here :-
i’d make the training last as long as possible, and teach them only the bare minimum and as slowly as possible, its going to be a long haul anyway due to the complex nature of the job and the communications situation, they get nothing in writing from you (unless you’re qualified to train), no signing them off as competent, and you accept no responsibility whatsoever for anything that goes wrong once they’re on their own.
If you refuse outright though, then the company could invoke disciplinary procedures, again this situation is crying out for union representation and negotiation.
In practice, if the job is as complicated as you suggest, then there is every chance that the venture won’t go quite as the company expects, this type of thing didn’t work on the cars either.
Some might think my attitude is wrong, well teaching your replacements how to replace you isn’t my idea of the utopian european ideal that some others might think marvellous, if your mates want to write their own P45’s thats up to them.
I expect this has all been by word of mouth so far, nothing in writing?
I think the first thing i would do is to write to the company pointing out the pitfalls, qualifications, responsibilities etc, you as a very experienced hand should be able to come up with dozens, that way if they force you to do this you have written proof of your legitimate concerns, and the companies written overruling of those concerns should things go pear shaped.
You might find puting it in writing and demanding written responses and instructions might shove a spanner in the spokes.
Thanks for this advice wise words indeed, yes I normally do the driver training and do sign new starters off as competent,so this does put me in a awkward position our company does not have a standing union but I will take further professional advice and deal with this matter with my employer through the right channels as I do smell a rat,
I say you tell him to do a split couple and when hes not looking take the trailer brake off 
… nothing to worry about then
samstone90:
I say you tell him to do a split couple and when hes not looking take the trailer brake off
That’s rather foolish and dangerous to suggest it, maybe 1 day someone will do the same to you … karma and all that does come around
samstone90:
I say you tell him to do a split couple and when hes not looking take the trailer brake off
What a knob head.