Any concrete mixer drivers ( owner drivers) on here?

[mixer_driver_too]

The rates rarely go up inline with the fuel increase, they keep it just under the line for a increase in rates.

The rates at Tarmac are worst out of all the other concrete firms, we had a meeting in ettingshall last year where they admitted to us our rates are lowest.

I’m based in Liverpool area. Don’t know anyone from Stafford.

You seem brain washed by the Tarmac bully boys. Ive seen them stand there and watch drivers go bust, they put rates down in the middle of the recession, they don’t drop there prices in order to get more work, they rip us off with the verifi!

They are total [zb]!

Jeez Mixer Driver, you do seem really pi**ed at Tarmac.

We do get a bit pi**ed off now and again at some policies like trucking levels but nothing like you seem to be getting at.

As for " You seem brain washed by the Tarmac bully boys. Ive seen them stand there and watch drivers go bust, they put rates down in the middle of the recession, they don’t drop there prices in order to get more work, they rip us off with the verifi!"

I aint been brain washed by anybody. I make an excellent living. Only a handful packed it in.(didnt go bust) and Tarmac finished some drivers out of contract with old trucks to protect the ones in contract with finance.
Tarmac West seem to be a totally different kettle of fish. We win most of the work from Cemex,Hanson and lafarge, we havnt had any rate decreases at all and fortunately we havnt got verify

The rates rarely go up inline with the fuel increase, they keep it just under the line for a increase in rates.

The rates went up 1.2% 1st April

[mixer_driver]

mixer driver too:

The rates rarely go up inline with the fuel increase, they keep it just under the line for a increase in rates.

The rates at Tarmac are worst out of all the other concrete firms, we had a meeting in ettingshall last year where they admitted to us our rates are lowest.

I’m based in Liverpool area. Don’t know anyone from Stafford.

You seem brain washed by the Tarmac bully boys. Ive seen them stand there and watch drivers go bust, they put rates down in the middle of the recession, they don’t drop there prices in order to get more work, they rip us off with the verifi!

They are total [zb]!

Jeez Mixer Driver, you do seem really pi**ed at Tarmac.

We do get a bit pi**ed off now and again at some policies like trucking levels but nothing like you seem to be getting at.

As for " You seem brain washed by the Tarmac bully boys. Ive seen them stand there and watch drivers go bust, they put rates down in the middle of the recession, they don’t drop there prices in order to get more work, they rip us off with the verifi!"

I aint been brain washed by anybody. I make an excellent living. Only a handful packed it in.(didnt go bust) and Tarmac finished some drivers out of contract with old trucks to protect the ones in contract with finance.
Tarmac West seem to be a totally different kettle of fish. We win most of the work from Cemex,Hanson and lafarge, we havnt had any rate decreases at all and fortunately we havnt got verify

You honestly think they finished drivers to protect the drivers in finance? If so, your blinded by the truth.

They didnt finish them drivers up, they asked them to buy new trucks, if they refused they was finished but if they all agreed then you’d still have the same amount of drivers.

Like I said, they are only interested in selling trucks!

I’ve no personal axe to grind with them as I make a very good living and have great lifestyle but I dont live in the Tarmac bubble and see what’s going on at the not so lucky plants.

You don’t have your own business, your not even self employed, you work for Tarmac but cover the whole running costs.

[mixer_driver]

Mixer driver too - yes the rate went slightly up for the first time in god knows how long because it’s been kept just under the line to prevent increase for past 4 month or so.

I don’t use tarmac fuel cards as I don’t like lining their pockets by ripping us off with over priced fuel. Do you honestly believe they don’t make money on our fuel as they claim?

We must buy hundreds and thousands of litres of fuel per month thru Tarmac all over the country, yet i who’s a little one man band get it 2/3p cheaper per litre, yes little old me with my one truck who only buys aprox 1500l per month gets it 2/3p cheaper than big old Tarmac!

Then, we have Terry Last. This is a guy who in 2008 in his laughable blog was telling us how he’s on holiday in the carribean, how he’s just bought at holiday home in the lakes, how he’d just bought his 18yr old daughter a brand new BMW, how he goes sailing his boat when we was in the middle of the biggest global recession we’ve ever seen, when people was going bust, when people are being made redundant, when people are losing the homes!

