A nightmare, an absolute nightmare…how do people cope with the horrendous working conditions?….No, Not Sgt Blackman who served several operational tours each lasting 6 months in which he would have lived in extremely basic conditions, probably living off ration packs most of the time, no running water or toilets, sleeping in cramped, hot, dusty places with the constant threat of rockets or mortars, probably under fire every day, on call 24 hours a day, and when he does go out on patrol he’s likely carrying 100lbs of gear in 45° heat across harsh terrain, always expecting to be shot at at any time or to step on a mine and kiss his legs goodbye…and with the possibility that if he is captured he may be skinned alive. No that’s not pressure, pressure is working for Ikea as a lorry driver. The BBC is very, very concerned about these poor drivers….the BBC has deployed its own special farces task force, Victoria Derbyshire, to end this disgrace…this “inhumane state of affairs’…..
Ikea drivers living in trucks for months
Lorry drivers moving goods in Western Europe for Ikea and other retailers are living out of their cabs for months at a time, a BBC investigation has found.
Some drivers – brought over from poorer countries by lorry firms based in Eastern Europe – say their salary is less than three pounds an hour.
They say they cannot afford to live in the countries where they work. One said he felt “like a prisoner” in his cab.
Ikea said it was “saddened by the testimonies” of the drivers
Something of an irony that the BBC is suddenly concerned about British workers being undercut by cheap foreign labour [BBC…racist hate mongers now?]…
‘Far more foreign lorries’
British haulage companies are nervous that they will be undercut by companies that could be breaking the law.Jack Semple, from the Road Haulage Association, says: “We are seeing far more foreign lorries that are frankly less compliant with drivers’ hours and road-worthiness regulations.
“They have to get a grip on this because big, well-known UK retailers and other companies are making increasing use of these firms because they don’t cost very much.”
Alan how dare you ? How dare you put your own opinion, on our own blog, which you pay for ?
No the LeftMob won’t have that ..you have to have the same opinion as them or SHUT-UP.
Just as when Katy Hopkins was on the R4 Media Show today to talk about her own libel loss ..suddenly the R4 Facebook discussion had two separate threads with about 40 frothing vile comments on saying “How dare this mad, Right Wing, mentally ill person be given a platform, she is full of hate”
..they are not big on understanding irony.
The BBC staff/producers seem to live in the same frothing bubbleworld.
Surely this is one of the main reasons to stay in the EU.
The Slavic peasants know their place. They’re cheap and obedient, unlike the filthy, British, working/lower-middle-class scum!
Hang on a minute. The BBC loves the EU, but this situation is a direct result of the right for EU workers from poorer countries to work unrestricted in western Europe.
The article says the companies ‘exploit loopholes’ so this means that EU law is not fit for purpose in this case.
Yet we are constantly told how the EU ‘protects workers’ rights’ etc.
I don’t think the Beeb have thought this one through – seems like the journo just got a whiff of ‘exploitation’ (a red rag to any SJW bull).
She should try visiting India! I hired a driver to take me from the Line of Control on the Chinese border down to one of the hill stations near Delhi. It took 21 hours, in which we only stopped twice for ten minutes for a cigarette and tea break. He told me he worked on lorries as well and this was considered normal practice!
Odd you should say that, every programme change on Radio 3 carries a message that the BBC is to have what they call “free thinking”. Free thinking at the BBC is like asking for free speech on the beeb.
I remember in Peru, when a driver took a group of us over the mountains to Cajamarca. We started soon after five in the morning and got to Cajamarca just before nightfall (it was dark, by the time we were in the centre). Although we had had a couple of stops, the driver had effectively been going for twelve hours, but he went straight back, in the dark. His return journey was actually a few miles longer than the original one. I think he claimed that he drove twice as fast, without gringos in the back.
Cranmer/Owen,
Ha, you had it easy. Some years ago the mother of a Gambian friend of mine passed away in Guinea (Conakry ). He went to collect her to bring her back to Gambia for burial. The journey back, in a shared taxi, took about 20 hours, mostly at night. The driver fell asleep at the wheel and Abdou just managed to grab it before the car left the road. I shall leave the rest to your imagination.
LOL Grant! The Indian driver I had was, I suspect, taking some sort of stimulants. He was definitely smoking a little cannabis, which he said calmed his nerves. If you’ve ever had to reverse for half a mile along a narrow Himalayan mountain road during a landslide you’ll understand why!
Cranmer,
Amazing. Abdou’s driver was smoking dope too ! I once reversed about a mile down a Turkish mountain road which was blocked by a landslide. I am too old for these games now !
Sheer luxury!
I once had to drive from south Kent to West London, pick up a transit van for a building sample, and drive to Darlington for a meeting, then do the whole lot back home again!
All on a Yorkie bar, a fry up somewhere and half an ounce of pipe tobacco!
And if you tell the kids that tale today, they won’t believe you…
Scrobbie,
LOL !
Working one summer in the Rockies in Alberta, Canada, I asked a Canadian co-worker one Friday what he was going to do over the weekend.
“Ah” he said “I’ll do what I do ‘most every weekend in the summer, I’ll drive down to see the girlfriend and then drive back.”
“Where does your girlfriend live?” I asked, expecting him to say somewhere like Calgary, or Medicine Hat.
“Toronto” he said.
I thought he must be pulling my leg, but knew Canadians weren’t big on dry humour, fart jokes are about the limit, especially in the backwoods of Alberta.
“Isn’t that a bit of a long drive?” I said, trying to keep a straight face.
“Ah” he said, dead pan as usual “it is, yes, but I get there late on Saturday, and if I leave ‘fore 5 on the Sunday morning, I’m back here in time for work on Monday”
Sure enough, talking to his parents one evening in a bar, that is what he did EVERY weekend through the summer, apparently didn’t do it EVERY weekend in the winter though because of the 30 ft snow drifts!
Well now where to start ? I could write reams of stuff about this , being a truck driver that was on international work .
That involved guns pointed at me , locked up , ferries on fire , no running water or toilets , sleeping in civil war countries where you had to be parked and sleep away from the other truck in the factory so that if a mortar attack happened they would only lose one truck not two ( and one driver dead not two ) , CS gas in face , robbed , defrauded , many other adventures . About a third of the TIR drivers were ex forces , a third ex cons , the rest were
” normal ” .
My happy days .
We were volunteers for the life though , the same as armed forces personnel are . I don’t want to play martyr in chief , but I don’t look down on anyone who has taken a safer job in life , looked after his family and led a normal life . Why should he put his family’s future in jeapody while he seeks adventure ?
I would not consider and then compare what I have done with a computer programmer , lawyer or whatever occupation readers here have then belittle anyone . I’m in a family of armed forces personnel and police officers . We don’t do that .
There is an issue this thread raises , but please can we not traduce one set of people to elevate another .
Brickbats come at me , I’m used to it . I’m a lorry driver .
Nibor,
Knights of the Road.
That’s how I looked upon them as a child and teen. Also as a young new driver. Standards are perhaps not as high as they were but the profession and the world has changed.