Truckers and their trucks are an essential part of modern life, without them, you would have nothing as everything that you have has been brought to you on a truck at some stage.
If you give it some thought, the clothes that you wear, the bricks that your house is built from, all the food that is in your fridge and even the fridge itself, are all items that have travelled on a truck from the place that they were made or grown to were you bought it.
Even your mobile phone that is probably made in China was packed in a box, that was put in another box, that was then put into a shipping container that was moved from the factory to a shipping port by a truck, then moved on a ship, by sea, to another shipping port, where it would have been loaded on to another truck and delivered to a warehouse. From the warehouse, it would have made its final journey to the shop where you bought it, and if you bought it online it would have been delivered to you at your address by another small truck or van.
As you can see everything from your daily pint of milk, your mail, your furniture, your PC to your car has at some stage travelled on a truck.
Then there are the drivers that drive these trucks all hours of the day and night just to get your goods to you.
You may think that the driver has got it easy sitting in a nice warm air-conditioned cab, but it is just not like that at all.
If you drive trucks for a living you will know that you are allowed to work up to fifteen hours per day, yikes, who wants to spend that much time at work? You can’t do this every day, but if your day isn’t going well, you might have been delayed and need to get to your destination, you can carry on working, you can use this extension.
Driving time is limited to 9 hours per day, you may think that this is a relatively short working day, but add to that nine hours a break of 45 minutes, time for doing vehicle safety checks and loading/ unloading the vehicle this will soon mount up to an eleven or twelve-hour shift.
In a normal office or factory type job, if you get behind with something you can just stop and go home at 5 pm and start again the next day.
You may think that the tachograph is there to stop drivers from working excessive hours, but it actually permits drivers to work excessive hours, a maximum of 90 hrs driving time per fortnight, if you went for a job and was told that you would have to work a 45 hour week, every week, you would think that this is a bit excessive, but the tachograph rules allow drivers to do these hours and more because the 90 hour fortnight is only actual driving time and not hours spent at work doing other duties such as vehicle checks loading/unloading, refuelling, waiting time etc etc.
What other jobs allow you to work continuously for up to six hours without needing a break, work up to fifteen hours in one day, have all of your working times recorded and kept on record for anyone from an official government office to look at?
If you go just one minute over your driving time you will be in a spot of bother with your employer, you will have to explain why you went over and sign an infringement letter that is kept on your driving record. Other infringements can include, not enough daily or weekly rest, exceeding 4.5hrs driving time, exceeding six hours working time, exceeding daily driving time, exceeding weekly driving time, exceeding fortnightly driving time.