From top to bottom they are horrible bully boys.

[hammer]

mixer driver too:
Tarmac finished some drivers out of contract with old trucks to protect the ones in contract with finance.

So you have to be in the hock to Tar*ac for them to give you the chance to even make a living? Sounds a good deal. For them.

You have to take their finance. It is uncompetetive.
You have to take their insurance (wonder what Towergate’s kickback is?). It is uncompetetive.
If your buying new they tell you the price. It is uncompetetive.
You have to select from one of their ‘chosen’ makes.
They do your books.
If there is no work you stand. Tough ■■■■.
If there is work, no matter how bad their rates you are unable to take better paying work.

The entire ‘contract’ scheme is just a clever piece of legal smoke and mirrors to swerve employment legislation and remove any kind of liability from the company.

Take the ‘contract’ to a legal advisor and ask them what they think. Once they stop laughing, they’ll tell you to put it in the bin!

[moose]

hammer:

mixer driver too:
Tarmac finished some drivers out of contract with old trucks to protect the ones in contract with finance.

So you have to be in the hock to Tar*ac for them to give you the chance to even make a living? Sounds a good deal. For them.

You have to take their finance. It is uncompetetive.
You have to take their insurance (wonder what Towergate’s kickback is?). It is uncompetetive.
If your buying new they tell you the price. It is uncompetetive.
You have to select from one of their ‘chosen’ makes.
They do your books.
If there is no work you stand. Tough [zb].
If there is work, no matter how bad their rates you are unable to take better paying work.

The entire ‘contract’ scheme is just a clever piece of legal smoke and mirrors to swerve employment legislation and remove any kind of liability from the company.

Take the ‘contract’ to a legal advisor and ask them what they think. Once they stop laughing, they’ll tell you to put it in the bin!

hammer you dont have to do any of the things above, BUT, it is heavily pushed
i agree a lot of the contracted hauliers do but in the main it’s because it’s easier, simpler for themselves!,and will cost more without doubt!

[hammer]

Moose:
hammer you dont have to do any of the things above, BUT, it is heavily pushed
i agree a lot of the contracted hauliers do but in the main it’s because it’s easier, simpler for themselves!,and will cost more without doubt!

Moose, are you saying that as a contracted haulier if I offer you £500 a day to work for me and the quarry have got work that guarantees you only £200 you can tell the quarry “not today, i’ve sorted something else!” and they won’t mind? They’d go apesh1t and your feet wouldn’t touch!

You have to have their insurance, I’ve read the ‘contract’. It is to “ensure you are adequately covered to Quarry companies standards”. You cannot shop around. A friend of mine (admittedly back in 2004) priced a 6x4 from Daf. £64,000. Quarry offered him the same vehicle, with a worse APR finance deal by the way, for £72,000. £8k worse off before you factor in the uncompetetive finance.

Being ‘heavily pushed’ is a disgrace. Read the pack and its all about “building a future together”. What its actually about is being leant on to buy new trucks. They keep you keen as you’ve got finance hanging over you, they keep you reliable because your running new kit and you have to be there every day to make it pay and, when you finally pay the truck off and when it suits them they weild a big stick to make to start the whole process again. Thats not a business relationship in my book!

[moose]

hammer:

Moose:
hammer you dont have to do any of the things above, BUT, it is heavily pushed
i agree a lot of the contracted hauliers do but in the main it’s because it’s easier, simpler for themselves!,and will cost more without doubt!

Moose, are you saying that as a contracted haulier if I offer you £500 a day to work for me and the quarry have got work that guarantees you only £200 you can tell the quarry “not today, i’ve sorted something else!” and they won’t mind? They’d go apesh1t and your feet wouldn’t touch!

You have to have their insurance, I’ve read the ‘contract’. It is to “ensure you are adequately covered to Quarry companies standards”. You cannot shop around. A friend of mine (admittedly back in 2004) priced a 6x4 from Daf. £64,000. Quarry offered him the same vehicle, with a worse APR finance deal by the way, for £72,000. £8k worse off before you factor in the uncompetetive finance.

