lee mat:
whats a good weeks earnings then and how much fuel would you use for doing it
My best week on there (in 04/05) was just under £3k with about 1,000l’s of diesel, bear in mind rates have gone up & fuel was a lot cheaper then, my average at the time was in the mid to low 30’s % fuel to earinings. I doubt any of their subbies are working on that ratio these days, poss their own trucks?? The secret on distance subbie work is getting a decent ‘local’ job in between your down the road loads, this brings the fuel/earnings ratio down.
lee mat:
whats a good weeks earnings then and how much fuel would you use for doing it
In very rough terms I aim to earn £1500 “after fuel” so for example if I earn £2700 and use £1200 of fuel then I count that as a good week. This is on bulk work though, I’m sure on traction work where you don’t need your own trailer and where there is a lot less wear and tear on your unit you can manage on a lot less.
bigr250:
The secret on distance subbie work is getting a decent ‘local’ job in between your down the road loads, this brings the fuel/earnings ratio down.
Ross.
you can keep your down the road work on containers, i,ll stick to 4 locals a day and be in my own bed every night thank you very much
i fail to see how anyone makes money on boxes tramping up and down country all week
bigr250:
The secret on distance subbie work is getting a decent ‘local’ job in between your down the road loads, this brings the fuel/earnings ratio down.
Ross.
you can keep your down the road work on containers, i,ll stick to 4 locals a day and be in my own bed every night thank you very much
i fail to see how anyone makes money on boxes tramping up and down country all week
It’s great that you can ‘call the shots’ & get 4 locals a day & be home every night, but I can imagine the reception a new subbie would get walking into a company & saying “I want what I want & nothing else, 4 locals no more than 25km’s from base”!! once they’d finished laughing the best you’d get is “close the door on your way out”.
bigr250:
I can imagine the reception a new subbie would get walking into a company & saying “I want what I want & nothing else, 4 locals no more than 25km’s from base”!! once they’d finished laughing the best you’d get is “close the door on your way out”.
Ross.
i dont know as much, i,ve started for 2 new companys in the last year and right from the off i told them i wasnt going down the road and was only interested in local work, they seemed fine with it and its worked ok so far
ive struggled to get 4 using 2 wagons now i no where i am going wrong fair play if i where getting that i wouldnt even consider distance work ive tried the do everything see if they think more of you approach failed big time so now i am subbing for someone else im trying it another way
lee mat:
ive struggled to get 4 using 2 wagons now i no where i am going wrong fair play if i where getting that i wouldnt even consider distance work ive tried the do everything see if they think more of you approach failed big time so now i am subbing for someone else im trying it another way
i have been on for a company for nearly 2 1/2 years, some personnel from from the company view and post on these forums,
this is loyalty for you, there is 1 other subbie that has been there longer than myself, we have all been suspicious of a further subbie that has not been there anywhere near half as long as myself, the 2 longest serving subbies are being shafted by not getting much work, and yet, the other subbie is getting a lot more work and better jobs too
example
week commencing 9th January this year, the longest serving subbie did 7 jobs all week, i myself did 8 jobs all week, the other subbie did 13 jobs in the same week
Moose:
IMHO if you have to buy work then its time to pack up or move on !moose
It depends on your definition of ‘buying’ I suppose. I like to look after the people we work for. Not the bosses necessarily, but often its the guys who actually pick up the phone to book in the work, and who effectively choose which of the many numbers in the book they are going to call.
It’s all about getting to know your customers on a personal level. One place that puts a fair bit of work our way, the TM is a big Celtic FC fan (like myself), so when I get complimentary hospitality passes for the home games which I am not going to use myself, I make a point of going to the customers office and offering him the first chance of them.
At another customer, I know that the owners father is a big fan of a certain malt whisky that is not only expensive, but hard to get hold of. I happen to know where to get this whisky at a reasonable price, so a couple of times a year I’ll stick my hand in my pocket and buy a couple of bottles. It might cost me a couple of hundred quid but in return the customer gets to keep his old man happy, it doesn’t cost him a penny, and I get 40-50k worth of good work put my way every year, whilst the guys who don’y give two hoots are running around doing the ■■■■ jobs, complaining that we get first pick of the jobs.
