Hi guys I’m new driver and have my first job next week. I’m excited but nervous at the same time, I’ll be on my own on a night job. I’m looking for advice on when and how should I take my break’s. Should I split the breaks, or take one 45 minute? And any general advice new drivers will learn from, on the first day.
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DoverCally:
Hi guys I’m new driver and have my first job next week. I’m excited but nervous at the same time, I’ll be on my own on a night job. I’m looking for advice on when and how should I take my break’s. Should I split the breaks, or take one 45 minute? And any general advice new drivers will learn from, on the first day.Sent from my J8110 using Tapatalk
Hi Cally,
You’ll probably get a better response in the New Driver chat area - have a look on the homepage for all the different forums.
As for your questions,
Unless you’re tramping you’ll probably be told where to break. Working nights as a new pass I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re doing Palletways, Palletforce? If so, don’t worry about breaks. They make you stop for one hour before you pick up your return trailer.
Has anyone shown you how to strap a load or open/close the curtains?
It depends on a few things,
Where you are going/distance
Why you are carrying
If your bothered about facilities or can stand 45 in a lay-by
Want to grab 40 winks (recommended on night shift)
And of course if you are paid by the hour/paid breaks
Best bet would be to have a quiet word with any other drivers if it’s a set trunking route. Chances are they will have points where they take their break where they can either max out their hours or get the job done as quick as possible.
Build5:
DoverCally:
Hi guys I’m new driver and have my first job next week. I’m excited but nervous at the same time, I’ll be on my own on a night job. I’m looking for advice on when and how should I take my break’s. Should I split the breaks, or take one 45 minute? And any general advice new drivers will learn from, on the first day.Sent from my J8110 using Tapatalk
Hi Cally,
You’ll probably get a better response in the New Driver chat area - have a look on the homepage for all the different forums.
As for your questions,
Unless you’re tramping you’ll probably be told where to break. Working nights as a new pass I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re doing Palletways, Palletforce? If so, don’t worry about breaks. They make you stop for one hour before you pick up your return trailer.
Has anyone shown you how to strap a load or open/close the curtains?
It’s class 2 delivering for Hermes. I think it’s delivering from a warehouse to local depots. Still not actually sure what the job entails.just wanted to get as much advice as possible, as I’m a bit of a worrier.
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DoverCally:
It’s class 2 delivering for Hermes. I think it’s delivering from a warehouse to local depots. Still not actually sure what the job entails.just wanted to get as much advice as possible, as I’m a bit of a worrier.
They’ll expect you not to take a break between the hub and the depot. They may have a requirement that if you need to stop or deviate from the route they give you for any reason you need to phone in where they usually give you a code to put on your run sheet. Most parcel networks do.
Make sure that when you’re there that you get a phone number to contact if there’s any problems or you have a breakdown. Nothing worse on nights than something going wrong and not knowing how to contact anyone.
Check your route on Google Maps before you set off to check whether there are any road closures. If you see a stretch closed zoom right in on it to make sure it’s the direction you’re going that’s closed. Especially on dual carriageways at default zoom it can look like it’s fully closed but zoom right in and you’ll often just find one direction closed.
ASK QUESTIONS. If in doubt, ask. There will be plenty of drivers there who can help.
I know some of their depots are unmanned. One round here is in a compound with lots of little businesses, and I assume the driver has to drop off the cages in the middle of the night.
Good luck at the Bradford depot if you go there, unless you get to go round the back, although much better than in a class 1 (that spot needs demolishing).
At least it’s a box unit not curtainsider do you can worry about driving rather than strapping, knackered curtains etc.
There are no hard and fast rules for breaks, you have them to suit you unless (as mentioned is a likelihood) the company specify where you can and can’t take breaks.
My method is usually to split my breaks, so a 15 then a 30 later, the reason for this is my actual work takes anything from 1 to 2 hours once at the delivery site, so depending on how far the journey is you can easily run foul of the 6 hour wtd rule if you don’t split the break, by taking that 15 you have 9 hours to play with instead of 6, i’m usually on the 30 minuter by 6 or 7 hours regardless.
Oh and i don’t want to drive up to 4 hours in one stint anway, so split the journey for a tea/toast and comfort break.
Don’t overthink it yet, you’ll be fine tuning how you work for the next 20 or 30 years if you stay in the industry, not just in breaks but how you go about everything, try different methods and see what suits you best.
Moved Post to new driver section
DoverCally:
It’s class 2 delivering for Hermes. I think it’s delivering from a warehouse to local depots.
