the OP also stated he wanted to be home every night which limits it too day driving which is mostly class 2, multi drop weather it be hiab, pallets, food cages, tippers etc.
but why is only “trunking” tolerable, driving up and down a motorway at night.
whats wrong with driving a hiab around a town, there’s drivers and screwdrivers as they say. Guess it all depends where you live too, Down here in Devon/Cornwall, pretty much every job class 1 or 2, hiab or otherwise etc etc is rural and sends you to small places with crap access, everywhere has lanes, and small villages but you get too see some nice scenery. multi dropping along the coast or moorland is not a bad job, when you home by 17.30 every night and £500+ take home. I would do trunking, but i think after a while that would be one of the “bearable” jobs.
m_attt:
as said the agency probably don’t have much of that type of work. Tippers are mainly covered by the companies that run them and not agency.
The one I work for have mostly Hiab work over the summer they were saying over 50% of there bookings is to builders merchants. Through the winter its gas, coal and oil. They have a regular need for food cages eg P&H. Also cover tesco and some other similar jobs.
Pallet work seams to be constant for different companies too. Then the odd bit of this and that.
So if you turn up and say I’m only doing this type of work and they dont have it, then why would they take you on when someone else is willing to do a bit of everything.
The fact is if the local Hiab zb type building distribution jobs and retail distribution work is subtracted by driver choice the agencies wouldn’t then have enough work to employ anyone.Which then leaves the question why is it no problem for agencies to be used for Hiab type work but not tippers.It’s my guess that’s one of the dividing points between a just about tolerable job in many cases and the type of local,urban,round the houses local multi drop zb that no driver with any sense wants to do and it’s bridging that dividing line which is what agencies are all about and is how they make their living.So it’s no surprise that lying to drivers to get them in the door is an essential part in meeting that criterea and need in the industry.
IE driving a tipper could potentially be the difference between a relatively few loads and drops per day with a reasonable amount of rural/semi rural distance and driving between them.
As opposed to a typical Hiab type job on agency which inevitably means spending all day in the towns and suburbs of Greater London or similar and as much,if not more,time loading and unloading and working in the yard as navigating a truck through zb built up areas.
**As I’ve said the fact is agencies are all about providing drivers for the zb jobs that most/all drivers don’t want.**Within that there ‘might’ ‘possibly’ be ‘some’ better more tolerable type jobs like trunking etc.However they are so few and far between as to make it unviable to take on drivers who don’t want to do the zb type work and even if they did you can bet that all those who might ‘say’ that they are ‘happy’ with doing the zb would then complain.Being that there’s very few,if any, people who enter the industry to drive anything larger than a four wheeler who then want to spend their working life doing zb multi drop rounds in town.
Agencies are all about providing drivers to the clients that they have the greatest margin with, which is invariably food service/retail store delivery.
m_attt:
as said the agency probably don’t have much of that type of work. Tippers are mainly covered by the companies that run them and not agency.
The one I work for have mostly Hiab work over the summer they were saying over 50% of there bookings is to builders merchants. Through the winter its gas, coal and oil. They have a regular need for food cages eg P&H. Also cover tesco and some other similar jobs.
Pallet work seams to be constant for different companies too. Then the odd bit of this and that.
So if you turn up and say I’m only doing this type of work and they dont have it, then why would they take you on when someone else is willing to do a bit of everything.
The fact is if the local Hiab zb type building distribution jobs and retail distribution work is subtracted by driver choice the agencies wouldn’t then have enough work to employ anyone.Which then leaves the question why is it no problem for agencies to be used for Hiab type work but not tippers.It’s my guess that’s one of the dividing points between a just about tolerable job in many cases and the type of local,urban,round the houses local multi drop zb that no driver with any sense wants to do and it’s bridging that dividing line which is what agencies are all about and is how they make their living.So it’s no surprise that lying to drivers to get them in the door is an essential part in meeting that criterea and need in the industry.
