Do the majority of drivers on here work for companies with full O Licences? I worked in the transport office of a company running its own fleet pulling only its own stuff, inevitably 50% of the journeys were empty back to base as we couldn’t backload. This was a company running up to Scotland and down to Cornwall, does anyone else think this is a shocking waste of fuel, time etc■■?
Depends …Did the contract pay for the return empty trailer .
The company I work for we sometimes run back empty , but the trailer movement is paid for regardless of whats on it , it’s upto the customer to put stock on them .
I assume all the costs of running around empty were covered by the margins on the actual products we delivered, still for the size of the fleet it was a lot of dead mileage.
a company might also be restricted if they have been naughty or keep poor records
holliefabbabe:
a company might also be restricted if they have been naughty or keep poor records
Different kind of restriction there. This kind of licence is only for transporting your own goods, not for hire or reward.
As for empty running it depends on the contract. On tanks you can end up empty a lot due to worries over contamination, or sometimes it’s easier to run 2 loads out than try to backload all the time (usually on crap rates).
why doesn`t the company upgrade their licence to a national?
it now it seems standard practice for companies to have an international licence whether they need it or not
My employer has a standard international licence, even though a restricted one would do. It saves you getting caught out, as the rules on using a restricted licence are pretty easy to break if you’re not careful.
We tend not to backload, as the transport operation is not run with the intention of making a profit. Rather, it’s all part of the service to the customer and as such we don’t need our vehicles running all over the place with someone else’s stuff on board. Generally, we apply the ‘two-hour rule’ - if the backload means collecting from a point more than two hours from where we tipped, or it needs to be delivered more than two hours from our base, we won’t do it.
I don’t miss general haulage at all. The days of running a fleet ragged, taking any backload I could, for 2% profit margin are well behind me and good riddance
When I was there we didn’t have a CPC holder on that site, which I think you need for a national licence? The TM did not have a driving licence at all, an irony not wasted on the drivers!!
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