i think there may be a vacancy up here after what i saw last night.
about to leave humber sea terminal after a callout there, there was an autologic livered transporter parked on the left as you go round to the gate house, sat there waiting for the truck in front to clear the barrier, i see this transporter do a U turn in the mirror, and then i heard the crunch as the car hanging off the back hit the armco barrier. the driver looked really unhappy and ■■■■■■ over it…
Pimpdaddy:
Juddian:
.You guys always look clean to me, how do you manage that & tramp, do some of you do days/nights? Why is the drop out rate so high & why do you say is a certain company heading for trouble?
Not any more Pimp me old mate, i’ve been out of it 5 years now.
Good overalls, i used to wear the high quality old fashioned boiler suits the company supplied during the winter, and the traditional drivers smock during better weather.
Some depots operate day/night trunking, but the vast majority of drivers are on tramping type work, its not the best way IMO, much better as we used to have it before the new brooms (that knew next to bugger all) took over and buggered the company up then sold it, in that we did RDC work, sticking to and specialising in just a few makes and your own delivery area, damage much easier to avoid when organised sensibly like that by people that had done the job for years, more efficient too, regular drivers know their own patches far better than comparative strangers.
Many companies have tried undercutting before to get the work, it always ends up in tears, this lot will be just the same.
The drop out rate is high for a variety of reasons, it isn’t the job for everyone and not everyone will take to it, thats no disrespect to those who tried and got out again by the way, you don’t know what its like till you have a go.
Some will be accident and damage prone, you cannot stop thinking for one minute, cos disaster is waiting to bite you.
The modern transporters are complicated, there’s more combinations of vehicles and ways to put them (in drop order preferably) than you can shake a stick at…and the modern transporter design requires ‘feel’ to keep it on the road, not many younger drivers have developed that feel, nothing against them, the modern lorry that they’ve driven before drives itself more or less no matter how bad they might abuse it, take the ■■■■ with a fully loaded transporter and it will all end up in tears, it might look like an artic but its connected behind the drive axle, so short lorry and long drag trailer which weighs around 1.5 times more the prime mover loaded, and little weight (unless you load deliberately as i used to) is imposed on the drive axle, tail wagging the dog can be order of the day in short order, and skittish in the wet has a whole new meaning.
tubbs36:
I work for them out of portbury been here 6 years the job is what you make it 47k last year ave 48 hrs
tubbs36:
ford there drivers earn upwards of 80k
Anyone else seeing a pattern with tubbs’ posts? 
Juddian:
Not any more Pimp me old mate, i’ve been out of it 5 years now.
My bad, sorry, thought you were still doing it:lol:
Juddian:
The drop out rate is high for a variety of reasons, it isn’t the job for everyone and not everyone will take to it, thats no disrespect to those who tried and got out again by the way, you don’t know what its like till you have a go.
Worrying, I’d like to give it a go but I’m not a tramper. Any idea how much days/nights earn (industry average)?
Juddian:
The modern transporters are complicated, there’s more combinations of vehicles and ways to put them (in drop order preferably) than you can shake a stick at…and the modern transporter design requires ‘feel’ to keep it on the road, not many younger drivers have developed that feel, nothing against them, the modern lorry that they’ve driven before drives itself more or less no matter how bad they might abuse it, take the ■■■■ with a fully loaded transporter and it will all end up in tears, it might look like an artic but its connected behind the drive axle, so short lorry and long drag trailer which weighs around 1.5 times more the prime mover loaded, and little weight (unless you load deliberately as i used to) is imposed on the drive axle, tail wagging the dog can be order of the day in short order, and skittish in the wet has a whole new meaning.
I guess I don’t stand a chance then, I’m a ‘modern day driver’ & no idea if I’ve mastered the ‘feel’ of a truck or not. I do however strongly believe in being trained well/properly:mrgreen:
I thought it drove more or less like a drawbar with added extra both front & back, scares me when they sway side to side, do they have similar stability characteristics to something like a DD?
Pimpdaddy:
Juddian:
Not any more Pimp me old mate, i’ve been out of it 5 years now.My bad, sorry, thought you were still doing it:lol:
Juddian:
Worrying, I’d like to give it a go but I’m not a tramper. Any idea how much days/nights earn (industry average)?
Juddian:
.I guess I don’t stand a chance then, I’m a ‘modern day driver’ & no idea if I’ve mastered the ‘feel’ of a truck or not. I do however strongly believe in being trained well/properly:mrgreen:
I thought it drove more or less like a drawbar with added extra both front & back, scares me when they sway side to side, do they have similar stability characteristics to something like a DD?
Don’t knock yourself, you don’t know if you can do it or not till you try it so by all means have a go if you’re not giving up a seriously good job on the gamble, there’s nothing special about older drivers, other than some learned to drive by the seat of their pants before all this traction control and ABS stuff was ever dreamed of, so they had a head start if you like.
