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L11Marc

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YBR

I would have thought that in a driver role that safety and fatigue should have a higher priority so I'm sad to read your experience (my background is rail industry). 

For the average hours, are you taking longer on the route than other drivers? and are you more willing to do extra to help others? To my mind it's excessive to be out more than 12 hours door-to-door but I don't know what's normal in your industry.

How does your transport manager respond to your being requested to work extra hours (is that from the depot manager or am I reading that wrong)? 

Is there a H&S manager you can talk to, or a staff/union rep, or the Depot Manager's boss? 

At the end of the day, if there's an incident/accident and you've worked excessive hours, someone's going to be in a very awkward position. If you flag it up then it should be your boss, not you.

L11Marc

YBR said:

I would have thought that in a driver role that safety and fatigue should have a higher priority so I'm sad to read your experience (my background is rail industry). 

For the average hours, are you taking longer on the route than other drivers? and are you more willing to do extra to help others? To my mind it's excessive to be out more than 12 hours door-to-door but I don't know what's normal in your industry.

How does your transport manager respond to your being requested to work extra hours (is that from the depot manager or am I reading that wrong)? 

Is there a H&S manager you can talk to, or a staff/union rep, or the Depot Manager's boss? 

At the end of the day, if there's an incident/accident and you've worked excessive hours, someone's going to be in a very awkward position. If you flag it up then it should be your boss, not you.

I would expect our health & safety to be given priority too but it doesn't seem that way here. No,  I'm with an experienced loader who knows this new route and this is the usual time it takes to complete. I was warned when I first started that once you help out & do the manager a favour, they will then use you to mop up the extra work as some of the older, experience drivers tell him to do one or don't get asked at all (even though their average hours js a lot lower than mine and they are more suitably located to go and help that route!) 

Yes the depot manager has recently changed the routes around but the transport manager is not aware this new route has me out longer. I've never spoke to anyone higher than my manager as they are not based here but that will be my next step as I am getting nowhere internally here. He just nods his head when I tell him the situation and on the phone just agrees to what I'm saying to get me off the phone and get the round complete. As the more jobs left = unhappy customers and less bonus for him I think.

Exactly. I'm just really tired lately and don't get much time with my young son at home so a lot of this post is out of frustration but it's really taking its toll now.

itsthelittlethings

Are you in a union?

Emmia

It's a nuclear option, but you may want to consider anonymously reporting this to DVSA

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-an-hgv-driver-or-company#reporting-something-anonymously

elsien

You say that some of this arises from helping out when needed. Why can you not do the same as your other colleagues and just tell people to (politely) do one when asked.
You need a paper trail for some of this. so put in writing/email to your manager the issues around being unable to reduce your hours with the routes that you have, and ask  them how they planning to get your hours to a reasonable and safe level. Send it to both the depot and the transport manager. 

YBR

elsien said:

You say that some of this arises from helping out when needed. Why can you not do the same as your other colleagues and just tell people to (politely) do one when asked.
You need a paper trail for some of this. so put in writing/email to your manager the issues around being unable to reduce your hours with the routes that you have, and ask  them how they planning to get your hours to a reasonable and safe level. Send it to both the depot and the transport manager. 

This.

I would focus on the fatigue/safety aspects more than work/life balance and family, and also the competing pressures from your different managers.

I read it that drivers in this environment either stand up to the depot manager or look for jobs elsewhere, but note that these older drivers haven't been sacked or managed out. If you were to lose your job because you refused on safety grounds, you wouldn't want to be working there anyway. 

Marcon

L11Marc said:

YBR said:

I would have thought that in a driver role that safety and fatigue should have a higher priority so I'm sad to read your experience (my background is rail industry). 

For the average hours, are you taking longer on the route than other drivers? and are you more willing to do extra to help others? To my mind it's excessive to be out more than 12 hours door-to-door but I don't know what's normal in your industry.

How does your transport manager respond to your being requested to work extra hours (is that from the depot manager or am I reading that wrong)? 

Is there a H&S manager you can talk to, or a staff/union rep, or the Depot Manager's boss? 

At the end of the day, if there's an incident/accident and you've worked excessive hours, someone's going to be in a very awkward position. If you flag it up then it should be your boss, not you.

I would expect our health & safety to be given priority too but it doesn't seem that way here. No,  I'm with an experienced loader who knows this new route and this is the usual time it takes to complete. I was warned when I first started that once you help out & do the manager a favour, they will then use you to mop up the extra work as some of the older, experience drivers tell him to do one or don't get asked at all (even though their average hours js a lot lower than mine and they are more suitably located to go and help that route!) 

Yes the depot manager has recently changed the routes around but the transport manager is not aware this new route has me out longer. I've never spoke to anyone higher than my manager as they are not based here but that will be my next step as I am getting nowhere internally here. He just nods his head when I tell him the situation and on the phone just agrees to what I'm saying to get me off the phone and get the round complete. As the more jobs left = unhappy customers and less bonus for him I think.

Exactly. I'm just really tired lately and don't get much time with my young son at home so a lot of this post is out of frustration but it's really taking its toll now.

Why delete your first post when people are trying to give helpful answers?

Emmia

Marcon said:

L11Marc said:

YBR said:

I would have thought that in a driver role that safety and fatigue should have a higher priority so I'm sad to read your experience (my background is rail industry). 

For the average hours, are you taking longer on the route than other drivers? and are you more willing to do extra to help others? To my mind it's excessive to be out more than 12 hours door-to-door but I don't know what's normal in your industry.

How does your transport manager respond to your being requested to work extra hours (is that from the depot manager or am I reading that wrong)? 

Is there a H&S manager you can talk to, or a staff/union rep, or the Depot Manager's boss? 

At the end of the day, if there's an incident/accident and you've worked excessive hours, someone's going to be in a very awkward position. If you flag it up then it should be your boss, not you.

I would expect our health & safety to be given priority too but it doesn't seem that way here. No,  I'm with an experienced loader who knows this new route and this is the usual time it takes to complete. I was warned when I first started that once you help out & do the manager a favour, they will then use you to mop up the extra work as some of the older, experience drivers tell him to do one or don't get asked at all (even though their average hours js a lot lower than mine and they are more suitably located to go and help that route!) 

Yes the depot manager has recently changed the routes around but the transport manager is not aware this new route has me out longer. I've never spoke to anyone higher than my manager as they are not based here but that will be my next step as I am getting nowhere internally here. He just nods his head when I tell him the situation and on the phone just agrees to what I'm saying to get me off the phone and get the round complete. As the more jobs left = unhappy customers and less bonus for him I think.

Exactly. I'm just really tired lately and don't get much time with my young son at home so a lot of this post is out of frustration but it's really taking its toll now.

Why delete your first post when people are trying to give helpful answers?

I expect they're worried about being identified.