aaaargh, 97% of those on this board!!! have run bent somewhere along the line, be it a little thing cpl of mins over their time etc,or a full tacho swop. not many people are whiter than white even on this board, 
gobby 480:
aaaargh, 97% of those on this board!!! have run bent somewhere along the line, be it a little thing cpl of mins over their time etc,or a full tacho swop. not many people are whiter than white even on this board,
Not disputing it, but the times they are a changing 
Rob K:
£1 per mile + £1 per litre of derv + 8 miles per gallon quite obviously doesn’t make economical sense.
congratulations Rob has found the dearest fuel pump in thw world 
north surrey haulage:
Rob K:
£1 per mile + £1 per litre of derv + 8 miles per gallon quite obviously doesn’t make economical sense.
congratulations Rob has found the dearest fuel pump in thw world
You won’t be saying that in another 12 months Sean, you’ll be desperately wanting to know where it is .
according to comical motor, fuel will be dearer as a barrel of oil is now $60
Prices of crude oil have increased by 7% in the last month. and these price increases have not reached the refinery as the storage is limited
So a £1 per litre is on the cards, and the £1 per mile is not even being reached by many operators. Of course you can all raise your rates to compensate for the fuel increase 
Can’t you?
Oh I must have dreamt that.
The LRUC is months or even years away.
£1 a litre is inevatable thats true but is anyone really working for less than £1 per mile? i know i’m not! unfortunately all you wouldbe business men need to go back to the calculator or maybe take a coarse in small business which includes vat, you see the pump price includes vat so the current price is actually around .72p litre, those on a mileage rate, that rate is plus vat! i could go into fuel surcharges, waiting time and other earnings on top of the mileage rate etc etc but why should i? i don’t need to justify my business to anyone except me and to be honest i think i’d probably be wasting my time.
paul b:
£1 a litre is inevatable thats true but is anyone really working for less than £1 per mile? i know i’m not! unfortunately all you wouldbe business men need to go back to the calculator or maybe take a coarse in small business which includes vat, you see the pump price includes vat so the current price is actually around .72p litre, those on a mileage rate, that rate is plus vat! i could go into fuel surcharges, waiting time and other earnings on top of the mileage rate etc etc but why should i? i don’t need to justify my business to anyone except me and to be honest i think i’d probably be wasting my time.
Well done that you have got yourself a decent mileage rate Paul, you will be surprised how many havent. I mean actual miles travelled over the year, does your customer pay your tacho mileage without question? even when you are running back empty.
Youre right you dont have to justify your business to us, but as this is a public forum, then any advice is there to be read and digested by others for them to make their own mind up.
I had my calculator out many years ago, and discovered that by the time I had paid out for road tax, insurance, drivers wages, truck finance, repairs, tyres oil and repairs, there wasnt a lot left over for fuel and even less left for drawings, office rates, yard rent and that is before I think about washing the tankers out for the next load.
My sums led me to believe I could do better by selling the trucks, get a job and save money, to spend on me, and not a depreciating asset.
Rob K has come to the same conclusion without the heartache
An owner driver is never going to be a rich man working for a haulier who is paying him even less than the going rate.
there was an owner driver called graham tunstall working on the containers for p&o and frieghtliner and all the others in leeds and he had been an o/d for years and in the end he couldnt make it pay anymore so he sold his lorry and trailer and went self employed like me. he once said as an o/d i was working mon, tues and weds for the lorry and thur and fri fro himself now every penny he earns goes to him and him only.
good luck to you all that are o/d’s i couldnt do it i couldnt stand the pressure or the stress.
Why are you all slagging O/D’s off? My drivers and I make a reasonable living from my vehicles and we don’t break the rules. It is very hard work, and I never envisage being rich, but we’re not struggling too badly. So, to those who have tried it and failed, or those who don’t have the nerve to give it a go, stop ripping into those of us who are out at the sharp end. Thanks
Well done that you have got yourself a decent mileage rate Paul, you will be surprised how many havent. I mean actual miles travelled over the year, does your customer pay your tacho mileage without question? even when you are running back empty.
An owner driver is never going to be a rich man working for a haulier who is paying him even less than the going rate.