Also, every year we take half a dozen tables at a charity dinner/dance and invite our customers to come along for the evening, and we pick up the bill. We provide them with a nice meal and as much booze as they want (not to mention the opportunity to empty their wallets at the charity auction). The whole night costs us a fair few thousand pounds, but the people round those tables put half a million quid of good quality, well paying business our way each year and its easy to squeeze a bit more out of them once they’ve got a bottle of decent wine over their neck, so in the great scheme of things its not really a big expenditure.
This of course will only work if you provide a good service, but I find that the little personal touches (even just knowing the names of their wives, asking how the kids are doing, how’s that new car of yours running etc) makes you more a part of their business, and you tend to get looked after more than the faceless chap who constantly complains about the crap work he is getting.
shuttlespanker:
i have been on for a company for nearly 2 1/2 years, some personnel from from the company view and post on these forums,
this is loyalty for you, there is 1 other subbie that has been there longer than myself, we have all been suspicious of a further subbie that has not been there anywhere near half as long as myself, the 2 longest serving subbies are being shafted by not getting much work, and yet, the other subbie is getting a lot more work and better jobs too
example
week commencing 9th January this year, the longest serving subbie did 7 jobs all week, i myself did 8 jobs all week, the other subbie did 13 jobs in the same week
I’ve seen the same with my own eyes a number of times, I believe it comes under the banner of “if your face fits”!!!
It’s wrong that if you ‘pee off’ a traffic controller a little he can mess with your earnings in that way, to my mind seniority should make a difference in reflecting the loyalty you’ve shown to a company. Especially if he’s been there a good number of years.
Especially for those who say that “you can’t make a decent living on containers”!! This is my mates new truck which he picked up a couple of weeks ago, he px’d a 2 year old 560 Topliner, before that he had a 500 Topliner before that a 164 580 etc etc, he’s on direct for a shipping line but had been buying new V8 Scania’s for many years so has been ‘in the loop’ for a while now.
Ross.
PS, he’s come a long way from the Merc 1632 V10 he had subbing for Transworld back in the late 80’s
lee mat:
ive struggled to get 4 using 2 wagons now i no where i am going wrong fair play if i where getting that i wouldnt even consider distance work ive tried the do everything see if they think more of you approach failed big time so now i am subbing for someone else im trying it another way
i have been on for a company for nearly 2 1/2 years, some personnel from from the company view and post on these forums,
this is loyalty for you, there is 1 other subbie that has been there longer than myself, we have all been suspicious of a further subbie that has not been there anywhere near half as long as myself, the 2 longest serving subbies are being shafted by not getting much work, and yet, the other subbie is getting a lot more work and better jobs too
example
week commencing 9th January this year, the longest serving subbie did 7 jobs all week, i myself did 8 jobs all week, the other subbie did 13 jobs in the same week
bigr250:
Especially for those who say that “you can’t make a decent living on containers”!! This is my mates new truck which he picked up a couple of weeks ago, he px’d a 2 year old 560 Topliner, before that he had a 500 Topliner before that a 164 580 etc etc, he’s on direct for a shipping line but had been buying new V8 Scania’s for many years so has been ‘in the loop’ for a while now.
Ross.
PS, he’s come a long way from the Merc 1632 V10 he had subbing for Transworld back in the late 80’s
lee mat:
ive struggled to get 4 using 2 wagons now i no where i am going wrong fair play if i where getting that i wouldnt even consider distance work ive tried the do everything see if they think more of you approach failed big time so now i am subbing for someone else im trying it another way
i have been on for a company for nearly 2 1/2 years, some personnel from from the company view and post on these forums,
this is loyalty for you, there is 1 other subbie that has been there longer than myself, we have all been suspicious of a further subbie that has not been there anywhere near half as long as myself, the 2 longest serving subbies are being shafted by not getting much work, and yet, the other subbie is getting a lot more work and better jobs too
example
week commencing 9th January this year, the longest serving subbie did 7 jobs all week, i myself did 8 jobs all week, the other subbie did 13 jobs in the same week
bigr250:
Especially for those who say that “you can’t make a decent living on containers”!! This is my mates new truck which he picked up a couple of weeks ago
Not wanting to ■■■■ on his bonfire but that doesn’t mean he’s making a decent living really. I know a chap on bulk work who buys himself a brand new truck and trailer every 2 years which to people on the outside might make it look like there’s loads of money in the job but the reality is that the only reason he can afford to do that is because he lives with his mum and is happy drawing 200-300quid a week as a wage whereas the rest of us want more like 600quid.
