Harry Monk:
If I went on holiday and found out that the aeroplane driver had worked 17 hours yesterday, had seven hours off, and was 14 hours into another 17 hour shift, I don’t think I’d be too happy about getting on his aeroplane.What is it about this industry? Why do drivers not seem able to grasp the simple laws of supply and demand- that the more hours you are allowed to work, the less each of those hours becomes worth?
Coz they’re thick.
Live for the now not the tomorrow. Why break yourself to pay off a house that you may not or may well live to enjoy? That’s an old mentality from the 50’s post war era. People had even less choice than now. They broke their backs working to hopefully make it to retirement when they could enjoy life own their own terms and escape the Faustian bargain of working insane hours for the final slice of enjoying your retirement.
Think about it. You’re essentially selling a large portion of your own life to A company for X years to “enjoy your retirement”. It maybe great playing x box in the cab in rdc’s and getting paid when young, or tramping out for 40 years but is that truly how you want to spend your life? In a box in a layby? I’m not questioning the actual job but the shackles of no home life on an 11 or 9 hour rest or even worse tramping and living in the lorry for years.
Add up all the brief 2 or 1 days off and multiply them by 40 years you’ll see what your left with is being your life on your terms. Then add up all those lonely years spent in a box away all week working 13 and 15 hour. Divide one by t’ther and multiply by 100 then you’ll see the small percentage that you were left with of your own life. Feel short changed? I know I blinking well would for 7-8 pound an hour.
12 hours max, if longer same time off as preceding duty. It won’t work, no money in it for hauliers.
Freight Dog:
Live for the now not the tomorrow. Why break yourself to pay off a house that you may not or may well live to enjoy? That’s an old mentality from the 50’s post war era. People had even less choice than now. They broke their backs working to hopefully make it to retirement when they could enjoy life own their own terms and escape the Faustian bargain of working insane hours for the final slice of enjoying your retirement.Think about it. You’re essentially selling a large portion of your own life to A company for X years to “enjoy your retirement”. It maybe great playing x box in the cab in rdc’s and getting paid when young, or tramping out for 40 years but is that truly how you want to spend your life? In a box in a layby? I’m not questioning the actual job but the shackles of no home life on an 11 or 9 hour rest or even worse tramping and living in the lorry for years.
Add up all the brief 2 or 1 days off and multiply them by 40 years you’ll see what your left with is being your life on your terms. Then add up all those lonely years spent in a box away all week working 13 and 15 hour. Divide one by t’ther and multiply by 100 then you’ll see the small percentage that you were left with of your own life. Feel short changed? I know I blinking well would for 7-8 pound an hour.
12 hours max, if longer same time off as preceding duty. It won’t work, no money in it for hauliers.
Firstly a lot of this ‘living in a box’ issue as opposed to commuting to an ‘inside’ type job like factory,office or warehouse work etc is a red herring.Most of that time spent at home or parked up will just involve watching the tele,sleeping and eating between shifts anyway regardless.It’s only the weekends,holidays and other types of relatively longer periods off work that really matter.In which case for the average worker it’s all about the difference in life during the awake hours hours of the day.
On that basis,unless you’re cut out for the inside life of the factory/office etc etc type job,those hours spent parked up during nights out with a wagon won’t matter at all when compared to 9-10 hours a day stuck in a factory and the commute to and from work and the few hours left before it’s time to go to bed in either case.
IE it’s very easy to concentrate too much on the bad aspects of spending a lot of time parked up away from home sometimes required as a driver,at least in the case of distance work,while overestimating the good aspects of getting home every night as a factory type worker.In general the fact is the days of the working week are split mainly between working and sleeping and the quality of life will depend a lot on those hours spent during the working day.In which case trust me 9 hours spent shut up in a factory will seem like effectively 18 maybe more.The commute to work and then home provides the only real change of scenery and sense of freedom then,just like being parked up in a truck,at the end of the working day,it’s usually a case of mealtimes maybe some time at the pub etc before it’s time to sleep.When the whole thing starts again.
In the case of the job of a driver it’s a bit like a factory worker not having to go to work at all and just getting paid to spend the day on a longer journey to and from work over different routes which could be anywhere in the uk or even,if you’re very lucky,throughout Europe.
The truth is 12 hours a day spent doing the job of a driver is about right compared to 8-9 hours per day spent in a factory because it provides sufficient time for quality sleep patterns etc etc.The only difference might be that drivers should be compensated with the lost time at home during nights out with some extra days off during the month.
In which case ironically the job would become more attractive and wage levels would probably fall even more.
The real problems are low speeds meaning less productivety and ridiculous EU hours regs resulting in drivers spending too long awake or trucks having to park up when they could be rolling.Together with the opposite issues,of no flexibility in the form of tachos instead of logbooks,in the case of drtivers needing to find somewhere to park at the end of the day or wanting to take a break when both the EU and their guvnor wants them to keep going.Which is more or less the position of the transport unions here before the so called ‘Labour’ Party became a pro EU anti worker CBI supporting irrelevance. 