IE driving a tipper could potentially be the difference between a relatively few loads and drops per day with a reasonable amount of rural/semi rural distance and driving between them.
As opposed to a typical Hiab type job on agency which inevitably means spending all day in the towns and suburbs of Greater London or similar and as much,if not more,time loading and unloading and working in the yard as navigating a truck through zb built up areas.
**As I’ve said the fact is agencies are all about providing drivers for the zb jobs that most/all drivers don’t want.**Within that there ‘might’ ‘possibly’ be ‘some’ better more tolerable type jobs like trunking etc.However they are so few and far between as to make it unviable to take on drivers who don’t want to do the zb type work and even if they did you can bet that all those who might ‘say’ that they are ‘happy’ with doing the zb would then complain.Being that there’s very few,if any, people who enter the industry to drive anything larger than a four wheeler who then want to spend their working life doing zb multi drop rounds in town.
Agencies are all about providing drivers to the clients that they have the greatest margin with, which is invariably food service/retail store delivery.
And the reason why the retail/building distribution sector is willing to pay agencies a good rate is because it can’t find sufficient drivers who are looking for that type of job in the usual regular employment market.A similar situation exists in the case of owner driver employment.In that owner drivers get much of the better work that’s available such as distance/international full load work.IE a type of pecking order in the employment regime and work quality in which owner drivers are at the top,then employed,then agency work at the bottom.
I understand there’s always vacant shifts at agencies who put drivers into anything to do with “food drops”.
You might see a situation I suggest therefore where on any one week there might be the following available shifts to pick up…
All week days - Food multidrop runs.
All week nights - Trunking - providing full timer on leave cover. ie. not all year around…
Saturdays: Supermarkets
Sundays: Just about anything you want - but it’s an odd shift, or the first of a sunday-thursday week…
Firm has 100 drivers, and in any week there might be say, 120 food delivery shifts available, and about 250 depot-depot/trailer swap jobs. (so 50 drivers - half the staff on the books - get a week’s worth of what they want straight away!) Let’s say I get offered the food delivery job. I might say “I’ll take Sunday/Monday of that please” leaving 118 other shifts to cover with the remaining 49 drivers on the books in this example… Some will take a whole week of it (reducing available shifts by 5 each time of course!) and some might take odds days like me… At the end, all trunking runs will be covered, and a large number of food delivery shifts NOT covered… Hence the yard such as Bidvest, P&H, Brakes, Warburtons, & 3663 will end up registering with multiple agencies - because they know in advance they’ll never get all their vacant shifts filled from a single agency.
I might even argue that it is this practice of the class 2 yards that keeps so many agencies in business!
Meanwhile…
Drivers like me might be asked “Would you like two days of something cushy, or a whole week of crap”? - Since I’m not desperate to work flat out, so I elect to take the cushy work of course… Of course if a full week of a cushy trunk comes up, I’ll grab it with both hands unless I am really not available on some day mid-week… (Agency likes to give a “leave cover” job out to a single driver - makes sense!)
When a “new” driver starts at an agency, they are going to be offered intitially as much crappy work as possible - to find out where that driver’s comfort zone lies. Makes sense. If you pick and choose from the very beginning - because you can - then you’ll be treated better in the long run too. Be too desperate, and you’ll seem like a nerd trying to get a girlfriend, and you’ll either get nothing or crappy jobs for the whole week all the time.
Who’d rather do 2-3 days a week EVERY week rather than put up with crap?
Winseer:
I understand there’s always vacant shifts at agencies who put drivers into anything to do with “food drops”.
You might see a situation I suggest therefore where on any one week there might be the following available shifts to pick up…
All week days - Food multidrop runs.
