Advice need for change of direction

After reading the first reply I now realise I should have been clearer in what I’m saying (DOH!) I have been self employed, but not a owner operator, I hire myself out to drive, build stages, do pyrotechnics, do sound and lights etc. I’m looking to slow down and find employment in the fuel delivery/ADR world.

Hi All

I’m looking for a bit of advice, I’ve been self employed in the events industry, touring with bands, F1, Moto GP, World Rally Cross etc for donkeys years, it has been a great job (at times), fantastic money etc. But, I’m sick of constantly being away, 3+ months then home for a week, then head off for 2 months is not unusual, and like everything else, in time it becomes just a job.
So when the season finished I decided to try and think of a plan to get away from it, ideally I would like to have a 4 on 4 off type job, years ago I used to see them advertised fairly frequently, but not so much now. I’ve just done my ADR in tanks and packages and I’m thinking about putting myself through the first part of the Petroleum Drivers Passport,
So, first real question, has anyone done this before? If you did, was it beneficial when looking for work as a fuel tanker driver? I know you have 4 months to complete the practical part with a company, but did the first bit really help or should I just try and get in to a job and have the company foot the bill?
What sort of rates of pay should you be expecting driving ADR? either tanks of packages
Does anyone know of reputable firms in Teesside, North Yorkshire or the North East that do this kind of work?
When I look online all I see is agencies offering work, hardly ever a company putting up the advert, and the pay from the agencies ranges form £10 per hour up to £22 per hour, Hell, I get £12 driving in Sheffield and non of it’s dangerous (although I have carried Sunny Delight and that stuff is evil) :smiling_imp:
Or is the idea of ADR/Fuel work not worth the effort and just take a job that pays the bills?
All of this is really out of my usual field so any advice or tips to point me in the right direction will be gratefully received.

I know this is really a first world problem and I should shut my whinging gob :wink:

Cheers

Carl

Fuel isn’t the Holy Grail any longer, the old contracts have all but vanished) and judging by the actual pay slip we’ve seen posted here on this very forum and from postings of people doing the job the shift pattern and hours involved, the wages should be nudging £50k not bloody £38k or whatever it works out at.

My advice is probably similar in some ways to what you have been doing already, ie and now for something completely different :laughing: , not hire and reward (unless in a very specialist sector where long learned skills can’t be replaced just like that) cos H&R is just about on its arse, try to find own account work if possible where the job is not haulage but more of a customer service role.
Nothing at all wrong with supermarket work when its direct employed by said supermarket, and seeing as its 364 day work, more likely to find varying shift patterns.
RDC work is fine when you work for the RDC, it’s when delivering to RDCs as a supply haulier which is some of the most demoralising work out there.

Note, as always the best jobs are never advertised and people already there tend to keep schtum about where they work, so get that thinking cap on see whats about and go knock on doors, but the chances of you slipping into an ideal shift straight away are remote, you may well have to (as i did) take whatever is going at first if the job is right in order to get your feet under the table, but if you are competent courteous and take a pride in your work, you won’t be on a dog end shift for long.

No help to you finding a new direction, but if you do, then please try to restrain yourself from going on about all the wonderful places you’ve been to and the great bands you worked with. Those guys in the canteen who spent the last ten years of their lives delivering Sunny D really don’t want to know. The problem is, that even if every word is true, it sounds like bull excrement.

Ex-army guys have the same problem, although in their case it probably is bull.

Hi Juddian
Thanks for the info, I have edited my post as now I see that what I put down was a bit ambiguous, I’m a self employed driver, not an owner driver.

Sorry :blush:

Carl

Santa:
No help to you finding a new direction, but if you do, then please try to restrain yourself from going on about all the wonderful places you’ve been to and the great bands you worked with. Those guys in the canteen who spent the last ten years of their lives delivering Sunny D really don’t want to know. The problem is, that even if every word is true, it sounds like bull excrement.

Ex-army guys have the same problem, although in their case it probably is bull.

Very true…but like I say, it’s all just work at the end of the day!

noisycarl:
Hi Juddian
Thanks for the info, I have edited my post as now I see that what I put down was a bit ambiguous, I’m a self employed driver, not an owner driver.

