Now you’ve had the sensible answers I will add a reminiscence.
I never worked a dray, but I was a cellarman in a big London pub where we had five drays a week including the one with 300 dozen guinness (a full load). Most of our draught beer was in hogsheads (twice the size of a barrel) and the draymen had to teach me how to get them up onto the stillages (all leverage and science). Everything came down a hole in the pavement, sliding down on a pair of runners; barrels had a rope wound around them to slow them down, but beer crates were just slid down.
Those guys worked fast; they were all on trip and finish, with a second run (to clubs) if they wanted it, except when we took the full load. They were all offered a pint and some would drink it; most took a bottle of beer or chose a soft drink.
Once they were gone, I had to sort out the crates and wash the cellar down. Ice was delivered on a flatbed truck in huge blocks by some italians, and I had to break it up by hand for the bars. Happy days and all for about £10 a week and as much beer as I could stomach. Teaching new barmaids how to pull pints was another perk
Used to be a dead mans shoes job but not now. I did it 20 odd years ago and it was only going one way then. Santa, I was on £35 a week as a cellarman! Early 80’s.
Santa:
I was doing it twenty years before that. £10 was a pretty rubbish rate. I did around 60 hours a week, so that was around three and fourpence an hour.
Santa:
I was doing it twenty years before that. £10 was a pretty rubbish rate. I did around 60 hours a week, so that was around three and fourpence an hour.
Let’s see…I got two days off…started at 6 I think on the bottling up etc worked through with breaks to 2:30 pm then closed up until 5:30 when we opened up again until 11pm chucked 'em out and tidy up say 11:30pm finish. So somewhere around the 70 hours equal to ten bob an hour!
Santa:
I was doing it twenty years before that. £10 was a pretty rubbish rate. I did around 60 hours a week, so that was around three and fourpence an hour.
Let’s see…I got two days off…started at 6 I think on the bottling up etc worked through with breaks to 2:30 pm then closed up until 5:30 when we opened up again until 11pm chucked 'em out and tidy up say 11:30pm finish. So somewhere around the 70 hours equal to ten bob an hour!
About the same hours and pay that class 1 drivers get nowadays
My 1st class 2 job was a dray run, I lasted 2 weeks!! It was back-breaking work, ■■■■■■■ heavy barrels down cellars and into pubs, it was double manned and the bloke never shut up and had an unpleasant wind problem!! The pay was good for a newbie and some of the other drivers had been doing it for 20 years and wouldn’t consider any other job, I think it’s a great job if u like abit of graft and don’t want to work on your own,
I used to do it with courage breweries a few years ago[agency] I enjoyed it,but when you were offered a drink I had to have a coke while my oppo had half an ice cold lager,still that’s life,one of the guys I worked with absolutely hated the irish,dont know if it’s still there now but it was a pub on the shepherds bush roundabout,the landlord was irish and my guy started throwing them at him,[big guy]until the landlord started objecting,[some people have no sense of humour]fair to say we were not offered a drink there though
I will add a reminiscence.
