Hauling for the food industry I thought I was fairly safe, I knew There were bad times coming but I never thought I would be standing as much as I am now.
Luckly the truck is paid for so I don’t have that to worry about.
So what is the general feeling with you guys? The rates that are so poor that I would rather stand, but the work is still getting done, (must be by despate people) I think most of it must be getting covered by backload rates.
One time of day you could take a load on for delivery 300 miles away knowing you could get something back to make the job profitable.Now though if you go 300 miles up the road and you end up running back empty you may as well forget it.
Now the only thing I will take on is local work where you are sure of of making a profit, but now that seems to be drying up. Doom and gloom or what?
Oh well it is a nice day, I think I will finish fixing in that new sink unit.
We work for the defence industry and a lot of our work was ‘planned’ - use that word loosely- years ago in terms of volumes so you would think we would be , to use your words, fairly immune.
Doesn’t work out exactly as some of the places seem to be on a bit of a quiet patch and hiring in van and 7.5s for their own lads to use. Aritcs are doing fairly OK, but there certainly is a bit of rate-cutting going on. Overall our sector is depressed, even with Afghanisatan going on.
Out of about 20 vehicles we’ve only got 3 with any money owing so we are probably better off than a lot of others. Hang on in there. I don’t wish hard times on anyone including my competitors, but the sorry fact is that some of them will go out of business and hopefully we willpick up some of their work.
Definatley getting worse,were in the plant game etc and be honest a depressing last couple of years but in march this year the phone started to ring again as it did for loads of competitors etc, we thought were over all the doom and gloom!
Then DARLINGS( lying ■■■■■■■■ budget!!
BANG! Everything not just us, gone dead!!
We know of a good few firms who were waiting to see what the budget bought,to see if they are going to pack it in, after that budget their going to pack it in!
Diesel up week after week then 2p in the budget,blimey.
In the haulage industry reading some of the posts on here, “how do some of you do it”■■
When i first started looking for a lorry a while ago Truck trader Mag was a lot thinner than it is now,ebay used to have an average of 7 or 8 pages of lorrys for sale its now often 12 or 13 pages and indeed after the budget went up to 15!
If i was younger New Zealand , Australia would be where id head, mind you even Afganistan looks better than " Browns hell hole"
I talk to all sorts of businesses throughout the week,90% doing poor.5% doing very poor and 5% liars
So the answer to the first post " YEP DEFINATELY GETTING WORSE "
General election needed yesterday,bring back “Maggie”
Hauling for the food industry I thought I was fairly safe, I knew There were bad times coming but I never thought I would be standing as much as I am now.
Im the same as you Fenman…delivering fresh chicken I thought things would still be Ok…but last week I didnt turn a wheel at all…this is the first time in 7 years that the firm I sub for hasnt had anything for me…this weeeks been OK so far but I now get a bit jittery every day at 1 o,clock (when the orders come in) worrying if im gunna get anything for the next day
Yep same here, thought that after the end of the tax year things might get better - they did for a week but now it’s definitely getting worse. Rates are getting cut to the point that the work isn’t worth putting the truck on the road for - rather go bust sat at home than running more fuel bills up. The Eastern block are still flooding in and out of Dover though - wonder who’s running for nothing then?
Well, I’ll tell you what lads in 1 months timeI’ve been in the game for 44 years and I can’t think of a worse time than this.
I suppose this is how the fishermen felt when they got screwed by the govenment. Now they’re doing it to us, but instead of fishing quotas, they are just pricing us out of the market.
It’s okay to subsidise the banks ect. What about a fuel subsidy. I don’t think so, because we are not that important as an industry, because that great saying " let market forces prevail" comes into it, with not the slightest thought for what they are doing for the little man.
I am in the fortunate position of coming up to retirement, not that I want to retire but I think it will be forced on me, but what about the boys who upgraded their equipment just before this reccesion struck, no I am sorry lads we can’t help you, you are not a Fat Cat or a student (interest free loan to be paid back if EVER you get a job.)
Well I do feel better for that, and I have to go to bed early tonight because
GUESS WHAT I have my first load of the week tomorrow.
I know of a owner driver ( tipper) lorry hardly moved out of the yard for the 2nd half of 08 then Jan and feb 09 no better then along comes March 09 things started to look up for him and he got a bit more enthusiastic about it all!
Then April 09 dead! And no work in the pipeline what so ever.Been in the game for years and had both good and bad times be hes never seen nothing like this recession!
Think hes selling up now enough is enough but hes had quotes on his 2, 8x4 tippers to sell them and well it looks like hes going to have to give them away.
Also local to us we use to see our well respected local skip hire firm drive past us 20 to 30 odd times a day now possibly 2 or 3 times a day,same goes for the local aggregates firm!