(2+ year old information)
I worked as an agency driver (class 2) for a Hermes depot (not “hub” {Rugby, Warrington}) for more than a year. No one ever told me where to take a break, but only two runs really required a break (from start of shift {6h rule}) and only then after you had dropped. Nowhere near 4.5 hours driving to get to a sub depot.
DoverCally:
Should I split the breaks, or take one 45 minute?
In my experience, you should take a 15 minute break after your first run, then a 30 minute break after your second**. Obviously it depends on the runs. You might get a morning run as well. I don’t think I ever did 9hr driving. Watch your working time (they do notice infringments eventually).
** One depot was within 20 minutes driving, so with a 40 minute 13 pallet tail lift (always?) tip you could do 2 tips in 6 hours and still have 3 hours driving time to spare.
DoverCally:
I’ll be on my own on a night job.
All the sub depots were unnammed at night. The people running the sub depots are/were not Hermes employees so only had to sort the delivered parcels by x time. When it was busy you might find them there REALLY early. DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT, someone does this run twice+ a night.
DoverCally:
And any general advice new drivers will learn from, on the first day.
Class 2, 12 tonne rigid (Hermes livery), 13 pallets, one “buckle” strap. We took a pump truck, some depots didn’t and the sub depots all had a working pump truck. All drops I did were tail lift.
You’ll probably get shown the a local sub depot with another driver, then get to do it again as a second run. The other drivers will tell you the ins and outs of each sub depot (routes, keys, codes), ASK. There’s probably a driver who has been there 10+ years (“old contract”).
trevHCS:
I assume the driver has to drop off the cages in the middle of the night
Night shift depot to sub depot is pallets with collars. Then return stacks of pallets or stacked collars (this but 5 high). Day shift also delivers to houses with sacks and picks up collected parcels from sub depots.
Trunks (hub to depot) is mostly class 1 loose parcels in a trailer. Then there were sometimes class 2 from the hub with sacks and usually there were late parcels also from the hub (“flyers”) with loose parcels in (contractor) vans. On rare occasions I drove a transit van with late parcels depot to sub depot in the morning.
You could PM me your depot but if it’s near Dover it won’t be the same one. YMMV.
Cuttlefish:
DoverCally:
It’s class 2 delivering for Hermes. I think it’s delivering from a warehouse to local depots.(2+ year old information)
I worked as an agency driver (class 2) for a Hermes depot (not “hub” {Rugby, Warrington}) for more than a year. No one ever told me where to take a break, but only two runs really required a break (from start of shift {6h rule}) and only then after you had dropped. Nowhere near 4.5 hours driving to get to a sub depot.
DoverCally:
Should I split the breaks, or take one 45 minute?In my experience, you should take a 15 minute break after your first run, then a 30 minute break after your second**. Obviously it depends on the runs. You might get a morning run as well. I don’t think I ever did 9hr driving. Watch your working time (they do notice infringments eventually).
** One depot was within 20 minutes driving, so with a 40 minute 13 pallet tail lift (always?) tip you could do 2 tips in 6 hours and still have 3 hours driving time to spare.
DoverCally:
I’ll be on my own on a night job.All the sub depots were unnammed at night. The people running the sub depots are/were not Hermes employees so only had to sort the delivered parcels by x time. When it was busy you might find them there REALLY early. DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT, someone does this run twice+ a night.
DoverCally:
And any general advice new drivers will learn from, on the first day.Class 2, 12 tonne rigid (Hermes livery), 13 pallets, one “buckle” strap. We took a pump truck, some depots didn’t and the sub depots all had a working pump truck. All drops I did were tail lift.
You’ll probably get shown the a local sub depot with another driver, then get to do it again as a second run. The other drivers will tell you the ins and outs of each sub depot (routes, keys, codes), ASK. There’s probably a driver who has been there 10+ years (“old contract”).
trevHCS:
I assume the driver has to drop off the cages in the middle of the nightNight shift depot to sub depot is pallets with collars. Then return stacks of pallets or stacked collars (this but 5 high). Day shift also delivers to houses with sacks and picks up collected parcels from sub depots.
Trunks (hub to depot) is mostly class 1 loose parcels in a trailer. Then there were sometimes class 2 from the hub with sacks and usually there were late parcels also from the hub (“flyers”) with loose parcels in (contractor) vans. On rare occasions I drove a transit van with late parcels depot to sub depot in the morning.
You could PM me your depot but if it’s near Dover it won’t be the same one. YMMV.
I will be running out of aylesford.
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