Got a £3 box of chocolates as a thank you for working the pandemic when the company furloughed 5 drivers leaving me and another 1 to do the work of 7 drivers. Admittedly there was less work but we still worked our nuts off, maxed our hours while the company bosses had a photo shoot with their new range rovers outside the transport office. Told them to keep the sweets, they need em more than I do and I was informed that my professionalism as a driver should be reward enough and my pride as a professional should stand above any bonus the company could give me. New year-new job me thinks
Look on the bright side.It could be a minibus driving job for warehouse worker crews in a tier 3 lockdown.With the ‘bonus’ of also having to ‘help’ in the warehouse. 
Ah…the annual"how much christmas bonus did you get"thread.
Well,£300 for me
simcor:
I’ve worked for small and large companies and none are perfect.And small companies most of them you are paying for the boss to have expensive cars big houses and holiday homes god knows where and expensive holidays.
100% of business owners don’t do it for you they do it for them and their family. Regardless of the size of the company they are all in for one reason profit and living a lifestyle of luxury while you are paid a pittance mostly compared to what a company turns over.
There will be the few exceptions and yes you do generally get treated a little less like a number at smaller run firms but there is always less job security in smaller firms. Big firms can hoover up a lot more losses when things go wrong without resorting to loss of jobs.
Swings and roundabouts mostly.
I feel the need to be pedantic , you cant have 100% and a few exceptions.
As for profit and living a lifestyle of luxury. You have to make a profit, there will be bad years when you don’t and need a cushion, there will be new trucks to buy. As for luxury lifestyle, I had drivers with new sports cars parked next to my ancient ex Post Office van, and lived in a house worth less than theirs. I worked for myself because I dont like working for other people, money was way down the list.
Used to give the drivers between 3-500 quid and a bottle of choice. Never did a meal out because we could never get everyone together at once. As it was not a contractual obligation, the new people give them nothing, not even a card.
jonboy80:
After a year like no other where we’ve been expected to work through lockdown and cope with the pressures of coronavirus , keeping our families safe and keeping our fine nation fed and watered, not allowed a holiday because “we’re so busy mate” I find myself having to take my holidays 11 days before xmas but not over xmas because again “we’re so busy mate” of which I can just about cope with as I can see the bigger picture, but I would have expected my company to have given all of our drivers and office staff a bonus and at the very least a thank you but no nothing and yet xpo say they look after they’re core drivers, so has your boss shown a better sign of appreciation and said thanks for a job well done
That’s where you’re going wrong.
I normally don’t get anything, but previously with this haulier, and again this year They have provided everyone inc the limpers with Christmas dinner in the works canteen or a food goodie bag equivalent in the weeks before Christmas. The staff drivers received a wage bonus for working thru the 1st lockdown, and have recently got their pay rise.
In true limper fashion I get my statutory Holidays + as many other holidays as I want. So I’m working right up to Christmas Eve, the I’m off for 10 days (with 6 days paid holidays booked for the duration).
I decided back at the start of the pandemic once I was back from furlough to max out & make max earnings up to Christmas, as I wasn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future, and I’ve managed that. What happens in the new year is yet to be decided, but there’s a good chance that I will have work in that yard thru the bleak season
Past few years we’ve had a nice bonus in our pay. Not contracted at all and very welcome.
If we have a bad year at some time it may not be there. For me that’ll be no great problem, but for newer employees who have always had it, could the “loss” of it cause trouble?
Xmas bonuses are nice, but treat them as such, not as a right, and you’ll be ok.
peirre:
I normally don’t get anything, but previously with this haulier, and again this year They have provided everyone inc the limpers with Christmas dinner in the works canteen or a food goodie bag equivalent in the weeks before Christmas. The staff drivers received a wage bonus for working thru the 1st lockdown, and have recently got their pay rise.
In true limper fashion I get my statutory Holidays + as many other holidays as I want. So I’m working right up to Christmas Eve, the I’m off for 10 days (with 6 days paid holidays booked for the duration).
I decided back at the start of the pandemic once I was back from furlough to max out & make max earnings up to Christmas, as I wasn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future, and I’ve managed that. What happens in the new year is yet to be decided, but there’s a good chance that I will have work in that yard thru the bleak season
Shouldnt you be in limper heaven aka the caribbean for a month or two? 
msgyorkie:
Shouldnt you be in limper heaven aka the caribbean for a month or two?
In a normal year… yes
Job and no xmas bonus OR no job and no xmas bonus,not a hard decision in these times of unemployment
I look, the annual whinge-fest that is the Christmas bonus thread, I got this which is more than you, na-na.
