darratt78:
I plus driving 14 plate scania’s it’s a no brainer.
Would you be happy if it was a Strallis though?
bald bloke:
flat to the mat:
Been on 4 and 4 for years and love it . Working the weekends is no problem , generally our planners want a quiet time so tend to leave us to get on with the work , also no rush hour traffic to snarl up the cities .Can be useful to have time off in the week sometimes too .
Taking my next 4 days as part of my annual leave , so off for 12 days in total .But how many hours a week are you paid for as some weeks you’ll only do 3 days ?
We work 12/14 hour shifts , pay cut off is Weds midnight so sometimes you only get paid for three days work in a particular week but it’s still enough and everything evens out .
Recently been working 5/2 or 5/3 to cover for my partner who’s been on holiday , nice bit of ot chucked into the mix .
4/4 would suit me well in a job. I’ve not had regular weekends off for years so used to it. You still get a run of weekends off and no more of the only 1 useable local night at home because of a late finish Fri /early start Mon.
For me i’m more concerned with nice row if days off vs length of days at work. Best I’ve sent these days in my job I work in now is 5 on 3 off then 5 on 4 off or being away 20 days with 10 off. 4/4 with 32k and that 2.5k bonus is not half bad. Good lifestyle pattern.
Pimpdaddy:
Coffeeholic:
Personally I don’t see a downside to it and I would work that pattern no problem.Working a lot of weekends is the main downside i see, a 4 on 3 off sounds better:grin:
You have as many off as you work and you get all those weekdays off when other people are working so if you go places or have a few days away it’s quieter. Also if you do take a few days away then being able to do it during the week means things like hotels are often cheaper than at weekends. There’s not much you can’t do equally as well on a weekday rather than a Saturday or Sunday.
Freight Dog:
in my job I work in now is 5 on 3 off then 5 on 4 off or being away 20 days with 10 off. 4/4 with 32k and that 2.5k bonus is not half bad. Good lifestyle pattern.
I expected better money than that flying 747 freighters…
Well in the context of different fields 32k on 4/4 is good for driving I’d say. It depends how much time off you want. The money is handsome alright if you operate for say Nippon Cargo. 13-15k USD a month, but you pay for it. Zero home life. Any marriage disintegrates then your health goes too. Life’s not about money to me beyond paying the bills, having a bit of spare to do stuff with and feeding myself. I always made a rubbish materialist anyway as not fussed about buying excessive stuff 
darratt78:
I work 4 on 4 off for a well known german supermarket… My salary is 32.5k plus bonus of up to 2.5k annual bonus which is always obtainable plus driving 14 plate scania’s it’s a no brainer.
Aldi ?
I knew supermarket work paid well but that’s well handsome. I’d best brush up on my German 
darratt78:
I work 4 on 4 off for a well known german supermarket… My salary is 32.5k plus bonus of up to 2.5k annual bonus which is always obtainable plus driving 14 plate scania’s it’s a no brainer.
hmmm yes but you have to work for it and i dont like work no matter how much they offer me
i just want to hook up and go for a bit and come back and end up with a lot of money for the ease of the job
a 4 on 4 off is a good little system if you want time off but you will have to forget about earning big bucks unless of course you end up in a company like the poster ^ who has to pull cages and i dare say strugle with frozen pallets on a hill trying not to get ran over by the load pushing him out of the trailer : )
i would love a nice easy 4 on 4 off night trunk job with just one trailer swap please, with no bosses screaming were am i, no tracker trying to find out why i have stopped for a crap, no moaning big girl drivers who go running into the office crying someone has smoked in there cab, and above all just a happy bunch of lads to work along side with. for my services i think for the job 25 k and upwards would be good money. with 4 days off so i could spend it and spend time doing things i like to do
rob22888:
Don’t understand why weekend & bank holiday premiums are such a big deal to people when it comes to 4 on 4 off.The deal with 4 on 4 off, is that you get paid a full time salary for effectively only working 6 months of the year, thus having tons of time off work. This suits the driver. In return, you have to cop some of your bank holidays & weekends. This suits the employer. It works both ways. If your somebody who really values time at home at the weekend, this isn’t for you, not everybody is the same.
The whole 4 on 4 off system surely becomes a total non-starter for employers if they start having to shell out time & a half and double time etc. for weekend working, when they are already effectively paying for substantially more drivers they might need otherwise.
this is why drivers like yourself DON’T get it! you’d probably end up doing 6 on 2 off " BECAUSE I NEED THE MONEY! " 
that’s why this jobs [zb]ed! 
bald bloke:
flat to the mat:
Been on 4 and 4 for years and love it . Working the weekends is no problem , generally our planners want a quiet time so tend to leave us to get on with the work , also no rush hour traffic to snarl up the cities .Can be useful to have time off in the week sometimes too .
Taking my next 4 days as part of my annual leave , so off for 12 days in total .But how many hours a week are you paid for as some weeks you’ll only do 3 days ?
