1400-0200 Mon-thur
1200-2200 on Friday.
Occasionally 1400-0200 Sun
Conor:
md1987:
Make it sound so appealing!Better to give them the reality check than have them spend thousands getting a licence then binning the job never to return a few months in.
I have to agree, I’ve been in transport since 1989 and the saying them days is “lorry driving isn’t a job but a way of life”. It is very difficult to plan a social life around your job because as Conor says losing a couple of hours a day is nothing and at most firms you can’t just turn round and come back if you held up somewhere.
I have one stepson who decided to get his licence 4-5 years ago but is now sick of the job due to the hours and he now looking for a job out of transport cos he says he want a life.
I’ve no idea what my total working hours a week are (were), it makes no difference, I’m on a salary, 5 day week contract.
On a European trip week. Start Sunday, drive to Hull, book onto the ferry, wait a bit. Board the ferry, knock off. 6:30 driving. Truck has been washed, adblued, loaded and hooked to the correct trailer by the UK drivers. All I have to do is check everything is right, and drive to the ferry.
Monday, start when driving off the ferry, often heading for Switzerland. Sort out any customs paperwork, drive to Switzerland. Roughly 8:50 driving, sometimes 9:50.
Tuesday is busy. Start and drive to the customs agent, clear customs, 1 to 1:30 waiting. Drive to customers, 1 - 5, depending on the load. Drive to loading out of Switzerland, load. Back to the border, clear custom on the way out. Get as far North as possible, preferably another hour. 15 hour day, unless everything has just dropped right into place.
Wednesday, catch the ferry back to Hull. There may be collections to do en-route. 8 - 10 hours driving, depending on all sorts of factors.
Thursday, drive off the ferry. Clear Customs, 1 - 3 hours waiting if not longer. Drop what drops I can on the way back to Scotland and the yard. Week finished. Another 9 hrs driving day, usually.
There might be overtime on Friday, especially if I’m on a UK week next week. That’ll be a 7-8 start, load anything for a European load, may be 1 load, maybe 6 collections. Back to the yard. Tranship part loads onto the correct trailers, wash trucks, refill AdBlu, park everything up, ready for the guys on a Euro-trip starting Sunday. Knock off, 6 to 8 hour day.
I might start earlier, with a drop from a European load that couldn’t be done on Thursday.
the fub:
Start at 7pm and finished around 2am at the latest. 4 nights a week and off every weekend. Wages aren’t the greatest tbh, around £730 gross but I’m in the job more for the hours and not the money. Time off at my age (55) is more important than chasing the coin
That sounds not bad. What sector is that please?
Last class 1 job I had was nights juat shipping pallets to our depots, so officially was 7pm to 5am. But I can count on one hand the number of times I finished by then in a year. Was anything from 7am to 6pm (10 hours) or 7pm to 10am (15 hours).
Don’t forget, legally you can start work again 9 hours later so they could want say:
Mon: 7pm to 10am
Tues: 7pm to 9.30am
Wed: 7pm to 6am
Thurs: 7pm to 10am
Fri: 7pm to 6am
etc.
(Those are genuinely the kinds of hours I worked for a respectable pallet company).
Try adjusting your sleeping pattern to that especially as that 9 hours includes going home, sleep, food, having a life, going back etc. Thats why I ditched it and would never ever go back despite it paying really well. There are better jobs, but you have to be really lucky to get those in the first couple of years. Ultimately it destroyed my mental stability and nearly finished me a few times.
Class 2 pallets was better with mostly 7am to 5pm roughly. Harder physically, but more sensible hours.
Or do what I do now - bin wagons. 6am to 2pm - 4pm. If you’re a driver its not very physical although mentally its hard. But I got lucky and got my own 18T wagon, am on my own all day and wouldn’t swap it for any HGV driving job. My one is hard physically, but I love it. So don’t assume class 1 is the only thing you can do after passing your test.
Night trunking parcels for the last 12 months it’s been start 19:00 finish between 05:00 (very rare) and 06:30, usually around 06:00. If I get asked to do some yard shunting at the depot then it might run to 07:30. That’s Monday to Friday nights. According to Microlise I should be walking out of the gate by 04:45, that’s never happened!
stu675:
the fub:
Start at 7pm and finished around 2am at the latest. 4 nights a week and off every weekend. Wages aren’t the greatest tbh, around £730 gross but I’m in the job more for the hours and not the money. Time off at my age (55) is more important than chasing the coinThat sounds not bad. What sector is that please?
General Haulage. Tbh it’s like working in a retirement home lol.
Across 4 different companies over a 20 year period, I’ve generally worked 10-12 hour shifts on average - all nightshifts. I’ve done 15 hour shifts, and get the occasional 6 hour shift, so there’s quite a lot of exceptions, but most shifts have been (and still are) around 10-12 hours for me.
I also won’t work mon-fri. I only work 4on 4off, and have for over 8 years so far.
Start at 1am, finish at 11am pretty much on the dot, gross of £57,400. Sunday to Thursday.
Don’t get me wrong first few weeks felt like I’d been hit by a bus but now I’m used to it I love it. Afternoons for myself and save loads on after school childcare and get to see them more.
I am a new pass of 8 months.
I work 2’s and 3’s with one of the big companies.
