Or are you going to stick with the old
New jobs these days - are all about the CONTRACT one signs up to…
Poor contract? - You’d be better off looking elsewhere, or sticking to agency.
Surely the “I fear for future employment” age has now been and gone?
You’d have to be pretty darned insecure to take a crappy full time contract with lousy pay and even worse T&Cs - just because you cannot imagine doing anything else.…
For instance, I’m currently seeking a 4x12 four shift per week contract.
Such contracts seem to have dried up as full time job offers though, perhaps because firms don’t like it that you get 6.5 weeks holiday per year out of 20 days stat leave +6 bank holidays - compared to 5 weeks +Christmas Day everywhere else… Firms even offer people the chance to take upto an extra week “unpaid” which would still leave you lagging behind a four-shift contractor laughing all the way to …
I’m quite happy to stay on agency until such time the four shift contracts I seek are “back in vogue” then.
Not a difficult thing to do when the agency hourly rate is now higher than the full timer’s rate as well btw… 
“What if the firm let you go, and you have no rights due to being agency?”
Trust me - if the firm want to get rid of you - being full time won’t prevent them from doing that!.
Worried about not getting enough paid hours to get by on agency?
I was suddenly laid off from my last full time employer - Brakes - in October 2017. They offered to let me continue full time on 5k a year less driving C2 on early doors work, which is totally not me, nor has it ever been in nearly 30 years of driving. I opted for “voluntary redundancy” which was “on the spot”, actually netting me more in severence pay than the actual redundancy settlement… Leaving that depot for the last time, and on my way home as it were, I dropped in at a couple of agencies in the neighborhood. It took me precisely 96 minutes to sign on the dotted line at one of those agencies nearby, with a two day paid induction the following two days, and my first wages coming through the following friday, PAYE @ £12ph daytime rate for the 2x8 hours induction I did. The week after that I put in over 40 hours, and have managed that just about every week since, except the ones where I actually WANTED less than 40 hours work that week… I actually ended up getting my first wages from my new job BEFORE I’d got the month-end pay including my redundancy, such was the sheer speed of all this “upheaval”…
Hows things been this Christmas on agency?
This Christmas just done… A bonus of £1ph extra for each hour worked during the month of December to be paid in January as a lump sum.
This Christmas contract +£1ph across the board on all rates, which slightly favours those on the day shift more than night workers like myself - since £1 on £12ph is a higher percentage markup than £1 on £14 night rate, or even £1 on the normal £18ph Sunday rate. Any which way - wot’s not to like there??
I’ve done about 200 hours this December - so I should be secure earnings wise for January now - even if I now drop to 2 or 3 shifts per week.
I’ve even aggregated nearly £400 in holiday pay the past month as well - to be taken on any weeks coming where I would possibly drop below 2 shifts…
I might even end up being forced to take some days off when the snows finally come - IF they do! Oh woe is me!! 
Last year, I was flat out at the other agency during January and Febuary, and I ended up getting paid my holiday pay as one large lump sum taxed at the higher rate in March… Got a rebate for that “overtax”, as my total year’s earnings were just below the higher threshold come the end of the financial year, days later…, because I’d swung it that way on purpose, of course! 
Be bold, don’t compromise your entire life for a crappy contract…
Get out there and earn! 
Bigtruck3:
Or are you going to stick with the old
You’ll be going back touring will you
You can clean the toilets and be a tea boy again
Bigtruck3:
Or are you going to stick with the old
Looking for something new in the new year, but it’s the fear of the unknown. Got my feet under the table in a job I’ve grown to hate. Shame really, moneys decent, works easy, could have stayed here till I hung up my keys.
Just going to carry on with the agency. They seem to have worked out what I do and don’t like doing and (generally) give me work which is tolerable. I think it’s fair to say my heart just isn’t in the job any more and I’m just marking time until I fully retire in 2024. I do at least have the luxury of being able to afford to take several months off a year.
I’m out on May the 1st, my licence then runs out and I have no intention of renewing it. I have stayed on an extra year to help out due to them not finding the right person for the job, should have retired in June 2019, stayed on till September then had to take 5 modules of DCPC to stay on until May. They now know that they have to find someone soon.
So that will be me done, and to be honest I have had enough, us older blokes have had the best years of this game.
Only gained my C+E may last year. But towards the middle of 2020, I’m going to look at coming off the spanners/■■■■■■ van and move over to driving side with the same company.
