I have worked for the same company for 20 years, and seen a lot of changes, mostly for the worse! I deliver bread for a living
I passed my class1 in October and filled in an on-line application form for Eddie Stobarts, I got a letter in December saying I was on their short list. Last Friday I got a phone call asking me to go for a driver assesment at Appleton.
The shift they are offering is days or nights Thur to Sat or Tramping! Which they said would mean I’m away all week.
Which would be best?
I’m hoping Stobarts will pay a decent wage, I’m on 21500 now for 43 hours.
I know I’ll have to work a lot more won’t I?
Now the problem is , I live 15 minutes away from work at the moment, if I was to accept the job, I would be an hour away!
Shall I go for the experience or look for something closer to home?
I live in the Burnley area.
All suggestions and comments welcome.
BTW this is my first post.
if you took the tramping and were out all week that one hour drive wouldn’t look very much in the scheme of things.I travel about forty five minutes each way,Im out maybe two to three nights a week and think its worth it.
Many jobs involve a travel to get there maybe you have been spoiled with your fifteen minutes into work
Tramping is an art,and not for everyone.Personally,I like to be home every night,and always am,and I still make a decent crack out of it,and I’m an agency driver.
I’m intrigued by the Thurs to Sat,because if this were the case,you would be a LOT worse off,financially.
Sorry typo I meant Tuesday to Saturday. My head is right up my *rse this week
I’m hoping to be earning 30k+ to make it worth my while.
I’m doubtful about the tramping, but the night shift looks the most likely option.
Although based at Warrington, I’m hoping once I get my foot in the door, there might be a posibility of transfering to Middleton, which is much nearer for me.
This is going to be a life changing decision for myself and my family, so I again would appreciate any form of guidance and advice.
I woz in the same situation a few weeks ago, but im a class 2 driver and they were gonna put me through my 1… i had to turn it down in the end cause ov the travel there and the basic wage and holiday!! They would put me straight on to trampin which i wouldnt mind, but i would be on the same money as i would in my current job but for doin 5 nites out instead ov the 3 i do at the min… i just thought sometimes its better the devil you know!
its each to there own though… you gotta write down the pro’s and cons ov each job… i find that helps!!
You don’t say what hours you are currently doing at your present job,suffice to say,that to achieve your financial aim,then you will be doing more elsewhere,in a general haulage enviroment.However,I’m of the opinion,you only get out what you put in,as you don’t get owt for nowt.
At the end of the day,only you can decide,but at least working for the likes of Stobart,you’ll be working for a high profile operator,and the kit is first rate,plus if your ambitious enough,you can move up the ladder.
Another thing to consider,is your working location.
You say you’d like to transfer to Middleton.As far as I’m aware,Stobart doesn’t do anything out of Middleton now,as they don’t have the McBrides job,unless they’re doing the Tesco ambient.
There are 1 or 2 Stobart lads on here,and I’m sure if your hellbent on joining them,they’ll post when they can,and give you the low down.
Dougal1964:
Sorry typo I meant Tuesday to Saturday. My head is right up my *rse this week
I’m hoping to be earning 30k+ to make it worth my while.
I’m doubtful about the tramping, but the night shift looks the most likely option.
Although based at Warrington, I’m hoping once I get my foot in the door, there might be a posibility of transfering to Middleton, which is much nearer for me.
This is going to be a life changing decision for myself and my family, so I again would appreciate any form of guidance and advice.
Cheers lads
I’ll tell you right now, you won’t make £30k/year with Stobart unless you do tramping, max hours every week (70hrs+) and work every weekend shift you can get your hands on. And that’s nights or days. Don’t take any notice of their ads in the papers, it’s just to get bums on seats.
If you haven’t done tramping before then you need to be very careful as it’s a complete lifestyle change and you’ll either love it or hate it, there is no middle ground. Tramping isn’t a job, it is a lifestyle and unless your other half is the kind that can happily go for 5-6 days without seeing you then it will wreck your marriage. There’s a new post on one of the truck forums nearly every week about how their wife has left them for someone else.
I strongly advise you try it before committing to it.
I’m working a 5 from 7 shift with 2 days off rotating, if that makes sense.
Every 5 weeks I get a long weekend Fri Sat Sun then the week after Sat Sun Mon.
Start time is 4am and I usually get to my last drop at around 9.00am
I then park up somewhere and have a 30 minute break and head back to the bakery.
I’m usually back home before 11.00am.
Twice a week I have to stop till 1.00pm to make my hours up.
Yes, now I know what you’re thinking, but the thing is we can’t do any overtime, and thats where my problem lies, we need more money
Ideally I was hoping to make some extra cash by doing some agency work, but this would obviously be illegal, wouldn’t it?