It was far easier years ago to learn the job anyway, the bodies were much simpler carrying usually 7 to 9/10 cars and the vehicles totally stable even if you loaded them arse about face and got the weights all wrong, so in a way we had it easier.
Think of the modern transporter as an oversized caravan being towed by an underweight car, if you put too little weight on the rear of the prime mover and the front of the trailer, you have an unstable motor…its not necessarily a dangerous combination but if driven with gay abandon can get out of hand.
The worse load i ever saw was a young bloke who had put 4 full size Discoveries on the trailer, thats nearly 11 tons of load, 2 of which as far bac on the trailer as he could get them for some reason, and no not a single vehicle on the prime mover, i wouldn’t have taken the bugger out the gate, if it was wet he’d have been lucky to have enough traction to get out the gate anyway.
Those bodies made by Lohr do have a stabiliser between the lorry and trailer, this helps a lot, if you hear one taking a tight corner slowly you’ll hear the pads rubbing (groaning) on the half moon disc as it turns.
Buggered if i’d want to start out on transporters now, its a baptism of fire if you get an 11 car carrier the stuff you have to take in is a nightmare, and i take me hat off to anyone who can train up as new transporter driver on these modern lorries and make it work for them, better men and women than i’ll ever be, as i said i had it lucky.
Have a go mate if you fancy it, there’s a shortage of drivers, and that means the money is only going one way.
Juddian:
Have a go mate if you fancy it, there’s a shortage of drivers, and that means the money is only going one way.
I would like to but as usual not many will give you a chance, lack of experience being the main culprit. I Imagine Stobart will be the same or there will be no suitable shifts.
Juddian:
Don’t knock yourself, you don’t know if you can do it or not till you try it so by all means have a go if you’re not giving up a seriously good job on the gamble.
I don’t have a seriously good job neither is it a bad one, I just want more £££ like everyone else & be happy:lol:
Pimpdaddy:
Juddian:
Have a go mate if you fancy it, there’s a shortage of drivers, and that means the money is only going one way.I would like to but as usual not many will give you a chance, lack of experience being the main culprit. I Imagine Stobart will be the same or there will be no suitable shifts.
You’d be surprised, i know of one bloke (who will never be a transporter driver as long as he’s got a hole in his arse*) who’s been through 3 lots of training with 3 different companies (that we know of there may be more) this year and got the push after a few weeks with each cos he just don’t, and isn’t ever going to, get it.
*I only ever said that about one trainee, i was disbelieved and someone else trained him when i refused to continue, but sure enough he proved me right with disastrously expensive consequences in very short order…trying to do the job on the cheap again.
You’ll never know, I might be the same…:lol:
Eh pimpdaddy. You’re very defeatist mate. Seriously you never know. Have a little self confidence in your abilities. I don’t doubt it’s more demanding than standard driving and needs a dose of common sense and judgement, but it’s probably not rocket science. Every transporter driver had to start from scratch. Give it a whirl if you can find a start.
the maoster:
:roll:Juddian:
Ah Moaster, you’re recalling the slight problems some of the lads had over some rather enthusiastic speeds at that time…Lol a lot!
. I remember one lad who got banned for pushing a coach at 70+ mph in lane three. He said he was watching the film through the back window that the coach was showing!
I seem to remember that more than one of the Abbey Hill lads got banned, “sorry the Police looked after their licences for a while” following an investigation into working practices and tachograph infringements. I had not long passed my HGV and on more than one occasion, had to move over to let an Abbey Hill Transporter overtake. This was in the days before limiters.
And yes, the Ford drivers are on £60 plus grand a year for the general fleet and £80 plus for the transporter drivers.
pimpdaddy if you fancy it give it a go otherwise you will never know think we as takin on in most areas depends where you re from as weather it be tramping or days/nights. 4 on 4 off also but dependant on which depot you would run out off not done a night out in 3 years now .as for hours all vehicles are fitted with isotrack while their not looking at them all the time loading and tipping on break is a bit no no and drivers have been disaplinded for doing so. we have to average 48 hrs and no more than 60 a week bare in mind hardly any poa unless your broke down as all loading and tipping is done by yourselfs. also if your average is over 48 you are paid to have time off to bring it down. And yes the fallout rate is very high 70 to 80% don’t last more that three months some a lot shorter
Freight Dog:
Eh pimpdaddy. You’re very defeatist mate. Seriously you never know. Have a little self confidence in your abilities. I don’t doubt it’s more demanding than standard driving and needs a dose of common sense and judgement, but it’s probably not rocket science. Every transporter driver had to start from scratch. Give it a whirl if you can find a start.