Well I’m looking for a job that pays £850 pw, start at 0800 finish at 1600 Monday to Thursday,and 1400 finish on fridays with 30days holidays a year+ bank holidays, O and two weeks at Christmas, all paid, and a final salery pension,. But I’m struggling to get a job as a Civil servent, or even an MP,. So I’ll just carry on were i’am.
My new job is my old job but full time (I hope). I’ve submitted my formal application they said they’ll probably give me a contract “After the new year”. I’m half hoping they don’t so I can go look for a better (paying) job 
Ditto Winseer’s post.
Still on agency, looks like staying on agency where I am which is a dead man’s shoes kind of place for getting a job. Being a canny kind of guy I made sure it was written in my agency employment contract that is the only place I work. I’ve been there years anyway so was usually in the first few to get a call for any work and have always had enough to keep me happy although I will admit at the quieter times of the year I need to be prepared to switch between days and nights as nights usually drop off a fair bit. Anyway it makes a nice change to do days every now and again for a bit of a break from the night trunking.
Looking forward to the big chunky pay rise coming in April when the repealing of the Swedish Derogation of the AWR comes into force and we get parity pay at last - this is the only place I’ve ever been at where permanent are on more than agency and it’s not by a small amount either.
Conor:
Ditto Winseer’s post.Still on agency, looks like staying on agency where I am which is a dead man’s shoes kind of place for getting a job. Being a canny kind of guy I made sure it was written in my agency employment contract that is the only place I work. I’ve been there years anyway so was usually in the first few to get a call for any work and have always had enough to keep me happy although I will admit at the quieter times of the year I need to be prepared to switch between days and nights as nights usually drop off a fair bit. Anyway it makes a nice change to do days every now and again for a bit of a break from the night trunking.
Looking forward to the big chunky pay rise coming in April when the repealing of the Swedish Derogation of the AWR comes into force and we get parity pay at last - this is the only place I’ve ever been at where permanent are on more than agency and it’s not by a small amount either.
The work on nights - dropped off a bit in the summer holidays, funny enough - but I decided to just let my shifts drop down to 2-3 per week for a couple of weeks, despite being offered “unlimited early turn starts” - which I avoid like the plague. Two weeks later, I was back to “flat out on nights” getting first dibs like you mentioned - on my preferred shifts, permanent nights.
I reckon if I’d “compromised” and been prepared to do the odd daytime shift - I might have been expected them to be offered to me a lot more often, with offence being caused to the agency should I then find myself turning down any. I started at the place I am now in October 2017, and didn’t go “exclusive” until the start of the new financial year April 2019-20. Any over-paid PAYE taxes - now come back straight away in the following week’s wages that way. I actually NEED to do a few “short weeks” in the year in any case - to make sure I don’t go over into the higher rate of tax. If you’re paying 40% on £15ph mid-week Christmas rates, plus another 10% NI on top - one’s takehome pay actually drops down to £7.50ph if you think about it - below minimum wage.
PLUS you need to take those occasional “non-stat leave days” that count zero hours towards one’s rolling fortnight - such as when you’ve just put in a 36-60-36-60 cycle for a month, like I just have. I shall either be working some short weeks in January OR taking some of that holiday I’ve built up if it is REALLY dead.
When I was at Brakes originally on agency in 2015, I suddenly got offered a full time contract, which I was a bit too quick in accepting. Suddenly I found myself working 5-6 days per week rather than 3-4 plus a 5th as “overtime every week”. That meant I was now working those 5-6 days for a flat salary, with no option to work “extra hours” even at single time - when a large unexpected bill came in at home out of the blue… I quickly regretted signing upto that contract, and resolved never to make that mistake again. It was a stroke of luck when I got laid off when I did with severence pay three years later… 
I’m always looking as you never know when something might crop up, but I see no purpose in jumping from one run of the mill job to another. Being put through my Moffett/Manitou in a couple of weeks so I’ll have that in the bank too should I upsticks for something.
got a new manager at our place,nice enough guy,but ■■■■ clueless Transport wise 
fixated on double deckers,and we do multi-drop,and collections from suppliers.but is it worth moving on at 64 yo? although i’m not one of those doddering old ■■■■■■■ you see struggling to get in and out of their cab’s 
Dpd not far from me at Hinckley…might be worth a look…
Twoninety88:
I’m out on May the 1st, my licence then runs out and I have no intention of renewing it. I have stayed on an extra year to help out due to them not finding the right person for the job, should have retired in June 2019, stayed on till September then had to take 5 modules of DCPC to stay on until May. They now know that they have to find someone soon.
