Professor:
I drag ferry trls round all week I like the job I drive a 13 plate lorry which will be paid for by the end of the year my wife has a 63 plate car paid for and we own our own house and the only money I owe is a weeks derv bill so tell me how the job is a waste of time and all this has been achieved by pulling ferry trls
Forgive me for not believing you.
What part do you not believe? I suppose you could argue that he doesn’t drive a 13 plate lorry, but only because it has a personalised plate. It is a 2013 model lorry though.
What is the point of posting on this part of the forum to state that an OO cannot earn a reasonable living pulling ferry trailers, then when your point is addressed by somebody
who does pull ferry trailers, calling him a liar?
I have seen that Daf before pulling a blue Irf trailer she looks stunning fair play
Professor:
I drag ferry trls round all week I like the job I drive a 13 plate lorry which will be paid for by the end of the year my wife has a 63 plate car paid for and we own our own house and the only money I owe is a weeks derv bill so tell me how the job is a waste of time and all this has been achieved by pulling ferry trls
Forgive me for not believing you.
What part do you not believe? I suppose you could argue that he doesn’t drive a 13 plate lorry, but only because it has a personalised plate. It is a 2013 model lorry though.
What is the point of posting on this part of the forum to state that an OO cannot earn a reasonable living pulling ferry trailers, then when your point is addressed by somebody who does pull ferry trailers, calling him a liar?
Because I don’t think he’s telling it how it really is and is being somewhat economical with the truth. If pulling ferry trailers around was as lucrative as he makes it out to be then everyone would be doing it and they’re not, simply because by and large it pays crap. Anyway having read his other posts it transpires that he lives a very frugal lifestyle which is likely to be more the reason why he’s running a new truck and car rather than being funded from the pittance income that dragging ferry trailers around provides.
Professor:
I drag ferry trls round all week I like the job I drive a 13 plate lorry which will be paid for by the end of the year my wife has a 63 plate car paid for and we own our own house and the only money I owe is a weeks derv bill so tell me how the job is a waste of time and all this has been achieved by pulling ferry trls
Forgive me for not believing you.
What part do you not believe? I suppose you could argue that he doesn’t drive a 13 plate lorry, but only because it has a personalised plate. It is a 2013 model lorry though.
What is the point of posting on this part of the forum to state that an OO cannot earn a reasonable living pulling ferry trailers, then when your point is addressed by somebody who does pull ferry trailers, calling him a liar?
Because I don’t think he’s telling it how it really is and is being somewhat economical with the truth. If pulling ferry trailers around was as lucrative as he makes it out to be then everyone would be doing it and they’re not, simply because by and large it pays crap. Anyway having read his other posts it transpires that he lives a very frugal lifestyle which is likely to be more the reason why he’s running a new truck and car rather than being funded from the pittance income that dragging ferry trailers around provides.
Spot on, that & he’s first
In the Q & knows the job inside out & is pals with the planners. Simples. He’s a better business man than me that’s for sure.
Professor:
Cliffystephens my pile is somewhat short of 10 ft lol and newmercman you are spot on. I have always been good with money and never wasted it I put this down to when I was a kid of 12 every body in my class was getting new bikes and like the rest I wanted one my dad bought me one it cost £65 a really smart ten gear racer but he made me buy it back at £1.20 a week and I was only earning £1.40 at the time doing paperounds,at the time I thought he was mean but it was the best thing he ever done for me as it taught be the value of money and because I had bought it I looked after it very well and when I was 16 and wanted a moped I was able to sell it for £65 as it was in so good a condition. I have been working since the age of 12 and been lucky and never been out of work I do a full week every week and always run my time out like tonight I ran 40mins past my house but it will make all the difference with tomorrow’s job as now I will be able to turn the job round I am on an ind est as I hate paying parking it’s the little things like this which all add up and makes the difference of a profit or not, I know my English and grammar is crap but the wife handles all the paperwork but I can handle a calculator and know wether it’s worth doing the job or not.
That’s the difference see,
I’ve always spunked my money up the wall before I’ve earned it. I know that’s foolish & I am changing as I get older but it’s a very tough lesson that if you have from day one is more important to begin with than knowing where everyone loads from.
Prof is the exception to the rule though, you need to be tighter than a nuns chuff unless & even if you are coining him rather than spunking it on new v8’s
newmercman:
There’s one big factor in being successful as an O/D on traction work and that is luck.
The kind of luck you make yourself. It’s fairly simple to make too, all you need to do is be a generally pleasant person, not getting up people’s noses and being a typical whinging lorry driver, being punctual and informing customer and shipper of any delays and generally being a nice bloke.
You can see examples of both sides of this at any firm. There will be drivers or O/D’s that drive a nice lorry/car, they live in a nice area, dress smartly etc and then you have the drivers that run around in an old banger, look like they’ve slept in a ditch, never got any money for a night out or breakfast, don’t turn up for work because their 500quid car has broken down etc.
Both kinds do the same job, yet one has a much better
way of doing it than the other.
True dat. Although can I be all that & just scruffy?
bazstan009:
Seems to me that there is a bit of bitterness aimed at owner drivers that are feeding at the shallow end, if you are doing better good luck to you but why the need to slag off those doing what they do.
