windrush:
Has the night work rate increased now that tarmac/lafart need transport? We used to get rate and a half for night and Sunday work, previously under Tilcon it was rate and threequarters so a few jacked in doing it when Tarmac lowered it! I did plenty of nights but the only problem was that, working for a private haulier, I was behind all the tarmac O/D’s (some even came up to Derbyshire from Shrewsbury!) and might only get one load if the tonnage was dropped so the truck and me stood down a days work for only one load at night. RMC/Cemex had a better system, if you were booked for two loads you were paid for two even if you dropped a load. That was good because again I would be loaded behind their own trucks but sometimes would be home before they loaded their second load if the tonnage was cut, one load done and paid for two.
Pete.
To answer your question pete, the night rate changed earlier in the year from rate and a half as you say, it is now £120 shift pay + day rate for the load, this overall works out slightly better if you do a lot of nights of say 1 load per night,
on the other hand any returned load used to pay half rate,(which was half of rate and a half remember) never mind how much you took back, now its half of day rate per ton returned, (total crap) if you have to run out of your way to tip off you can end up doing it for sod all!
also the times of a storming night for the driver ( 2 out and a return part load ) are now over as the second load is not worth as much as it used to be due to it being day rate, remember you’ve already had your shift pay!
other plants such as cemex are different, in my opinion as more and more of this work is done at night it seems to become the norm and as such the rates keep sliding closer to day rates, tbh it wouldn’t matter if the quarries only paid day rate at night someone would still do it, yes there has been a shortage of wagons at times but this is soon rectified as they are drafted in from another plant when needs be, in fact if the quarry said to the contracted hauliers that they would have to meet on the weighbridge dressed as the Village People and do star jumps for an hr before loading some would still do as they were told !!
There has been no shortage of night work this year and next is looking the same at this point from speaking to the gangs on site.
Thank’s for that info Moose, so Tarmac/Lafart shout ‘jump’ and the o/d’s shout ‘how high?’ and still carry on as normal as the job slowly goes downhill! Some things never change do they, it makes me smile when I read about some of the wages paid out on this forum (class 1 admittedly) and compare it to rates paid to tipper men on aggregate and blacktop work! Still, we always were the poor relations.
There used to be a saying,You can fool 1% non of the time but 99% all of the time,seems it still applies.Seen too many come and go over the years with high hopes and promises and most end in tears and heartache,but non the less you can,t help but admire a chap from trying.So good luck and fortune for the coming year to all the tryers. regard,s, jack preston.rtd.
Well I’ve always said don’t keep all your eggs in 1 basket like so many have done over the years ( for obvious reasons ) and be prepared to go to the work because it doesn’t always come to you, so with that in mind we’ve had an offer on the table to supply 1 vehicle for 6 months to an International Asphalt company and also to provide 3 drivers for that vehicle to work it day and night, 7 days a week between Fontainebleau and Beaune to the south of Paris working on the E60 because the road surface has deteriorated so quickly in the last 2 years that it’s all got to be replaced.
After doing all the legal bits that go with this sort of thing and the potential earnings that have been talked about it all should make an interesting 6 months so hopefully it all comes off, I never thought I would be going back over the water again in a wagon so looking forwards to it.
What annoys me (back on my soap box, even though I am long out of the job!) about night and out of hours work on surfacing is that no doubt the materials will be more expensive at night, the gangers will be on extra money, the plant operator’s will be as well, yet the haulier is now expected to do it all for standard rate! Ok, some operators will be double shifting the truck but then you are wearing it out twice as quickly. I remember years ago we were surfacing the (then new) services where the M18 and M180 join, we were watching all the brickies, joiners, groundworkers etc arriving in nice new vans and (as one haulier observed) we were sitting there with quite a valuable material on board in 10-15 year old trucks! Now it is mostly nice shiny newish trucks working for rates that haven’t moved much in years, funny old world is it not?
windrush:
What annoys me (back on my soap box, even though I am long out of the job!) about night and out of hours work on surfacing is that no doubt the materials will be more expensive at night, the gangers will be on extra money, the plant operator’s will be as well, yet the haulier is now expected to do it all for standard rate! Ok, some operators will be double shifting the truck but then you are wearing it out twice as quickly. I remember years ago we were surfacing the (then new) services where the M18 and M180 join, we were watching all the brickies, joiners, groundworkers etc arriving in nice new vans and (as one haulier observed) we were sitting there with quite a valuable material on board in 10-15 year old trucks! Now it is mostly nice shiny newish trucks working for rates that haven’t moved much in years, funny old world is it not?
Pete.
Haulage companies in the UK are very good at making a do on s##t rates ! What you’ve got to do is look at area’s in which ya can save money and then ya can combat the rates that these companies want to pay ya, nobody said we would all be millionaires out of the job and I for one feel more inclined to think that we choose to live this way and be involved with the wagons for better or worse, if the rates are a bit poor then so be it, I don’t know about the riches that you chaps used to earn in the times that you talk about before some of you retired all I know is that we’re glad to be doing what we’re doing just now, we’re enjoying the wagons and looking after them etc, I’m not gonna sit around and worry about the rates or what brand new vehicles other companies are driving round in, we’re just going to get on with it and enjoy the way of life that we choose to live.
windrush:
Thank’s for that info Moose, so Tarmac/Lafart shout ‘jump’ and the o/d’s shout ‘how high?’ and still carry on as normal as the job slowly goes downhill! Some things never change do they, it makes me smile when I read about some of the wages paid out on this forum (class 1 admittedly) and compare it to rates paid to tipper men on aggregate and blacktop work! Still, we always were the poor relations.