All week nights - Trunking - providing full timer on leave cover. ie. not all year around…
Saturdays: Supermarkets
Sundays: Just about anything you want - but it’s an odd shift, or the first of a sunday-thursday week…
Firm has 100 drivers, and in any week there might be say, 120 food delivery shifts available, and about 250 depot-depot/trailer swap jobs. (so 50 drivers - half the staff on the books - get a week’s worth of what they want straight away!) Let’s say I get offered the food delivery job. I might say “I’ll take Sunday/Monday of that please” leaving 118 other shifts to cover with the remaining 49 drivers on the books in this example… Some will take a whole week of it (reducing available shifts by 5 each time of course!) and some might take odds days like me… At the end, all trunking runs will be covered, and a large number of food delivery shifts NOT covered… Hence the yard such as Bidvest, P&H, Brakes, Warburtons, & 3663 will end up registering with multiple agencies - because they know in advance they’ll never get all their vacant shifts filled from a single agency.
I might even argue that it is this practice of the class 2 yards that keeps so many agencies in business!
Meanwhile…
Drivers like me might be asked “Would you like two days of something cushy, or a whole week of crap”? - Since I’m not desperate to work flat out, so I elect to take the cushy work of course… Of course if a full week of a cushy trunk comes up, I’ll grab it with both hands unless I am really not available on some day mid-week… (Agency likes to give a “leave cover” job out to a single driver - makes sense!)
When a “new” driver starts at an agency, they are going to be offered intitially as much crappy work as possible - to find out where that driver’s comfort zone lies. Makes sense. If you pick and choose from the very beginning - because you can - then you’ll be treated better in the long run too. Be too desperate, and you’ll seem like a nerd trying to get a girlfriend, and you’ll either get nothing or crappy jobs for the whole week all the time.
Who’d rather do 2-3 days a week EVERY week rather than put up with crap?
“Not many” - I’ve found.
Which seems to confirm an inbalance between the demand for class 1 trunking work as opposed to class 2 distribution.
Which raises the obvious question of class 1 as opposed to class 2 drivers in which class 2 can’t do class 1 trunking jobs anyway and why would any class 1 driver with any sense choose to do class 2 distribution work.Being that the usual reason why drivers upgrade a class 2 licence to class 1 is because they don’t want the type of distribution work which too often characterises the class 2 sector.Also why would anyone want to pay class 1 rates to agencies for a class 2 job.Which then leaves the even worse situation of class 1 employers who see an artic as just a bigger local distribution wagon than a four wheeler/7.5 tonner.
Certainly,in my experience,it was more often,if not always,the case that the distribution sector,was willing to pay the agency class 1 rates in order to get drivers regardless of the type of wagon usually four wheeler and often even 7.5 tonner.Which usually,if not always,involved the agency then either lying to the unfortunate class 1 driver in question about the job,or using blackmail in the form of typical threats if the job is not accepted then that will have ‘implications’ regarding future work.IE in that case it’s the agencies and their clients who were/are the real desperate creeps.Which is why I for one was happy to eventually tell them to get stuffed.
Some days I wonder what I’m doing with my life. I see that I’m essentially just another cage pusher, only difference between me and the bods I deliver to is that I happen to have a C class license. I spend more time shunting and shifting cages and baskets around than I do driving. I signed up to be a lorry driver not a cage pusher. My idea of being a trucker was trundling up and down the A1 everyday. I guess its time I take off these rose tinted specs.
Around here, C2 yards are looking like they are about to offer more money for their C2 work than their C1 work. That is in fact how supply and demand SHOULD work though, so we shouldn’t be complaining.
I was offered £50 to “get another driver to sign up for C2 work” with my agency a year ago. No takers.
Now… If you have just passed your C2 licence - come and fill your boots!
If you have a C1 licence - There isn’t any need to do the C2 work - even if the same or better money is paid.
I think this is more about “the average age of a LGV driver is 53” than it is about personal tastes, public trends, or anything like that.
If you need to be “young and fit” to do the work, and you’re over 40 with a beer gut - then running up and down stairs with baskets of tuck under your arm just isn’t ever going to be your forte - is it?