Sorry :blush:

Carl

Makes no difference mate, my advice (for what it’s worth, threepence at a push :blush: ) is still the same.

From a driver’s point of view general hire and reward is bollocksed because there’s no money in it and the bog (typo should have been big, but maybe bog was accurate) logistics mobs have carved and dumbed it buggery, and the only way i can see that changing is if the better drivers find their way onto the better jobs, so the industry as a whole is forced by pure economics to up their games to attract the better staff back.
Probably wishful thinking :cry:

if youve reached the point in life where you want a new direction go into something you yearn to do, something totally different . Else in a years time youll be thinking youre in a job too similar, just my thoughts

Once upon a time I also took my ADR and never used it.

The jobs are hard to come by and the pay is not as it was, the majority of the work is now done by outside contractors the chance of being employed directly by one of the big fuel companies I would guess is next to zero.

General haulage or any type of work where the vehicle is the sole income of the business is a mugs game unless the work is specialized, the only gainful employment worth doing is own account and directly employed by the company Asda Tesco for example.

The terms and conditions are still quite good you have guaranteed hours and everything is paid for like training uniform liceneces CPC and so on and all the time in work is paid by an hourly rate, the pace of work is leisurely and if you want the hours you work them if not you go home, unlike the for profit circus where £120 per day sounds ok you will work a minimum of 12 hrs per day.

noisycarl:
After reading the first reply I now realise I should have been clearer in what I’m saying (DOH!) I have been self employed, but not a owner operator, I hire myself out to drive, build stages, do pyrotechnics, do sound and lights etc. I’m looking to slow down and find employment in the fuel delivery/ADR world.

Hi All

I’m looking for a bit of advice, I’ve been self employed in the events industry, touring with bands, F1, Moto GP, World Rally Cross etc for donkeys years, it has been a great job (at times), fantastic money etc. But, I’m sick of constantly being away, 3+ months then home for a week, then head off for 2 months is not unusual, and like everything else, in time it becomes just a job.
So when the season finished I decided to try and think of a plan to get away from it, ideally I would like to have a 4 on 4 off type job, years ago I used to see them advertised fairly frequently, but not so much now. I’ve just done my ADR in tanks and packages and I’m thinking about putting myself through the first part of the Petroleum Drivers Passport,
So, first real question, has anyone done this before? If you did, was it beneficial when looking for work as a fuel tanker driver? I know you have 4 months to complete the practical part with a company, but did the first bit really help or should I just try and get in to a job and have the company foot the bill?
What sort of rates of pay should you be expecting driving ADR? either tanks of packages
Does anyone know of reputable firms in Teesside, North Yorkshire or the North East that do this kind of work?
When I look online all I see is agencies offering work, hardly ever a company putting up the advert, and the pay from the agencies ranges form £10 per hour up to £22 per hour, Hell, I get £12 driving in Sheffield and non of it’s dangerous (although I have carried Sunny Delight and that stuff is evil) :smiling_imp:
Or is the idea of ADR/Fuel work not worth the effort and just take a job that pays the bills?
All of this is really out of my usual field so any advice or tips to point me in the right direction will be gratefully received.

I know this is really a first world problem and I should shut my whinging gob :wink:

Cheers

Carl

I am employed as a Industrial, food liquids tanker driver(non hazardous), I do long distance driving over a 5 day week alternating weekends, when the work is there you can be maximising your on duty hours and potentially earn upto 50k with expenses and nights out. WITH the added sacrifice of being away from home constantly and being pushed to your limits, it is true the grass is not always greener when looking at other work.

Trying to find the right balance is hard, your either grafting getting the hours in getting kids of cash but not being home OR not getting much work home most nights BONUS but not getting a good pay.

I’ve been to both sides of the grass and what I find IMHO is contracts that have an ok hourly rate 10£-£11with guaranteed hours (12) overtime same rate, offer the best lifestyle for being home, eg Turners C/O Cargill Brocklebank Liverpool because if there’s no work or job is finished early I still get paid your twelve

On the other hand you could be smashing hours in on a guaranteed 9hours on a bit higher rate @11£ then after 9hours £13, but that’s my experience.

What I have found out is the fuel work most only work as 12 hour shifts at a good rate so for me that would probably be my middle.

