Sat at haydock island waiting to get onto m6 south.
There’s a bloke at the road side. Around retiring age with sign bca auctions bamber bridge.
Holding his trade plates.
I felt sorry for.him and I was going the other direction
Has anyone ever picked up a tradeplate driver/hitchhiker ?
Or as anyone ever been a tradeplate driver?is it easy to get a lift.
I’ll be honest have seen a few and.never really considered stopping
But after seeing this old bloke stood there just trying to earn a living has made me think twice about it
I have given lifts to a few, always suggested to them that it’s a hard way to make a living but I don’t recall any of them being negative about it. Not my cup of tea for sure.
Usually from large auction sites, they try to pool a car for onward delivery with three or four people in it and drop them off where they need to get to. You are given company credit cards for fuel and transport costs but using taxis is a last resort and we had to phone in to get the ride agreed to by the shift manager. With the advent of Google maps, it’s so easy to plan a route from A to B, that I never once needed to hitch. I can put in a destination and the best way via bus/train/foot all come up in seconds. You could also phone up and see if anyone was near delivering or collecting that could give you a lift.
I don’t stop for platers or anyone else now, I’ve signed bits of paper saying I won’t. I imagine other HGV drivers are in the same position.
In the days when I did, I must have been the numpty magnet because I ended up with some complete dullards in my passenger seat for hours on end.
Ironically my own experience of applying for such work with whoever is that it’s a total ■■■■ take.Firstly it’s always advertised as ‘vehicle delivery/collection’ when it’s usually anything but.
Either including the personal responsibility for the safe handover of new vehicles to retail purchase customers effectively making the ‘driver’ an unqualified and underpaid car sales executive.
Or in other cases an equally unqualified lease return vehicle condition assessor.Anything goes wrong with that side of the job then the driver is personally liable for any resulting losses. Not to mention having to negotiate with a customer regarding a possible massive ‘damage’ addition to their lease bill and being caught in the middle of the resulting argument between customer and vehicle lease provider and being expected to diffuse it.The fact that they use a swings and roundabouts payment scheme which effectively means minimising their travel costs at the expense of the driver just adds insult to injury.
On that note I’ve left all such applications with the comment if they just want a ‘driver’ I’m interested.Even sometimes at the expense of unpaid time and travel costs.If not find another mug to do the job of vehicle lease return condition assessor/negotiator or retail car sales executive.While I wouldn’t be hitch hiking anywhere regardless.
Ontime Automotive had about 30 plate drivers, they either worked alone or with a chase car, it’s a great job for a fit bloke with discount rail or bus passes, if it’s delivery to a dealer they will generally give you a lift to the station, motorway, or main drag, if it’s lease cars there is normally one to come back.
I did similar work here in Calgary Canada last summer for the volvo truck dealer…lasted a couple of months poor pay but never had to hitch hike taxis air fare etc paid for hotels designated and never had to share. Sometimes a chase truck was sent to pick up drivers and occasionally something to come back also they had a small ford ranger truck towed behind the unit you were delivering. . I was all over western Canada including some local stuff. I left for a personal reason.
I gave a trade plate guy a lift from Wembley to the hollies cafe on the A5, I had my break with him (bought my meal) and he left with someone who he rang to pick him up, when I got back to the depot I noticed he’d left his trade plates in the passenger footwell.
Wheel Nut:
if it’s lease cars there is normally one to come back.
Yes usually after the 1 hour or more walk or bus ride to get there from the previous job because it won’t be a straight swap new for old and then being expected to be able to do and being paid less than 30 quid for,the job of a qualified vehicle condition assessor and then,as self employed,being made personally liable for getting the assessment wrong and/or not inputting the findings correctly through the complicated IT technology even if you don’t.Followed by being expected to be able to diffuse the inevitable argument with the irate lease holder when you show him how much all the ‘findings’ in question are going to cost him,on top of the original lease deal,as part of your ‘customer facing skills’.
All that before you can even think about ‘driving’ the car.
As for all the potential risks in being personally liable for the successful handover of a new retail purchase to someone you don’t know and have never met before don’t even go there.IE the job of a car sales executive with the lose lose of being personally liable for anything going wrong with the hand over.All that for just the peanuts mileage based ‘driver’ rate for moving the car.
