so then i ve come into this industry in a “bad time”,and everyone keeps going on how bad it is,no jobs poor pay etc.my question is how different is it now to when we are in “good times”.apart from the obvious of number of jobs and people applying.what goes hand in hand with the good times.
clarkyboy:
so then i ve come into this industry in a “bad time”,and everyone keeps going on how bad it is,no jobs poor pay etc.my question is how different is it now to when we are in “good times”.apart from the obvious of number of jobs and people applying.what goes hand in hand with the good times.
If you’d have started in this industry or any other in 1980 then you’d know what bad times really are.But the ironic thing was as soon as I went out of the job in 1999 with a knackered back all I kept hearing was that there’s too much work and not enough drivers and the wage levels in some of the adverts were way over anything I’d ever seen.But wether it’s good or bad times you very rarely see long distance/international work advertised as those jobs are usuallly taken as soon as they are available.So you go to the local job centre now or then,good times or bad, and most if not all that’s on their books will be local multi drop or other types of distribution work if you’re lucky.
The agency lads used to cane it in, regularly doing £800-£1000 per week before the recession and digital tacho’s came in. Those days are gone and now agency driving is only worth doing if you don’t need the money and just keep doing a bit here and there for the crack. Salaried jobs have allways been fairly constant, constantly crap that is with few and far between on £30k plus per annum.
Good times as an OD from 1991,getting weekended at Madrid/Barclelona/Lisbon/Porto/Malaga or Gibraltar.Drop the trailer,then bob tail(tractor solo)to Playa de Guincho,near Cascais,on the Estoril coast.The rate then for a French port to Lisbon,re-load Oporto was £1950,ferries paid,trailer paid,un-accompanied trailer sent out to Caen(Ouistreham),St.Malo,or Cherbourg.Gib was £2200.ADR £70 per trip.
Porto would always load export on friday night/saturday mornings,Lisbon never had export to the UK.We would spend all day in the Braga/Guimaraes/Braganza area in the mountains loading marble/shoes/textiles,to tranship that night,local drivers got to go home,the foreign drivers had to stay awake all night to move from bays,with no sleep.Going down was a Motivo contract for JCB.Fines for being over height were common place.In Portugal,it was “coffee” money for the GNR road police,bung money was the order of the day.French customs were on the take for the “tabac”,my permit would only have 4 trips on it,which need to get stamped,i was on my 5th trip,with no space left on the permit to go,back down,i was asked by the Douanes,if i had any tabac,i said no,then a fine,if i had played the game,they would have turned a blind eye to the permit.
in relation to jobs,it has been mine,and a lot of peoples i know experience that the only jobs advertised in job centres in transport are agencies or really crap companies.
to get a decent job i think you need to have an idea of who you want to work for(ie shortlist of companies) and go and door knock face to face.i reckon most good jobs or jobs worth doing are word of mouth a friend of a friend type of thing,and are never advertised.
i thank my lucky stars i have never had to rely on the good old jobcentre to find me employment.
in relation to the original post,the bad times have never really affected us for some reason as car sales have never been busier,apart from an immediate downturn at the start of the recession,volumes have been consistently good.the car transport industry has its own peaks and troughs every year anyway,but at this time of year it should be really quiet,it is still relativley busy.however if it does go pete tong,it has major consequences immediatley.so fingers crossed.
toby1234abc:
Good times as an OD from 1991,getting weekended at Madrid/Barclelona/Lisbon/Porto/Malaga or Gibraltar.Drop the trailer,then bob tail(tractor solo)to Playa de Guincho,near Cascais,on the Estoril coast.The rate then for a French port to Lisbon,re-load Oporto was £1950,ferries paid,trailer paid,un-accompanied trailer sent out to Caen(Ouistreham),St.Malo,or Cherbourg.Gib was £2200.ADR £70 per trip.
Porto would always load export on friday night/saturday mornings,Lisbon never had export to the UK.We would spend all day in the Braga/Guimaraes/Braganza area in the mountains loading marble/shoes/textiles,to tranship that night,local drivers got to go home,the foreign drivers had to stay awake all night to move from bays,with no sleep.Going down was a Motivo contract for JCB.Fines for being over height were common place.In Portugal,it was “coffee” money for the GNR road police,bung money was the order of the day.French customs were on the take for the “tabac”,my permit would only have 4 trips on it,which need to get stamped,i was on my 5th trip,with no space left on the permit to go,back down,i was asked by the Douanes,if i had any tabac,i said no,then a fine,if i had played the game,they would have turned a blind eye to the permit.
But whatever the issues and problems which you might face running on international the fact is that it’s still those local uk multi drop type jobs which are usually on offer in good times or bad while the long distance international jobs are/were always (rightly) the hardest to find and get onto because it’s those which most of us are/were looking for.
buck rogers:
in relation to jobs,it has been mine,and a lot of peoples i know experience that the only jobs advertised in job centres in transport are agencies or really crap companies.
to get a decent job i think you need to have an idea of who you want to work for(ie shortlist of companies) and go and door knock face to face.i reckon most good jobs or jobs worth doing are word of mouth a friend of a friend type of thing,and are never advertised.
i thank my lucky stars i have never had to rely on the good old jobcentre to find me employment.
in relation to the original post,the bad times have never really affected us for some reason as car sales have never been busier,apart from an immediate downturn at the start of the recession,volumes have been consistently good.the car transport industry has its own peaks and troughs every year anyway,but at this time of year it should be really quiet,it is still relativley busy.however if it does go pete tong,it has major consequences immediatley.so fingers crossed.
I had a shortlist of companies doing international work who I wanted to work for.But knocking on their door was never going to get me the job and I knew it.But I spent hours and loads of money on phone calls just in case I might get lucky.I reckon that a lot of the driver shortage that was being talked about recently was just caused by the disillusionment of many drivers who decided to walk away instead of taking on the new idea of trucks doing relatively local or uk trunking work while rail and air or foreign haulage does the long distance international.But now that many new drivers don’t seem to make that distinction it looks like we’re getting to the situation where there’s even too many drivers chasing too few local distribution or uk trunking type jobs.I’d say that good or bad times is’nt really the issue in the road transport industry.