Being ‘heavily pushed’ is a disgrace. Read the pack and its all about “building a future together”. What its actually about is being leant on to buy new trucks. They keep you keen as you’ve got finance hanging over you, they keep you reliable because your running new kit and you have to be there every day to make it pay and, when you finally pay the truck off and when it suits them they weild a big stick to make to start the whole process again. Thats not a business relationship in my book!

you might now be right on the insurance, when i was on contract doing blocks i never used their insurance,finance,or fuel
nor did i buy the truck through them, your quite right that a certian brand/make will be pushed it will depend on which make of truck is providing the largest back hander to the powers that be,the only plus point is when you come to sell the truck if within the age limit it will command a higher price if sold back into the tarmac empire!
on your last few point i agree 100%, it’s not my idea of a good relationship, and i must admit i did not do it for a long period of time, just to add driving a tarmac tipper on nights is only a mean’s to an end,it allows me to have more choice in the type of work i do in the daytime!

[mixer_driver]

Moose:

hammer:

mixer driver too:
Tarmac finished some drivers out of contract with old trucks to protect the ones in contract with finance.

So you have to be in the hock to Tar*ac for them to give you the chance to even make a living? Sounds a good deal. For them.

You have to take their finance. It is uncompetetive.
You have to take their insurance (wonder what Towergate’s kickback is?). It is uncompetetive.
If your buying new they tell you the price. It is uncompetetive.
You have to select from one of their ‘chosen’ makes.
They do your books.
If there is no work you stand. Tough [zb].
If there is work, no matter how bad their rates you are unable to take better paying work.

The entire ‘contract’ scheme is just a clever piece of legal smoke and mirrors to swerve employment legislation and remove any kind of liability from the company.

Take the ‘contract’ to a legal advisor and ask them what they think. Once they stop laughing, they’ll tell you to put it in the bin!

hammer you dont have to do any of the things above, BUT, it is heavily pushed
i agree a lot of the contracted hauliers do but in the main it’s because it’s easier, simpler for themselves!,and will cost more without doubt!

Oh but you do have to take out there overpriced insurance, you do have to take out there finance package and you even have to pay £6000 in a reserve that they take off you at £350 per month and keep in there bank account getting interest for THEM!

They feed you crap that the £350 per month they take off you to get £6000 in a reserve is for when you don’t earn enough they pay you a wage from it, the real truth of that reserve is do you have enough money for a deposit for a new truck when they put pressure on you to buy new truck.

A driver I know rang Tarmac and asked for his reserve to pay for a new drum as his drum was ■■■■■■■ they wouldnt release HIS money to him at all! IT’S HIS MONEY!

Don’t get me started on the verifi system they have put on trucks now as if someone from Vosa reads this they will look into the fuel guzzling unsafe system!

[mixer_driver]

Stuff it, i can’t help myself but to tell mixer too just how his beloved Tarmac rip drivers off and ask us to drive in a unsafe way.

The rip off side of verifi - it’s a system designed by Americans to make sure the concrete arrives at site with the right consistency and also records how much water is added to concrete to prevent claims against Tarmac which in theory a great idea.

However, in order for all this crap to work, they need the drivers to spin our drum additional 35 times at 12000 revolutions at our cost, if it adds water under the plant then we need to spin it another 15 turns at 12000 revs at our cost resulting in us spinning our drums 50 times at 12000 revs!

Oh but to be fair they give us £100 per month to cover it which don’t even touch the surface. After heated debates with Tarmac and us asking can we have a independent firm in to work out how much fuel we use per load, they agreed and then refused to reveal the results which is obvious what the results are. IT’S COSTING US FORTUNE!

The unsafe act of driving - The verifi system requires a computer in the cab, which tells you the consistence of the concrete, how fast your drum is turning etc but Tarmac insist that we keep our our drums spinning at 3 to 6 spins so they have sent a email telling us to watch the computer as it tells us when to speed our drum up or slow it down.

So they want us to watch the computer, fiddle with are drum controls while trying to drive.

