That’s a nice drag to Bristol and back from Lincoln! 
George
Struggling to decide whether I want the job or not now;
Boring old run but steady work, £20500/pa which works out just under £400 a week for 50ish hours ends up at £7.50ish an hour when I’m currently on £8.50/hour (usually).
What would you do, given what’s been said above and I’ve only got 6mths experience but relatively steady work on more money via agencies?
darkseeker:
Struggling to decide whether I want the job or not now;Boring old run but steady work, £20500/pa which works out just under £400 a week for 50ish hours ends up at £7.50ish an hour when I’m currently on £8.50/hour (usually).
What would you do, given what’s been said above and I’ve only got 6mths experience but relatively steady work on more money via agencies?
most of the [zb] that gets given out is to the 7nhalf tonne muliti drop drivers they expected to carry 6mtr long worktops etc
100kg trampolines etc deliver them all by themselves
on the class1 side its piece of [zb] nothing hard about it
no grief no hard work
only down side is repetitive same thing day in day out but end day its full time job regular wage, paid on last working day of month, take it get some experience it will count for alot saying u had full time job driving class 1
alot of the units are no older than 4/5 years max although alot of newer ones been coming thru recently
but as stated alot of the trailers are battered and scraped to hell, just stand your ground if its not roadworthy dont take it end of
darkseeker:
I MIGHT have bagged a job with these, gotta ring tomorow.Trunking to bristol (vaculug), trailer swap and back - piece of ■■■■ but sounds pretty boring to me.
Little concerned after reading this though, is it really this bad?
night trunk from vac-lug, grantham was o.k, money not brilliant, unless you did double run10 hrsx2, but if they ask you to do lodge tyres ,brum,run as fast as you can, tipping and reloading a artic full of lorry tyres is not for faint hearted[if they stiil do that run on days].
darkseeker:
Struggling to decide whether I want the job or not now;Boring old run but steady work, £20500/pa which works out just under £400 a week for 50ish hours ends up at £7.50ish an hour when I’m currently on £8.50/hour (usually).
What would you do, given what’s been said above and I’ve only got 6mths experience but relatively steady work on more money via agencies?
are you sure its 50 hrs, yes your gar that, but i never worked that many,
grantham -heywood dist[trailer change]-grantham
grantham-basildon[trailer change]-grantham
grantham-glous[downtons yard][trailer change]-grantham.
leave 5.30 p.m,and unless you had problems you were done by midnight on longest[glous run],used to do 30 ish hrs a.f.a.i.r , they[vac-lug] were on about cutting pay to 8 hrs because of short hours
when i did grantham-glous-grantham-heywood[night out, i was still in bunk by 3 a.m].
but runs may of changed to when i did it
ds also remember unless times have changed you finish fri night at midnight and dont start back to 5.30 p.m monday, so good night sleep fri night, all day sat, all day sunday, and then all day until 5.30 p.m mon, very long w/end
then in the week your back by midnight, good kip till 7 a.m then all day untill 5.30 p.m
it was job from heaven if you have plenty to do at home, also they didnt like it but i used to do agency at w/end to bolster money
las 2 things, then i retire from this thread
- its the idea job for late 50,s, 60 yr old driver, mate who was 60 odd did basildon run, said up to previous jobs he felt like he was semi retired,he loved it as time at home gardening,wife,grandkids was more important than money.
- boredom killed it a bit, but the thing that got to me most was i did glous run [longest], when i got back midnight ish,basildon,heywood drivers were home and in bed, same money as me but min hour a night less, it grated with me in the end,they wouldnt alternate,they both left yard and were pretty much straight on a1, i had to get to donnington,or a46 leiceste before i could really start motoring, as i say grated with me in end, they wouldnt even alternate 1 night,anyway best of luck
I’m just going on the hours I’ve been told (17:00-01:15) ah! 
added that up wrong then, I’ll see what’s said today anyway but thanks for all the info.
Lycanthrope:
Very strange the way they do things in the yards at depots, Nottingham you park the trailers in a gap, literally less than the width of the trailers - line it up and ram it in, scraping down the sides and pushing the others out of the way, then you have to get underneath to put the park brake on and pull the pin, and when pulling one out its usually easier to drag it out than scrabble underneath to the park brake.I would describe their practises as quite dangerous at times, you get other drivers trying to hook up the trailer next to you even though your underneath it, they drive round like lunatics in the forklifts and go in the back without using a ramp so the forklifts kinda dropping into the trailer and then ramming back out onto the bay.
One firm I did agency work for was the same except it was where you put them on the bays - it was basically one big long bay. They even had bars down the sides of the trailers. Forgotten the name but they went bust some years ago.
You’re right about it being dangerous - one bloke got killed at the hub - crushed between trailer and loading dock…
Got the job!!
Just out of curiosity though, is it common to be offered the job with no formal interview!? I went to fetch an application form the other day and spoke to them for 5mins but nowhere near an interview.
Just hope I can handle doing the same thing every night…
Ooh, while I’m on the subject; a big thanks to Robin A for pointing me in their direction and to anyone else who’s passed on details for jobs.
darkseeker:
Just hope I can handle doing the same thing every night…
It gets boring, but regular money / hours and no worries is better than agency zb any day. I go to birmingham every night same place, I just vary the roads, theres a few routes - a46/m69/m6 -a453/am42/m6 a50/a38
Can anyone tell me where exactly I’ll be going in Bristol please? I’ll be finding out on friday anyway but its always nice to have a look first.
Bristol isn’t to bad just make sure you have a large A-Z and HOPE it isn’t anywhere near BATH 
Bath’s not that bad, as long as I can remember the way I used to go and don’t have a lot of weight to lug up them bloody hills (either end of the town iirc).
The weight won’t be that much .They are only plated to 28 tons max 
.
I was looking at a v o s a plate in a nightfreight vehicle the outher day .
No idea where in bristol you are going only ever done
Basildon
Nottingham
Willenhall
is that some tax dodge or something then!? they’re 6X2 units, didn’t notice whether the trailers were two or three axles though.
Any advice regarding MAN units? I don’t know if they’re auto or manual but seem to remember reading/hearing they sometimes have wierd and wonderful gearboxes? mine’s a 56plate if that makes any difference.
That unit sounds like its on hire the one i was in was a man in blue 340 .The trailer could be anything 2 or 3 axles
but in crap condition. You quite oftern get lots of warning lights on the dash board about AbS i have been told this
is because the trailers come from Belguim what that has do with anything beats me 
. Tractor unit comes from Germany
They are autos every one i have ever drove .
darkseeker:
:shock: is that some tax dodge or something then!? they’re 6X2 units, didn’t notice whether the trailers were two or three axles though.Any advice regarding MAN units? I don’t know if they’re auto or manual but seem to remember reading/hearing they sometimes have wierd and wonderful gearboxes? mine’s a 56plate if that makes any difference.
i used to work for nightfreight at birstall depot
the older units ie 05 was manual but the 55 plate onwards was all auto boxes
so would pretty much certainly say that it will be auto box mate
as for trailers majority of them are twin axle all though some are tri axle
and majority are in bad condition body wise scraped n bashed to high heaven
Well done , your just in time, think the trailers are almost new.
If you hear they want class 2, give me a shout.