I took all the “all tipper drivers are maniacs” hype with a pinch of ■■■■■■…until recently. But where I live (and work from) there’s a huge new housing estate being started, which has meant hundreds of muck deliveries by 8-leggers, mainly of the blue Crazy Crasher Clan but also of those red’uns with Strong Arms.
Yes, they do drive like they’re Patrick McGoohan loaded or not, give it the old “Breaker-break” on their walkie-talkies, navigate the biggest roundabout on the edge of town several times in order to build up a convoy, etc, etc. But yesterday summed it up. Two blue’uns in a layby just outside of town, tipper muppet 1 standing uncomfortably close to the road chewing the fat with tipper muppet 2 who’s still in the driving seat. Suddenly, tipper muppet 2 opens his door, nearly smacking tipper muppet 1 in the face causing him to step back into the road just as I was passing (in a puddler that day, admittedly ). Using the medium of electric horn, I let them both know how disconcerted I was.
So there you go, 8-legger tipper drivers join the list.
I drove a tipper for 6 years and everything you have heard about tipper drivers is true, racing about to get that extra load in so you can earn an extra few quid in load bonus money Some companies seem to encourage the racing about mentality though by offering incentives. Not long after I started on the tippers, I tried to keep up with some of the other drivers until the rear wheels lifted off the ground on a roundabout I decided it was time to slow down
The thing I don’t understand is, if they are always is such a rush, why do the go around in groups of two or three. Surely while they are waiting for the colleague to be loaded or tipped, they could be five minutes down the road?
Or do they only have the balls to drive that fast if they have another tipper less than a metre off their bumper?
Because of them staying in a group they can write-off a weighbridge for what seems like an age.
At my work they are just paid a flat hourly rate (No deductions for break). As we are company men though we try our best to make the boss extra coin so he can keep raising that rate - And buy a new Range Rover as his near £100k one is back at the dealership after the engine went less then 12mths after purchase, he now has to drive a Discovery from the dealership. To be fair though he has also bought loads of new vehicles throughout the company.
Most of what is said is true, most of the tear arse hell driver ilk are actually working for big firms who push them to do silly numbers of loads so that the job pays. These firms move stuff for pocket money just to stop someone else getting the work.
One firm around here pay the drivers a day rate with fuel bonus (not kidding) and a general bonus which nobody knows how it’s worked out. On top of that the same firm have been known to dock part of the drivers’ wage if the required number of loads aren’t met.
Other firms are on hire to these mad arse outfits and are paid around £450/day per 8wheeler (we can turn over more than this just pottering about doing our own jobs), thus these subbies are either docked part of that if the number of loads aren’t reached or they’re just too thick to realise that the more you do on a day rate, the more your earnings go down and costs increase.
I’m on an hourly rate and nothing else (although I’m guaranteed 10 hours) so is it any wonder I get overtaken by other tippers?
dri-diddly-iver:
I often pull a bulker and rarely in a rush! Do I compare to these 8 legger dicks?
Judging by the postings, yes! If it tips then everyone gets tarred with the same brush no matter what the size of vehicle, just the same as every high sided vehicle seemingly gets stuck under a bridge or rolls on its side.
Contraflow:
I’m an undercover tipper driver, deep undercover, right in there amongst the cabbage.
So far, I’ve discovered that 70% of tipper drivers are prize cabbages and 20% are unresponsive potatoes.
There’s a minority of about 10% that might be capable of doing other forms of work, but this isn’t confirmed yet.
I’ll keep you updated.
I drove an 8 legger and pulled a bulker for best part of a year, moved skips before that. Pulling a fridge now so Does this make me one of the 10% or am I still banished to the allotment with the veg?
once you’ve been a tipper driver i’m afraid the stain will be on your character for ever.only a small step up from agency in the pecking order , if you are an agency tipper driver you’re doomed for all eternity .
Possibly one of the stupidest bits of driving I have seen in recent years was from a tipper. I was approaching a set of traffic lights, I always play this little game with traffic lights and try never to stop (and I don’t mean in a cycling sort of way) So anyway, I’m approaching these lights, gently coming down through the gears, hanging back from the queuing traffic, just trying to get my timing perfect so that I keep on rolling. Then all of a sudden WOOOSH a fully loaded tipper swerves in front of me with his brakes full on, car coming the other way has to brake to avoid a head on. I knew he was coming up behind but had not expected that level of idiocy. Its the sort of mentality normally associated with white vans. I then follows him for a couple of mile when he turns into his destination, what a risk for 5 seconds.
rigsby:
once you’ve been a tipper driver i’m afraid the stain will be on your character for ever.
I parked my mixer up for a week once to trial a small tipper, I drove like a complete ‘cant’ to keep up the tipper image, sliding down the cat & fiddle, going like ■■■■ that fast down the M56 i even scared myself (pre limiter truck ), only did it for a week to see if i could make it pay, i gave them the keys back.
I only did ok because they foooked my rate up and paid me 4 times the rate for 3 days until they realised
I had hoped the stain had worn away now but i still consider getting another small tipper
Who ever said on here tippers go around in packs is right ,
I’ve just delivered to pallets to a network rail site in Eastleigh and 6 arrived at once all from different firms as well it must be a natural flocking instinct lol
To be honest in 20+ years of tipper driving (both six and eights) I rarely encountered driving as described on here. I guess it will be mostly firms who shift large quantities of stone etc and the drivers have a set day to keep to? Years ago Allinsons of Stockport were like that, you dreaded meeting them on Long Hill or the Cat and Fiddle in the morning! Folk reckoned that Gardner’s didn’t go well, those lads proved the opposite of that theory as Rigsby will agree! Apart from the lads running stone/dust to fixed plant jobs we only worked one load at a time and until we returned to the quarry usually had no idea where we were being sent next, sometimes up to the tarmac plant for an hour or mores wait in a queue and then at 2pm setting off for the A46 near Lincoln to join the same queue of trucks waiting to tip!
rigsby:
once you’ve been a tipper driver i’m afraid the stain will be on your character for ever.only a small step up from agency in the pecking order , if you are an agency tipper driver you’re doomed for all eternity .
Ahh darn it! Lucky for me I guess that I wasn’t an agency tipper drive. Probably should have been as they were the ones who got all the new gear over the actual workforce who are out all week in hand me downs!!!
Still, at least I ain’t at the bottom! Can only get better eh!
Speaking of stains, I’d better go say hello to the misses!
In the weighbridge office window at Smiths stone pit at Ardley, they’ve put a sign up saying “STOP HERE PLEASE” with a big arrow on it. Weighbridge lady reckons that (particularly but not exclusively) flip flops have stopped before the weighbridge, half on it and half off it. It’s big enough for an artic, it’s not exactly one of those little old Avery plate weighbridges where you weighed the front half then the rear half ffs.
How can people be so thick that they don’t know how to park on a weighbridge?
). Using the medium of electric horn, I let them both know how disconcerted I was.
Some companies seem to encourage the racing about mentality though by offering incentives. Not long after I started on the tippers, I tried to keep up with some of the other drivers until the rear wheels lifted off the ground on a roundabout I decided it was time to slow down 