Good luck in whatever it is u find and do

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

the wages should be nudging £50k not bloody £38k or whatever it works out at.

Sorry to intervene but I wonder Juddian where you can earn anywhere near 50k in the UK. I know several petroleum drivers throughout the Uk and none of then ever get near 50k.
From what they tell me 38 is closer to the mark.

jakethesnake:
the wages should be nudging £50k not bloody £38k or whatever it works out at.

Sorry to intervene but I wonder Juddian where you can earn anywhere near 50k in the UK. I know several petroleum drivers throughout the Uk and none of then ever get near 50k.
From what they tell me 38 is closer to the mark.

Exactly, and when you look at the hours, shift patterns with disrupted sleep many of them are doing £50k is what they should be getting.

In a thread here a few short years ago regarding striking Hoyer fuel drivers, many on this forum were completely against the fuel drivers, the politics of envy clouding their every thought.
One of those Hoyer lads posted his pay slip, and gave a run down of his shift pattern, seriously i would not have wanted the job, in real terms it wasn’t that well paid at all, yes the top line figure might look impressive but when you worked the unsocial hours and the mix of shifts, er no ta.

I know blokes grossing £50k (the odd few quite a bit more), not all but mostly skilled car transporter drivers who have got into the right jobs, some were earning this a decade ago, a rare few were earning this in the late 80’s, but be assured they are earning every penny especially during winter when the job is nothing short of bloody awful.
Their work rate, reliability and damage free skills will be top drawer, wreckers and sick notes need not apply and every one of them will be a union member :bulb:

corij:
if youve reached the point in life where you want a new direction go into something you yearn to do, something totally different . Else in a years time youll be thinking youre in a job too similar, just my thoughts

I’ll be honest, this has gone through my mind a few times recently, the problem is, I’m in my 50’s and still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up :laughing:

Juddian:

jakethesnake:
the wages should be nudging £50k not bloody £38k or whatever it works out at.

Sorry to intervene but I wonder Juddian where you can earn anywhere near 50k in the UK. I know several petroleum drivers throughout the Uk and none of then ever get near 50k.
From what they tell me 38 is closer to the mark.

Exactly, and when you look at the hours, shift patterns with disrupted sleep many of them are doing £50k is what they should be getting.

In a thread here a few short years ago regarding striking Hoyer fuel drivers, many on this forum were completely against the fuel drivers, the politics of envy clouding their every thought.
One of those Hoyer lads posted his pay slip, and gave a run down of his shift pattern, seriously i would not have wanted the job, in real terms it wasn’t that well paid at all, yes the top line figure might look impressive but when you worked the unsocial hours and the mix of shifts, er no ta.

I know blokes grossing £50k (the odd few quite a bit more), not all but mostly skilled car transporter drivers who have got into the right jobs, some were earning this a decade ago, a rare few were earning this in the late 80’s, but be assured they are earning every penny especially during winter when the job is nothing short of bloody awful.
Their work rate, reliability and damage free skills will be top drawer, wreckers and sick notes need not apply and every one of them will be a union member :bulb:

Thanks, I find what you say very interesting but I will not elaborate at present because I don’t want to hijack this thread. Maybe another time.

Tomtom are good,or even a map

noisycarl:
Does anyone know of reputable firms in Teesside, North Yorkshire or the North East that do this kind of work?

Cheers

Carl

Par Patrolem in the North East they have tanker drivers deliver to petrol stations as well as ships etc

Color Gas in Teesside with the gas bottles

There are probably some others in Teesside

Most jobs are agency now this is how company get there drivers ( not all but some )

If you are on facebook look up North East Truckers group they may be able to help

noisycarl:

corij:
if youve reached the point in life where you want a new direction go into something you yearn to do, something totally different . Else in a years time youll be thinking youre in a job too similar, just my thoughts

I’ll be honest, this has gone through my mind a few times recently, the problem is, I’m in my 50’s and still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up :laughing:

years back i knew a newly retired U.S. Master Sergeant,top dog , he retired over here as he had a British wife, he wasnt eligible to work on the economy so the only job going was flipping burgers in Burger King concession on the airbase. The ranks now treated him like sh/t