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i don’t actually work on a mileage rate as such because the nature of the work theres maybe twenty regular drops that i and another subbie do, each drop has a set rate that is capped at 16t i.e you get paid the full load rate no matter how much is on the wagon, nine times out of ten it’ll be two drops relatively close to each other which you then get paid x amount for the second drop, the rates are based on coming back empty but the company are quite happy for us to either get a back load from either one of their costomers for which we get paid for through them or one of our own, theres also some local work which we’ll do if no backload is available, it’s these little 1 or 2 hour jobs that make all the difference come the end of the month. loading/tipping waiting time is payable after the first hour, theres also a fuel surcharge payable on top of the standard rate to cover any fuel price increases through the year, for may i got 9%. basically if you do the one load a day the firm gaurantees you and then park up you’ll earn a wage it’s up to you as an o/d to chase the other work to really make the job pay! this is by no means normal subbie work and thats mainly down to the fact that the company i sub off are under contract for the work so have nobody uncutting them and have negotiated the variouse rates over many years, me subbing off them just means i reap some of the rewards.
to be honest up and till finding this work i’d had eight months with a hiab wagon touting for work which was financially a total waste of time and if that had been my only option i’d have packed in! at the start of the year i was all set to go onto boxes but i was very sceptical as to wether i could make it pay at the rates being offered but as with everything, you don’t know the ins n outs of it until you’ve had a go!
all i will say, is that if your looking from the outside in without any business knowledge don’t judge the job purely on the rate you see advertissed in a paper, theres a lot more to it than that.
thats not aimed at anyone in particular just for anyone who may be interested.
running bent is what drives the rates down …
thanks for that gem of information!
without your input this discussion would have been empty
hitch:
running bent is what drives the rates down …
So the likes of Eddie Stobart,James
Irlam,Prestons of Potto etc etc etv are running bent are they?
Afterall they are the ones who set the rates because they are the ones who have the contracts that we subbie on & therefore they set the rates we get paid
…and I did a year (full-time) for Irlams and over three years (part-time) for Stobarts…and in all the time, I never saw anyone encouraged to to run bent.
The only ‘bent’ running I saw (twice I think) was when blokes were desperate to get home on a Friday after being a bit stitched up by the planners.
Therefore I guess I agree with NSH.
So what was all that business with the A1 depot of Stobbuts some years ago when the whole operation was nearly closed down by the ministry?
Salut, David.
David,
When you say the “A1 depot” I assume you mean near Stamford i.e. Woolfox Depot?
That is where I worked out of nearly every weekend and another six weeks or so during each year. That depot became surplus to requirements for one main reason only; the petfoods contract that was based at Wisbech moved to Hams Hall (Coventry area) and so Stobarts opened there to service that contract. Woolfox Depot was a main ‘staging post’ for Wisbech but once Wisbech was gone there was no need for Woolfox Depot.
There were also some Mirror Group contract motors based there but the whole thing was easily moved over to Crick. All the drivers were given first refusal for the vacancies created at the other depots and quite a few took Stobarts up on their offer. In all the time I was there, I never heard of any 'Ministry’involvement and it was quite a ‘close knit community’ where nothing stayed too secret for too long!
What I will say, while we’re kinda on the subject, is that during my time with both Irlams and Stobarts, I used to hear some absolute {zb} by way of rumours and driver-talk. I have also experienced the cold-shoulder attitude from other drivers, had abuse on the CB when on the road and like I already said, listened to some real crap & lies. I could never understand why other drivers directed their abuse etc at the Irlams/Stobarts drivers; it wasn’t they who had been undercutting the rates etc etc, they were just trying to feed the families and pay the wages. (Not me though, I was single then and just going through a phase!! LOL)
Some of the rumours I have heard over the years but have never seen any evidence of include:
-
Irlams & Stobarts were the same company; Irlam drivers were paid with Stobart wage slips.
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Both always ran bent. Except what I said above.
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All Irlam drivers were gay, or lots of them, at least.
-
And to be honest, lots of other crap that I can’t remember!!
Don’t get me wrong, there things that weren’t so good; Irlams didn’t pay parking; both were always on the two-way every 30 mins or less (although Stobarts weren’t so bad and never called you during the weekend!), wanting to know how you were getting on; regularly you’d ask to be home on a Friday but find yourself heading in the opposite direction on Friday tea-time; wages weren’t so good (£6 per hour flat rate) although there was always plenty of hours available and I didn’t mind waiting at an RDC for hours at a time - still getting paid for kipping; and other usual driver winges!! LOL
In summary, I’ve heard so much crap over the years about both companies that I usually ‘take it with a pinch of salt’. Some of the rumours I can personally vouch for as being total crap.
You can’t beat drivers chat for ‘imagination’, eh?? 
marcustandy:
David,When you say the “A1 depot” I assume you mean near Stamford i.e. Woolfox Depot?
:
Can’t remember enough details to argue, Marcus, but I definitely do recall news reports of managers being prosecuted and maybe dismissed for encouraging widespread disregarding of hours regs.
Maybe someone else has a more accurate memory.
Salut, David.
ive worked for stobbies on the agency on and off for 3 years and never had any trouble about running bent ive never been asked and ive always been given jobs that i can do no prolem.
Spardo:
Can’t remember enough details to argue, Marcus,
…and nor would I want to get into an argument, David. I can only say what my experiences were. I can’t 100% say that the ‘bad’ things didn’t happen as there’s always a chance I missed something but I have always felt that place was run quite kosha!!
Still, there’s always suprises to be found in this job, eh??