Picked many up years ago, one even gave me a fiver to go a few miles out of my way and drop him at a car auction place near Belle Vue! Best one was picking a guy up at Minworth one afternoon, he was collecting a new car from a dealership at Lichfield and delivering it to one along the A38 in Derby. However, because he was too late for the delivery time and had no money for lodgings he was driving it back to his home to Windsor and then taking it to Derby the next day. At least it would be run in!
windrush:
he was too late for the delivery time and had no money for lodgings he was driving it back to his home
The adverts for car ‘delivery/collection drivers’ ask for a drive way.With enough room to park a car securely which you are generally planned to run home with at the end of a shift to deliver the next day.
windrush:
he was too late for the delivery time and had no money for lodgings he was driving it back to his home
The adverts for car ‘delivery/collection drivers’ ask for a drive way.With enough room to park a car securely which you are generally planned to run home with at the end of a shift to deliver the next day.
I realised that, it was the driving it on a 300 mile round trip instead of around 30 miles that made me smile and I wondered if the purchaser and dealer were aware of the extra miles that were going to be placed on the ‘new’ vehicle when he picked it up.
Most I picked up were chatty enough, they all seemed to like the job. Some only drove HGV’s as that made more cash for them. An old caravanning friend, now in his late 90’s, used to supplement his teacher’s wage in the fifties by delivering new Rootes cars from Coventry to the London docks for export. They were supposed to deliver two daily, take one down/train back and repeat, but the schedules were very tight and they had to take many risks like overtaking vehicles in convoy down the old A5 (in left hand drive vehicles mainly!) and many were killed or injured doing it.
windrush:
he was too late for the delivery time and had no money for lodgings he was driving it back to his home
The adverts for car ‘delivery/collection drivers’ ask for a drive way.With enough room to park a car securely which you are generally planned to run home with at the end of a shift to deliver the next day.
I realised that, it was the driving it on a 300 mile round trip instead of around 30 miles that made me smile and I wondered if the purchaser and dealer were aware of the extra miles that were going to be placed on the ‘new’ vehicle when he picked it up.
Most I picked up were chatty enough, they all seemed to like the job. Some only drove HGV’s as that made more cash for them. An old caravanning friend, now in his late 90’s, used to supplement his teacher’s wage in the fifties by delivering new Rootes cars from Coventry to the London docks for export. They were supposed to deliver two daily, take one down/train back and repeat, but the schedules were very tight and they had to take many risks like overtaking vehicles in convoy down the old A5 (in left hand drive vehicles mainly!) and many were killed or injured doing it.
Pete.
I did some factory finished vehicle and chassis delivery/collection jobs to and from the docks.
Trust me that wasn’t anything like what some of these operations have now degenerated into.As I said it’s an executive grade job with even worse personal self employed executive grade responsibilities.Expected to be handled by unqualified,non executive grade workers,for peanuts casual driver type money with the lose lose of being expected to get around on foot and by public transport in all weathers dressed in executive office worker clothing.In my case I’m happy to put up with ( some of ) the latter but there’s no way that I’d be mug enough to take on the former aspects of the job as it stands.Don’t ask me how anyone could have been bonkers or desperate enough to let it happen or take it on.At worse it really is a recipe for financial suicide if/when it all goes horribly wrong.Or at best freezing and/or soaked walking or waiting for numerous buses during a working day,dressed in formal business wear more suited to an air conditioned office.
Only encounter I’ve had with a plater was one at the M40 A34 interchange years ago; Stopped at the lights and he just opened my passenger door. I was rather rude but then I think it was justified to just assume because I was stopped he could just get in.
Seen scruffy lone hitchhikers at the roadside many times, with an equally scruffy tramp hiding out of site.
Friend of mine was offered a cushy job ,trade plate driving merc cars to and fro between London and Ipswich. But he turned it down because the job sometimes entailed overnight stops in the city where hed be paid to stay in a hotel. "i cant sleep anywhere but in my own bed "
A few years ago I was heading north on the A1 when a warning light came on the dash, so I pulled off the A1 went up the slip road, and down onto the on ramp so I could make a quick stop to switch the ignition off/on.
At the top of the on ramp was some scruffy oik carrying trade plates, who I paid no notice to. I stopped at the bottom of the ramp, switched the ignition off/on to clear the fault and stuck it in gear. Just as I stick it in gear I look in the mirror and see the oik running down the ramp having covered 200+yds before I saw him in the mirror. The last I saw as I drove off was him going ballistic as he must’ve thought I was stopping to pick him up.
Best one was picking a guy up at Minworth one afternoon, he was collecting a new car from a dealership at Lichfield and delivering it to one along the A38 in Derby. However, because he was too late for the delivery time and had no money for lodgings he was driving it back to his home to Windsor and then taking it to Derby the next day. At least it would be run in! 
