job for today
a- b /168 miles -deliver 10 pallets
b-a /168 miles- empty.
sometimes it makes you wonder how firms make money
nice easy day then. 
maybe it’s part of the deal. many moons ago, we used to charge full rate down, and half rate back. any reload would be a bonus.
ady1:
job for today
a- b /168 miles -deliver 10 palletsb-a /168 miles- empty.
sometimes it makes you wonder how firms make money
Not running, but spent 6 hours loading 12 pallets today…for an internal transfer (1 depot to another)
They won’t be able to afford the hamster or Denice van Outen for advertising at this rate
Semtex:
ady1:
job for today
a- b /168 miles -deliver 10 palletsb-a /168 miles- empty.
sometimes it makes you wonder how firms make money
Not running, but spent 6 hours loading 12 pallets today…for an internal transfer (1 depot to another)
They won’t be able to afford the hamster or Denice van Outen for advertising at this rate
my boss once pulled me up from bristol to newcastle for steel going to edinburgh then moans we are not making money
My mob has a customer where they pay so well we can afford to have a unit and trl run empty for 100 miles to go pick the stuff up, so it doesn’t matter of we can’t find a load to go out that way
I came back from the south east THREE times the other week empty, VERY unusal for the company concerned, when I queried it with the de-brief clerk, the answer was “the rates are that good at the moment, its not worth the hassle of finding / sorting out a back load AND we want the unit back for a night run”.
So, is it getting better for the few that are left ■■?
When i was on RPL a few years ago i ran empty from the yard in Milton Keynes, up to Billingham, loaded, then down to Magor, tipped then empty back to the yard in Milton Keynes… 2 days work, 1 paying load, which was for Tesco so the rates were likely as not crap! And they wonder why they are skint!!
company i work for run bulk tippers and curtainsiders for one of our customers.
The bulkers are usually run loaded both ways (by-product out and raw material in)
However the curtainsiders run out with finished product and 9 times out of 10 run back empty.
We cover the whole of the UK and very occasionaly N.France and Belguim
Ive run empty in the past back to Cheshire from Elgin, Redruth and Paris !!!
Boss says its too much hassle getting backloads coz rates include empty running back to factory so they can use the trailer again.
We used to load plastic film from near South Mimms but they kept putting 5 or 6 drops on an dit took a couple of days to deliver them. So now we dont bother.
i very often run back empty, even from scotland. our trailers are normally booked on an ‘as needed’ basis one or two days in advance. if we pick up a backload and then can’t deliver until the next day, everything goes ■■■■ up! we run 4 units with 8 trailers (7 flats, 1 curtainsider), so there isn’t much scope for swapping around unless there’s a unit idle for the next day.
does elgin to sandtoft qualify 
Not empty running, but I once took 3 pallets out on an artic 
Not sure how often it happens, but i’ve witnessed it twice myself.
Driver takes an empty trailer to our Welsh DC (three & 3/4 hours away). Is then given another empty trailer for the return journey. Insane.
The only realistic way to cut down on empty running is to have one nationalised freight exchange with a uniformed set rate per mile/tonne. The nearest suitable truck gets the job. It would completely screw up any idea of competition but would chuff the environmentalists no end. Fewer trucks on the road all working to capacity creating less pollution. The only major problem I can foresee is it becoming too bureaucratic.
enit?:
The only realistic way to cut down on empty running is to have one nationalised freight exchange with a uniformed set rate per mile/tonne. The nearest suitable truck gets the job. It would completely screw up any idea of competition but would chuff the environmentalists no end. Fewer trucks on the road all working to capacity creating less pollution. The only major problem I can foresee is it becoming too bureaucratic.
It never worked with BRS and your modern equivalent may be Stobarts or Wincanton. the bloke on the other side of the desk doesn’t communicate with his mate opposite, so don’t hold your breath waiting for an efficient centralised traffic office.
Going back a few years when i worked on lift tanks. Monday morning often saw me meet a Middlesboro truck and empty skellie heading to Hull while I was heading to Middlesboro with an empty skellie for a tank. 
you think thats bad, ive seen the rates for a artic to lets say place “a”
now in the contract im doing at the min, im driving class 2, on the rates for what im driving, i can goto place “a” come back empty, take the rest of the load up and come back empty and its cheaper that the oringinal class 1 rate!! 
Wheel Nut:
enit?:
The only realistic way to cut down on empty running is to have one nationalised freight exchange with a uniformed set rate per mile/tonne. The nearest suitable truck gets the job. It would completely screw up any idea of competition but would chuff the environmentalists no end. Fewer trucks on the road all working to capacity creating less pollution. The only major problem I can foresee is it becoming too bureaucratic.It never worked with BRS and your modern equivalent may be Stobarts or Wincanton. the bloke on the other side of the desk doesn’t communicate with his mate opposite, so don’t hold your breath waiting for an efficient centralised traffic office.
I didn’t say it would work, I only know it could work.
As for large companies not cooperating with each other beggars belief. I once went for a job with a P&O company and commented at the interview at least I would have no problem getting a ferry. He said P&O treat each division as a separate company and don’t give them anymore consideration as anyone else. 
As for trailers passing each other going in opposite directions. I worked for Whitrux many years ago. I had tipped in Florence and instructed to load Trento. I passed another Whitrux going south and when I next saw him asked what he was doing. He said he had tipped Verona and instructed to load Bolognia.
DAF95XF:
Not empty running, but I once took 3 pallets out on an artic
I once did Bibby Bicester to Safeway Aylesford with one pallet of Budweiser,backed on the bay next to my mate out of Bicester with 2 pallets of Bud only to be followed an hour later by another Bicester artic with 6 pallets of Bud ,the reason given?? the computer booked them as 3 different loads so they aloocated 3 different vehicles
It`s amazing that any haulier makes money…I run a lot of time with an empty trailer, but it does catch the car drivers on roundabouts off thier guard, 460 Horses unleashed in thier general direction makes thier assumptions the mutha of all 4cups 
Running empty trailer’s from one end of the Country to t’other is not a new thing for big transport co’s 
This is what I did on Boxing Day 1983 :-
Unit only (from outside the front door of my house in Oldham) straight down to the Park Royal (London) depot pick up an m/t trailer and then take it up to the Crick depot then change trailer’s and run that m/t trailer up to Fox’s biscuits warehouse at Birstall again just to drop it there to be first loaded after the holidays 
Turns out I dropped it at the wrong warehouse, should have been in Batley, so it didn’t get loaded anyway
Still got paid for the run and AFAIR my tacho card was all legal and this was done in a really old F86 that was doing it’s final trip as it was the last F86 that the company was running before they were replaced with F7’s, F10’s & F12’s Obviously this was pre-limiter days and this old motor with well over a million klicks on the clock was still able to hit 70 mph and do a good days graft Albeit running empty all the time wouldn’t like to have tried it running freighted I’d probably still be on the road to Fox’s today, with a missing persons alert out somewhere
Regards
Dave Penn;