Well we’ve got Christmas day off, so I doff’d my cap to my boss and said “Thank-you Guv’nor”
albion:
simcor:
I’ve worked for small and large companies and none are perfect.And small companies most of them you are paying for the boss to have expensive cars big houses and holiday homes god knows where and expensive holidays.
100% of business owners don’t do it for you they do it for them and their family. Regardless of the size of the company they are all in for one reason profit and living a lifestyle of luxury while you are paid a pittance mostly compared to what a company turns over.
There will be the few exceptions and yes you do generally get treated a little less like a number at smaller run firms but there is always less job security in smaller firms. Big firms can hoover up a lot more losses when things go wrong without resorting to loss of jobs.
Swings and roundabouts mostly.
I feel the need to be pedantic , you cant have 100% and a few exceptions.
As for profit and living a lifestyle of luxury. You have to make a profit, there will be bad years when you don’t and need a cushion, there will be new trucks to buy. As for luxury lifestyle, I had drivers with new sports cars parked next to my ancient ex Post Office van, and lived in a house worth less than theirs. I worked for myself because I dont like working for other people, money was way down the list.
Used to give the drivers between 3-500 quid and a bottle of choice. Never did a meal out because we could never get everyone together at once. As it was not a contractual obligation, the new people give them nothing, not even a card.
I don’t mind anyone being a bit pedantic. But like I said 100% of business owners are in it to make money and have a nice lifestyle. No one goes into business pretty much for the employees they do it for themselves. And most do drive flashy expensive cars and have big houses and houses in other countries and expensive holidays every year unless its a bad year.
But there is also the few exceptions like yourself but they are few and far between rather than the norm.
So when I said 100% that is because 100% are in it for the money and lifestyle, what type of lifestyle that is, is up to them as to what is a happy lifestyle for them. Not everyone has the need to have massive flash houses and cars.
I also have worked for small businesses that have gone through hard times where the directors have not paid themselves a wage or bonuses etc and had to borrow money just to pay wages.
So I also know it’s not always luxury and and living the highlife and now it can wel be very stressful running your own businesses.
So guess I should have said 99.9% instead then lol
Franglais:
Xmas bonuses are nice, but treat them as such, not as a right, and you’ll be ok.
Exactly .
This is where unions kick a fuss.I know some are not members .In times like these collective action matters.Remember contracts mean nothing its just a piece of paper
we got f#ck all, not even a thankyou. just told lucky your drivers got a job
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My Christmas bonus is an unpaid day off because my run haas to be done early on the 24th. so I’ll be staying home as not enough daily rest. Then I’m off on 25th anyway 
Same story on 31st. All in all £180-ish less this month, but at least I don’t depend on that money (no kids etc.) i feel for my fellow co-workers who need every £ they can get though. Guy at the gatehouse almost broke down when he found out he may be getting an extra day off or 2. Like most businesses ours is struggling too so it’s not a case of ill will. Just the way things are right now.
lolipop:
Job and no xmas bonus OR no job and no xmas bonus,not a hard decision in these times of unemployment
Is there “times of unemployement”?
We cannot get quality drivers for love nor money. And all the hauliers my way are adverstising.
There is goods locked up on docks that they are desperate to get shifted.
I would have thought its a drivers bonanza at the moment…unless you are one of those useless ones that batter the kit and cannot get from A to B without wetting yourself?
msgyorkie:
I would have thought its a drivers bonanza at the moment…unless you are one of those useless ones that batter the kit and cannot get from A to B without wetting yourself?
You’re lucky. The ones ours get can’t leave the yard without hitting the gatehouse with the trailer or the curb with the cab edge
In my last driving job before I became a TM, (Last year) we only had 3 drivers, and our gaffer gave us a nice little wad of the folding stuff, and just a month earlier, I got a new XFSSC.
Ok, the Daf was a replacement tool for the job, but it was nice to have a truck that nobody had ever driven before.
This year in my first year as TM, I don’t know if we will get anything from the our MD, but as we are now in a group of companies, we night get something from the Chairman.
I won’t hold my breath
Ken.
msgyorkie:
lolipop:
Job and no xmas bonus OR no job and no xmas bonus,not a hard decision in these times of unemploymentIs there “times of unemployement”?
We cannot get quality drivers for love nor money. And all the hauliers my way are adverstising.
There is goods locked up on docks that they are desperate to get shifted.
I would have thought its a drivers bonanza at the moment…unless you are one of those useless ones that batter the kit and cannot get from A to B without wetting yourself?
I think youre missing the point here: hauliers cant get it off the quay onto trailers. It isnt a lack of trucks, its a failure of the docks. Ships are cutting and running because turnaround times are too long. Boxes are then going elsewhere.