Anyone know what its like being a trade plate driver? I see BritEuropean are advertising for them. I’ve seen them hitchhiking at service stations with all their kit in a small backpack. I don’t fancy doing it just curious to know what’s its like.
Relying on other people giving you a lift,trouble is 90% of companies don’t allow you to carry passengers that ain’t employees of the firm so you could be in for a long wait.
From the horses mouth…Money is rubbish. Some companies pay your travel expenses, most don’t. You have to make your way to and from deliveries/ collections. You will get a fuel card, and be given an estimated fuel allowance to get you where you need to be. Meaning they will only allow you a certain float, then you need permission if you need more fuel. At least that’s how it worked where I was.
A lot of my lifts believe it or not, were from ordinary men/ women. The odd truck would stop but a lot of ordinary van drivers too. Trade platers won’t pick up other trade platers strangely enough. I would do it part time, but only for an agreed salary…Not by the job. Hope that helps!
■■■■■■■■ to that. Hitching rides all over the country.
I would do it if there were facilities to strap a motorcycle on the catwalk because the pay is very good but I just wouldn’t hitchhike. Then you have the time stood on a slip road in the ■■■■■■■ down rain etc…
Thanks but no thanks.
If you like driving then don’t do plating. I did it for a month or so and was a soul destroying existance.
It was the first job I took on as a newly passed Class C driver, I had absolutely no idea what I’d let myself in for and boy did I get a shock 
Turned up on Monday morning at the office in Cardiff and was told where myself and a few others would be dropped off (by car)
We were to pick up some units (ex water board or something like that iirc) that were going to a big auction place at Deeside. and then two of us were to make our way (under our own steam) to Sandbach to collect two bodyless rigids to take to somewhere North of London then to contact them when clear of that.
To which I naively say “Umm so I’m spending a night out then?” to which they laugh and say “You’ll be out all week lad”, “Uh ok then, the uh thing is though I’ve got no money or anything other than a day bag and sarnies” (which to be fair no-one had said I’d be night outing on my first day on the job they just told me to turn up at such and such a time)
Anyway they sorted me out a float of £40 (which they didn’t normally do apparently) and waved me off on my merry way.
I had no maps (no truck sat navs back then) a days sarnies a flask of tea and an interesting phone conversation with the missus (who was expecting me home that evening obviously)
Delivered the Units to Deeside, four of us then started walking and trying to hitch a ride (two were heading M6 north and two of us heading for M6 south for the Sandbach job) anyway after a bit of banter and chatting me and the other guy heading for Sandbach broke away from the other two who were heading north as we figured we’d stand a better chance of people stopping if we put a bit of distance between our two groups so we shot ahead (who the hell would stop for four guys, trade plates or not)
Anyway 10 - 15 mins walking later and this Rover 216 pulls up with an oldish guy driving (probably in his 60’s) with a youngish bird in the passenger seat (late teens maybe early twenties) asking us if we’d like a lift and where we were heading, I was so focused on the driver and answering him that even though I was practically leaning in the passenger window it took a few seconds to register that she was just sat there bold as brass with her jigglies out
And for all my wit and wisdom the only thing I could manage to say was “uh, um, yeah, very nice” 
Thankfully it turned out that pervy percy and jiggly julia were heading north so much to the delight of the other two boys I waved them up to us shouting “Oi I got you two a lift north” 
Me and the guy heading South ended up catching a train to Sandbach instead, and we spent most of the train ride giggling like two school girls at the thought of the other two sat in the back of that Rover thinking “WTF”
The rest of the week was pretty mundane after that eye opening start, we spent Monday night in a brand new DAF artic each at the Sandbach place (they wasn’t even what we were picking up they were just available sleeper cabs)
Drove the rigids to North London the next morning and then from there I went to a Volvo dealer and picked up another Artic unit (which I slept in that night)
third night I slept for a few hours in a train station somewhere, (it was July but it was frikkin freezing on that bench) fourth night I drove straight through back to Cardiff.
Out of all the hundreds of commercial vehicles that passed me with my Trade plate and thumb out only two stopped, one was a tanker driver and the other was a trade plater from another firm, the only other lift I got all week was from a lady in her late 20’s early 30’s which really surprised me, it turned out she was a secretary at a transport company but still if I was a bird I wouldn’t pick up a hitchhiker, would you?
I got offered a Class 2 tramping job on the weekend so phoned the trade plate company and told them that the job wasn’t for me, and “thanks, but no thanks”
So to sum up be prepared to walk a lot, be prepared to use a lot of public transport, be prepared to get cold, wet or sweat your danglies off depending on the weather.