Carryfast:
Freight Dog:
Live for the now not the tomorrow. Why break yourself to pay off a house that you may not or may well live to enjoy? That’s an old mentality from the 50’s post war era. People had even less choice than now. They broke their backs working to hopefully make it to retirement when they could enjoy life own their own terms and escape the Faustian bargain of working insane hours for the final slice of enjoying your retirement.Think about it. You’re essentially selling a large portion of your own life to A company for X years to “enjoy your retirement”. It maybe great playing x box in the cab in rdc’s and getting paid when young, or tramping out for 40 years but is that truly how you want to spend your life? In a box in a layby? I’m not questioning the actual job but the shackles of no home life on an 11 or 9 hour rest or even worse tramping and living in the lorry for years.
Add up all the brief 2 or 1 days off and multiply them by 40 years you’ll see what your left with is being your life on your terms. Then add up all those lonely years spent in a box away all week working 13 and 15 hour. Divide one by t’ther and multiply by 100 then you’ll see the small percentage that you were left with of your own life. Feel short changed? I know I blinking well would for 7-8 pound an hour.
12 hours max, if longer same time off as preceding duty. It won’t work, no money in it for hauliers.
Firstly a lot of this ‘living in a box’ issue as opposed to commuting to an ‘inside’ type job like factory,office or warehouse work etc is a red herring.Most of that time spent at home or parked up will just involve watching the tele,sleeping and eating between shifts anyway regardless.It’s only the weekends,holidays and other types of relatively longer periods off work that really matter.In which case for the average worker it’s all about the difference in life during the awake hours hours of the day.
On that basis,unless you’re cut out for the inside life of the factory/office etc etc type job,those hours spent parked up during nights out with a wagon won’t matter at all when compared to 9-10 hours a day stuck in a factory and the commute to and from work and the few hours left before it’s time to go to bed in either case.
IE it’s very easy to concentrate too much on the bad aspects of spending a lot of time parked up away from home sometimes required as a driver,at least in the case of distance work,while overestimating the good aspects of getting home every night as a factory type worker.In general the fact is the days of the working week are split mainly between working and sleeping and the quality of life will depend a lot on those hours spent during the working day.In which case trust me 9 hours spent shut up in a factory will seem like effectively 18 maybe more.The commute to work and then home provides the only real change of scenery and sense of freedom then,just like being parked up in a truck,at the end of the working day,it’s usually a case of mealtimes maybe some time at the pub etc before it’s time to sleep.When the whole thing starts again.
In the case of the job of a driver it’s a bit like a factory worker not having to go to work at all and just getting paid to spend the day on a longer journey to and from work over different routes which could be anywhere in the uk or even,if you’re very lucky,throughout Europe.
The truth is 12 hours a day spent doing the job of a driver is about right compared to 8-9 hours per day spent in a factory because it provides sufficient time for quality sleep patterns etc etc.The only difference might be that drivers should be compensated with the lost time at home during nights out with some extra days off during the month.
In which case ironically the job would become more attractive and wage levels would probably fall even more.
The real problems are low speeds meaning less productivety and ridiculous EU hours regs resulting in drivers spending too long awake or trucks having to park up when they could be rolling.Together with the opposite issues,of no flexibility in the form of tachos instead of logbooks,in the case of drtivers needing to find somewhere to park at the end of the day or wanting to take a break when both the EU and their guvnor wants them to keep going.Which is more or less the position of the transport unions here before the so called ‘Labour’ Party became a pro EU anti worker CBI supporting irrelevance.
The times I’ve been 10 minutes short of getting to the yard, having to take a break and not being able to get back is unbelievable, in these cases you should be allowed to carry on back to the yard but have to take 11 off.
NewLad:
The times I’ve been 10 minutes short of getting to the yard, having to take a break and not being able to get back is unbelievable, in these cases you should be allowed to carry on back to the yard but have to take 11 off.
Which is why we need to dump the bs EU regs and get back to a system in which the combination of faster speeds and the flexibility of log books mean that you’d not only get back to the yard but you’d have 12 off not 11.
desypete:
i would like the shortest hours possible for the max pay say 8 hours a day for 20 quid an hour would do for a start and maybe overtime paid at time and half like the good old days
thats what we would of been on " the going rate before poa came to the fore " and the big blue chip companies thought " [zb] we’re going to need loads more drivers " robbing bar stewards thought " Christ we’d need three shifts of 6- 2, 2- 10 and 10- 6? " they got away lightly as "THE YELLOWBELLIES WHO TALK A GOOD FIGHT IN THE BREW ROOM, bent over and said " no lube, insert ■■■■■ here ! " no backbone and no PRIDE! " 
I agree with carryfast, i started with the log books, 12 and half hr. days 14 hrspreadover twice a week, 11 hrs off each day worked very well had plenty of time for family and fun times. didn’t need a calculator to work every thing out either.
5 days on 12-15 hours, 4 days off with hot sun and a beach nearby for days off. 1450-1500 take home every 2 weeks sounds nice 
Work 1 hour get paid for 8
I’d like to see things simplified and do away with all these extensions, reducers, opt outs and god knows what else. I’d also like to see a general reduction in what we’re allowed to do. Like someone said earlier, every hour we add on to the working week we can do reduces the value of the hours we actually do.
Duty - Max 12 hours per day. 60 hours per week. 54 hours average over 26 weeks.
Breaks - 30 minute break every 4 hours.
Driving - 10 hours per day.
Daily rest - Minimum 12 hours per day.
Weekly rest - Minimum 60 hours.