The other alternative is to get a part time job…but I love driving the artic…HELP
Dougal1964:
I’m working a 5 from 7 shift with 2 days off rotating, if that makes sense.
Every 5 weeks I get a long weekend Fri Sat Sun then the week after Sat Sun Mon.
Start time is 4am and I usually get to my last drop at around 9.00am
I then park up somewhere and have a 30 minute break and head back to the bakery.
I’m usually back home before 11.00am.
Twice a week I have to stop till 1.00pm to make my hours up.
Yes, now I know what you’re thinking, but the thing is we can’t do any overtime, and thats where my problem lies, we need more money
Ideally I was hoping to make some extra cash by doing some agency work, but this would obviously be illegal, wouldn’t it?
The other alternative is to get a part time job…but I love driving the artic…HELP
You’ll get the extra money you want if you go to Stobart’s but you’ll be doing twice as many hours as you are now, and being away from home all week sleeping in the truck.
As for the agency work, there are ways to get round the hours rules if you so desire (I’m not going into the rights and wrongs of it due to all the do-gooders on here), but since the introduction of the digital tacho cards it’s a lot harder to do now.
Dougal, hope you don’t mind but i’m going to stick my oar in here.
You have got a nice steady job, and hopefully a good home life with it, and the other lads are right, be careful before you jump ship.
I’ve got a mate in a similar situation as you, and as he’s finished by lunctime, he does a bit of jobbing gardening and that sort of thing in the afternoons, and makes a nice little extra (say no more).
I bet you have some other talents you could use with your free time in the afternoons, have you got a local window cleaner for example, the tramping lark aint worth a light unless you want to make a stranger of your good lady.
please please dont think about running bent all it takes is a little bump and your whole life is put under scrutiny plus you will be looking over your shoulder all the time . do what i did and send the missus out to work a bit harder . do what you want to do . i dont think you will have any issues about job security with stobarts . but then 21 years isnt bad
Dougal1964:
Ideally I was hoping to make some extra cash by doing some agency work, but this would obviously be illegal, wouldn’t it?
No it’s not illegal, providing you adhere to the following
You finish before 17:00 on 3 of the days (13 hrs Max working) and 19:00 on 3 days (15 hrs Max)
The Drivers Hours legislation simply states the maximum hours you can work, this does not have to be a single employer.
You also need to take into account the driving time you’ve done at the bakery and deduct that off the 9’s and 10’s accordingly, but hey, some local haulier may have a use for 2 or 3 hrs a day
You would also have to declare the additional hours to your employer “if” you wanted to keep an accurate record for the WTD
On your long weekend you could do agency work if you wished as long as you get the minimum 24 hrs weekly rest in before returning to work.
Dougal1964:
Sorry typo I meant Tuesday to Saturday. My head is right up my *rse this week
I’m hoping to be earning 30k+ to make it worth my while.
I’m doubtful about the tramping, but the night shift looks the most likely option.
Although based at Warrington, I’m hoping once I get my foot in the door, there might be a posibility of transfering to Middleton, which is much nearer for me.
This is going to be a life changing decision for myself and my family, so I again would appreciate any form of guidance and advice.
Cheers lads
I’ll tell you right now, you won’t make £30k/year with Stobart unless you do tramping, max hours every week (70hrs+) and work every weekend shift you can get your hands on. And that’s nights or days. Don’t take any notice of their ads in the papers, it’s just to get bums on seats.
If you haven’t done tramping before then you need to be very careful as it’s a complete lifestyle change and you’ll either love it or hate it, there is no middle ground. Tramping isn’t a job, it is[/b] a lifestyle and unless your other half is the kind that can happily go for 5-6 days without seeing you then it will wreck your marriage. There’s a new post on one of the truck forums nearly every week about how their wife has left them for someone else. I strongly advise you try it before committing to it. [/quote] Very sound advice in my opinion …like Rob said tramping is a way of life…can be very lonely and if you are gonna get into bed with the likes of stobies and earn the magical 30 k then you really would need some experience of the tramping lifestyle to survive the ■■■■that goes with it…constant fone calls to check your progress etc etc etc …Good luck anyway keep us posted
Dougal1964:
I’m working a 5 from 7 shift with 2 days off rotating, if that makes sense.
Every 5 weeks I get a long weekend Fri Sat Sun then the week after Sat Sun Mon.
Start time is 4am and I usually get to my last drop at around 9.00am
I then park up somewhere and have a 30 minute break and head back to the bakery.
I’m usually back home before 11.00am.
Twice a week I have to stop till 1.00pm to make my hours up.
Yes, now I know what you’re thinking, but the thing is we can’t do any overtime, and thats where my problem lies, we need more money
Ideally I was hoping to make some extra cash by doing some agency work, but this would obviously be illegal, wouldn’t it?
