- Is anyone else down on night shifts this year?
- Are there any companies who would take a driver on one or two nights p/w?
Funny you should raise this subject, I was saying the same thing to some colleagues last week
The day men are going on decent 10 hours runs to a wide variety of destinations yet the night drivers are getting local trailer shunts or yard work, basically any dross that makes work rather than being sent home
This has been going on for several weeks
I can understand it with supermarket delivery work as more and stores are closing at 10pm rather than work through the night accepting deliveries
Face:
- Is anyone else down on night shifts this year?
I wish. Flat out. Have been for the last 3 years.
- Are there any companies who would take a driver on one or two nights p/w?
Agencies are your best bet, typically being supermarket or pallet network trunking, or a company looking for a driver to cover weekends but you’re not likely to find a permanent role Mon-Fri.
bigdave789:
Funny you should raise this subject, I was saying the same thing to some colleagues last week
The day men are going on decent 10 hours runs to a wide variety of destinations yet the night drivers are getting local trailer shunts or yard work, basically any dross that makes work rather than being sent home
This has been going on for several weeks
I can understand it with supermarket delivery work as more and stores are closing at 10pm rather than work through the night accepting deliveries
A lot of distance trunking work is being transferred to rail.
Feight trains work more at night for obvious reasons.
Also no surprise numerous excuses and pretexts being used to close motorway routes at night making many night trunks unviable.
In addition to speed limiters creating no speed advantages on clear nightime routes.
For those who view distance work as being more attractive and who prefer being out on the road there are obviously no longer any upsides to working nights.
Now awaits the usual suspects saying that most drivers prefer local/shunting/other duties than doing ‘decent ten hour runs’.
Conor:
Face:
- Is anyone else down on night shifts this year?
I wish. Flat out. Have been for the last 3 years.
Do you work for someone Conor, or are you S/E?
Yeah I’m reluctant to go the agency route but I might have to - I don’t want to do full time, just an extra but to top up my meagre and hopefully temporary wages.
I don’t do them , but got a txt from agency saying night out money has been put up
Carryfast don’t even get me started on the stupidity of the HA and their closures/signage - they make for some ‘interesting’ routes though. 
In the NW seems to have a lot of ads for night time work.
Although I kind of prefer doing late PM starts/early evenings to 6 am starts the £1 extra per hour for doing nights is a rip off!
Face:
Carryfast don’t even get me started on the stupidity of the HA and their closures/signage - they make for some ‘interesting’ routes though.
The obvious inference is the effective deliberate sabotage of the night time motorway network to the advantage of the rail freight sector.
The fact is the government has made no secret of its intention to wipe out those decent 10 hour runs wherever possible and in many cases hub systems and speed limiters had already removed any of the upsides of proper job and finish direct night trunks.
To the point of drivers being expected to work more hours doing ‘other duties’ transhipping freight at the hub than driving in my case.