Great magazine! First time I have read it & it certainly won’t be the last… Surprised to read about the 10 Cemex apprentices… only 1 percent of drivers are under the age of 25!! Feel privileged to be part of that 1 percent!
The age thing doesn’t surprise me. I’m no spring chicken at 39, and yet out of 70 drivers on our place there is only 1 younger than me, and he is in his early 30s
Cemex are desperate for drivers, my agency keep trying to get me in there but I consistently say no.
I wouldn’t say as the OP said “great magazine” but I do tend to buy it more than T and D. I haven’t bought either of the mags’ current issues as they haven’t anything worthwhile paying for. If they went down the route of wrapping it in cellophane to make sure you couldn’t look through it before buying then I’d stop altogether.
An ex employer of mine was in a company feature in Trucking, and the drivers’ comments were so blatantly edited to appease said company it was hilarious to read.
I hate the “editors’ choice” type features. The ones where some cab happy chappy gives out his “awards” like “thanking his wife for making curtains…” “Scania for making it…” and “my boss for buying it…” WTF? 
You arse licking ■■■■■
On a positive note, the truck on trial type features seem to be more critical than they had become in recent years. Some blatantly wishy washy views so’s not to upset the manufacturers had become the norm.
When it was RMC before Cemex it was a very good job, they kept their own fleet instead of selling them off like most other quarrying companies and the drivers were salaried. I worked out of their quarries for a private haulier and their lads were on £20+ grand or more while I was on around £12-£15000 doing much the same work. However I guess that things have possibly changed since then (early 2000) and probably not for the better? Still good to see a firm looking out for younger fodder though! 
Pete.
Cemex deserve all they get IMO. They were part of the driving force behind these pointless EPIC/MPQC cards, wearing tango outfits and donning a pair of goggles just to walk to a weighbridge. Hope all the agency flip flops and half wits end up having a m3 of concrete set in their drums.
Muckaway:
Cemex deserve all they get IMO. They were part of the driving force behind these pointless EPIC/MPQC cards, wearing tango outfits and donning a pair of goggles just to walk to a weighbridge.
That’s exactly why I tell the agency I won’t work there, even though it would be £120 a week more in pay. I agree with health and safety, just not with Health and Safety Nazis.
Muckaway:
Cemex deserve all they get IMO. They were part of the driving force behind these pointless EPIC/MPQC cards, wearing tango outfits and donning a pair of goggles just to walk to a weighbridge. Hope all the agency flip flops and half wits end up having a m3 of concrete set in their drums.
An agency tried to place me there and I walked out after being told I’d have to be a passenger to one of their drivers for a week. Sod that. I was more than capable of operating a tipper (though it’s not my favourite kind of work), and later on did two weeks of 44T tipper work after one trip out with one of the guys at a different aggregates company.
I genuinely thought they were a good company to work for correct me if I am wrong but didn’t one of their trucks kill a young woman in London and so her mother got on to the board and then made them one of the safest firms to go in to London…?
SouthEastCashew:
I genuinely thought they were a good company to work for correct me if I am wrong but didn’t one of their trucks kill a young woman in London and so her mother got on to the board and then made them one of the safest firms to go in to London…?
Yes and many drivers ever since have had to endure her story, presented in a patronising film with Penny “Apparently I’m a famous rally driver” Mallory telling us how to drive as part of the EPIC (con) course.
Muckaway:
Cemex deserve all they get IMO. They were part of the driving force behind these pointless EPIC/MPQC cards, wearing tango outfits and donning a pair of goggles just to walk to a weighbridge. Hope all the agency flip flops and half wits end up having a m3 of concrete set in their drums.
Tarmac were WAY ahead of Cemex on that score in our area Nathan, then every other firm followed suit alas. Not a problem really, abide by their rules and everyones happy because it isn’t likely to change.
Pete.
The trouble is Pete, is they turned health and safety into a non job for those with useless qualifications. The EPIC courses I did wasted ages on hauling blacktop when not one person present actually delivered the stuff.
The crowning fly on the turd was that if you correctly filled in the mixer questions on the sheet, you got a card for one without actually doing one minutes’ “training”. I’ve got a mixer ticket having never driven one.