[mixer_driver_too]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ahh! Just back in after another days graft. A couple of Rad 25s. Thatll do nicely
Mixer Driver, if you are so pi**ed off, How are you still working for them?
I dont know what the work situation outside Tarmac is in your area, but theres [zb] all else down this way
Jack it in! Sell your truck and go work for somebody else and get £8 an hour for 48 hours a week if you can find a job
Or, use youre OLicence and go buy a tractor/rigid and go delivering pallets. See where that gets you.
Better the devil you know. Thats why there are god knows how many hundreds of us in the game. It suits!
Nobody seems to finish on their own accord and go work elsewhere

[mixer_driver]

mixer driver too:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ahh! Just back in after another days graft. A couple of Rad 25s. Thatll do nicely
Mixer Driver, if you are so pi**ed off, How are you still working for them?
I dont know what the work situation outside Tarmac is in your area, but theres [zb] all else down this way
Jack it in! Sell your truck and go work for somebody else and get £8 an hour for 48 hours a week if you can find a job
Or, use youre OLicence and go buy a tractor/rigid and go delivering pallets. See where that gets you.
Better the devil you know. Thats why there are god knows how many hundreds of us in the game. It suits!
Nobody seems to finish on their own accord and go work elsewhere

Your missing my point mate, I’m very busy, I’ve been busy for the past 5/6 years and was told today we’ve got great chance of getting the new Mersey crossing which is 3/4 years solid work. I’m taking you I don’t trust them, don’t like them and hate the way they bully people. I have great living thru the work I do and that’s why I don’t leave but as I’ve said I don’t like them one little bit!

What’s your opinion on the lowest rates? What’s your opinion on hight fuel prices? What’s your opinion on having to use their insurance? What’s your opinion of having to have £6000 reserve that we can’t use wgen we want it? What’s your opinion on the verifi costing us a fortune?

Oh my way, I was in my house at 2-30pm with ten 3 rads under my belt.

[mixer_driver]

mixer driver too:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ahh! Just back in after another days graft. A couple of Rad 25s. Thatll do nicely
Mixer Driver, if you are so pi**ed off, How are you still working for them?
I dont know what the work situation outside Tarmac is in your area, but theres [zb] all else down this way
Jack it in! Sell your truck and go work for somebody else and get £8 an hour for 48 hours a week if you can find a job
Or, use youre OLicence and go buy a tractor/rigid and go delivering pallets. See where that gets you.
Better the devil you know. Thats why there are god knows how many hundreds of us in the game. It suits!
Nobody seems to finish on their own accord and go work elsewhere

Nobody finishes of their on accord?

I take it you’ve not heard of the meeting held at ettingshall then where every transport manager (or truck sales manager) all attended as did Anglo American?

[mixer_driver_too]

Your missing my point mate, I’m very busy, I’ve been busy for the past 5/6 years and was told today we’ve got great chance of getting the new Mersey crossing which is 3/4 years solid work. I’m taking you I don’t trust them, don’t like them and hate the way they bully people. I have great living thru the work I do and that’s why I don’t leave but as I’ve said I don’t like them one little bit!

Glad your busy. If you pick up the new Mersey crossing thats great news.
We are waiting to hear on Hinckley C Nuclear Power Station. Over a million cube over 6 years with 2 plants.

What’s your opinion on the lowest rates? What’s your opinion on hight fuel prices? What’s your opinion on having to use their insurance? What’s your opinion of having to have £6000 reserve that we can’t use wgen we want it? What’s your opinion on the verifi costing us a fortune?

TBH I didn`t know we are the lowest rates. By how much we talking about? Are you running a 6metre or 8metre truck?
8 metre truck rates are 20% higher anyway.

Earlier you said drivers were asked to buy new or finish. Didn`t happen here mate. just finish with 90 days notice. My brother was one of them.

Insurance: Have you actually tried or got a quote like for like on insurance? I have. I bought a brand new mixer for hire in 2005 and tried to get insurance. It had to have Goods in transit in case of load/drum loss, liability insurance and total loss insurance. I could n`t get any where near my Contracted truck premium prices. In fact 33% more for the same cover. We are, as you know insured with Aviva and Royal and Sun Alliance for goods in transit.(£50 excess) You could go somewhere else but when you make a claim ,look out. same as any insurance quotes. Anyway, its fully tax deductable

Reserve: Why wont they let you have your Reserve when you want it? Thats all down to your Transport Manager(truck seller). We have ours no probs when needed. For the taxman or any other purpose. My mate just had a grand for his CPC course.