I’d suggest that you try to hang on in there. The stock market, which is a leading indicator has now been up for each of the last seven weeks. The stock market is usually 6 to 12 months ahead of where the general economy is heading. Sterling is now starting to rise versus the dollar and has stopped falling against the euro and should now start to correct. It now seems a foregone conclusion that labour are going to get the boot in the next 12 months so there will be a change of direction there. Suprising as it may seem 95% of people still have a job and interest rates are at historic lows, so all the ducks are in line for the start of a boom. We may still be in the pit but we can see the bottom now and the time to get out should be at the top of the cycle, not now at the bottom. Remember it’s always darkest just before dawn.
I went quiet mid October for me. Mind you, I think our quarry was lucky to keep working that late, others seemed very quiet long before. November was a disaster 60% down on my earnings. December picked up and wasn’t far off.
January was a total disaster, never seen anything like it. February wasn’t much better. March and April have been slightly better but still well down. I don’t understand why the government isn’t spending money on resurfacing knackered roads and building more council houses. It would get the construction industry going again, give people a place to live if they’ve been made redundant and stop people knackering their cars on all the massive potholes!
Blissy:
Im the same as you Fenman…delivering fresh chicken I thought things would still be Ok…but last week I didnt turn a wheel at all…this is the first time in 7 years that the firm I sub for hasnt had anything for me…this weeeks been OK so far but I now get a bit jittery every day at 1 o,clock (when the orders come in) worrying if im gunna get anything for the next day
I don’t know who you deliver chicken to, but Tescos (at least the ones near me) have an offer on. £2 for a cooked chicken from the rottiserie, instead of closing the rotisserie about 4pm its now open until 8pm. There are queues for the chicken, and they are literally flying off the shelves (or the rotisserie ). Might beg the question where are they getting their chickens from?
This is what I can’t get my head round, you go into a supermarket and you still have to wait for the person in front to empty a full trolley of groceries, and the car parks are as full as they ever were.
My vote for road to be resurfaced to help the economy is the road in to Daventry from the M1 just as you get in to the outskirts of Dav, it is absolutely shagged. You do the truffle shuffle in and and out every time! They just fill the pot holes in when really it needs a full surface.
Mike-C:
I don’t know who you deliver chicken to, but Tescos (at least the ones near me) have an offer on. £2 for a cooked chicken from the rottiserie, instead of closing the rotisserie about 4pm its now open until 8pm. There are queues for the chicken, and they are literally flying off the shelves (or the rotisserie ). Might beg the question where are they getting their chickens from?
Yeah we do supply Tesco etc but i dont usually work on the RDC deliveries side , I do more of the smaller suppliers.
Apparantley there has been a shortage of chicken over the last few weeks (dunno why) so maybe thats why its been quiet…the other thing that affects me is if it goes quiet on the frozen food side then the firm I pull for put thier drivers on chicken deliveries to keep them working…im just a subbie so I get stood
I have got work all over the weekend so maybe it will get a bit busier now the bbq season is nearly here…just gotta hang on in there and hopefully it will change
My dad drives tipping milk to Asda’s, he only had one night’s work last week. He said himself he thought he wouldn’t be this affected by it. In his 40 odd years of driving he’s never known it this bad, for the first time in those years he’s actually concerened about losing his job and not being able to get another one.
Blissy:
Im the same as you Fenman…delivering fresh chicken I thought things would still be Ok…but last week I didnt turn a wheel at all…this is the first time in 7 years that the firm I sub for hasnt had anything for me…this weeeks been OK so far but I now get a bit jittery every day at 1 o,clock (when the orders come in) worrying if im gunna get anything for the next day
I don’t know who you deliver chicken to, but Tescos (at least the ones near me) have an offer on. £2 for a cooked chicken from the rottiserie, instead of closing the rotisserie about 4pm its now open until 8pm. There are queues for the chicken, and they are literally flying off the shelves (or the rotisserie ). Might beg the question where are they getting their chickens from?
coming in from Hungary, poland and the Czech Republic, Pork as well as Chicken
Was driving along listening to a farming programme on Radio Scotland Astonished to hear that Grampian chickens actually come from Thailand .They are hatched,live if thats the word slaughtered and frozen then shipped to Rotterdam,from where they are distributed around Europe.
alamcculloch:
Was driving along listening to a farming programme on Radio Scotland Astonished to hear that Grampian chickens actually come from Thailand .They are hatched,live if thats the word slaughtered and frozen then shipped to Rotterdam,from where they are distributed around Europe.
Yeah well you do get a lot of dutch trucks in the UK delivering chicken…(mostly breast fillets)…never realised it may be from somewhere as far away as Thailand though…the big supermarkets keep that one quiet.
The poultry industry in the UK has had some bad press in the past (as has a lot of the food supply chain)
but I cant imagine that even in the worse scenario that they would be as unhygenic,cruel etc as places like China and Thailand…the chinese have never really been that bothered with the human rights of thier people so I cant see them being bothered about the rights of a few old broilers
). Might beg the question where are they getting their chickens from?