So that will be me done, and to be honest I have had enough, us older blokes have had the best years of this game.
Sad but true, the for profit game was finished years ago, drivers don’t even speak to one another anymore every day was a mad adventure, now its max hours and foot to the floor 24/7.
I have another10 or so years to go I won’t be leaving my current job the reason being I’m far to old to start working for a living.
carryfast-yeti:
got a new manager at our place,nice enough guy,but [zb] clueless Transport wise
I should stick with it.
From my personal experience inept management usually means an easy life.
another year in the factory for me I think, but if rumours are true and I’m put back on a 3 shift pattern i’ll be looking at what else is about whether it’s driving or something else.
carryfast-yeti:
got a new manager at our place,nice enough guy,but [zb] clueless Transport wise
Did he use to work for Arla?
Years ago, some bright spark with an -ology degree, had a brainwave. He’d seen loaded fridges going out, and running g back empty, and seen empty tankers go out, and see them come back loaded…
“What if we combine a fridge and a tank, so that it can go out loaded, and pick up milk on the way back? No more empty mileage, think of the savings…”
The pointy shoes all agreed slapped backs, made a memo saying 'do it’s, and went to the bistro…
A few months later, the fabled Arla double decker was unveiled… a tank, with all the pipework and pumps and computer, in the bottom, and a fridge, with all the insulation and fridge unit, on the top…
Just think of the benefits for the environment, no more empty mileage, we’re saving the planet.
“Those with actual knowledge of the job, already knows where this is going…”
Because of the weight of the tank and all the peripherals, only half a load of bottled milk can be carried. This small load, must however be loaded with the external tail lift, because of the tank below…
It takes much longer to un/load half a load. Oh, and the trailer is now top heavy…
Because of the fridge only half a load of milk can be collected. And most farms are not suited for double decker access… so the tanker needs to go to a dairy, to tranship from normal ex-farm tankers…
So in short, you need two of the double dockers, to replace one tanker, and one fridge. Standard fridges and tanks are flexible and go virtually anywhere, whereas the double decker needs to avoid low bridges, and cant go to most farms.
My mate is hopefully lining me up with a start at his place on the tippers, always a positive i think when firms rarely have vacancies [emoji1696][emoji1696]
Not done tippers since the mid 90’s but it seems ok nowadays plus the yard is only 5mins from my house [emoji106] [emoji605][emoji605]
Currently on artic doing locals with curtain/skelly but the journey home is doing my head in, 15mins going in and upto 80mins coming home, money is a tad on the low side but the hours do suit my home life, I’ll keep my head down and see what occurs in the next few weeks.
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the nodding donkey:
carryfast-yeti:
got a new manager at our place,nice enough guy,but [zb] clueless Transport wiseDid he use to work for Arla?
Years ago, some bright spark with an -ology degree, had a brainwave. He’d seen loaded fridges going out, and running g back empty, and seen empty tankers go out, and see them come back loaded…“What if we combine a fridge and a tank, so that it can go out loaded, and pick up milk on the way back? No more empty mileage, think of the savings…”
The pointy shoes all agreed slapped backs, made a memo saying 'do it’s, and went to the bistro…
A few months later, the fabled Arla double decker was unveiled… a tank, with all the pipework and pumps and computer, in the bottom, and a fridge, with all the insulation and fridge unit, on the top…
Just think of the benefits for the environment, no more empty mileage, we’re saving the planet.“Those with actual knowledge of the job, already knows where this is going…”
Because of the weight of the tank and all the peripherals, only half a load of bottled milk can be carried. This small load, must however be loaded with the external tail lift, because of the tank below…
It takes much longer to un/load half a load. Oh, and the trailer is now top heavy…
Because of the fridge only half a load of milk can be collected. And most farms are not suited for double decker access… so the tanker needs to go to a dairy, to tranship from normal ex-farm tankers…So in short, you need two of the double dockers, to replace one tanker, and one fridge. Standard fridges and tanks are flexible and go virtually anywhere, whereas the double decker needs to avoid low bridges, and cant go to most farms.
You couldn’t make it up [emoji1787]
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No I will be sticking with my current gig
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