unwealthy lorry drivers

[stew-b]

proposed strike by petrol tanker drivers,apparently £39,000 is not a good enough wage to be driving a lorry!! :shock:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080 ... 23e80.html

yet we have soldiers risking life and limb in foriegn countries for not even half of that!!

 

[FSR-Si]

Its a specialist job tanker driving, Not just any old lorry driving job you need to be ADR trained (Dangerous goods) plus the fact that drivers can pay nearly £2000 to get qualified nowadays. Also did you know that Hoyer who most tanker men work for have them working nearly 70 hours a week so when you break that down 39k isn't that much in the grand scheme of things so good luck to them i say.

Yes i am a lorry driver and no i dont earn anywhere near that but i dont drive tankers and i only do on average 44 hours a week. Maybe you should show a little gratitude towards these drivers as without lorry men you wouldn't have anything be it bikes, the clothes on your back and food on your table!

And also having been on the other side of your argument ive done the military thing and i think you'll find a hell of a lot of ex military are now lorry men.

Sorry for the rant but it just gets my goat a little when the term "just a lorry driver" is waved about.

 

[stew-b]

we shall beg to differ

 

[Russell]

I think I'm right in saying that the working time directive puts strict laws in place to limit working hours of drivers over any seven-day period and a 70 hour week is clearly in breach of it. If what you say is true, drivers need to stop bitching and just get the lawyers involved.

£2k is bugger all to get trained for a £40k job. The average engineer will spend 4 years and £14k getting through Uni and then face a job which pays just £25-£30k.

Police and teachers get about £20kwhen they start out, Nurses less than that, Paramedics start at something insane like £13k. Tanker drivers get £39k.....

As for gratitude... I'd rather have more goods ferried about on the rail network, taking heavy traffic off the road system, helping to make roads safer and reducing pollution.

Sorry, I'm ranting now, but the idea that I should be grateful to lorry drivers has really hit a nerve, there are far more professions on far less money, doing far more for society that I should be grateful to than bloody tanker drivers.

 

[Pickle]

Everybody works for as much as they can own.

If stropping and stamping feet could potentially get more ££ then good luck to them.

If there was a chance that I could earn more by stamping then I'd do it.....

 

[FSR-Si]

I think I'm right in saying that the working time directive puts strict laws in place to limit working hours of drivers over any seven-day period and a 70 hour week is clearly in breach of it. If what you say is true, drivers need to stop bitching and just get the lawyers involved.

You're quite right on that the WTD have laws about hours worked, BUT just for the Haulage industry they brought in a special clause called POA which is period of availability meaning when a driver gets to a delivery point if there is a hold up for any reason he switches the tachograph that regulates his hours onto this new POA clause and the clock stops, so even though the driver is still at work it doesn't count towards his working week, so go figure that one out.

As for gratitude... I'd rather have more goods ferried about on the rail network, taking heavy traffic off the road system, helping to make roads safer and reducing pollution.

Always makes me laugh this "on the rail network" crap, Most congestion is caused in towns and cities so unless you have a train station outside your local Tescos and Asda you still need the same amount of lorries on the road, The only vehicles you would be removing from the roads by using trains are the trunkers that run from the outskirts of one city to the outskirts of another. Even the rail industry use road haulage to move there supplies about as they cant rely on the rail network to get the stuff there on time how ironic is that.

Sorry, I'm ranting now, but the idea that I should be grateful to lorry drivers has really hit a nerve, there are far more professions on far less money, doing far more for society that I should be grateful to than bloody tanker drivers.

Maybe grateful was a wrong choice of word to use by me but when you take as much shit as lorry drivers do off the public and the unbelievable amount of regulations it touches a nerve, I know the haulage industry isnt the most important out there but again you are very naive if you think it isn't an important one, Remember the 2001 fuel protests 5 days with no lorries on the road and the country ground to a halt and we was public enemy number one because you didn't have your fresh milk and bread.

 

[amt27]

The average engineer will spend 4 years and £14k getting through Uni and then face a job which pays just £25-£30k.

I'd rather have more goods ferried about on the rail network, taking heavy traffic off the road system, helping to make roads safer and reducing pollution.

Or they could waste the same on a trendy engineering related degree and be offered £13-15k jobs, like me

I have no problem with lorry drivers banding together and naming their price if they are in demand, make as much money now as they can, because it will be short lived, companies are always looking for more efficient and cheaper ways of doing things,
engineers will always be in demand and their jobs will be varied and interesting,
whereas the demand for lorry drivers could drop for reasons you mention, also the drop in demand for fuel, more local production of fuel and other forms of energy, plus a move back to the 1800s where everything is transported on the waterways,
buy a boat lads,

 

[tintin40]

My brother is a truck driver :twisted: And as for the 'poor old' police, nurse, teacher, fireman. Well a teacher will get an extra £5k+ for working in London. The others get offered accomadation at a discount. Fireman all have second jobs. If I was a truck driver and didn't like it here then Canada are offering big money to go there and work as they have a shortage.

 

[TheGreenRabbit]

If you dont like the pay or your job, its quite simple, get another one.

 

[cherrybomb]

Let's all have a dig at people for the jobs they do and the money they earn (or don't). :?

Pleased to see the witch hunt seems to have moved on from 4X4s though. :roll: