I love this one, an actual trucker, not a Guardian reading expert on Transport, gives his two pennies worth.
THIS IS SO TRUE
Isn’t it ironic that now truck drivers are in short supply that everyone is falling over themselves to try and make our life better,
Why !
Because it’s affecting the general public’s way of life,
Well here’s some of the reasons why you the public can’t get your precious
Mc Donald’s milk shake or your favourite bottle of beer from the Supermarket,
For decades the majority of hauliers have suppressed the wages of drivers, expecting a 60 to 70 hour working week for a take home pay of around the £500 to £600 mark,
For decades the well-being of most drivers have never been taking into consideration, asking for the simple things like a fridge or even a night heater in the truck would result in the company saying,
Well if you don’t like it you know where the door is, we can soon replace you,
Most hauliers ( not all ) still expect us to do 3 x 15 hours days on the trot with a measly 9 hours off, that’s 45 hours of work in 3 days and yes it’s legal for us to do that,
That’s more than you the general public do all week,
Fancy a bit if that do you ?
I think not,
Asking to get home for a reason would often result in them giving you an impossible task on that day,
A lot of hauliers even to this day won’t pay for overnight parking in a truck stop or a Motorway Services because of the cost of parking that’s in the region of £20 to £40 a night that’s why we have to park in a lay-by or an industrial estate with no facilities for the driver for 9 to 11 hours so when you the general public unfortunately stumble across a driver having a piss, don’t knock him for doing a natural bodily function that you can do in the comfort of your home,
As for delivering / collecting from customers,
A lot of the time we are late, not our fault most of the time but we get the flack so we feel that we have to go cap in hand to try and get tipped but often met with
YOUR LATE !
you’ll have to wait until we can fit you in or you’ll have to get it re-booked,
Well sorry old pal but you should be ****ing grateful that you’ve actually got your stuff here, not give us attitude because we have upset your 8 hour shift routine,
As for actually driving a 44 tonne truck,
Why oh why nowadays do you the car driver on a 70 mph road with good driving conditions sit there at 50 to 55 mph getting tangled up with us trucks that are limited to 56 mph
You shouldn’t be anywhere near us, we shouldn’t be catching you up like we seem to nowadays,
We shouldn’t be put in a situation to have to overtake you, you shouldn’t be anywhere to be seen, so when you sit behind us in the overtaking lane, annoyed because I’m holding you up the chances are that I’m overtaking a **** in a car who think the A64 is a country lane to bumble along on, so swear at him not us,
Overall this is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s wrong with this haulage industry, I could go on forever with what needs changing,
Why do I still do it after 39 year’s ?
Because it’s in my blood, it’s a part of my life, I still have passion for the job that’s why, but rest assured it’s going to get worse as the average age of a truck driver is 55 years old now and rising,
I personally don’t think this is a Brexit thing, this is all down to decades of suppression of the HGV driver by the hauliers, basically treating us like ****,
You the hauliers have put yourselves in this situation and I’m glad to see that it’s come back to bite you lot on the arse.
Of course the flood of cheap labour for decades, driving down the wages with supply and demand and pushed this over the edge.
Add in the 40 000 HGV tests cancelled last year and boooooooooooooooooom