Hi there,
As some of you will know i have recently passed my class 2 and as there are quite a few quarrys round my neck of the woods i am considering looking for work as a tipper driver. I have no experiance in this field and would appreciate if any tipper drivers could give info on the job 
SCANTHEMAN
scantheman:
Hi there,As some of you will know i have recently passed my class 2 and as there are quite a few quarrys round my neck of the woods i am considering looking for work as a tipper driver. I have no experiance in this field and would appreciate if any tipper drivers could give info on the job
SCANTHEMAN
Non-stop arse chasing . You’ll be expected to do 13,478 runs per day for £200 per week 
That bad eh Rob 
…anything over 13,000 runs a day and they can forget it 
.
Cheers mate 
I thought you’d be on milage on that rather than salaried Rob, with that amount of runs you ought to be coining it (sorry Scan). If you want to go into that field, then have a look for something paid on hours rather than milage. Personally I think it’s a dirty, dangerous job and I wouldn’t want to do it - so speaks a man who’s done “the dust” for some time on agency work, but if you do and get something good, then good luck to you 
.
Hi M8,
Well, going against the grain, I always loved tipper work
My first shock to the system was in the early 80’s when I was “promoted” to an 8 wheeler from my little 7.5 tonner … I LOVED IT
In my own personal opinion…
Tipper drivers stick together like glue, especially on quarry type work. Get stuck at 5pm on a friday night & even the owner drivers will come & help.
They rarely back-stab, but WILL overtake if yer not quick enough
It is a tear along type of job, but if it’s a choice between knocking up the miles in 11 hours or sitting in the waiting room of an RDC, guess which I prefer 
Most of the VERY local work can be hard graft, constantly in & out of the cab & chasing non stop, i preferred the medium range local work, probably 4 or 5 loads a day with a 35 - 40 mile radius. Rates are usually low for the operator & wages no doubt reflect this but if it’s quarry work you will be home every night & it’s pretty much a 6-5 job
One last thing & if you ignore everything else I say, read this 10 times & never forget it …
NEVER go off the hard stuff if YOU don’t think it’s solid (they tells lots of lies)
NEVER tip if you’re not 95% LEVEL !!! More so with an 8 wheeler
I always found a good guide to safe or not was to push the body up one ram & see how far off it is, many times I have bottled out, dropped it & tipped again, but never turned one over so it works for me
If it’s artic tipping work, be even more certain you are level AND straight (unit @ 45 degrees & the front of the trailer has no solid laterla support. Id it’s a STAS trailer, watch it, I know of 2 or 3 very experienced tipper guys that have sent these over ■■?
Hope my ramblings help a bit 
I have no experiance in this field and would appreciate if any tipper drivers could give info on the job
its alright mate you don’t need experiance,going by the way they drive.
as long as you can cut people up and turn without using the indicators( provided you can see the dam things) you’ll be fine and will be fully qualified
Toytown:
Hi M8,Well, going against the grain, I always loved tipper work
My first shock to the system was in the early 80’s when I was “promoted” to an 8 wheeler from my little 7.5 tonner … I LOVED IT
In my own personal opinion…
Tipper drivers stick together like glue, especially on quarry type work. Get stuck at 5pm on a friday night & even the owner drivers will come & help.
They rarely back-stab, but WILL overtake if yer not quick enough
It is a tear along type of job, but if it’s a choice between knocking up the miles in 11 hours or sitting in the waiting room of an RDC, guess which I prefer
Most of the VERY local work can be hard graft, constantly in & out of the cab & chasing non stop, i preferred the medium range local work, probably 4 or 5 loads a day with a 35 - 40 mile radius. Rates are usually low for the operator & wages no doubt reflect this but if it’s quarry work you will be home every night & it’s pretty much a 6-5 job
One last thing & if you ignore everything else I say, read this 10 times & never forget it …
NEVER go off the hard stuff if YOU don’t think it’s solid (they tells lots of lies)
NEVER tip if you’re not 95% LEVEL !!! More so with an 8 wheeler
I always found a good guide to safe or not was to push the body up one ram & see how far off it is, many times I have bottled out, dropped it & tipped again, but never turned one over so it works for me
If it’s artic tipping work, be even more certain you are level AND straight (unit @ 45 degrees & the front of the trailer has no solid laterla support. Id it’s a STAS trailer, watch it, I know of 2 or 3 very experienced tipper guys that have sent these over ■■?
Hope my ramblings help a bit
bloody good advice… which the was asking for…
Kitkat, next time u have a day of, come to Lincoln and have a day out with me,i drive a tipper, i do what i can do, i have clean lights,do not cut other drivers up.
As i have said before ever firm has its prats who have to be better than you.
Scantheman, go for hourly paid and like us have 30 mins breakfast and 45 mins dinner,its when u run with other firms it can be a pain, so just let them in front and let them get on with it as u r still not far behind them at end of day.
If you are not happy with the tip,dont tip it to please the site lads as they can move it with the JCB, they normally ok with you if you say your not happy.
Always be nice to the shovel driver as the can be a good friend when you get stuck and remember to putt diff locks on a wet site and put window up and fan on,when on waste tip or site on hot day, all the best.
Well nice to be home 2night,hopefully find a nice pub in Wakefield 2morrow night.
