Saw this on Bazs site and thought I’d post a link here. Up to you folks to decide if you want to reply here or on the Truckerworld site. As you may know Truckers world does take a more campaigning stance than TruckNetUK but as you may wish to comment and vote in the poll attached to this thread.
truckersworld.co.uk/phpBB2/v … .php?t=252
If I’ve done wrong mods I apologise in advance.
No problem, mate…we’re great supporters of Truckersworld here. 
Well driven scheme is run by the FTA.
Alex Savile got on the wrong side of it , and showed it is a way that car drivers can use it to “get their own back”
Truckersworld are only supporting alex on this issue, it is his baby.
But any scheme that allows a organisation to act as Judge & jury over professional drivers instead of the Police has got to be looked at.
I am sure that on this site there are drivers with the sticker on the back of their vehicle
What do you think 
If everyone kept ringing up Well Driven either…
Praising every driver of a ‘Well Driven’ vehicle to the high heaven “Ringing to say his driving was good, he looked good, he had a reeeaaaalllly big truck, errm, can I have his phone number?”
COmplaining the most ridiculous complaints… “Yes, I could not believe it, not only was his truck blue, but it had lots of wheels as well!!!”
Maybe we could swamp them and make it unworkable - tee hee!
They had a go at “Hows my driving” with a few RAF vehicles, used to get complaints sent through saying things like “he cut me up , Twice” , “It was an IRR Matt Green seddon Atkinson with RAF plates on it”, “He was loaded with an RB300 Ttistar engine and a Phantom F4J Solar starter”. 
Now how the hell would Joe puplic know all that ? More like RAF Aircraft Techies trying to drop the poor under paid over worked driver in the clag.
There are one or two of these ‘Well Driven’ type of set ups, which are quite good. The punter phones in with a complaint, the telephonist takes down all the details and if its one of those stupid ones, like “He cut me up on a roundabout, when I was trying to overtake”. The telephonist asks something like "Well what the [zb] do you expect■■?.
Probably a bit more politely than that though 
.
It could be the FTAs one.
Most of the others are just money making schemes for someone who has absolutely no interest in improving driving standards, which is supposedly the reason for these schemes.
Hi folks, can I be cheeky and ask my fellow drivers if they would read the articles in the letters section over at Truckersworld on the pro’s and con’s of WELL DRIVEN?.
I consider this business ,YES, it is a business owned by the FTA, RHA & CBI, to be a lorry driver bashing scheme on a grand scale, it breaches lorry drivers civil liberties and abuse’s their human rights, it also runs contrary to natural justice.
Please join the debate here and elswhere and please read the articles, we are entitled to respect for what we do, and we are entitled to the same rights as everyone else.
There is also a poll on this site around/about page 10, please vote on the poll.
Thank You
Alex
I’ve said this in print before but believe it to be worth repeating:
What other industry has management so bad that they put signs on the back of vehicles inviting ill-informed criticism of their employees from saloon bar bigots?
Most of the public haven’t a clue what constitutes good driving. At a court case I attended neither the complainant nor their two witnesses knew that traffic coming onto a motorway does NOT have right of way.
Most lgv drivers over 30 received minimal professional training, and that at their own expense, unlike any other trade (eg plumbing) I can think of.
Well Driven is, nothing more than cynical window dressing by lazy guv’nors who’d rather spend money on public posturing than doing something positive. It does nothing to educate the general public on the roadspace and braking needs of trucks but simply panders to stereotypical predudices. A better use of
of funds would be a national programme of truck safety school visits which might even improve the image of haulage and help with future recruiting.
wiretwister, thank you for your help in bringing this debate to this site, much appreciated.
bazman, sorry , you are wrong, I did not get on the wrong side of WELL DRIVEN?, they got on the wrong side of me! Thanks for your comments, also much appreciated.
TK Dave, thanks for your comments too, because we drive trucks does not mean we have not the same rights as others.
Alex
The (lorry ) drivers empire strikes back!
In actual fact, “Well Driven” is a scheme set up to educate car drivers about the different way that HGVs use the road.
Apparently, some 60% of complaints are from car drivers who have attempted to overtake an HGV on a roundabout. These complainants are sent the standard leaflet which DVLA used to send out, explaining the differing way in which trucks manoeuvre around roundabouts and other junctions.
Other complaints which “Well Driven” have received are as follows…
“Your driver was travelling on the A5 at 40 mph and holding up traffic” (The
limit for HGVs on that stretch of road was 40 mph)
“Your vehicles travelled past the caravan park where we were on holiday and
should not have been there” (The caravan park shared a road to a farm where
the vehicles were loading food product)
This type of complainant receives a personal reply, explaining the flaw in their thinking.
“Well Driven” is a scheme set up to raise awareness of HGVs and should be supported by anyone who drives one.
