gingerfold:
They have also “head hunted” Preston’s of Potto experienced driver trainer to train up the new flat trailer drivers in the skills of chaining and transporting steel. My drivers are on £110 per day plus £25 per night out and I believe (only driver gossip) that from initially offering £8.50 per hour Stobart has matched my former drivers’ rate. My informants also tell me that any slightly wide or longer loads have got a second man in the cab. even if they are not required by law, and the mate is accomodated in a hotel if the crew cannot get back to base in a shift. They are throwing a lot of money at this job, galvanised chains etc. so that the drivers don’t get their gloves dirty when chaining up.The aluminium ingot loads are coming out of Warrington. I’m expecting Stobart’s to start targeting the main suspects for flat back loads soon, such as Chep pallets etc. whose rates are below rock bottom already…
Sorry to hear about your bad luck, in having your work pillaged by the fat cats. At first glance, I wondered how their operation could possibly turn a profit, assuming the same price to the customer, given all the extra costs. I guess that, once their employees learn the job, they will revert to one driver on a lorry. The specialist drivers will gradually be distributed around other, more mundane jobs while lower-paid drivers are introduced to the steel job, until it becomes just another of their contracts, using drivers on Stobart’s ordinary hourly rate. I wonder if the steel drivers they have recruited on a competitive rate are on fixed-term, short contracts?