would never work for these guys again.they seem to think that because you are there on a day rate that they can keep ypu hanging around waiting for calls to let you know what your doing.
example of my day on thursday was pick up unit and take to chalton which is vauxhall spares and tip. when tipped call office.
tipped and called office, told to hang up and they would call back. 15 mins later i call back and again told they would call back.15 mins go by so i send text saying someone calls me or im off home. 10 secs later get call and told not to get shirty. have to re load with empties and again call when loaded.
all loaded up and call, same again to wait for call back, but surprised when only have to wait for 10mins this time. have to take trailer down to purfleet docks, so off i trundle down the m1 and thru the road works but made the trip in not bad time. get down there and waiting in q so call office again and told themi was there and so what am i picking up. again told to wait for call back. blood pressure is now on the rise so bookin and off to drop trailer. go round to parking area and after 3 calls and 45mins(handy though as had to have break) told trailer to pick up and pin.so go and find it, pick up and back up to luton. get to road works and it all starts to stop so window down and time to chill. get up to the trailer park and bookin there and told where in ibc to tip. call office to let them know and told to call back when tipped. asked if they could just tell me what was next but they wouldnt say and again to call back when done. get tipped an call back. eventually after 40 mins i get call back and told to reload with empties , drop at trailer park then go home.
question for any one working in tm is why as they must have known what my jobs were going to be they couldn’t tell me.
so 90 for the day which lasted 11hrs but had approx 2hs of waiting for calls and then they seem surprised when i told the to stick it on friday and went home. had put up with this for a week but enough is enough
am paid by the day and work for them through agency. why should i have to have my day extended by 2hrs just because some office hitler decides how and when my day should run.surely it wouldnt have been to hard for them to just say tip and reload at chalton, down to purfleet, back tip reload and then home. also how can sleep when i dont know if going to be waiting 5 mins or 50 mins for what is a simple call.
You are relating to the traffic office as if they give a ■■■■ about you Make a note for future reference you are only there to do their bidding and they don’t give a monkey’s about how long you have to wait.
Imagine trying to do a jigsaw puzzle … but the pieces are moving all the time!!
When I was tramping for one of the larger hauliers, I also found it took some getting used to, not knowing what was next and forever having to call in on the two-way radio, let alone the days that they were calling me every 30 mins or less!!! When a company has so many trucks, they will just send the next ‘empty’ one to the next nearest job on the screen; getting tipped 10 mins earlier/later can be the difference between loading here or there! Obviously, empty running is unprofitable so it often makes more sense to just wait where you are for a nearby load.
I actually feel for planners, certainly the ones where I used to work! I covered for the yard foreman for a couple of weeks, most of which was spent on the tug, shunting. In between jobs, I was sitting in the office and saw first hand what the planning side of the job was like. After that, once I was back up the road, I never gave a planner a hard time again unless he didn’t get me home on a Friday when I wanted to be!!
Like Penfold says, get on the bunk!! The back of the eyelids is such a wonderfull sight; I could spend hours on end looking at them!!!
if i was out tramping then i wouldnt mind but it just seemed to me that they did know what work i was going to do that day but in order to get there value of paying for a days work they just wanted me out as long as pos. when working from the alconbury site it was easy as the jobs were 2purfleet runs or one to elesmere port.
bit of if im at work then so should the driver but lesson learnt and wont take a job on unless they can at least give me some idea of a finish time on my shift if on a day rate. if paid by the hour then i dont care how long i wait for a call back
i omce worked for Cowan Bros doing a lot of Ferrymasters stuff
that was tip ring load ring wait ring a pain in the rear
Due to a crisis one week we where controlled directly by Ferrymasters the bloke said the first time i needed to ring him i will give you the next 2 days work
now any problem ring that kept me busy for half the week and i dont remember too much dead running
And if on salary climb on bunk for a kip. Life’s too short to worry about things that you can’t control. 
Make a note for future reference you are only there to do their bidding and they don’t give a monkey’s about how long you have to wait.