Been driving for 3 months class 1 and I don’t have much experience and I have only worked for my current employer.
I work Mon to Fri and with the system they use i get 12hr+ days no less. Getting paid per hours so that’s a plus.
My intention is not to rant but ask is that typical and everywhere is the same or you work/worked in places where had shorter days or mixed.
I ask as I want to make sure this is right job for me.
I never complained about my shifts always do what I am asked to however if most/all places do 60+hr per week i might do it for few years and decided where to go next.
Thank you in advance for any feedback and have a good day!
Limited experience here too, but I would focus on what you want. Yes it’s good to know what jobs are available out there.
How hard is your working day? Remember WTD means you should only average 48 hrs weeks which excludes breaks and POA. Do you have a lot of those?
If the hourly rate is good, sounds like a good job?
When I used to work a hard 11 hour shift, the norm was only 4 days a week. Now I’ve started a 60 HR week, I need to see what the reality is (promised lots of cancelled shifts)
Been driving for the same outfit since 2008, originally Class 2, then a mix of Class 1/2, now entirely Class 1. 12 hours shifts are extremely rare (maybe a couple of times a year - usually due to a breakdown or major hold-up on the road, never because it was planned that way). Most of my shifts are around 8-10 hours, sometimes less.
The cold, hard reality of HGV driving I’m afraid. I’d class a 12hr day as a pretty cushy shift. Minimum 13’s in my game if your lucky. I’ve known nothing else (and a lot more[emoji6]) in my 35 yr driving career.
If I go over 10 hours then its classed as a hard day
Today and tuesday was a 9, yesterday and monday was a sweet 8.
Sometimes the day goes wrong and 11 - 12 comes into play. Cannot remember the last time I done over 12 hours.
There are jobs that you can work normal hours but remember the yearly pay will be less as you aint banging the overtime in!
We’re expected to work up to a 15 hour days, but that won’t be every day, we have long and short days, at the moment we haven’t done more than a 12/13 hour day and I’ve had some very nice short days!!
The reality is, that a truck only makes money, when the wheels are turning, so every transport company wants to maximise the hours that those wheels are turning… so if the law allows them 13 (or 15…) hours, they’ll take it.
Most general haulage companies try to max your days, because their margins are so small. Some specialised and own account firms don’t rely on haulage rates to make their profit, so can be less obsessed with it.
I worked for NEXT once, as an agency driver, and have worked for Aldi. They were quite obsessed with keeping drivers hours down, to the point where even if you wanted some extra hours, they would not let you have them. Pity the ■■■■ management in such places usually ruins such jobs…
“Driving isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle.”
Transport has always been about long hours, especially if you want to earn a decent amount. There are jobs that will demand less of your precious time but they tend to be less desirable jobs, like working on the bins.
Terry Cooksey:
“Driving isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle.”
Transport has always been about long hours, especially if you want to earn a decent amount. There are jobs that will demand less of your precious time but they tend to be less desirable jobs, like working on the bins.
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I’ve never understood the mentality of the saying it’s a lifestyle to be worked twice as hard for the salary others get for have the hours, sleeping in a truck to double as a free security guard, get told where to, when to be there, get told by a youngster when and if you can tip.
Years ago you could do this all yourself but now in this micro managed world your living like a gypsy minus the freedom
Terry Cooksey:
“Driving isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle.”
Transport has always been about long hours, especially if you want to earn a decent amount. There are jobs that will demand less of your precious time but they tend to be less desirable jobs, like working on the bins.
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
I’ve never understood the mentality of the saying it’s a lifestyle to be worked twice as hard for the salary others get for have the hours, sleeping in a truck to double as a free security guard, get told where to, when to be there, get told by a youngster when and if you can tip.
Years ago you could do this all yourself but now in this micro managed world your living like a gypsy minus the freedom
I think the mentality of the saying comes from the fact that you have to be willing to sacrifice home life, social life, normal working hours etc in order to be a trucker. Unfortunately this has always, and will always be the case as this job will never be just a 9 to 5
SubZero:
My intention is not to rant but ask is that typical and everywhere is the same or you work/worked in places where had shorter days or mixed.
I ask as I want to make sure this is right job for me.
Well the average working week in haulage is 55hrs and has been for quite a while. Even the slightest bit of research would’ve told you it’s typically 10-12hr days and as much as 15.
There are jobs with lower hours such as builders merchants but you’ll be hard pushed to find a 40hr week without going on agency and only doing 3-4 days.
On general haulage yes you’ll be somewhere around 60hrs a week probably more. That’s part of the reason I jacked in - the other part being that after recent alleged shortages and the increase in wages I found actually move to a job with less hours for (a little bit) more money than I got for 60+ hrs.
Don’t get me wrong I didn’t find the 12hr plus days challenging as quite a bit of it was sat around waiting, but I’d got to a point in life where it didnt suit me and I just liked being home more (probably being furloughed caused that I reckon) so getting the chance to drop about 15hrs a week doing trunking for a supermarket with no loss of money… thank you very much.
I do around 30-35 hours a week salaried and get paid 36k on fuel. We never work over 9 hours a day including breaks and usually have work done in around 7 hours. Don’t let people put you off or companies mess you around, look elsewhere if it doesn’t suit your lifestyle. I value my time more than money and watching my daughter grow up, so this jobs ideal for me. I’ve done tippers, bins, skips, multi drop.
Exactly why the lad who trained to be a lorry driver to earn all the ££££ in our road packed in tramping , is now working for a builders merchants & wishes he’d saved the training money & stayed in his old job ,
Is the op a young kid , the one I speak of is , I only bring this up as I have plenty of mates / there’s loads of 50 / 60 yr olds on here who can’t get enough hours , they kick off if they only get 14 hrs on a b/h , sun , theyl drive everywhere at 50 mph , hide in the corner of a yard when tipped to make the shift last more hours , after doing 30/40 yrs of these hours theyl return to work in there 70,s at the mere mention the jobs paying a few more ££££££, I’m 60 & do 15 hr days , most days but only 3 days pw , but there still 15 hr days
Who’s got the priorities right , young kids have imoho, shame they had to waste all those ££££ to find out , older ones 50/60 are beyond help
I’ve had jobs 5 hour days. Set run, same every night. Closures, maybe 5.5 - 6 hrs.
Multi-drop I rarely had less than 12 hour days, again depends what run/drops you get
Bin wagon, 7-9 hr again depending on route
It’s not a job like a show up-do work-go home type of job. It’s not over until it’s over. 60 hour weeks are fairly typical I would say and it’s hard to get the shorter runs/jobs (positions) as there’s more demand from the drivers’ side for those
I normally do 8-9 hour shifts but I’m only on £32,000 p a. My mate works silly long hours, starts at silly o’ clock and he’s on £55,000 p a. So there are jobs with shorter hours out there, they just don’t pay as well.
The big thing with your working day is how many hours do you actually drive or do hard work?
I do 11 hours every day, but Im sat watching netflix/playing on phone/chilling out for 4 hours every day of those 11, but still getting paid for it. Only other work I do is driving for about 5.5 hours and an hour of coupling up/checks/getting keys etc.
Unfortunately, as many will tell, transport has always been known for long hours. Many think they have a cushy number if the have a decent wage for 50 hrs or less where as compared to some who have to do 12-15 hour days plus Saturday morning to get the same wage