Van drivers on £7.50ph are in no hurry to “upgrade” to C2 either - if the work is only going to require more physique as a result!
Best keep your head down if a van driver or refuse to trade down if you’re a C1 driver…
Around this way, there’s a lot of squaddies doing the C2 work - especially at places like Bidvest…
Radar19:
Some days I wonder what I’m doing with my life. I see that I’m essentially just another cage pusher, only difference between me and the bods I deliver to is that I happen to have a C class license. I spend more time shunting and shifting cages and baskets around than I do driving. I signed up to be a lorry driver not a cage pusher. My idea of being a trucker was trundling up and down the A1 everyday. I guess its time I take off these rose tinted specs.
So that’s another vote for distance trunking/full load work only.In which case,with very few exceptions,you’ll need to upgrade to a C+E assuming you’ve only got a C.But don’t expect to then find that type of work easily as an employed driver let alone on agency.
For any newbies, crucial q"s to ask before you waste your fuel enrolling
1- the job you saw is the one your after
2- what pay structure is it, ie, paye, ltd company, or umbrella, and dont be forced to take their umbrella if dont want
3- garaunteed 8hrs pay even if go home early
By asking these they will have an idea you know what scams they use so wont bother giving you speel as believe me theyre trained liars it will also save you on fuel
m_attt:
So if you turn up and say I’m only doing this type of work and they dont have it, then why would they take you on when someone else is willing to do a bit of everything.
By the same token, why do agencies specifically advertise steel and tipper jobs and the like when they know full well they don’t actually have them? Neither of those are easy jobs, as anyone who has had to physically ‘bar’ steel across the bed or dig out the gunge in body of a 32 tonne tipper will tell you.
I recently did my cpc, a week long course in a room with about 14 others drivers. Surprisingly I wasn’t the only one there that wouldn’t touch shops with a barge pole. Out and about I see retail drivers struggling with trying to drag top heavy cages across busy roads and up raised kerbs, that are way beyond the sensible carrying or moving weight for one person.
I have zero idea what the incentive would be to get someone to spend thousands of their own money on getting a vocational license to end up doing crud like that.
I’m on the tippers and the company I work for won’t use agencies when looking for a new driver. If they require a temporary driver, to cover a permanent driver who’s on holiday for example, they always use drivers who have a tipper background. Perhaps this is true for other areas of the industry too?
Agency - that’s just a synonym for parasite, surely??
m_attt:
So if you turn up and say I’m only doing this type of work and they dont have it, then why would they take you on when someone else is willing to do a bit of everything.
By the same token, why do agencies specifically advertise steel and tipper jobs and the like when they know full well they don’t actually have them? Neither of those are easy jobs, as anyone who has had to physically ‘bar’ steel across the bed or dig out the gunge in body of a 32 tonne tipper will tell you.
I recently did my cpc, a week long course in a room with about 14 others drivers. Surprisingly I wasn’t the only one there that wouldn’t touch shops with a barge pole. Out and about I see retail drivers struggling with trying to drag top heavy cages across busy roads and up raised kerbs, that are way beyond the sensible carrying or moving weight for one person.
I have zero idea what the incentive would be to get someone to spend thousands of their own money on getting a vocational license to end up doing crud like that.
I dont get this Im class 1, Class 2 are beneath me I wont drive anything else, and will only do a monotonous trip up and down a motorway.
Im class 1 currently doing some wagon and drag hiab work down into Cornwall which is great, I also do plenty of class 2 and on rare occasion van work all paid at class 1 rate, Im a driver so I will drive, not bothered what as different vehicles and job take me to loads of places I would never normally see, especially If i was only trunking. These people you see wrestling with cages are being lazy, it takes 2 mins to split it between two cages and run it in a shop. Ive done quite a bit for palmer and harvey, not my favourite job but nearly almost home by 3 in the afternoon with decent pay. And once you get used to it, its pretty straight forward and not much effort needed.
m_attt:
So if you turn up and say I’m only doing this type of work and they dont have it, then why would they take you on when someone else is willing to do a bit of everything.
