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Little things sent to try us
Page 70
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Brian Lee asks why our industry is so full of elements designed to deter rather than encourage membership of the elite haulage club.
Another year is upon us and the cloud on the horizon continues to grow in size: the WorkingTime Directive.We expect that the major impact of this piece of legislation will be the need for a greater number of drivers:a breed that is not in great abundance presently. So one of my New Year's resolutions is to make sure we retain the drivers we already have and encourage new recruits I've got my work cut out, however, as there are forces at work that don't exactly entice people into the industry.
Take weighbridge operatives. I find they are generally the rudest. most unhelpful beings put on this Earth. Drivers battling through jams. snow and rain (having explained to the weighbridge that they'll be 30 seconds late) arrive to find the operator smugly closing the window, microseconds past the agreed time, condemning the driver to a 15-hour (or longer) wait in a soulless industrial wasteland. Strange, isn't it, that closing times are strictly adhered to but opening times are flexible? It always seems to be to the advantage of the bridge personnel:seven o'clock opening usually means 25 minutes past.
Single-tasking genius
Weighbridge operators are also incapable of doing two things at once (it's a sad fact,but this is ajob done almost exclusively by men). They can't read the paper and weigh you in at the same time, so they continue to read the paper.
It's the same with making and drinking tea: they can't operate the bridge and watch the kettle too. And when you do require them to weigh you in or out during their official duty times, they fix you with a look of extreme hatred and are totally deaf when you ask for directions to another part of the plant.
The North Wales police force are another jolly bunch of folk who give the appearance of disliking everybody. Just prior to Christmas, one of my colleagues forgot to put his number plate on the rear of his changeover trailer. He was stopped 10 minutes later at a checkpoint (along with vans, cars, buses and other motley conveyances), fined f_30 and lectured on the need to ensure the vehicle could he identified.
Never mind the fact that the company's name is emblazoned on the side of the trailer in letters four feet high, complete with three phone numbers and the website address, all visible from 100 metres. It was a case of humz error — a minor omission that warranted a ticking off not a pre Christmas spot-fine.
Then there's the ministry and magistrates One of our vehicles was stopped at 9:30 one Monday morning recently by officers wh( discovered that the tachograph from the last day of the previous week was missing. A later check revealed that everything was fin. so will someone please explain why they needed to take the young driver to court and slap a massive fine on him for a slip of the memory?
That young man left our indm try and now has a job that doesn consider minor forgetfulness a threat to societ y.And that's our industry's loss as much as his. •