armyman:
Hello troops. Please forgive me as i am new to this forum thing. I am currently serving in the armed forces, but due to family issues would like to leave.
If you think you’re going to have more family life than you do in the forces, you’re sadly mistaken. Industry average working week is over 50hrs. Getting up at 5am and getting back home at 7pm and too knackered to do anything on a weekend is par for the course. You can legally work up to 15hrs a day. What time you finish isn’t dictated by the time the shift ends, its dictated by the delays at deliveries and the delays on the road. Many jobs have a couple of nights out or out all week. Wages are back to what they were several years ago.
So if you’re doing it to be home more, stay put. If you’re doing it for the money, you’ll have to put a lot of hours in to earn £31k.
connor i had a lad out of r.a.f with me the weekend,hed jacked for the very reason above,wanting to spend more time with the girlfreind,soon to be wife.
hes not now going to have to do a round trip of bawtry to wittering each day[think he said 140 miles], plus wont have to go away on ops[think thats what he called it.
his first day was 14 hrs,2 nd with me 15 hrs and when he got back he was asking if there was any overtime.
Army man big tip for you get some experience behind you in what wagons you can drive, everyone who has a class 1 (C&E) can’t drive every class 1 out there. When I left the army last year I couldn’t get any work (had to move from dumfries to fife)at all coz a lot of squaddies can’t even find reverse in some of the wagons or when they do the smash it up. Unfortunately for us all we all get the same brush & get told no jobs going I had to go into local companies & ask face to face & one guy gave me a break I’ve been driving a 7.5 tonner for 6 months now but I do shunting around the yard letting him see I can make the wagon go backwards & not smash things up.
Get some agency work & make a portfolio (or similar) with what you CAN drive.
Best of luck with the career change.
p.s. I’ve never once looked back I get to see my wife and kids every night unless I decide otherwise not some idiot.
You’d want a fair bit more than 31k to be in the SAS i’d have thought. Good luck anyway dude, seek & ye shall find, eventually…
You don’t want to be going on for transport firms up there as they will run you in to an early grave but if you can get on for any of the supermarkets or other large companies up there you should be ok. Firms like ex forces so you should get a leg up, that’s if you can drive the new fangled gear boxes and haven’t only been driving them 60’s things you run around in. You did say you’ve done 3 years agency at the weekend so i’d have thought you be alright.
I can tell you what a squaddie does (did) for £36k; in civi speak a Logistics Accounts Manager and Transport Manager. Mil speak is RQMS, covering the MTWO post at the same time!!! Of course, there was 3 x 6 month tours in 3 years but at least it paid an extra £2.5k (now being near doubled by that nice new Gov we have in ).
Armyman - have you been to any ‘Logistics Awareness Days’ at your resettlement centre? Tesco usually do a presentation there. Depending on your rank, and if you converted your courses along the way (JNCO Cadre, SNCO Cadre, WOs Course) to ILM Management qualifications, Tesco will be interested to take you on board in an FLM (even SLM) position. DHL and Wincanton were the same.
I’m due to give a ‘been there, done that (come and work for us!)’ presentation at the next round of Industry Awareness & Employment Fairs.
PM me your phone number and I’ll steer around the one or two ‘resettlement mistakes’ I made.
Sounds like he has got the jargon off pat, loads of good buzz words in there !. To get a 10 out of 10 rather than a 9 i reckon you need to slip in a “solutions” or two though.
Ye can earn inxs of £32k at Argos mossend , good conditions , easy work etc…
but not taking any drivers on just now .
Sainsburys EK …as far as i know thye earn no a bad hourly rate but have had O/T cut and lost stores in the north east .
The retail sector gets a bit of a bashing on here ,( “trolly dollies”) but they have the best T&C’s and wages that general haulage can only dream about.
Marty B7:
The retail sector gets a bit of a bashing on here ,( “trolly dollies”) but they have the best T&C’s and wages that general haulage can only dream about.
very true. the irony is that general hauliers work harder for less money. with tesco, your route is done, they tell you how to manoeuvre at the shops, a hard run is when you have 3 drops on one trailer. compare that to something like DHL in eurocentral with multi-drop, poor addresses, poxy little industrial estates, not to mention timed drops and collections. a lot of tesco drivers would be lost if you gave them a real driving job and they have the audacity (or is it arrogance?) to think they are better than everyone else
better money doesnt mean better driver
Deepinvet:
I reckon armyman is in the sas that’s why he can’t tell us what he does, or if he did tell us he would have to kill us!!!
defo not in tha S.A.S (best in the world) muker, not that mental. actually motor transport platoon in edinburgh. posted in warminster at the moment. trying to get posted back but it doesn’t look good. have tried everything to get back they are just not wearing it. hence why i may sack the army.
Marty B7:
Ye can earn inxs of £32k at Argos mossend , good conditions , easy work etc…
but not taking any drivers on just now .
Sainsburys EK …as far as i know thye earn no a bad hourly rate but have had O/T cut and lost stores in the north east .
The retail sector gets a bit of a bashing on here ,( “trolly dollies”) but they have the best T&C’s and wages that general haulage can only dream about.
yeh thats true bout general haulage poor wages but excellent drivers i work for aldi who are good payers in the current climate. but they want there employees to do the work of two people very much hands on not enough drivers and far to many managers
Marty B7:
Ye can earn inxs of £32k at Argos mossend , good conditions , easy work etc…
but not taking any drivers on just now .
Sainsburys EK …as far as i know thye earn no a bad hourly rate but have had O/T cut and lost stores in the north east .
The retail sector gets a bit of a bashing on here ,( “trolly dollies”) but they have the best T&C’s and wages that general haulage can only dream about.
I think one of the things you might find is the terms and conditons for new starters will be different to those who have been in the job a few years. They’re not slow to take advantage of the recession/abundance of drivers.
Ex Haulier:
Sounds like he has got the jargon off pat, loads of good buzz words in there !. To get a 10 out of 10 rather than a 9 i reckon you need to slip in a “solutions” or two though.
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