Radar19:
I prefer long days. I’d rather do a 15 hour day in Manchester and get a night out of it then doing a 12 hour day and drive home again. Maximum hours means more money in my bank account.
This is fine in theory except my observations over the years suggest that the companies which require you to work the longest hours tend to pay the lowest hourly rate.
If local work was one drop & one collection, 12 hrs max, start no earlier than 0500 and pays decent money…then I would love to do day/local work and be home every night.
However, most of the day/local work round my way is either multi drop, pallet work, or stupid o’clock starts for average money. So, when I came back to driving, I joined a company on the understanding that I would be doing distance work, 2/3 nights out a week, and specifically not the day work that they do from the customer’s base when I was running out of.
After 3 weeks of distance work, I got told, not asked, that I was swapping onto the local work…6-9 drops a day, sometimes back to customers base to reload and out again for a 2nd load, no nights out, and just general crapness. I said I would do it for a couple of weeks as they had just been let down by a driver but didn’t want it full time.
Financially it cost me £50-90 a week in lost money with the loss of nights out and just generally less hours being available.
3 times I expressed my unhappiness with the situation, and that i wanted to return to the previous work asap. Nothing was done, so I finished there at Xmas, and I start back at a previous employer 2nd Jan.
Not the best wages, not the best night out money, but I know that I will get the work I enjoy and will earn what I need to earn.
Harry Monk:
Radar19:
I prefer long days. I’d rather do a 15 hour day in Manchester and get a night out of it then doing a 12 hour day and drive home again. Maximum hours means more money in my bank account.This is fine in theory except my observations over the years suggest that the companies which require you to work the longest hours tend to pay the lowest hourly rate.
Exactly 15 hours a day are fine if you are getting a decent rate at time and a half after 8 hours or similar, otherwise it’s too long a day and not worth a ■■■■.
I aint on that type of pay structure so I do not do them …unless it suits me.
Haven’t read all the thread so apologies if covered but it’s distance for me. If your gonna have one have a long un is my moto.
Bollox to the pay I chose this profession to drive trucks not fanny about on local work playing at it.
Dipper_Dave:
Haven’t read all the thread so apologies if covered but it’s distance for me. If your gonna have one have a long un is my moto.Bollox to the pay I chose this profession to drive trucks not fanny about on local work playing at it.
I feel/felt the same way, but after reading Beaver’s last post, I want his gig. 
If I could get a full time job with minimum hours for maximum rate, and home everyday at 3 ish, rest of day my own… you could stick tramping right up your arse.
Tramping was a good number when you used to get adequately paid for it, but these guys who look upon it as a hobby 
, and want to be seen in a big fancy truck wearing shades, so are willing to work for the next thing to nothing, (and also other aspects of the downfall of the job btw), have gone a long way to Donald Duck ing it up for everybody else. 
Haven’t read our beavers post Rob, to be fair each to their own but trucking for me is more lifestyle than finance.
Hmmm hang on just read that back and now I’m disagreeing with myself.
In the end all that matters is what works for the individual, my opinion is tainted by me being away all week and the wife being wetter than a pony eating oats when I get back.
I’ll say my goodbyes for this evening as I’ve just got in and the wife is as above.
So happy new year everyone and keep the lipstick off your dipstick… etc .
Harry Monk:
Radar19:
I prefer long days. I’d rather do a 15 hour day in Manchester and get a night out of it then doing a 12 hour day and drive home again. Maximum hours means more money in my bank account.This is fine in theory except my observations over the years suggest that the companies which require you to work the longest hours tend to pay the lowest hourly rate.
My lot don’t require you to do the hours if you don’t want to. The pay terms are nearly the best in the area for general work so I guess I lucked out on this job.
Radar19:
Harry Monk:
Radar19:
I prefer long days. I’d rather do a 15 hour day in Manchester and get a night out of it then doing a 12 hour day and drive home again. Maximum hours means more money in my bank account.This is fine in theory except my observations over the years suggest that the companies which require you to work the longest hours tend to pay the lowest hourly rate.
My lot don’t require you to do the hours if you don’t want to. The pay terms are nearly the best in the area for general work so I guess I lucked out on this job.
So what are the best pay terms in the area, that you nearly get ?