Are there any firms left these days where Overtime is plentiful?
One would have thought that “covering on-holiday colleagues on overtime” was a perk of any job.
Not so of course.
Perhaps the expense of getting an agency in where hourly rates will always be rising first in an open-ended labour market - will one day reach such a level that it becomes cheaper to pay a full timer time and a half at around £18ph rather than get a self-employed agency in for £20+ ph to do the same job.
So folks - “Where’s it at?”
I’ve heard some tales of Supermarkets - but not anything involving actual real full time jobs, just agency and contractor work, and self-employed at that.
Well-paid overtime that you cannot get - is no good, and neither is abundant poorly-paid overtime of course.
I suppose what I’d really like to see is all those hours above 40 being recognized as “overtime to a reasonable-houred working week”.
So if you do 50-60 hours on a regular basis like many drivers do - you get 10-20 hours a week overtime. Time and a third can be better than time and a half if the base rate is high enough of course. There’s no point chasing overtime on minimum wages huh?
Basic hourly rate=£12ph Time and a third overtime = £16ph.
Basic hourly rate=£10ph Time and a HALF overtime = £15ph.
Basic hours=40 - 50 hours= 10 hours overtime.
Basic hours=48 - 50 hours= 2 hours overtime OR increasingly - ZERO hours overtime, as one is required to wear extra “minutes per day” for free at many places.
Basic hours=50+ No overtime ever. The basic hourly rate had better be damned good for this one of course… Firms have been avoiding POA and Breaks in overtime calculations for a long time already.
“In the beginning, you went to work and clocked on at a start time, clocked out at a finish time five shifts per week.”
You got paid however many hours that was.
You did NOT get “breaks” taken off. Time when wheels were not turning taken off. Waiting time taken off. Delays taken off. Holidays taken off.
I wonder what the real statistic of lives ended prematurely has been these recent years when there are more drivers spending 50-60 hours at work each week than spending 40-50? White collar workers get 35-40 hours. Why can’t we have THAT?
Wouldn’t we all love say, a 3x13 hour week (waiting time built in) - IF it is to be with no overtime ever? Far too many days of one’s lives are wasted at work - when the same flat pay is involved. Imagine how clearer the roads would be if we all commuted 3 shifts per week instead of 5 or 6?
We average about 48 to 52 hours a week.
We have four wagons and if one of us is off we cover the work best we can (obviously hours go up those weeks) the rest is sub’ed out.
We get overtime after 7.5 hours per day then time and a third for two hours then time and a half after that, if you do 12 hours or over you get £6 meal allowance per day.
Weekends are time and half for Saturday, double on Sunday, but it pretty rare to do weekends.
Sadly where I work there is scope to do as much o/t as you want. The problem being that most of the drivers are greedy idiots who brag about “only dropping a half hour off maximum hours all week” or getting 2 split breaks in to do 5 x 15’s in the week!
What happens is because of these muppets it then becomes the norm and the planners plan the days as such.
Personally I do 5 x 12 hour shifts as I think that is more than enough tbh. I no longer do Saturdays since I got planned for a job that would’ve seen me chasing my arse to get done in 15 hours, and that was after being away 5 nights! Enough is enough.
With 24/7 operations now the norm for a great deal of Companies they have done away with O/T payments but pay a higher basic rate to compensate.
The only way you get a higher rate is if its shift allowance payment ie 6/2 day rate 2/10 abit higher and 10/6 night rate of say time and quarter
There’s always a fair bit of o/t available at our place (Asda Falkirk) either in the form of full overtime shifts or simply volunteering for another run near the end of a shift.
On the other hand, local general hauliers like John Mitchell etc have drivers parked up after 8 or 9 hours & precious little in the way of overtime.
the maoster:
Personally I do 5 x 12 hour shifts as I think that is more than enough tbh. I no longer do Saturdays since I got planned for a job that would’ve seen me chasing my arse to get done in 15 hours, and that was after being away 5 nights! Enough is enough.
My boss probably only gets 4 Saturdays a year out of me as im of similar mindset, if I have been out all week doing 60+ hours I don’t think I need to come in Saturday to bump up my money. As a single guy where weekends are for hanging out with mates at the pub watching football I don’t need to work every hour to afford my lifestyle
We’re into our busy season so plenty of overtime if we want it. Guaranteed 10 hours at overtime rate per week too. Anything else above that is a bonus.