I’m actually demoing a new Dennison “sliding bogie” tipping trailer tomorrow at a local Tarmac quarry to see if it will work on sites or not,I’m looking at a contract haulier position with them.I’m told that an 8 wheeler goes over at 7 on the national tip test and this artic trailer didn’t go over until 8.5 due to its wider chassis and six axles!!! It will also lift both the front and middle axles to put more weight on the kingpin to give you more grip on a site and will get into places that an 8 wheeler driver can dream about!! And best of all its got a 29 ton payload with full Tarmac spec.
shane, lincs:
Kitkat, next time u have a day of, come to Lincoln and have a day out with me,i drive a tipper, i do what i can do, i have clean lights,do not cut other drivers up.
As i have said before ever firm has its prats who have to be better than you.
Scantheman, go for hourly paid and like us have 30 mins breakfast and 45 mins dinner,its when u run with other firms it can be a pain, so just let them in front and let them get on with it as u r still not far behind them at end of day.
If you are not happy with the tip,dont tip it to please the site lads as they can move it with the JCB, they normally ok with you if you say your not happy.
Always be nice to the shovel driver as the can be a good friend when you get stuck and remember to putt diff locks on a wet site and put window up and fan on,when on waste tip or site on hot day, all the best.
Well nice to be home 2night,hopefully find a nice pub in Wakefield 2morrow night.
well shane thanks for the offer but no thanks,you must be a 1st if your the perfect tipper driver,good on you,is there any chance that you can fax the picture to the tipper drivers up here so as they know what a pair of clean tipper lights look like
Toytown`s advice is good, and only merits repeating in passing.
Always ensure that the ground is level before you tip. If necessary, move the truck, even if this is not the customer`s preferred location for the tip.
If there is a dispute between yourself and the customer as to where to tip then remember that THE FINAL SAY IS YOURS.
Do not tip anywhere near overhead power lines. Do not bring the trailer body within 10 feet of them- electricity can arc, and kill.
Watch the trailer all the way up. If anything looks wrong, abort the tip.
A warning story from the time when I worked on bulk tippers for Romac.
I loaded animal skins in Belgium in mid-winter, and took them to Derbyshire.
I arrived, and started to lift the trailer. The skins had frozen solid overnight. I didn`t know this. The skins slid from the trailer in one solid lump. This pushed down the rear end of the trailer and thus lifted the drive axle clean off the ground. (The drive axle was the only one on which the handbrake operated)
The truck shot forward, with me standing beside it. It wrote off four cars in the customer`s car park which was just in front of where I was tipping.
Ooops
Moral of the story- drop the red line if you have any doubt about the load moving the vehicle.
Vince
Vince:
I loaded animal skins in Belgium in mid-winter, and took them to Derbyshire.I arrived, and started to lift the trailer. The skins had frozen solid overnight. I didn`t know this. The skins slid from the trailer in one solid lump. This pushed down the rear end of the trailer and thus lifted the drive axle clean off the ground. (The drive axle was the only one on which the handbrake operated)
The truck shot forward, with me standing beside it. It wrote off four cars in the customer`s car park which was just in front of where I was tipping.
Ooops
Moral of the story- drop the red line if you have any doubt about the load moving the vehicle.
Vince
Crikey . Now that’s something I would never have thought of myself. One has learnt something new today already
Loads can freeze, It happened to me once at Stocksbridge , i had a load of swarf and tube ends in the bucket, had to stay overnight and it was damned cold, so cold in fact I spent the night walking about to keep warm, no night heaters then. In the morning I could see after a whlie the load wernt going anywhere after a couple of rams up. It was so solid that we had to bet steam pipes and thaw the load. I can tell you, if id have took her up all the way it could have been disaster.
Another thing, clean the front of the bucket out, specially on artics if your on clay, or spoil ect, ive seen em go over when theres been a lump of stuff build up and the blokes racing off with the body up (common on price jobs) you hit a bit of a bump, and its like a pendulum!
Overhead power lines are a major consideration always look up before you start to raise the body and if you should forget and hit one and it starts sparking and arcing DON’T panic DON’T jump out of the cab just as calmly as you can lower the body and drive away if the body won’t come down just drive away slowly if you jump out you will become part of the circuit and what becomes of you depends on the current .
I frequently drove from the dump spot to near the quarry exit with the body up, in order to shift gooey mess from the back, especially around the tailgate. But I always took it gently. Low range all the way, and if the bumps were uncomfortable, then I slowed down. Always ensure your back end is secured before loading or going on the public roads. If you are even vaguely uncertain about the spot where you are unloading, then get someone you trust to watch your wheels for you. If one lifts, then drop your body sharpish.
Carry a crowbar or the like for shifting rubble that gets stuck between twin-wheels. Check your tyre-tread and side walls daily.
Sheet any load which you will carry on a motorway, other loads you can check before deciding if it needs a sheet. Anything loose you should sheet. If you have an auto sheeter, then sheet everything except ■■■■■■■■. ■■■■■■■■ can tear up many of the lighter netting sheets you often see on auto sheeters.
Take it very easy on roundabouts and cambers, as a loose load can often shift, or have a badly positioned centre of gravity.
Always carry a set of good gloves, and use them when opening and closing the tailgate. If earth etc has stuck round the rim of the body, scrape it off or you will have a devil’s own job closing the back up.
ALWAYS ensure the tailgate is closed and secured with it’s locking ring.
Try and tip up or down a slope, never across it.
i have been driving 8 wheel tippers for only four months as i came of artics and i find the job totaly different.
i think it is a good job but as i am still a new commer to it time will tell i find the best way to find things out about tippers is to ask drivers who have been doing it.
if i am not sure about tipping in certain tips i watch other drivers and learn from them.
good luck hope you enjoy it as much as i am but time will tell.
i would like to get on to bulk tippers if jobs come up in my area.