bigr250:
Especially for those who say that “you can’t make a decent living on containers”!! This is my mates new truck which he picked up a couple of weeks ago
Not wanting to ■■■■ on his bonfire but that doesn’t mean he’s making a decent living really. I know a chap on bulk work who buys himself a brand new truck and trailer every 2 years which to people on the outside might make it look like there’s loads of money in the job but the reality is that the only reason he can afford to do that is because he lives with his mum and is happy drawing 200-300quid a week as a wage whereas the rest of us want more like 600quid.
Paul
Paul, your not urinating on anyones bonfire bud & I agree that a big posh truck can mean MONSTER finance or even mortgage!! But he doesn’t live with mom n dad, he’s married with kids living in his own home a couple of miles from me in L31.
Moose:
IMHO if you have to buy work then its time to pack up or move on !moose
It depends on your definition of ‘buying’ I suppose. I like to look after the people we work for. Not the bosses necessarily, but often its the guys who actually pick up the phone to book in the work, and who effectively choose which of the many numbers in the book they are going to call.
It’s all about getting to know your customers on a personal level. One place that puts a fair bit of work our way, the TM is a big Celtic FC fan (like myself), so when I get complimentary hospitality passes for the home games which I am not going to use myself, I make a point of going to the customers office and offering him the first chance of them.
At another customer, I know that the owners father is a big fan of a certain malt whisky that is not only expensive, but hard to get hold of. I happen to know where to get this whisky at a reasonable price, so a couple of times a year I’ll stick my hand in my pocket and buy a couple of bottles. It might cost me a couple of hundred quid but in return the customer gets to keep his old man happy, it doesn’t cost him a penny, and I get 40-50k worth of good work put my way every year, whilst the guys who don’y give two hoots are running around doing the [zb] jobs, complaining that we get first pick of the jobs.
Also, every year we take half a dozen tables at a charity dinner/dance and invite our customers to come along for the evening, and we pick up the bill. We provide them with a nice meal and as much booze as they want (not to mention the opportunity to empty their wallets at the charity auction). The whole night costs us a fair few thousand pounds, but the people round those tables put half a million quid of good quality, well paying business our way each year and its easy to squeeze a bit more out of them once they’ve got a bottle of decent wine over their neck, so in the great scheme of things its not really a big expenditure.
This of course will only work if you provide a good service, but I find that the little personal touches (even just knowing the names of their wives, asking how the kids are doing, how’s that new car of yours running etc) makes you more a part of their business, and you tend to get looked after more than the faceless chap who constantly complains about the crap work he is getting.
bigr250:
Especially for those who say that “you can’t make a decent living on containers”!! This is my mates new truck which he picked up a couple of weeks ago
Not wanting to ■■■■ on his bonfire but that doesn’t mean he’s making a decent living really. I know a chap on bulk work who buys himself a brand new truck and trailer every 2 years which to people on the outside might make it look like there’s loads of money in the job but the reality is that the only reason he can afford to do that is because he lives with his mum and is happy drawing 200-300quid a week as a wage whereas the rest of us want more like 600quid.
Paul
Paul, your not urinating on anyones bonfire bud & I agree that a big posh truck can mean MONSTER finance or even mortgage!! But he doesn’t live with mom n dad, he’s married with kids living in his own home a couple of miles from me in L31.
Ross.
If he made his money when the going was good all he’s doing is maintaining his level of vehicle and that’s easy enough.