I think it’s about a potential employer having confidence in my ability, everyone wants experience these days, just like in your trade you have to be born with x thousand hours on type before they even look at you don’t they? All I need is opportunities to prove myself:mrgreen:
tubbs36:
pimpdaddy if you fancy it give it a go otherwise you will never know. And yes the fallout rate is very high 70 to 80% don’t last more that three months some a lot shorter
That rate worries me a bit, makes me question WHY:lol: Like I said I’d give it a go, all I need is opportunity, sky is the limit (literally). Do you know any other outfits that take on newbies? The Stobart depot nearest to me doesn’t have car transporters.
I said it along time ago pimp lady,stobarts don’t want old hands with decades of experience,it’s bloody hard work trying too assimilate them into good little elf :wink ,they want youngsters who don’t know any different too what there being told at starship widnes training academy.
Just act like your living the dream on your interview and you’ll get a job,not sure you’ll enjoy the job,but if you use the traing as a means too a end,decent job then it’s worth ■■■■■■■■■■■■ them a bit.
N.b my only worry would be they’ll take you on too do car transporters and within a week you’ll be doing tesco shop deliveries 
dozy:
I said it along time ago pimp lady,stobarts don’t want old hands with decades of experience,
er actually they do on the cars, but like any sensible company in any specialist sector they realise that the catchment of existing drivers is ageing quickly and they need to be bringing/training the better younger drivers on.
The thing is they have to pay the money to get the right people to do this work, lots who were either pushed out through the massive redundancies when it was still Autologic, or who left when their existing job practices changed drastically since 2009, have found alternative work that in some cases (mine luckily) pays as much per hour worked across the board as we earned on the cars, different pay structure, but averaged out the same or in some cases better.
So there are many old hands won’t be going back, i’m one of them, i keep telling you this is the time to make the move if you want in, and Stobbies is as good as anywhere to go to for car transporter work…the pay is still as per Walon agreement, the training is as good as it gets in the industry, and they guarantee a reasonable minimum during your learning period so you can take your time and not feel pressured into running before you can walk.
Pimpdaddy, if you have the right mindset and want to do it give it a go, it doesn’t matter where you live within reason as you’ll be travelling to work at the start of your week and in the lorry for the rest of it basically, unless you can get within spitting distance of home for a sneak home mid week…if you want shift work/trunking without nights out, then obviously you’ll have to live somewhere close to one of the main RDC’s or factories.
But bear a couple of things in mind, its filthy dirty hard work especially in the winter, its hard on your joints and body generally though it keeps you fit, and you get hurt regularly, not broken bones unless you fall off the lorry but its a physical job so expect the odd knock and trapped fingers in ratchets etc, and you’ll be in a low cabbed tractor unless you get allocated one of the small number of new semi trailers they put on the road recently.
Many moons ago i used to work on the mkiv and mkv lohr transporters belonging to Axial. Now on the mkv’s the handset would tell you to drive or reverse the vehicle onto a certain deck, one you’d done this you’d press ok it would take the deck to a nice height then instruct you to strap the vehicle before it sent the deck to its final position, all very straightforward if a little time consuming.
I’m mindful of the fact this system only works when carrying the same vehicle most likely but is this system still in use in the industry at all, i.e the ferry drivers from the factory etc. I take my hat off to the drivers who load different combinations all the time and they certainly earn their money in my eyes.
dozy:
N.b my only worry would be they’ll take you on too do car transporters and within a week you’ll be doing tesco shop deliveries
Me too…
You may be right on car transporters p/lady,but in my experience of stobarts they’d much rather here WOW that great,I didn’t know that,I’ll do it your way ,than the old hands,I’ve done the job for 30 yrs,a sight longer than you’ve been doing it kid( driver trainer) and I can tell you your talking ■■■■■■■■, I’ll do the job my way ,got it 
.
God we’ve had some fun at the dcpc when the old hands start ripping the trainers too bits,whilst the new lads sit there star gazing
dozy:
You may be right on car transporters p/lady,but in my experience of stobarts they’d much rather here WOW that great,I didn’t know that,I’ll do it your way ,than the old hands,I’ve done the job for 30 yrs,a sight longer than you’ve been doing it kid( driver trainer) and I can tell you your talking [zb], I’ll do the job my way ,got it
God we’ve had some fun at the dcpc when the old hands start ripping the trainers too bits,whilst the new lads sit there star gazing
:lol::lol::lol::lol:
How about things like STVA, GBA, Carlson, ECM, Brit European, Paragon etc?
I’ve had my class one two years tomorrow!
Did eighteen months with NFT and now I’m into my sixth week with Stobart Automotive and loving the job. It’s hard work compared to sitting on my backside waiting to be tipped for three hours like in my last job, but much more challenging. Excellent training too!