By the same token, why do agencies specifically advertise steel and tipper jobs and the like when they know full well they don’t actually have them? Neither of those are easy jobs, as anyone who has had to physically ‘bar’ steel across the bed or dig out the gunge in body of a 32 tonne tipper will tell you.
I recently did my cpc, a week long course in a room with about 14 others drivers. Surprisingly I wasn’t the only one there that wouldn’t touch shops with a barge pole. Out and about I see retail drivers struggling with trying to drag top heavy cages across busy roads and up raised kerbs, that are way beyond the sensible carrying or moving weight for one person.
I have zero idea what the incentive would be to get someone to spend thousands of their own money on getting a vocational license to end up doing crud like that.
I dont get this Im class 1, Class 2 are beneath me I wont drive anything else, and will only do a monotonous trip up and down a motorway.
Im class 1 currently doing some wagon and drag hiab work down into Cornwall which is great, I also do plenty of class 2 and on rare occasion van work all paid at class 1 rate, Im a driver so I will drive, not bothered what as different vehicles and job take me to loads of places I would never normally see, especially If i was only trunking. These people you see wrestling with cages are being lazy, it takes 2 mins to split it between two cages and run it in a shop. Ive done quite a bit for palmer and harvey, not my favourite job but nearly almost home by 3 in the afternoon with decent pay. And once you get used to it, its pretty straight forward and not much effort needed.
Assuming that anyone doesn’t mind what the work is and finds distance work ‘monotonous’ then why bother with going to all the bother of getting a Class 1 licence.In general the only ‘different places’ you’ll see doing the type of distribution work which forms the majority of agency work will be one urban area or another together with loads of time spent at delivery collection points loading and unloading.Which then leaves the question of personal choice.Personally I’d say if only the majority of drivers had taken your view during my time.In which case there would have been more drivers looking for local distribution work on agencies than distance/international work.Needless to say the facts show the opposite in most cases.
Plenty of class 1 thats not trunking or distance. Devon and Cornwall is far from urban, plenty of nice places to go, otherwise we wouldnt be invaded by caravans and tourists all summer. But like you say each to their own. dont mind some distance stuff. Just dont get the will only do trunking. Up an down the same road each day in the dark, thats monotonous.
I agree with m-atts’ post about drivers’ struggling with heavy cages and pallets. So many drivers think it’s a sign of weakness to ask someone for a push. If a customer refuses/makes excuses I might not be able to get the pallets where they want.
I’ll often break down pallets so they get two instead of one; It means I’ve got less empties to strap before going home.
Around here, Bidvest seem to advertise through half a dozen agencies, plus advertise c2 jobs on their website. One of our drivers has considered applying…Not me, I like to have the odd pallet forklifted off.
winseer spot on with the nerd and girlfriend analogy, the past few months iv done loads of different stuff, proper jobs as well including bitumen, steel work, abbatoirs, concrete, it stops the boredom for me anyway
Winseer:
How far is generally considered “distance” btw?
I guess we all have different perspectives on that. To me I class local as being up to 40 miles radius from base, mid up to 80 miles and anything over 80 miles as being distance.
Whilst I have class one and PSV licenses, I appreciate most local work is going to be on rigids which truly doesn’t bother me. Whilst I look after the vehicles in my care, to me a truck is nothing more than a mobile platform and I take no interest in who makes it, what model it is or how many fairy lights it has or doesn’t have. It’s just a tool to do a job.
What I do have an interest in though, is the environment I have to operate in and that environment for me is industrial estates and construction sites. Shop deliveries is an environment for those that like busy high streets, errant shoppers, housewives, kids and pensioners in their workplace and with the best will in the world, that simply isn’t me.
dont mind some distance stuff. Just dont get the will only do trunking. Up an down the same road each day in the dark, thats monotonous.