The other alternative is to get a part time job…but I love driving the artic…HELP
Sorry only just read this …Ive worked for Stobies …a few times …and the vibe i get from your posts is stay where you are and find another outfit that suits your circumstances better …to jump in with that lot you need to be upto speed with the game…not a stab at you m8 but some of these planners are evil â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
and once they smell newby blood they will shaft yer mate…find another path untill you got a fighting chance with the sharks
if you need to alter the spelling to get past the auto censor that’s the clue it’s not allowed …Denis F
Well I was unsure last night, and decided not to bother going down for my driving assesment, the negative comments I’ve received from some, and the thought of working Tuesday to Saturday nights, I thought, forget it.
Anyway…this morning I had a change of heart, dropped the kids off at school and drove the 1hr down to Appleton…what a pleasant surprise I got, the sun was shining on all the Stobart lorries, they all looked shiney and new
I had to fill in a sheet of questions on driver hours etc, and also some road signs! Some of which I’ve never flamin’ seen before A red ringed circle with nothing in it???WTF is that?
I only got 3 wrong I was allowed 6, off for the driving assesment. Nice old guy, lovely motor, automatic with a clutch, not a splitter box in site.
Drove for about 15 mins and that was that, he said I drove a little fast on approach to roundabouts, I explained, I am a Bread man
The old guy told me they were setting on 45 drivers and that all Tesco drivers are to be replaced by Stobarts!
In to the office with another nice guy, general questions about safety etc etc…he said there was a position running from Burnley, which is 10 mins from my house, Mon to Fri on nights My eyes widened…what about the wonga■■?
32,000 for an average of 65 hours per week
More hours obviously than I’m doing now, but then again, flaming paper boys do more hours than I do
Now what shall I do?
Will I miss the 3.20am alarm clock?
The working Saturday and Sunday?
I’m going to have a long chat with my beautiful wife tonight…but I know as soon as she sees 32,000 She’ll be helping me fill in my resignation letter
be hard work getting that sort of money offa eddie,you would have to do 3x15hrs and 2x13hrs,71hours mon/fri for 52 weeks to get topline ÂŁ24828.44,you cant work every weekend,when you do, you got to pay back what ever hours you have reduced your weekly rest,get your poa in as your going to need it to get down to 48hrs
your n/o money is just that, tax free but you will spend it while you are out so i dont think you can count that as anything other than spends for the day. i dont know many people who add it on to there annual salary,there is a bonus but it aint all that,5 nights out in this day and age no thanks,not slagging stobarts,but who ever your planner is make sure you have a good working relationship with him/ her,you upset them,they will upset your money,
if you did 5 nights out a week for 52 weeks thats ÂŁ5200.00 add that to your topline ÂŁ24828.44 equals ÂŁ30028.44 still a bit off ÂŁ32000.
thats mucho work with not a lot of time at home,oh isotrack is fitted to all lorries and that tells them EVERYTHING.
any stobarts earning ÂŁ32000 stick a wage slip up and i will eat my hat
be hard work getting that sort of money offa eddie,you would have to do 3x15hrs and 2x13hrs,71hours mon/fri for 52 weeks to get topline ÂŁ24828.44,you cant work every weekend,when you do, you got to pay back what ever hours you have reduced your weekly rest,get your poa in as your going to need it to get down to 48hrs
your n/o money is just that, tax free but you will spend it while you are out so i dont think you can count that as anything other than spends for the day. i dont know many people who add it on to there annual salary,there is a bonus but it aint all that,5 nights out in this day and age no thanks,not slagging stobarts,but who ever your planner is make sure you have a good working relationship with him/ her,you upset them,they will upset your money,
if you did 5 nights out a week for 52 weeks thats ÂŁ5200.00 add that to your topline ÂŁ24828.44 equals ÂŁ30028.44 still a bit off ÂŁ32000.
thats mucho work with not a lot of time at home,oh isotrack is fitted to all lorries and that tells them EVERYTHING.
any stobarts earning ÂŁ32000 stick a wage slip up and i will eat my hat
AGREED!
Dougal, you’re being had. I warned you earlier that they’ll tell you anything to get bums on seats. There’s no way in this world that you’ll do £32k without working 70hr+ weeks, all weekends and sleeping in cab all week. Do you really think they’d need to be advertising if the job was so rosey as they make out?
Your choice at the end of the day, but don’t say you weren’t warned!
dougal, in my humble opinion i think you have done the right thing, at the end of the day if you dont give it a go you will always be thinking “what if”, give the job a fair crack and if it aint for you, move on, good luck .
My eyes widened…what about the wonga■■?