Mon/Tues on, Wed/Thurs off, Fri,Sat,Sun in, Mon/Tues off, Wed/Thursday in, Fri/Sat/Sun off. It then resets. Works out as only 3.5 days a week. I average around 11 hours a shift. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later. I finished all this week in 10 ish hours but maybe next week I will end up on a 14 hour. Who knows.
A lot of it comes down to road knowledge if you are multidrop. I am starting to get better but road knowledge is king to finish early and being planned and prepared. Foot down will not get you home early.
the fub:
Start at 7pm and finished around 2am at the latest. 4 nights a week and off every weekend. Wages aren’t the greatest tbh, around £730 gross but I’m in the job more for the hours and not the money. Time off at my age (55) is more important than chasing the coin
Nearly 38k for 4 nights a week, 7 hour shifts, no weekends. I’d say that’s pretty ■■■■ good money. Around these parts it is anyway! Good on ya 
Conor:
md1987:
Make it sound so appealing!Better to give them the reality check than have them spend thousands getting a licence then binning the job never to return a few months in.
Yeah its fair point mate. I’d only ever worked 4 nights a week before coming into driving. Started on afternoon starts 5 nights a week, 12 hours nearly every night (particularly Fridays). I thought stuff this…
I was fortunate to be offered the position where I am now on 4 on 4 off with a third less hours. Made a world of difference and I now enjoy it. I say fortunate as I didnt exactly have much experience and as I think someone may have already said 4 on 4 off vacancies seem less common now in favour of 5 on 3 off etc.
toonsy:
Start at 1am, finish at 11am pretty much on the dot, gross of £57,400. Sunday to Thursday.Don’t get me wrong first few weeks felt like I’d been hit by a bus but now I’m used to it I love it. Afternoons for myself and save loads on after school childcare and get to see them more.
Ltd??
Goff118:
I currently only work 1 Sunday per fortnight in the HGV industry, for a supermarket. The minimum expected for this shift is around 10 hours, starting between 6am and 9am. Depending on the run you get, this can easily turn into a 12 hour day. The longest shift I’ve done so far was 14hrs 45 minutes, so almost at the limit of what can be worked in a day.
By HGV industry I’m guessing you mean Road Haulage, Road Transport, distribution something like that. Because there isn’t such a thing as the HGV industry or if there is it would be manufacturing HGV’s. #justsaying
Ps 10-12 hour shifts 4 days a week. Average about 42 hours per week
Jimmy McNulty:
Goff118:
I currently only work 1 Sunday per fortnight in the HGV industry, for a supermarket. The minimum expected for this shift is around 10 hours, starting between 6am and 9am. Depending on the run you get, this can easily turn into a 12 hour day. The longest shift I’ve done so far was 14hrs 45 minutes, so almost at the limit of what can be worked in a day.By HGV industry I’m guessing you mean Road Haulage, Road Transport, distribution something like that. Because there isn’t such a thing as the HGV industry or if there is it would be manufacturing HGV’s. #justsaying
Ps 10-12 hour shifts 4 days a week. Average about 42 hours per week
Yep fair point. Transport industry then.
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I work 3 days a week. On the days I work I start at 6am and finish between 2pm and 3pm. Sometimes it all goes pear-shaped, resulting in me finishing significantly earlier (loads cancelled etc). Occasionally it results in me finishing a bit later, but very rarely later than about 4pm. I’m fairly flexible during my shift, as the runs I need to do generally take less than 7 hours or so to complete (and that typically only involves less than 3 hours driving and an hour or so of Other Work - the rest of the time is spent wating/snoozing/getting a coffee/reading a book), as a result I do a fair bit of ad-hoc taking of units/trailers/rigids to and from the dealer/workshop, yard shunting etc.
These hours are not set in stone, and sometimes I do a different run and start at 5am, finished by around 3pm. My employer occasionally needs me to fill in for one of the regular trunk drivers, and start a bit later (say, 8am), but they will always ask me in advance if this is OK (I’ll still normally be finished by 4pm). I don’t do late shifts, nights, Nights Out or weekends/Bank Holidays (other than on a purely voluntary Overtime basis).
PaddyTheLorryDriver:
toonsy:
Start at 1am, finish at 11am pretty much on the dot, gross of £57,400. Sunday to Thursday.Don’t get me wrong first few weeks felt like I’d been hit by a bus but now I’m used to it I love it. Afternoons for myself and save loads on after school childcare and get to see them more.
Ltd??
No full time employed.
Never have and never will touch Ltd.
Depends on the traffic!
Follow some of the drivers on you tube, Luke C, Trucker Jay, Trucker Jenco, Exept for Access. Trucker Floz is a good one as he does agency work and so does various things although recently he seems to be doing podcasts.
toonsy:
PaddyTheLorryDriver:
toonsy:
Start at 1am, finish at 11am pretty much on the dot, gross of £57,400. Sunday to Thursday.Don’t get me wrong first few weeks felt like I’d been hit by a bus but now I’m used to it I love it. Afternoons for myself and save loads on after school childcare and get to see them more.
Ltd??
No full time employed.
Never have and never will touch Ltd.
Wow, that’s one hefty wage
28.8 hrs a week…only do 3 days now… Tues Weds Thurs…plus o/t on Saturday if required,at time and a half 