Bitterness? No. Annoyance? Yes, because these people dragging trailers around for peanuts because “it’s a way of life/there’s more to life than money” can be found posting in other threads about how drivers should go on strike for better pay rates and conditions, completely missing the irony of what they’re saying. Working for such abysmal rates indirectly affects everyone else further down the food chain but so long as they have their 2 kelsa bars, some frillies and their name on the door then none of that matters.
Yes. Not so much that but exasperation that if they aren’t getting the shilling & these firms are feeding off them that they can’t be arsed getting on the phone or jumping in the car and putting the effort in to get better paying work, there is a risk attached to this break out so I appreciate it’s not for everyone but take a cucking run at him FFS.
I am at a loss how to reply really ever since I have been driving that includes working for people as well as being an od people have knocked traction rates they are what they are and that is it, things have changed in Europe and we are all pitting against the Eastern Europeans which keeps the rates down.in our own country most of the good contracts are taken up by the big players which pay no more than the dock work if I was to get my own trl and try and find some work how much of a service could just one man provide plus I could have the work taken of me by a big player and I am left with a trl standing I do not want to get any bigger or employ anybody as it is if things get so bad I can just sell the unit and walk away.So as said before before I get knocked down what I do suits me and my family and the day it does not I will stop .As for a strike for better conditions it sounds a good idea but in all of my 30 yrs of driving I have found drivers or company’s rarely stick together for the common goal
Professor:
I am at a loss how to reply really ever since I have been driving that includes working for people as well as being an od people have knocked traction rates they are what they are and that is it, things have changed in Europe and we are all pitting against the Eastern Europeans which keeps the rates down.in our own country most of the good contracts are taken up by the big players which pay no more than the dock work if I was to get my own trl and try and find some work how much of a service could just one man provide plus I could have the work taken of me by a big player and I am left with a trl standing I do not want to get any bigger or employ anybody as it is if things get so bad I can just sell the unit and walk away.So as said before before I get knocked down what I do suits me and my family and the day it does not I will stop .As for a strike for better conditions it sounds a good idea but in all of my 30 yrs of driving I have found drivers or company’s rarely stick together for the common goal
Excellent post!!
I could not have put my own experiences and views better
After thinking for a while I will throw another few things in. I know that the company I pull for are making a lot more out of it then me but they are taking more risk I know for a fact that over the years they have taken some really big hits by people going bust on them and yet not once have they ever missed a payment to me or any one else pulling for them which I think is a credit to them also they always pay on time every time without fail it might be a day late on a bank holiday so for me I would sooner have less and get payed then promised the earth and get nothing.
One last thought if traction is such a waste of time why have so many firms been doing dock work for years and years and still keep doing it surely if it was so bad they would have gone bust or just packed up I have also seen Pollocks pulling Mamout trls with new units now I am sure a firm of that size and there own work would have done the costings and if it was not worth it would not be doing it
The point is that there will always be folk venturing onto this part of the forum who haven’t got a pot to ■■■■ in, who wish to tell a bloke who owns a near-new truck where he is going wrong. It’s called “RobK syndrome”.
I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. Just keep calm and carry on.
I don’t think I will bother kindle as it might hurt lol I still remember that night in the pub when we all went down for a meal just before Christmas must have been about 8 of us one of the best nights out I have had in Felixstowe and I was talking to you about buying my last motor how the years have moved on
Professor:
After thinking for a while I will throw another few things in. I know that the company I pull for are making a lot more out of it then me but they are taking more risk I know for a fact that over the years they have taken some really big hits by people going bust on them and yet not once have they ever missed a payment to me or any one else pulling for them which I think is a credit to them also they always pay on time every time without fail it might be a day late on a bank holiday so for me I would sooner have less and get payed then promised the earth and get nothing.
One last thought if traction is such a waste of time why have so many firms been doing dock work for years and years and still keep doing it surely if it was so bad they would have gone bust or just packed up I have also seen Pollocks pulling Mamout trls with new units now I am sure a firm of that size and there own work would have done the costings and if it was not worth it would not be doing it
Pollocks has probly negotiated a higher rate with Mamout or maybe they just quiet till the beef dripping starts again.
Maybe they back load empty Trls on their own ticket either above or below the radar.
My previous post wasn’t aimed at you prof about breaking out as you’re sorted & I’d think you were nuts to leave for better paying work but as for the other 90%………
No offence taken what so ever silver-suffer you have your views and I mine and that is what makes the world goes round.A lot what you said is true about people wasting there time you have to be a certain type of person to make it work as I think I said in previous posts I have had the chance to expand but after doing the costings although I would have made money on paper in my eyes the extra grief was just not worth it.All I ever wanted since being a kid was my own unit on tilts at the time it was going to be a ford transcontinental .I have reached my goal I have a unit I enjoy driving and a job I like doing most of the time as we all have bad days I know the hours are long but I have been doing the job for a long while now and too set in my ways to change plus it pays the bills so for them reasons it’s not a waste of time to me
It’s true about the extra grief just read Matt XF’s post about his driver rolling his truck, not as bad as that most times but blokes can be very, very hard work!