Pete.
IF ALL the O/D’s stuck together ( either contracted or as a sole trader with a tipper ) the companies that pay the rates would not stand a ######g chance against the workin man ###k em they would have to pay better rates, there’s only yourselves to blame and if ya don’t like what I’ve just written then you should have done something about it YEARS AGO.
As for pay rates for actual HGV night drivers I would never expect a workin man with a family etc and plans for the future to work for less than I would expect to earn, therefore we don’t care about the size of the vehicle the rate is the same £140 for the shift for the driver ( self employed ) with proof of his UTR number and an invoice for every week - but they have to know exactly what they are doing and we know by talking to them face to face IF they know what they’re talking about, honestly it’s as easy as that and most shifts don’t even last 10 hours, times are changing with drivers wages ! If ya don’t pay ya don’t play.
John, I am talking about tarmac/lafarge o/d’s (or Contract Hauliers if you want) and not hauliers like yourself, or who I drove for, who have the choice to go where they want, operate an older truck and are not held to ransom by one company. We didn’t make a fortune years ago, but when the quarries had their own fleets of vehicles the rates were stabilised as they had to run without a loss and so the rates for the private lads with a wagon or two were decent as well. Then the quarry transport was sold off and the rates didn’t rise in line with inflation, plus fuel prices rose rapidly and, unlike the general haulage lads who could negotiate their own prices for transport, quarry transport had to accept what was given them, like it or lump it! I was only a driver but, being on earnings, the rates affected my wages so I tried to stick with quarries who paid decent rates per tonne. However, with so many Tarmac contract hauliers coming along the work for the o/d’s dropped off so I had to go wherever I could for loads and some of it was cr*p really but I had to make a wage somehow!
Like I posted earlier, night and sunday work was rate and threequarters at one time, now it seems it has dropped to single rate and I cannot take the blame for that as it is now twelve years since I drove a truck, but if folk are happy to run for that (and still have a brand new truck to pay for) then nothing much is going to change for the better.
windrush:
John, I am talking about tarmac/lafarge o/d’s (or Contract Hauliers if you want) and not hauliers like yourself, or who I drove for, who have the choice to go where they want, operate an older truck and are not held to ransom by one company. We didn’t make a fortune years ago, but when the quarries had their own fleets of vehicles the rates were stabilised as they had to run without a loss and so the rates for the private lads with a wagon or two were decent as well. Then the quarry transport was sold off and the rates didn’t rise in line with inflation, plus fuel prices rose rapidly and, unlike the general haulage lads who could negotiate their own prices for transport, quarry transport had to accept what was given them, like it or lump it! I was only a driver but, being on earnings, the rates affected my wages so I tried to stick with quarries who paid decent rates per tonne. However, with so many Tarmac contract hauliers coming along the work for the o/d’s dropped off so I had to go wherever I could for loads and some of it was cr*p really but I had to make a wage somehow!
Like I posted earlier, night and sunday work was rate and threequarters at one time, now it seems it has dropped to single rate and I cannot take the blame for that as it is now twelve years since I drove a truck, but if folk are happy to run for that (and still have a brand new truck to pay for) then nothing much is going to change for the better.
Pete.
Road Haulage - drivers, fitters, rates, stories, MASTERFLEX ! etc etc etc - I love every minute of it even after 30 years and washing wagons in rain, changing wheels in snow it doesn’t matter because we live like this for better for worse for richer for poorer and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Where’s Gloves gone ? give us some pictures barry, cheers.
shirtbox2003:
this should waken a few old dogs, pics and tales please.
One for Andy Mason, hope it is the correct Foden
Barry/Gloves
PS this site has gone very quiet lately■■?
Waiting for more of your pictures Barry!!! Yes this Foden was Brian’s then Andys then John Davies last spotted a good number of years ago flying down Clitheroe bypass when it got nicked I was on ngts coming back into Bankfield, spotted it going out but never thought about because at the time Wagons where running 24/7 to the batching plant at Manchester Airport runway 2!!! But some scrotes had nicked it
shirtbox2003:
this should waken a few old dogs, pics and tales please.
One for Andy Mason, hope it is the correct Foden
Barry/Gloves
PS this site has gone very quiet lately■■?
I agree with tarmactipper Barry. Everyone’s waiting on your brilliant pics. I showed a few of the ones you added to the Peak District that to a few friends over Christmas and they all agreed how great they were. Certainly invoked plenty of memories as they were all remembered well. If you have any more, would you mind adding them please? Many thanks.
PS. Glad to see you back fella. Hope you’re all well.
mason8170:
1Don’t know where these are from,it was outside my house in Accrington this morning
Only talking to the owner driver this Saturday, whilst he was servicing that actual Foden Alpha. Works out of the usual tarmac batching plants of Halton East and Cross Green. Used to run DAFs when I first met him over 20 years ago. Hails from the dales beyond Skipton
RMC/Cemex had a better system, if you were booked for two loads you were paid for two even if you dropped a load. That was good because again I would be loaded behind their own trucks but sometimes would be home before they loaded their second load if the tonnage was cut, one load done and paid for two.
Some things never change do they, it makes me smile when I read about some of the wages paid out on this forum (class 1 admittedly) and compare it to rates paid to tipper men on aggregate and blacktop work! 
Still, we always were the poor relations.
I was on ngts coming back into Bankfield, spotted it going out but never thought about because at the time Wagons where running 24/7 to the batching plant at Manchester Airport runway 2!!! But some scrotes had nicked it 