Verify: Cant comment on that. Never seen it work. It seems bad luck your area were the guinea pigs.

This meeting in Ettingshall. What was that all about?

It all might not matter anyway as competition commission make their decision on merger with Lafarge before 1st May.

Ive read documents that were released in March on their website, to get the merger Tarmac/lafarge have agreed to sell Lafarge cement works at Hope and concrete plants to go with it bigger than tarmac are at the moment all to a new competitor such as Breedon or Holcim. You might be Tarmac/Lafarge or you might be working for somebody else soon.

[mixer_driver_too]

Heres the document I was talking about put forward by Tarmac and Lafarge. Happy reading

http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/assets/competitioncommission/docs/2011/anglo-american-lafarge/response_to_remedies_notice_excised.pdf

[mixer_driver]

mixer driver too:
Heres the document I was talking about put forward by Tarmac and Lafarge. Happy reading

http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/assets/competitioncommission/docs/2011/anglo-american-lafarge/response_to_remedies_notice_excised.pdf

The meeting at ettingshall was nothing to do with the take over. It was intone from Anglo asking why so many drivers have packed in? Asking why the aint new starters? And also asking why the average age of Tarmac drivers is so high? (54yrs old)

The sooner the frogs take over the better, they can’t be any worse than these bulky boy idiots!

We got quotes on our insurance for the same policy we have now and we could get it £51 per month cheaper.

[mixer_driver]

mixer driver too:

Your missing my point mate, I’m very busy, I’ve been busy for the past 5/6 years and was told today we’ve got great chance of getting the new Mersey crossing which is 3/4 years solid work. I’m taking you I don’t trust them, don’t like them and hate the way they bully people. I have great living thru the work I do and that’s why I don’t leave but as I’ve said I don’t like them one little bit!

Glad your busy. If you pick up the new Mersey crossing thats great news.
We are waiting to hear on Hinckley C Nuclear Power Station. Over a million cube over 6 years with 2 plants.

What’s your opinion on the lowest rates? What’s your opinion on hight fuel prices? What’s your opinion on having to use their insurance? What’s your opinion of having to have £6000 reserve that we can’t use wgen we want it? What’s your opinion on the verifi costing us a fortune?

TBH I didn`t know we are the lowest rates. By how much we talking about? Are you running a 6metre or 8metre truck?
8 metre truck rates are 20% higher anyway.

Earlier you said drivers were asked to buy new or finish. Didn`t happen here mate. just finish with 90 days notice. My brother was one of them.

Insurance: Have you actually tried or got a quote like for like on insurance? I have. I bought a brand new mixer for hire in 2005 and tried to get insurance. It had to have Goods in transit in case of load/drum loss, liability insurance and total loss insurance. I could n`t get any where near my Contracted truck premium prices. In fact 33% more for the same cover. We are, as you know insured with Aviva and Royal and Sun Alliance for goods in transit.(£50 excess) You could go somewhere else but when you make a claim ,look out. same as any insurance quotes. Anyway, its fully tax deductable

Reserve: Why wont they let you have your Reserve when you want it? Thats all down to your Transport Manager(truck seller). We have ours no probs when needed. For the taxman or any other purpose. My mate just had a grand for his CPC course.

Verify: Cant comment on that. Never seen it work. It seems bad luck your area were the guinea pigs.

This meeting in Ettingshall. What was that all about?

It all might not matter anyway as competition commission make their decision on merger with Lafarge before 1st May.

Ive read documents that were released in March on their website, to get the merger Tarmac/lafarge have agreed to sell Lafarge cement works at Hope and concrete plants to go with it bigger than tarmac are at the moment all to a new competitor such as Breedon or Holcim. You might be Tarmac/Lafarge or you might be working for somebody else soon.

Fuel price?

I think your very very naive. They are making a killing out us. They make money in the fuel which they say they don’t, they make money on our insurance, they make money from having £6000 of every drivers collecting interest for them, they take £38 admin charge every month off us and even try to get us on a epic course for £100 + vat when we got out own for £90 which included bacon on toast and dinner.