Did I enjoy it? - Hell yes, it was a good laugh and a steep learning curve and you have to think for yourself.
Would I do it again? - Hell no!
Having done the job it never fails to surprise me where trade platers stand. Your never gonna get
picked up right on a roundabout or bend . Walk further up or stand near a layby. Use your brain
I did it for a while, many months not years, before a car transporter became available when i started down that road.
Like any job, some good days some bad, made enough money to keep the wolf from the door, didn’t find lifts too bad but i looked reasonably presentable and if it was raining i’d be stood under a brolly…if you look like an intense Rutger Hauer standing in the gloom in a flashers mac you aint gunna get many lifts.
When you need to earn some money, and taking it from the state isn’t an option, you do what you have to do and make the best of it.
Juddian:
I did it for a while, many months not years, before a car transporter became available when i started down that road.Like any job, some good days some bad, made enough money to keep the wolf from the door, didn’t find lifts too bad but i looked reasonably presentable and if it was raining i’d be stood under a brolly…if you look like an intense Rutger Hauer standing in the gloom in a flashers mac you aint gunna get many lifts.
When you need to earn some money, and taking it from the state isn’t an option, you do what you have to do and make the best of it.
Snap! Lol 
trubster:
■■■■■■■■ to that. Hitching rides all over the country.I would do it if there were facilities to strap a motorcycle on the catwalk because the pay is very good but I just wouldn’t hitchhike. Then you have the time stood on a slip road in the ■■■■■■■ down rain etc…
Thanks but no thanks.
I have to say I loved hitching all over the country between jobs… I had plenty experience & I guess I seen it as a bit of a challenge and I rarely waited long for lifts!
This was before social media though… I reckon it’d be even easier to hitch now as you could probably just shout out on facebook or tweet something and they would probably be some kindly soul nearby who’d help you out with a lift!
Hell, some guy even wrote a book about it! -
Lennoxtown:
trubster:
■■■■■■■■ to that. Hitching rides all over the country.I would do it if there were facilities to strap a motorcycle on the catwalk because the pay is very good but I just wouldn’t hitchhike. Then you have the time stood on a slip road in the ■■■■■■■ down rain etc…
Thanks but no thanks.
I have to say I loved hitching all over the country between jobs… I had plenty experience & I guess I seen it as a bit of a challenge and I rarely waited long for lifts!
This was before social media though… I reckon it’d be even easier to hitch now as you could probably just shout out on facebook or tweet something and they would probably be some kindly soul nearby who’d help you out with a lift!
Hell, some guy even wrote a book about it! -
Its an interesting line of work and can push you to some serious extremes and situations.Managed around 7 or so years of it for a very large number of employers. My first ever hitch was Morecambe to Penrith where an old boy,with a car full of caged budgies rescued me after 2 hours in pouring rain.Bless him.Trouble is the situations can become an endless stream of surreality which then, becomes the new norm,if that makes any sense? Driving’s the easy bit,hitching not so.Wish i’d kept a journal.
Strangest lift…? A Sierra Cosworth on a car-transporter.Driver of the transporter had his old lady and child in the cab and as i was working for the plating side of the same firm,i got a (seat- reclined) ride from Leighton Buzzard back to Burton Latimer,on the second platform.
That’s the thing about the game,it can be addictive,sure was for me totally the pole-opposite to the battery-hen dynamic that transport has become,but it is the ultimate marmite career choice.
Lennoxtown:
trubster:
■■■■■■■■ to that. Hitching rides all over the country.I would do it if there were facilities to strap a motorcycle on the catwalk because the pay is very good but I just wouldn’t hitchhike. Then you have the time stood on a slip road in the ■■■■■■■ down rain etc…
Thanks but no thanks.
I have to say I loved hitching all over the country between jobs… I had plenty experience & I guess I seen it as a bit of a challenge and I rarely waited long for lifts!
This was before social media though… I reckon it’d be even easier to hitch now as you could probably just shout out on facebook or tweet something and they would probably be some kindly soul nearby who’d help you out with a lift!
Hell, some guy even wrote a book about it! -
Feels a bit like cheating though,not exactly the Kerouacian vibe 
Burton Latimer you say, i know exactly which lot, some bloody good lads on there 
, most of 'em crackers.
Just thinking about some of the lifts someone 
might have given in the past.
In the 80’s, picked up 4 platers, that Burton Latimer crew, all heading up the A1 for Immingham for Volvo lorry chassis as i recall,1lad on the passenger seat 3 on the bed, going up the road at a steady 60 or so, all of a sudden an almighty bang, Pheasant hits the front corner panel of the Sed Ack stoving it in, all chopsing about the usual ■■■■■■■■, cue 5 almost heart attacks.
