I am tiring of car transporters - tired of strapping down in the rain and cold, tired of the injuries, tired of dealership attitudes and generally ready for a change.
I’d love to return to the plant work, but unfortunately it doesn’t pay enough and is often local hire firms and therefore not tramping. Car transporters do tend to ruin you money wise, as many other jobs mean taking a pay cut. I can handle that, just not a huge one!
So is the tanker game a wise move? I realise that taking ADR with no previous tanker experience is probably a waste of time and money at this stage.
So can anyone point me in the direction of reasonable companies that are a maximum of about an hour and a half from Nottingham that take on trampers? So far on my list is Simon Gibson and Damac so it needs a little work! Not sure if Abbey Road have any closer operating centres (have looked on VOSA site but not sure if the ones mentioned there are tanker depots)
Any advice, warnings or additions to my list welcome. Thank you
The one thing I like about tank work, is that you’re in control of the tip. You mostly find when you arrive at customers that they’re waiting for the stuff you’ve got on and usually get tipped immediately. How fast is then up to you. Very easy work and if you can stay off fertilizer, cement and salt it’s pretty clean work too.
As for dry or liquids, really don’t know the pros and cons of each. Again, any advice gratefully received. Have heard that liquid sugar is a good one but not sure how to get into that line of work. Have always assumed that you could be handling whatever the customer requires unless you work directly for the supplier rather than the transport company.
My suggestion and i’m mentioning no company names here, is to first of all bring your CV up to date, no bullshine necessary your present job experience and work record if its good will open doors trust me, and stress your lack of sickies (proveable) if appropriate.
Then do your research for companies to approach, not necessarily hauliers who might not ay the correct rate for this work, think own account too, obviously try for local first unless you need to tramp.
Then take a couple of days off and get in your car and go and cold call, attitude and appearance is important you might have two minutes to initially sell yourself so make them count, take CV’s with you to hand out to anyone who you hit it off with that will impress no end if you come prepared and have made some effort, you stand out from the herd.
You can’t beat cold call, it works, the man gets to see you in similar circumstances as you might be approaching one of his hard won new customers if he gives you a job.
That’s sound advice Juddian, and I appreciate you taking the time to type it. It’s exactly how I got my current position! I have re-done my CV and have a few days off coming up. I just need more research into where the companies are, what they transport and also I could do with knowing about different types of tanker so that I can narrow my search. I’m thinking foodstuffs is most likely to be non-ADR.
Powder tank work can be good, personally I did enjoy it, but like all jobs it has its’ downsides. You need a good tank and blower or the job becomes a pain, quarries are not clean places even if they do obsess about driving through a wheel wash. If the silo is full you have problem - a car can be stashed somewhere, but if there’s no room in the silo you may have to wait while they use the product and that may take some time. Blocked pipes and pipe blow outs or leaks will happen - a fitter once removed part of the pipe inside the plant and forgot to replace it, several tons of limestone on the floor and a lot of dust later the problem was solved.
You can also guarantee rain when your tipping and high winds are fun if you use a tipper tank. A lot of the work is 7 days, but if you get 4 on 4 off there aren’t many better shifts. You usually load and tip yourself, so when it’s good it’s good, but when it’s bad it really is bad…
What about flour tankers?
Theres a few places around the midlands, Wellingborough springs to mind The guys Im working with at hovis can spend a lot of time sat reading books while tipping, with 1 eye on the blow, or more precisely a foot rested on the pipe to feel the load running thru
bjd:
atchison topekas are looking for the corby area not sure if thats any good Abbey have a depot in hull
i know someone who has just started out of corby for these, he has no previous tanker experience but they trained him up, spoke to him last week and he’s enjoying it. maybe worth a try grumps or even give hoyer a bell, no harm in asking
McPhersons of Aberlour were advertising for new recruits on expansion of their Selby depotrecently. You could always try Castle Cement/Hanson at Ketton too
So, I had today off as a holiday so that I could present myself to some companies.
I dressed smartly, and packed my boots, hi-viz, driving licence, DCPC card, a stack of CV’s and a good attitude
This was far more difficult than the last time I did it. I drove 400 miles and only got into the transport office of two companies! At the others, I was faced with women who were obviously in training as doctors’ receptionists and would not even call the Transport Manager or Personnel. So I handed in CV’s and completed application forms where requested.
I have sent a few applications by post, and called the ‘recruitment hotline’ of another.
So my CV is out there - I didn’t get many face-to-face opportunities, but I’ll just have to wait and see if anyone gets back to me.
Thank you to all who posted. Your suggestions and advice helped me to create a list of places to approach.
