Even in the cutthroat world of road haulage an operator is only as good as their word, as illustrated by a contract win undermined by its failure to invest in the infrastructure. Two drivers refused to leave the yard, another didn’t show up. Desperate and with the clock ticking the transport manager was shouting Anglo-Saxon expletives across the fixed tables of the ‘driver’s restroom’ at employees in-between futile efforts on the blower to persuade agencies to send anyone available, no matter what the cost.
And therein lay the problem. We, the employees labelled as ‘lorry drivers’, are paid a competitive wage and do our jobs to the best of our ability while others receive a handsome reward for doing the same thing. Money is an emotive issue. It forces us to react and often be willing to evoke a change in our professional circumstances. The grass on the other side of the fence isn’t always greener. At the start of 2018 the company picked up a ‘contract’. Usually this means drivers coming over under TUPE, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. However, the bulk of the work carried out by the former contractor had been subbed to third parties because they couldn’t recruit enough drivers, so the usual flood of fresh meat proved to be little more than a trickle. For reasons beyond my pay-grade my employer put an end to the sub-contracted work and began to switch storage from ‘there’, although it kept some trucks onsite for local employees, to ‘here’ where my employer had spare capacity in its warehousing operation. Realisation my employer couldn’t cope with the extra work showed up in changes to our working week. Much of the trunking work was given to subbies, the current posse of lorry drivers were switched across to plug the yawning gap; more tramping with less day work. The four-on-four-off drivers found themselves on five-three and six-two combinations. Drivers became tetchy. Whatever my employer promised its new client it has struggled to deliver on that promise. Loads are frequently late, genuine mistakes are made in haste. For example; I drove 48 miles with the wrong trailer. The paperwork said I had the right trailer. The transport office kicked off. I was rerouted. The ‘right’ paperwork was emailed to the regional distribution centre. When I arrived, security looked at the paperwork and said I had the wrong delivery address. I pointed out the right delivery note had been emailed to ‘Goods In’. Security didn’t know about the email and wasn’t about to investigate. Four hours later I was sent back to the yard where I’d started because the consignment had been ‘rescheduled’. Not the end of the world but it’s no way to run a business. Local employment agencies routed as many drivers as they could spare, without putting all their eggs in one basket. A recruitment campaign aimed at the ‘young uns’ yielded just two lorry drivers; one left after three days and the other after a fortnight, both by mutual consent. Others that came in were a handful of retired or 'doing something else' drivers. They’d get the more local work, so they’d be back at the yard by nightfall. Existing employees on days found themselves on long haul with nights out, usually at short notice. Drivers became disgruntled. With it being a sellers’ market these guys cashed in. ‘Pat’ spent one afternoon explaining how much money he was getting. First it was a set fee; £150 for an odd day shift. Pat would then go back to his 9-to-5 as a painter and decorator that usually pays between £80 and £100 a day. Another phone call by a desperate transport manager, an apology by the painter and decorator as he was busy, more money offered by the desperate transport manager; ‘oh, go on then, for £200 I’ll do it’. The transport manager has clearly been given authority to pay more than the going rate. A week later a desperate transport manager and the painter and decorator negotiated a £250 fee for a day’s work. The most Pat got for a day shift was £320 for working a Tuesday after a phone call got him out of bed at 5am. Pat’s attentive audience got very pissed off. Pat was not alone. Several retired and ex-drivers would make themselves available for two or three days a week in-between taking a Learjet to the Seychelles to top the tan up. Without even attempting to verify Pat’s daily rate, a few phoned to the transport office to have it out. It is currently a toxic environment and what was a decent job has turned to effluent. How do the Range Rover driving senior management team do it? They have taken on a contract, promised the earth and left it to the transport office to try and make it work without bolstering the fleet or the number of drivers. Employees are unhappy. Transport office is run ragged. Senior management smoke cigars. Lorry drivers have always been expendable and even now, with the obvious lack of working lorry drivers available, it transpires we, the employees labelled as ‘lorry drivers’, are still viewed as superfluous.
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AuthorAging proletariat with face, teeth and body to prove it. Archives
August 2021
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