Winseer:
Putting my Devil’s Advocate hat on for a minute - Has anyone considered that what we refer to as “The Management” (Ie what are really middle management) are merely a buffer zone between the real management (rarely leaving their Ivory Towers) who make the policies that we all hate so much as drivers?
(1) A driver is expected to work more than 40 hours per week as standard without paid meal breaks, or in some cases - unpaid POA too. Management class would be expected to work 35-40 hours per week with paid breaks, fully paid sick, and no penalties for failures.
I pay through breaks and POA. On a ferry guaranteed 12 hours if it’s a full day sailing, thats 8 hours standard time and 4 hours overtime. I self-insure for my sick pay, I can’t remember the last time I did less than 50 hours, often more. If I fail, I lose my house - that’s my definition of a penalty.
(2) A driver is expected to answer the phone from the office/planners whilst out on the road. If a hands-free kit is not installed in the cab by the company - then presumably, one is expected to pull over (not always possible) and answer one’s own mobile phone. Looking for somewhere to pull in every time the damned phone rings - is stressful to say the least. A lot of the time it’s going to ring with all those bull messages about PPI and whatnot. Surely a better, safer, and legal option is to switch the damned thing off, or don’t even take one with you? - Think back to what we did when we HAD no mobiles as part of our daily clothing…
I rarely ring the drivers. Sometimes when they are abroad, I ring them just so they know they are being thought of! 
(3) If a driver seriously injures or kills someone - all too often the firm attempts to cut them loose, resulting in a floundering driver sometimes bringing down the company with it - no one wins. A driver can expect to go to jail or be heavily personally fined for their sins. Not so anyone behind management policy that might have “institutionalized” a serious risk into common work practice, eg. “planning” drivers to work 15 hour shifts…
If a driver were to seriously injure/kill someone ( *touching wood here), we’d stand by them. Never having been in that situation, we don’t have any experience. However, when we had 18 migrants int he back of a trailer and the drivers said, ‘are we going to get done’, the first words out of my mouth were, ‘don’t worry, we’ll cover the fines’. In theory if someone is killed, I can face Corporate manslaughter charges).
I had two drivers on an overnight run once that finished around 08.00 in the middle of France when it was hot weather. They did their 9 hours off and one rang somewhat grumpily, ‘it’s been too hot, I’ve had no sleep’. so i told them to go and find a hotel and kick off in the morning. I’ve no interest in a driver driving tired. I don’t underestimate the sometimes brutal hours, I’ve done a ■■■■ sight more in my mis-spent youth.
(4) How often is a driver pestered on their daily rest or even weekly rest? - Who makes that decision? Is a driver in trouble if, they for some reason, "cannot be contacted when off the premises?
Rarely. when we do, its’ because something has changed that is out of our hands.
(5) Why has so much encouragement gone into employing drivers with foreign licences (often obtained with a much lower standard of driving than uk drivers) - but too little effort is made in training up full time staff to C+E standard, especially female staff - all whom have good car driving records…?
i don’t employ any foreign drivers. From a small hauliers perspective, I like the idea of giving a youngster a chance, but shelling out for training and a licence and then facing them leaving, is too expensive for us. Doesn’t matter how many clauses you have in a contract about them staying, they may not and recovering the money would be hard work. i don’t think that many women want to go into haulage - and I say that as a woman with a large circle of female friends - they just don’t fancy it.
(6) Why are we not going to our own docks more to pick up imports/take export stuff to? Who made that decision? - Bet it wasn’t “middle management”!
(7) Trampers should be paid a lot more than £25-£30 “night out money” for the inconvenience of “inputting their entire life” into the job. Why are trampers paid less than weekday night drivers in so many places? - If middle management could chuck THIS kind of endemic policy into the bin - I’m sure they’d have a lot less bother recruiting and retaining drivers… Once again - I suggest this idea had nothing to do with “middle management” - It’s Ivory Tower Policy, and political in the way that decision was originally made…
As I said on an earlier thread, we spend a lot on hotel bills ( admittedly a quirk of our work). I’m not sure where I stand on this. It never bothered when I was driving, I’d wander off if i was in an area I could do and go for a mooch, and the night out money more than covered any costs. I do see your point, just not sure what the answer is.
(8) Why have laws been made to severely limit the power of a striking driver - but not to limit the unsafe practices of a manager who may well have a lapsed licence - if that - who is expected to jump into a cab they are “rusty” with driving at best - at full danger to themselves, company property, and the public alike? - All to make sure that striking drivers “never achieve anything” by their already emasculated actions? 
No issue with limiting unsafe practices, I run legal. From a purely personal perspective, my drivers can go on strike if they want. I’d finish the firm though. On the other hand they seem pretty content, so it’s unlikely to happen. i don’t like bullying management, I don’t like bullying drivers - at least I’m consistent.
(9) Why don’t haulier firms provide state-of-the-art health care to staff? - Having a driver collapse at the wheel often has collateral damage on the public too, as the Glasgow Dustcart case demonstrated. Free BUPA-Style health care would have picked up any dodgy ailments early - and pensioned that driver off, rather than encourage them to keep stumn lest they just be given the boot for being unlucky enough to develop a dodgy medical condition… 
Not enough money in the job. I don’t take care of myself.
All in all, I’m sure very few suits would put up with the bull they hurl at the footsoldiers in this, and some other businesses too.
If the shortage continues unabated, in a few year’s time this entire body of people may well be far more militant foreigners with an axe to grind - that won’t be so easily ignored by the very people that employed them over the incumbent, but outgoing drivers currently doing the job, average age 54 by this point… 
FWIW, I think drivers are underpaid. The shortage may see pay being pushed up, it should do. On the other hand, if we get another crash or a period of deflation, there may be more drivers than work available.
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