Having to work across weekends some weeks is the big thing that employers get out of offering this pattern.
There can’t be many who are getting monday-thursday week in, week out after all.
4 days on 4 days off means rotating among all the possible combinations over the course of 42 days if advancing one day later on each week’s start.
If you bregrudge therefore giving your firm the weekends for no extra, there’s obviously going to be an incresed risk of full timers taking “sickies” on the weekend parts of their rotation.
Your leave entitlement can be fiddled by the employer too - for example, if you are currently working a 5 day week with six weeks holiday entitlement due to long service (20 years plus at somewhere like Royal Mail) then if you pick into a 4 day week duty - your leave entitlement drops from 30 days to 24 days… Not good.
If, however, you are on the minimum entitlement of 20 days plus bank holidays - you don’t lose any, because losing 6 days off this would take you below minimum entitlement - especially if you find yourself having to work bank holidays as part of your rotate!
Catch 22 is that you’d need to be a driver senior enough to pick into a 4 day week in the first place, so in practice 20 day holiday entitlement drivers never get to pick into such a cushy number.
If you are salaried and paid monthly - your pay will be based on you working days across the entire month rather than worrying about “3 days this week, and 4 another week” etc etc.
4on4off=best shift I ever worked!
Wished it would be introduced on the buses.
Reading this I’m thinking I’ve been short changed,what you think
I work 4on 4off, been doing this shift patten ten years class one adr tankers delivering gas liquid form 3nights out every week £25 per night out its been that since I started, we do uk and Belgium
Cab hope every week never on the same truck sometimes you can be in a diffrent truck each night 
don’t work bank hols 20 days hol per year
Basic is £34,700 for 48 hr week bear in mind it’s adr tankers seems Aldi pay just as much delivering bake beans our company is a well known gas company
Should I arsk for more pay 
Aldi dont pay bad due to it been self tip/load.
Never done 4 on 4 off but imo should pay same at least as mon-fri job due to working weekends and public holidays.
I know many aint bothered about weekends but we should still get a premium for working them as for many it does mean missing out on family time.
ive got a baby on the way and for the next ciuple of years it probaly would be a good set up
kr79:
Aldi dont pay bad due to it been self tip/load.
For £35k 40 on 4 off I’d take it from the truck and into some old granny’s shopping trolley
It’s good that so many drivers are lazy these days if it bumps up the wage for hand ball jobs. I don’t mind getting stuck in to a bit of hand ball.
Scrapped it they wouldn’t budge on £12 an hour told em to shove it politely though and only garenteed 40 hour week which only works out £480 befor tax ermm do I look like an idiot don’t bother answering that you lot .
scally2:
Scrapped it they wouldn’t budge on £12 an hour told em to shove it politely though and only garenteed 40 hour week which only works out £480 befor tax ermm do I look like an idiot don’t bother answering that you lot .
I don’t think somebody taking £25K a year for a 40 hour week (lets face it, you’ll do more than that) with 3/4 days off is an idiot. Clearly, if you want loads of hours for bumper pay packets it’s not for you.
darratt78 wrote:
I work 4 on 4 off for a well known german supermarket… My salary is 32.5k plus bonus of up to 2.5k annual bonus which is always obtainable plus driving 14 plate scania’s it’s a no brainer.
Aldi ?
I knew supermarket work paid well but that’s well handsome. I’d best brush up on my German
Yes Aldi. Some of the 5 on 3 offs are topping 40k. It is the self load/tip pattern but we are always done in 12 hours and the routing is organised and fair. Any job requires hard work these days whether it’s ■■■■■■■ a few pallets into a freezer (done by electric truck by the way) or putting the hours in on the road which is just as tiring I reckon! Nice variation of driving as the weekend can be quieter and no rush hours so no day is really the same and 4 days go by so quickly! No point moaning about jobs as the saying goes… A good driver will always have work!
I do caged deliveries doing what I’m doing now so that wouldn’t exactly be a shock to me and I prefer a bit of handball anyway as it burns the calories.
Think I’ll whip an application in
i work on a 3 week cycle,never work sundays. wk 1= mon tues wed thurs… wk 2= wed thurs fri saturday wk 3=mon tues fri saturday,48hrs pw,27 days hols. if ya shift falls on a bank holiday tough,except xmas day,box day &new years day, never work those days. £26500pa. 2 nites out in 25 yrs,not bad hey?and loads o time off,sure i could earn more but why be away all week for double the hrs. been on this shift pattern for bout 10yrs i reckon. better than the old 60-70+hrs over 6 days that we used to do!!
Aldi RDC at chelmsford work 5 on 3 off start times are 04.00,10.30,1600 and 22.30 the night drivers can earn over 40 grand without breaking their stride with the day drivers earning a shade over 35 grand. Some days are harder than others but never feel like you are being taken the mickey out of.For such a big busy operation they really are a good crowd everybody mucks in .All the kit is decent with a fair amount of trailers and units being brand new.Top Job.