I don’t see it as overtime really.
I was asked going from a workshop environment if I wanted to drive as we needed another wagon.
I fully knew long days would be expected from me and nights out but it tempted me to wake my licence up and take the job.
The hours where never going to be my 37.5 a week and I accept that and the hours over that are extra to my income.
You could never run our job in our place on 7.5 hours a day, it just won’t happen.
eagerbeaver:
Personally, I think doing overtime is a bit sad.
(Unless you are in financial trouble or saving for something like the daughter’s wedding etc).
Horses for courses mate tbh. I’m a lorry driver, I’m comfortable with the fact that my profession will never bring me riches beyond the dreams of avarice. I do however believe in maximising my own personal earning potential via a vis overtime.
I was in a supermarket the other night and the fella in front of me had his card declined, he didn’t have enough cash to pay for all of his items and so had to pick and choose which ones he was going to keep and which ones he wasn’t. I’m not knocking him for that, life is hard and all about choices. My point being that because I do overtime I’ll never be that fella, if I want something I buy it regardless of the cost. The fact that I work lots of hours affords me that luxury.
I’m not saying for a minute that one way is better than the other, merely I know which way I prefer.
Our overtime is a bit all over the place. Feb was really snoozy, prob about 5 hours a week. Currently and until June that I know of, it’s bonkers busy.
Generally not much weekend work, though I’ve a crew loading first thing in France and heading straight back, so they are driving down today to beat the weekend ban. Hotel tonight and tomorrow and double pay for 12 hours tomorrow whilst off sightseeing/drinking beer in the sun. Sometimes I think I should drive for myself .
On busy weeks I can get billed for 84 hours, though that will mean a 24+ hour ferry crossing. And we pay breaks. Anything over 40 hours is overtime, paid time and a third.
As maoster says, horses for courses, people that want a varied overtime job come to us; 4 on, 4 off types go elsewhere.
the maoster:
Sadly where I work there is scope to do as much o/t as you want. The problem being that most of the drivers are greedy idiots who brag about “only dropping a half hour off maximum hours all week” or getting 2 split breaks in to do 5 x 15’s in the week!
What happens is because of these muppets it then becomes the norm and the planners plan the days as such.
Personally I do 5 x 12 hour shifts as I think that is more than enough tbh. I no longer do Saturdays since I got planned for a job that would’ve seen me chasing my arse to get done in 15 hours, and that was after being away 5 nights! Enough is enough.
The advantage of four shifts is that one can then do a 5th shift as entirely overtime.
If you do 5x10 or 6x8 though - the overtime will very much be on a daily basis, leading to the greater risk of running out of hours, should a combination of road delays and drivers hanging out for the overtime occur.
It’s also nice to be able to plan one’s life a bit better than being texted “come in 2 hours late/early tomorrow” when as a full timer, you would have thought that working like an agency bod is for the single driver.
I can’t plan any holidays in advance, because I don’t know what days/shifts I’ll be working that far ahead for example. If I book say, sunday-thursday off and by the time the week comes around I’m on a monday-friday duty - guess who then finds that the friday “isn’t available to be booked this late in the day”, and the holiday goes to pot. I would also have wasted a holiday taking my rest day off as well in this example.
I yearn for the job where I know exactly what shifts I can expect weeks in advance. Once on those hours, I prefer to be packed out with driving work rather than kicking my heels around the yard. The work can be as interesting and varied as TM wants of me - as long as I don’t keep having my shift start/finish times moved around from day to day, especially when there’s no overtime to be had out of it.
You’d hate our place Winseer. We have to put routings and crews in advance for about half the work, otherwise it’s chaotic. Nothing to do with us, the main customers are doing a lot of highly technical R&D between varying sites and builds between European sites, none of which are really what you would call a production line. It makes it ‘interesting’…
Come and work at my place Monday to Friday bank holidays off , start times vary but you can if you’ve got the hours left that day run for a bit in evening
Getting some OT in and OT is paid after 9.6 hours @11/2
.
to make these firms PAY. 