I’ve been offered an interview with a Manchester company who specialise in LGV delivery work, but was wondering what the work is actually like.
I was told that “most of our drivers take home £400 p/week” - is this realistic?
I don’t mind doing some hitching but i imagine this would get old quickly. The advantage for a new driver is that you would get to drive a large array of different trucks which would be great for experience.
The disadvantage is that there is no basic salary, it’s all done on how much you deliver. This really puts me off as I can see you having dead weeks (around christmas etc) when you might earn nothing.
I was interviewed many years ago for a job at Uniloads, just after I passed my lgv test. I went to start work on a Monday morning and after sitting around for nearly 2 hours, was told I did not have enough experience. Needless to say, I sent a letter to claim expenses etc, and was given compensation for my troubles. A couple of months later, I was going to park my Scania 142 on the office forecourt, but did not get the chance, because I started driving over the water instead. Liz
I’m not sure i can be arsed with this really - the company isn’t uniloads so may be better that described in those linked topics, but although i used to hitch everywhere when i was a yoof, i can’t see it being much fun these days.
I need something that I know will cover the mortgage each month, not something based purely on commission.
When I first passed my Class 2 I came across Uniloads advertising, and did a good search on here and heard nothing but bad stuff about them, one person said it was a workable job but he hated it on the whole, imagine most trade delivery companies run similar setups. Problem with hitching is it’s nearly every companies policy not to allow passengers at all, let alone hitch hikers. And imagine standing at the side of the road for hours on end in the freezing cold/rain just trying to get a lift home, really is a dogs bottom job.
I went for a (very) informal interview with them around 6 months ago. came across as a great bunch of guys. Unfortunately the pay is what he said, you are paid by the job + expenses… no guarenteed weekly wage.
To be fair to them they did point out all the bad bits & said it was a job that was not for everyone… at the time I was working with a guy who had done 18 months on this kind of work & the advice he gave me + everything else made it a no-no!
Basically hitching is where you boost your wages by saving your expenses, if anything goes wrong (& it does) your whole weeks hitching can be blown on one train ticket home!!!
Worked for this cowboy outfit , at the time i had no experience so i used them in way , joined at the worst time (winter ) had a good couple of weeks moneywise then the jobs started to dry up .Mickey mouse outfit also sent me to the wrong places , said it was 20 days holiday ,turned out to be 12 !The novelty of seeing the country turned sour when you are left in the middle of nowhere , and nowhere to sleep . Turnover is drivers is high , they treat the polish drivers worse than british but they dont have the bottle to say anything , only hope that has changed as i met soome good lads both english and european, how they stay in business is get paid well by the customer and rip off the drivers
unfortunately I worked for this outfit, Uniloads now rebranded to V moves
Expect 15 to 18 hour days, 75 to 125 mile hitches, there seemed to be no records kept of driving hours,some drivers driving digital trucks without using cards! Tachos flying out the window in order to continue to drive next job.
Perhaps VOSA should look at their records, they need bringing into line.
