Working stupid hours is the one thing that really bursts my head about the haulage industry. For far too long drivers have accepted that they need to accept a low hourly rate, and compensate to make a living by working twice the amount of hours as “normal” jobs. Hopefully the tide is turning a bit now, but you will still get those who want to eat, sleep and ■■■■ trucks. Not me. I only want to work about 30 hours per week (to suit my personal circumstances), so I really have no choice but to do agency work. No haulage company I know offers part time work; they just assume we all want to do 60+ hours per week and put ourselves in an early grave. ■■■■ that!
alcraw62:
Working stupid hours is the one thing that really bursts my head about the haulage industry. For far too long drivers have accepted that they need to accept a low hourly rate, and compensate to make a living by working twice the amount of hours as “normal” jobs. Hopefully the tide is turning a bit now, but you will still get those who want to eat, sleep and [zb] trucks. Not me. I only want to work about 30 hours per week (to suit my personal circumstances), so I really have no choice but to do agency work. No haulage company I know offers part time work; they just assume we all want to do 60+ hours per week and put ourselves in an early grave. [zb] that!
your in the wrong job buddy,face facts,if you only want 30hrs a week theres no job for you 
seth 70:
alcraw62:
Working stupid hours is the one thing that really bursts my head about the haulage industry. For far too long drivers have accepted that they need to accept a low hourly rate, and compensate to make a living by working twice the amount of hours as “normal” jobs. Hopefully the tide is turning a bit now, but you will still get those who want to eat, sleep and [zb] trucks. Not me. I only want to work about 30 hours per week (to suit my personal circumstances), so I really have no choice but to do agency work. No haulage company I know offers part time work; they just assume we all want to do 60+ hours per week and put ourselves in an early grave. [zb] that!your in the wrong job buddy,face facts,if you only want 30hrs a week theres no job for you
Rubbish.
Not everyone needs a full time driver… If all haulage companies needed were full timers all the year round, there wouldn’t be any call for agencies.
I’ve twice been offered part time PAYE work. Never taken it though as I’m S/E and I don’t put even part of my eggs in one basket!!! 
trubster:
Am I the only one that is cutting down on work now the rates have gone up a whopping £1.50 an hour?
No. I’ll be busy this month because where I’m at October is flat out however prior to that I’ve been doing 3 days a week and will return to that afterwards.
seth 70:
if you only want 30hrs a week theres no job for you
There’s plenty but it usually involves agency work. Certainly I’m at the pick and choose what days I want to do as are most agency drivers. If I only want to do 30hrs or so a week I can choose to. I wanted a day off in the middle of last week so I told them and got it.
Conor:
seth 70:
if you only want 30hrs a week theres no job for youThere’s plenty but it usually involves agency work. Certainly I’m at the pick and choose what days I want to do as are most agency drivers. If I only want to do 30hrs or so a week I can choose to. I wanted a day off in the middle of last week so I told them and got it.
Thats what i was trying to say conor,theres no full time jobs driving for just 30hrs a week ,on agency and thats fair enough so i cant see the problem
seth 70:
Conor:
Thats what i was trying to say conor,theres no full time jobs driving for just 30hrs a week ,on agency and thats fair enough so i cant see the problem
Which is exactly what I said in my post! Agency work is what I am doing now. 3 days a week, suits me fine.
seth 70:
Conor:
seth 70:
if you only want 30hrs a week theres no job for youThere’s plenty but it usually involves agency work. Certainly I’m at the pick and choose what days I want to do as are most agency drivers. If I only want to do 30hrs or so a week I can choose to. I wanted a day off in the middle of last week so I told them and got it.
Thats what i was trying to say conor,theres no full time jobs driving for just 30hrs a week ,on agency and thats fair enough so i cant see the problem
Of course there’s full time driving jobs for 30 hours a week.
5 days is more than enough for me these days ,but I can understand the op frustrations,one I always thought was wrong was when the company would say there is NO o/t then when you went out and sorted out yourself some agency on your day off they’d have you on a disiplinary if they found out ,as long as it doesn’t effect you being able to do your normal shifts,hours what’s the problem .
can you sell any pallets
trubster:
Am I the only one that is cutting down on work now the rates have gone up a whopping £1.50 an hour?
That’s some man maths you’ve got going on there “trubster”. How does doing tramping when you didn’t before suddenly equate to “cutting down on work”? 
Left hand down!:
trubster:
Am I the only one that is cutting down on work now the rates have gone up a whopping £1.50 an hour?That’s some man maths you’ve got going on there “trubster”. How does doing tramping when you didn’t before suddenly equate to “cutting down on work”?
I did 3 nights tramping 2 weeks ago for the first time in 4 years (only because I was offered £250 a day + £40 night out) and set a new weekly invoice record, last week I only did 2 days due to personal reasons and am having this week off due to bereavement.
I was supposed to be going away for similar rates but had to put it on ice for a few weeks.
I can happily manage on 2 or 3 days a week and that was the point I was making LHD. Chinese whispers is not all its clued up to be 
andygt4:
With Christmas coming and bills to pay etc I find it really frustrating I can only do 1 day overtime every fortnight.Yes It’s important we get sufficient rest, however the regulations are a pain in the backside when it comes to being in the real world and not that bubble wrapped Westminster red-tape-fest.
Sad situation to be in if you need to work that amount of o/t, don`t know how much you need to live on but if you are living to work as you obviously are in your current job, then you seriously need to find other better paid employment