And these “no ticket no load” rules…never apply around here to ■■■■■ or the general public collecting stuff.
Yeah rules like dressing head to toe in orange clothes and wear goggles to walk two foot to the weighbridge not allowed to climb on the back of the lorry but there shovel driver can load the whole load down one side cemex Hanson aggregate industry are all as crap as each other but cemex by far the worst
Going back to the magazines, I do think T and D has improved since the kids’ drawings and van reviews were binned. I didn’t spend nearly £4 because I was interested in the latest Vauxhall Combo. I don’t get why there needs to be so many editorial/comments sections though. I’m sure Trucking has three in each issue. Those “my mistakes” features are little more than RDC nonsense, condensed into two pages with a cartoon drawing.
Easy page filler is the reason.
Trucking is not a patch on how it was when Richard Simpson and Steev Hayes edited it, although that would appear to be as a result of less money to pay contributors than poor editorship. Two pages of truck pictures taken from an overbridge on the A46 does not a worthwhile feature make.
Olog Hai:
Two pages of truck pictures taken from an overbridge on the A46 does not a worthwhile feature make.
Why is the A46 so remarkable?
And why do they put them on the ■■■■?
The classic mags are in a worse state. I haven’t bought Classic Truck for several months and Classic and Vintage Commercials for years. Classic Truck seems to use every photo taken by some Foden anorak, CVC print any old rose tinted letters that some bored ■■■■ sends in.
And I’d steer clear of anyone writing a letter to a truck mag who uses the phrase “keep up the good work…”
Muckaway:
I wouldn’t say as the OP said “great magazine” but I do tend to buy it more than T and D. I haven’t bought either of the mags’ current issues as they haven’t anything worthwhile paying for. If they went down the route of wrapping it in cellophane to make sure you couldn’t look through it before buying then I’d stop altogether.
An ex employer of mine was in a company feature in Trucking, and the drivers’ comments were so blatantly edited to appease said company it was hilarious to read.
I hate the “editors’ choice” type features. The ones where some cab happy chappy gives out his “awards” like “thanking his wife for making curtains…” “Scania for making it…” and “my boss for buying it…” WTF?
On a positive note, the truck on trial type features seem to be more critical than they had become in recent years. Some blatantly wishy washy views so’s not to upset the manufacturers had become the norm.
I don’t mind reading about cab happy folk but when they make a poor company sound brilliant it’s a joke…
Take the latest issue,firm local to me never heard a good word said about them,pay,management etc.
All trucks look awful and scruffy.
But they find a bloke with 40 years service and a spotless truck who tells us this great family run firm is brilliant 
Muckaway:
Cemex deserve all they get IMO. They were part of the driving force behind these pointless EPIC/MPQC cards, wearing tango outfits and donning a pair of goggles just to walk to a weighbridge. Hope all the agency flip flops and half wits end up having a m3 of concrete set in their drums.
And when they [zb] into the mixer the EPIC/MPQC/■■■■■ card, tango outfit/hat/boots/gloves/googles and loads more H&S ball ■■■■■ is sure to save them…
yorkshire terrier:
I don’t mind reading about cab happy folk but when they make a poor company sound brilliant it’s a joke…
Take the latest issue,firm local to me never heard a good word said about them,pay,management etc.
All trucks look awful and scruffy.
But they find a bloke with 40 years service and a spotless truck who tells us this great family run firm is brilliant
I remember when one of the mags did a feature on a particular haulage company whose claim to fame was running the UK’s first EuroTrakker artic. A month or two later, the same company lost its operator’s licence (given printing deadlines etc, I wonder if they’d already been suspended when the feature appeared in print).
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I think there have been one or two operators to feature in the various magazines over the years who have gone on to have various ‘encounters’ with their local traffic commissioner.
As for Yorkshire Terrier’s post, I assume Longs is the company you refer to? I saw the mention of the 40-year driver with them (or whatever it is) on the cover of a magazine recently and it immediately brought to mind some of the less than complementary things that have been said about Longs on here.