They wouldn’t ■■■■ on you if you was on fire (unless you’d signed for new truck)

[mixer_driver_too]

BP (Diesel direct) 120.50
BP (Befuels) 118.37
Keyfuels 119.51

Mate, Just got these prices from the other thread on here. We are 119.5.
Ive been there, worn the T shirt as they say with all sorts of fuel cards.
We get between 56 and 30 days credit on a choice of 4 companies, BP,Keyfuels, Esso and Fastfuel.
You will pay the others by Direct debit no later than 14 days on invoice and some want a bond.
For the sake of £30 a month on 1500 litres why bother when its self invoicing. Again it tax deductable.
Only if it goes 5p or more below Tarmac will i bother buying elsewhere.
Yes, I do agree we should be a lot cheaper as Tarmac must be buying millions of litres.

[mixer_driver_too]

they make money from having £6000 of every drivers collecting interest for them, they take £38 admin charge every month off us and even try to get us on a epic course for £100 + vat when we got out own for £90 which included bacon on toast

Im not flying Tarmacs flag here but if you were a private haulier/owner driver working freelance in Haulage, looking for work constantly, like a hire truck, you would,

a. Have the expense of getting documents printed for your business for work done i.e invoices/delivery notes
b. Have to invoice different companies for every load not get automatic fully itemised self billing invoices sent to you.
c. You get automatically paid when the ticket is printed
d. Wait 90 days to get paid, run the risk of not being paid at all. Not monthly on 18th of every month without fail.
e. Either do all your own VAT work and submit VAT returns or get your accountant to do it. ££££`s

£38 too much!

epic course for £100 + vat when we got out own for £90 which included bacon on toast.

Thats every 4 years! Last time they paid us to go

[hammer]

mixer driver too:
Im not flying Tarmacs flag here but if you were a private haulier/owner driver working freelance in Haulage, looking for work constantly, like a hire truck, you would,

a. Have the expense of getting documents printed for your business for work done i.e invoices/delivery notes
not necessarily, i have personalised daywork books. Cost me £40 7 years ago and I’ve still got plenty.
b. Have to invoice different companies for every load not get automatic fully itemised self billing invoices sent to you.
No hardship, takes about an hour a month across about 5 or 6 regular customers. I don’t use flash personalised headed paper, just a blank one off Microsoft Word
c. You get automatically paid when the ticket is printed
Agreed, best bit about working for the quarries and a big part of why people want to pull for them
d. Wait 90 days to get paid, run the risk of not being paid at all. Not monthly on 18th of every month without fail.
Agreed but you don’t get to set your own rates. Example, I managed 15x£25 on Monday running 6miles round trips. You don’t make that kind of dough working for the quarries
e. Either do all your own VAT work and submit VAT returns or get your accountant to do it. ££££`s
Piece of ■■■■. I done mine today online, took me 15mins.
£38 too much!£38/month or £456 per year to print off a list of what work you’ve done every week, something they do for hired hauliers for free is an utter joke. You’ll get them by email anyway soon so it won’t even cost them weekly postage! Really taking the ■■■■ with that one!
Thats every 4 years! Last time they paid us to go

I’m not being rude but being a ‘franchised haulier’ isn’t running your own business. The quarry does everything for you, provides everything for you. They even deduct items from your monthly salary…sorry earnings, much the same as if you were an employed driver. You don’t have to source your own work or have any of the normal things business people have to deal with. Like I said earlier, its just a bit of smoke and mirrors so the quarries get a fleet of vehicles that they can mug off at no expense to themselves.

[mixer_driver_too]

d. Wait 90 days to get paid, run the risk of not being paid at all. Not monthly on 18th of every month without fail.
Agreed but you don’t get to set your own rates. Example, I managed 15x£25 on Monday running 6miles round trips. You don’t make that kind of dough working for the quarries

6 mile round trip i get paid just a bit over double what you get. (£50.67).

e. Either do all your own VAT work and submit VAT returns or get your accountant to do it. ££££`s
Piece of ■■■■. I done mine today online, took me 15mins.

The entry might take 15 mins.
I just put all my invoices in an envelope with my VAT 100 and get back fully itemised spreadsheets and the VAT man paid.
No seperate bank account for VAT money.Tarmac do it all. No comebacks either