Does anyone know what they are like to work for only I’ve just had a phone call from my agency saying that I’m in there from tommorrow on a temp to perm deal as they are after a class 2 hiab driver with knowledge of building materials. and that I only live 5 mins away from there yard,I was first choice for the vacancy after proving myself on the network rail contract.
I’ve seen their Mercedes trucks round the midlands and they look like decent kit but what are they like to work for?
Don’t actually know what that firm’s like, but if I were you I’d make sure the pay rate’s the same on the books as on agency.
My experience is that agency guys on BM work get a far better rate than the regulars on that sort of work; Jewsons and Travis Perkins are notoriously bad payers.
I work for a company owned by Travis Perkins…if you take it hourly the money isn’t too bad for Class 2 round here.
I’ve always worked for Builders Merchants, even before I was an HGV driver and you do get the impression that everybody is on different money and the bottom line is that they will pay you as little as they think they can get away with.
I work for local BM in sheffield. local companies tend to be better than national ie Jewson, Travis Perkins etc. I did work for them when I was with agency, If going temp to perm negotiate pay deal with company.
Hope you enjoy it
I went into Travis Perkins once and the yardman said “Before I tip you, I want to show you my payslip”. So he did.
Then he said “We’ve all just had a memo from Northampton instructing us not to show our payslips to any visiting drivers, so I’m showing it to everybody. Before I got the memo it would never in a million years have occurred to me to show it to anyone”.
cheers chaps
I shall find out the their actually wages tommorrow for going perm but I know that for my time there with the agency I’m on £8 an plus any overtime,just googled them and looking at their website they seem a decent mob
My guess would be a take-home of about a grand a month.
Another thing I’ve found with merchants is the best way to get a pay rise is to go and work for another merchant. 
Well thats my first day over not bad considering I was hanging round the yard most of the day ,the rest of the week I’ll be out with one of the other drivers whos going to show me the places they collect from and theyre regular drops’ as they are a heavyside merchants theres no delivering to private homes 
and they pay aint bad once i go full time £21k plus profit sharing
heres my new motor from tommorrow morning
Nice one pal, looks like you’ve dropped on a good job.
At least you got decent motor. When I started where I am now I had clapped out (R reg)12T leyland DAF flat with vague steering & brakes worked when they wanted!
Decent wage as well. stick with it
All the best
Andydisco:
Well thats my first day over not bad considering I was hanging round the yard most of the day ,the rest of the week I’ll be out with one of the other drivers whos going to show me the places they collect from and theyre regular drops’ as they are a heavyside merchants theres no delivering to private homes
Sounds reasonable enough. Best BM work I did was for Frazers, the civils merchants(part of Jewson) like yours no house deliveries and much the better for it. Home drops are a PITA!
Don’t recall getting that kind of “introduction to the job” on agency though; “yer trucks over there mate get back ASAP there’s four more loads to go out!” was more like it. 
Sounds like a sweet job.
We deliver to bloody anywhere, yesterday found me taking stuff to a builder doing an extension on the back of a house (a house that was bloody big enough already if you ask me 
). So I have to back in the drive.
Driveway was a huge slope…hooked the mudflaps up, adjusted the suspension to as high as it’d go and off I went, couldn’t get a decent run up at it either cos it needed 2 shunts to get in. Our lorries are just that little bit too big for this work in my opinion!
No room to put the legs out more than a third of the way once I was in, tree overhanging my crane…corner of the house meant I had to knuckle the crane right up for every lift …about 7 lifts I suppose.
All good fun, had to wait half an hour or so for a mixer to come out before I could get in there as well.
glad i dont do builders merchants anymore