Vince
T&D carried an article on this a couple of years ago and highlighted a couple of complaints. One was of someone complaining that they were holidaying at a campsite in the country and had trucks passing the site to reach a local farm. Another was that they were folowing a truck along a single carriageway road and that, “They were only doing 40mph.” I’d have loved to have received that complaint and been able to respond to it. I’d even have put my hand in my pocket and included a copy of the Highway Code with the reply. 
Frankly, I’m not against the scheme. I’ve driven vehicles displaying the sticker and invariably drive vehicle in Corporate livery where, if there were cause to complain, an online search would soon reveal a contact number.
What I would like to see, and which I feel would be of far greater benefit for road safety, is a system whereby ANY vehicle subject to Taxation concessions, would be required to display a Company name and a landline telephone number in VRM plate sized letters. “Mondeo Man”, cringe and repent.
Obviously there would have to exemptions. Hearses emblazoned with advertising would not be entirely tasteful, which is why they are exempt from certain part of the Private Hire legislation. Similarly, some hire vehicles. Remember some years ago UK tourists were being targetted in the Orlando area because hire cars were readily identifiable. 
But broadly speaking, if the vehicle is a business asset, then it should be identifiable as such.
I agree with Vince and Krankee on this one, I have no problems with the scheme, and think it is a good idea. I have driven for companies that use the scheme and not had a problem, I have driven for companies who are not in the scheme and have had car drivers phone up to complain. At the end of the day if an ill educated driver wants to complain then they will regardless of what is on the back of the wagon.
The company I was a TM at had their own scheme, If they called the number on the sticker then it went through to our fleet dept, they would then pass the info on to the TM responsible for that driver. I had a few of these and 95% were the car drivers fault and I would call them up and point out the errors to them. Only once was it a drivers fault, he was right up the backside of the car infront flashing his lights and generally intimidating the car, all this in a 30 limit, now that driver I did have a few words with, the industry does not need drivers like that.
Why not just rip the “well driven” sticker of the trailor if you dont like the scheme■■? 
simon
No well driven sticker on the back but Company Tel No on trailer.
One of our boys was traveling down the M1 last week, he was in the inside lane with trucks overtaking him in the middle lane, he comes up to a slip road , low and behold there is a car coming down it to join th M1 who without indicating tries to force himself out, but to no avail, Our man looks around him but has nowhere to go to let said car out so carries on expecting car driver to speed up, slow down or stop untill there is a gap for him to join motorway , The car driver not being able to get out and now running on the hard shoulder starts to blast his horn and “wave” to or man.
Next thing is this car driver phones our office "on his Mobile whilst still driving ":roll: and complains that our man “Ran him off the road” , Our office man expecting this car driver to be in a ditch asks him the circumstances, then when he got the full story gave him a quick theory lesson on motorway driving and put the phone down.
You dont need “hows my driving” on your trailer, just the company Tel No for them to have a go when you inconvenience them .
I’m getting a sticker made for the back of the trailer that says;
“POLICE- If you see this truck being driven over 40mph it is probably stolen”
And… I have already seen a sticker on the back of a trailer saying :
" Hows my driving?- phone 0800- EAT [zb]"
it is human nature to notice something wrong and to criticise. if you see someone doing something well, you tend to mentally reward them and think no more about it. if someone upsets you, you lose your rag and want revenge. in this case, pick up the phone and give someone an earbashing. the system is unfair in that respect. the only way it can be of any use is if we all phone them to praise each other. other than that, it is yet another insult to professional drivers who are merely trying to earn an honest living
Sorry Alex wrong way round.
smcaul:
Only once was it a drivers fault, he was right up the backside of the car infront flashing his lights and generally intimidating the car, all this in a 30 limit, now that driver I did have a few words with, the industry does not need drivers like that.
reading this thread and mine, some are for the scheme.
The problem with this scheme is highlighted by the quote above. 
Who decided the car driver was telling the truth
Any car driver can phone the No out of spite and who decides which is telling the porkies. I am not saying you were wrong on this occasion smcaul,
No one has the right to act as judge and jury, that is what the police are for.
but I do agree any driver deserves the full onslaught from the T/M if he is being stupid as it gives all a bad name.
In the instance I quoted it was not difficult to find the driver at fault as he fully admitted it and thought it was a good laugh 
Like I said the industry does not need drivers like that
To vince, krankee & smcaul, I respect your opinions but I have to point out that if anyone has a beef with another driver then they should call the police, there is no room in our society for the vigilante, otherwise there is chaos, the leaflet vince refers to is possibly the one produced by WELL DRIVEN? called ‘Give a Lorry a Break’ , the leaflet was produced because W/D were horrified that 60% of their complaints were for 2 items only, why they thought that those who do not know the Highway Code would bother reading it is known only to them! The publication of this leaflet proves that the problem is the car driver, not the lorry driver, otherwise why publish it!
Gentlemen, I hope you read the letters section on the Truckersworld site, both of my articles are there and Karen Packhams of W/D is there also.
Alex