Picked up a load of knackered squaddies in the Sussex Downs who’d got a bit off route, the h’officer asked if he could have a look at the road atlas, so compared with their route map, sure enough they needed to be a few miles further on, so about a dozen or so squaddies perched on the body hanging onto suitable straps etc and away.
Several platers over the years sitting in the cars in the back when the cab was full…by the way, someone and his mate might have gone for a ride in the car on the top deak peak of an artic transporter just for the craic, interesting going under bridges at 60mph and when you take a sharp turn its weird, the car sort of comes to halt then moves sideways at considerable speed over the top of other cars on the road then all of a sudden you’re whooshing forward again, Alton Towers haven’t got anything to touch it 
Better days in many ways, course we were all young and stupid then, coppers still had a sense of humour and not everyone took themselves quite so seriously, you’d get locked up now if you’d tried to pull any of those stunts.
Juddian:
Burton Latimer you say, i know exactly which lot, some bloody good lads on thereJust thinking about some of the lifts someone
In the 80’s, picked up 4 platers, that Burton Latimer crew, all heading up the A1 for Immingham for Volvo lorry chassis as i recall,1lad on the passenger seat 3 on the bed, going up the road at a steady 60 or so, all of a sudden an almighty bang, Pheasant hits the front corner panel of the Sed Ack stoving it in, all chopsing about the usual ■■■■■■■■, cue 5 almost heart attacks.
Picked up a load of knackered squaddies in the Sussex Downs who’d got a bit off route, the h’officer asked if he could have a look at the road atlas, so compared with their route map, sure enough they needed to be a few miles further on, so about a dozen or so squaddies perched on the body hanging onto suitable straps etc and away.
Several platers over the years sitting in the cars in the back when the cab was full…by the way, someone
Better days in many ways, course we were all young and stupid then, coppers still had a sense of humour and not everyone took themselves quite so seriously, you’d get locked up now if you’d tried to pull any of those stunts.
So true they were a good gang there but as you say eccentric to a man.I could never do their gig and they would’ve had more sense than do ours.I also recall being picked up on the a34 during storm…Michael (fish), when following a torrid,nights bone-soak repose,in the Bullington Arms,kiddies,plastic-tree den,a French-transporter driver took pity on me the next day,proferred a pack of Gitanes and dropped me off at Didcot rail station,home to Manchester.
You would be freaked by taking the ‘upper storey option’,i concur.Level- two’s bad enough…all that swaying ps Juddian,let me know if i’m over-hyphening old bean,you being a man of erudition and grammatical verve.?
over-hyphening erudition and grammatical verve.?
give me 10 will you, off to consult the Oxford English dictionary in the vain hope of working out what those long words mean
manalishi:
Lennoxtown:
trubster:
■■■■■■■■ to that. Hitching rides all over the country.I would do it if there were facilities to strap a motorcycle on the catwalk because the pay is very good but I just wouldn’t hitchhike. Then you have the time stood on a slip road in the ■■■■■■■ down rain etc…
Thanks but no thanks.
I have to say I loved hitching all over the country between jobs… I had plenty experience & I guess I seen it as a bit of a challenge and I rarely waited long for lifts!
This was before social media though… I reckon it’d be even easier to hitch now as you could probably just shout out on facebook or tweet something and they would probably be some kindly soul nearby who’d help you out with a lift!
Hell, some guy even wrote a book about it! -
Feels a bit like cheating though,not exactly the Kerouacian vibe
That’s true! Lol
can’t remember which services it was but I came out of Yeovil one day and it was sheeting down,onto a roundabout on the A303 and a tradeplater was standing on the A303 trying to wave me down,i had cars behind me,wasn’t allowed to stop there so I thought what the heck does he want me to do,nothing I could do so carried on,he probably called me a few choice names but I thought he must have realised the situation he tried to put me in.
I had a plater attempt to open my passenger door at traffic lights at J9 on the M40. He was rattling the handle and tapping on the door as the lights went green, and really wasn’t pleased he couldn’t get in. I know it’s a crap job but it was the expectancy that I should’ve had the door unlocked ready for him that annoyed me.
we have trade-platers at our yard every day collecting & delivering trucks & never see them hitch hiking any-more, the drivers say they would never get anywhere as no one stops for them
its either taxi’s, hire cars, or they have a car following to pick them up, occasionally they will get the bus to the train station
one firm we use a lot (UK Motor Services) have had the same lads for years & they all seem to enjoy it, as far as I understand those lads earn a % of each job & take a decent wage