Anyone done farm collections on milk tankers…?
no i have not, but i hear its a “CREAM JOB” 
My mate has just left our place to go work for Arla at Leeds on milk tankers.He says the hardest thing about the job,is connecting the pipe!!!
He does 4 on,4 off,and his shift pattern for the up and coming months includes Christmas day,Boxing day and New Years day.Not for me I’m afraid,but as he says,cows don’t stop producing because it’s Christmas.
His basic for this is about £17k,and then he gets rest day premium,unsociable hours,extra payment if they ask you to work with less than,I think,48 hours.All in all,it doesn’t sound much,but he says he can manage,and if you look at it another way,you’re only working 6 months of the year on your basic,due to the 4 on,4 off.
He does between 6 and 12 farms per day,and his route is the Yorkshire Dales,which will be nice in the summer,apart from the smell of cow ■■■■,but I bet it’s bad in the winter on country lanes that are ungritted.
Ken.
Quinny:
but I bet it’s bad in the winter on country lanes that are ungritted.Ken.
One little realized advantage of living in ‘Dairy Farm’ countryside, is that these are considered as priority routes and are often the first to be gritted.
As already mentioned, you can’t leave it in the cows, and farms only have limited storage, and you can’t pour it down the drain, so the trucks have to get through.
Which is probably the reasoning behind the exemption from Driver’s Hours and Tacho Rules, and…something a few of us are discussing but have yet to clarify, an exemption from the WTD.
Krankee:
One little realized advantage of living in ‘Dairy Farm’ countryside, is that these are considered as priority routes and are often the first to be gritted. .
Problem is Krankee, as any bus driver will tell you, they are also supposed to grit all bus routes, but they often don’t.
If I remember the conversation correctly I was told yes certain users are given priority, but roads are still gritted in a priority / use order, so if it’s a C road, then its given priority when they get round to those regardless of who uses it.
I went for a job yonks ago Chris, doing that, I think the outfit was Lloyd Fraser, job sounded reasonable, in fact it sounded interesting and I fancied a bash, alas the start times were daft so obviously that was me gone!
I would be starting at 06.30 and usually finished by 16.00.
Home for tea every day !
and only 10 minutes from my front door.
Gurner:
Anyone done farm collections on milk tankers…?
Not collected from the farms but have driven them from the dairies to customers…
If you’ve never driven milk tankers before, THEY’VE GOT NO BAFFLES and you rarely have them anywhere near full so you’ll find the handling “interesting” especially setting off and braking. 15 tonnes of milk slopping around. Golden rule: When you stop, keep the brakes on otherwise you’ll either surge forward or backward up to a good minute or so after you stopped.
The job sounds great…so MILK it for what its worth… 
truckyboy:
The job sounds great…so MILK it for what its worth…
That left a SOUR taste in the mouth!! 
Quit the cheesey jokes! They’re about to curdle my coffee…
Milk tanker work is a handy enough job,you’ll get a good suntan in the summer because your standing at the back of the tanker for 20 minutes at every farm collection waiting on the milk to load 
If its an artic then it will probably be equiped with “rear steer” due to the awkward nature of some tight farmyards and this takes abit of getting used to pulling out of tight gateways etc.Can get abit boring doing the same routine day in day out though.
Around here, tanker work is well paid, but it’s considered tobe dangerous, especially if you are running with a partially filled trailer.
Here in NY, milk companies truck down towards NYC with double 45’ tankers, carrying a total weight of 144,000 lbs on the Thruway. Scary rig, to say the least.