Waco:
Personnely I think thats where all the crap wage rates started, when firms gave up their own transport and the use of subbies for busy periods.
I think it is more down to the agencies creaming off their cut like parasites, which could and should be going direct to the driver instead
Where i live in the 90s there must have been at least 20 owner drivers all doing spain on dodgy credit cards ,red diesel and a lot more other things ,they all had top notch units ,nice houses and nice cars ,at the end of the 90s they had gone pop or were in jail,i jumped ship early doors glad i did ,i see alot of these blokes nowadays most are on agencys or working on plant ,very very naughty fellas ,i dont mind a fiddle myself but some of these blokes took the ■■■■ and dragged the rest in when they got tugged 
Muckaway:
Just wondered who’s worked for cowboys in the past? Mentioning no names, what are your reasons for labelling them as such?
I’ve worked for cowboys and both were tipper operators. Made up weights on tickets, loading one type of material and writing something different on the ticket…False addresses on waste transfer notes to avoid having them analysed…
does any of the above bother you then?
ive done all of the above when working for muckaway firms in the past,however i wouldnt call them “cowboy” outfits at all-its called survival.i might be on hire to a company but do an extra load for the boss on the way home,a nice drink for me at the end of the week when its all added up 
i like firms like that!!
the lorrys were all very well maintained and newish,any defects ie tyres etc would be sorted on the spot as soon as you flagged them up and sorted very quickly.you would be expected to help the fitters if a wheel had to be changed,i dont have a problem with that.
i would describe a cowboy outfit as a firm that ran old rotten motors with loads of faults,no tax etc.asking you to run bent all the time etc
Falsifying weight tickets was a concern, considering the tickets are not done by the weighbridge, but the drivers. Should Trading Standards and Vosa have stopped me the buck would’ve stopped at me. I actually had a telling off over the phone because I was using the actual tare weight of 13400 rather than the company policy of 12500, and writing the actual weight on the weigher, not just “19500” which most customers knew was dodgy.
They’re not fiddling to survive, they make a fortune but are greedy. Another ex employer do it by the book, and make a fortune.
3300John:
hiya…i certainly worked for a couple…i must say although been ripped off on rates(20%days)
these firms was much more fun than your hoyty toyty outfits that are around today.
one time i saw boss and driver having a real fisty cuffs fight in the yard one had bleeding nose
the other had a swollen eye. plenty of steam let off then back to work. no grudge. work to do.
i would think you get a written warning today with suspension without pay…yawn!!!
one outfit i knew of(chap across the road drove for)had two identical lorries parked up both had the
same number plate, scam was you taxed one lorry, then you contact dvla say you had a windscreen go
(they used to shatter) the tax disc was lost. when you get a replacement disc you have one for each lorry.
dose that qualify for cowboy…another chap i know had a DAF 33 car, he also had a DAF 3300 lorry with some
neat pen work the lorry was taxed for the price of a car, the car was only ever parked in a shed…(never seen).
Musta been a learner 
Yiddle Davis had any amount of motors with the same plates / tax discs. My old Dad worked for them lot, made money, but was never home. I loved getting around the country with him, but can’t see it happening nowadays.
I can remember the sitting down writing out log books as well… if he was home.
I often hanker for a bit of excitement and the adrenaline rush that a bit of early morning fly tipping brought.
My first driving job was in a y reg leyland constructor ran on kerosene leave a load on at night fly tip it in the morning then run to the tip all day. Got upgraded to a e reg 291 MAN after flames started coming out the exhaust caught the sheet ■■■■■■■ on the headboard alight and the 265 roller blew it self to bits.
Earning about the same as i do now all in the han obviously all above board these days now.
One plant hire firm still going near Witney used to run a couple of Leyland Super Mastiff six wheelers; One was sent for mot (at great expense apparently), passed and then swapped number plates with the other one. The “passed” Mastiff was presented for test, and failed.
Don’t know what was “super” about them* apart from the noise. The first make/model of lorry I could identify from sound alone was those two.
*V8 Perkins I think.
Quite a common scam back in the day
kr79:
Quite a common scam back in the day
And another Oxford firm badged up a Poclain 65 as a 75 to charge a higher rate.
Yep back in the day there was some rum old outfits around more so in the tipping game, burning waste in open fires watch out for the calor gas bottle, trouble is fast foward to 2014, its all still just as crap realy no bugger wants to pay for nights out the rates plm are crap the price of fuel is a joke, the goverment are a bunch of idiots same as most planners, count yaself very lucky if you got any job that ticks all the boxes in any industry not just ours, well thats got that of me chest 