Hello everyone I’ve been thinking a lot lately about looking into a well known Tarmac company and becoming a franchise driver has anyone done this?? Is there many pros and cones? I don’t have a massive deposit so any help would be great in from Milton Keynes thanks in advance 
if it is a double barrelled name, that used to be 2 different companies, then expect to go about 2 to 3 months over the christmas/new year period with no money coming in, as they don’t pay you over that period, you get it all a lot later 
If its the white & blue aggregates company I went to see then I would avoid it unless you have around £110,000-£120,000 spare in your back pocket. You need to be running the truck day & night to make money. There are far cheaper ways to be a owner driver.
shuttlespanker:
if it is a double barrelled name, that used to be 2 different companies, then expect to go about 2 to 3 months over the christmas/new year period with no money coming in, as they don’t pay you over that period, you get it all a lot later
Yes I’ve read that before, it’s outrageous to be honest, there is absolutely no justification for it. I get paid on the 1st January, they don’t expect me to wait until 1st February for November’s money just because the office staff had a few days off over Christmas. It’s all done by computer these days anyway.
The fact that any firm would cause such massive operational problems to a one-man-operator just because they can earn fifty pence in interest by clinging on to your ten grand for a month tells you all you need to know in deciding whether they are a decent and ethical firm to work for. And that’s the only reason they do it.
Personally I wouldn’t touch any kind of franchaise deal with a narrowboat pole, it seems to combine the worst of all worlds. You can’t take a week’s holiday unless you can find somebody else to drive the truck, even if you don’t want to put another driver on it, you can’t take anybody else’s goods if they offer you a better rate, you have to have your truck liveried in their colours, it’s completely at odds with my idea of what owning a truck is all about, putting up with all of the aggravation and headache because of the freedom it gives you.
Rant over. 
I’ve just climbed out of a Lafarge Tarmac contract 8 wheel tipper after doing a night load of black, yes there is some truth in the white and blue firm withholding payment in December a couple of years back though I’ve not heard them do it since with the contract hauliers only the extra hired in trucks!
The firm I do a bit for have and do run for both aggregate industries and Lafarge Tarmac as well as other firms, some of what’s written on here is true and some is rubbish, the fact is you really need to do the job for a while before signing on the dotted line to understand fully how the job works and what pays!
There are hauliers that have been in the quarry game for years that understand the job and the vehicles inside out that do very well and there are also the types that listen to the crap and get talked into buying the wrong spec truck for the job that they don’t fully understand, sign on the dotted line who are all flash and no cash that come and go!
The truth is without experience/contacts your often relying totally on the say so of someone in a remote office sat at a computer to sort your work and run your truck!
There are plus points, you will spend more nights in your own bed and unlike the box jockeys and rdc curtain sider lot you’ll be paid waiting time after the first half hr when waiting/tipping on site and though you’ll have to listen to some crap it’ generally not as bad as rdc waiting room crap!
Bigtom1987:
Hello everyone I’ve been thinking a lot lately about looking into a well known Tarmac company and becoming a franchise driver has anyone done this?? Is there many pros and cones? I don’t have a massive deposit so any help would be great in from Milton Keynes thanks in advance
I’d buy a steel bodied tipper and be free to work for whoever I choose. Being as you’re based in MK I’d give Smiths Bletchington,Earthline or David Einigs a call. All three have stacks of work on in Bucks and can’t get enough subbies. Earthline and Einigs pay day rates, Smiths on tonnage (aggregate) and by the load for muck.
Smiths (an ex employer of mine 
) even rang my boss earlier, asking for me on the 6wheeler tomorrow, covering a concrete plant I used to do. Not sure if I’m on it yet as my boss likes us to do our own work (charge per load and not tonnage). Wearing orange and going back and forth to the same place doesn’t appeal like choosing where to tip, what order to do my loads in etc does.