hi guys
couple of quick questions for any trade platers out there.
do you find getting a lift easy or is it a pain ?
what are the average wages ?
ive seen the old post about uniloads and i just want a more upto date answer.
many thanks guys
used to do it years ago for an independant. he did,nt pay for any travelling unless he needed you somewhere fast, in which case he would pay for whatever got you there fastest, plane,train coach or hire car, or if he had another driver delivering somewhere on the way.
as for hitching, i always got to where i wanted to get to. make sure you,ve got company credit card in case you get really stuck.
dont get a lift anywhere if its going to be dark when you get there unless you are picking up/dropping of or are stopping the night, its a ■■■■■ to get a hitch in the night.(i,m a poet and i did,nt know it !)
dont fall asleep on the trains, i had a nasty experience once involving manchester, newport and swansea ( one was the place i came from and one was the place i wanted to go to, guess what the other place was)
i really enjoyed it, good luck
Been there done it. If you have a plate, you normally get picked up in 20 minutes (Average wait.) The garages you deliver to, generally offer you a lift to a station or near a major road junction to get you on your way. I found Joe public to be the best bet as a lot of truckers can’t carry passengers now. Here’s a big surprise…Women stopped quite a few times! 
Always hang onto the car if you’re there after closing. You’ll have somewhere to stay then! 
I used to work for Uniloads delivering trucks out all week tramping and sleeping in the trucks.
Sometimes you did not have a sleeper cab and you ended up sleeping across the seats even in bin waggons.
If you paid for bed and breakfast that was your night out money down the drain.
They paid you a small amount of hitching money between jobs but you needed to save this as it was part of your earnings.
You could hitch a hundred miles to a job and jump in a taxi for the last five miles if you needed to get somewhere before it closed and that was your hitching money gone.
I enjoyed the job but the money was rubbish ,it looked good but you did a lot of hours unpaid and when you worked it out you would be lucky if you where on minimum pay.
Uniloads have to be the worst company I have ever worked for and would recommend that you go for a small independant company if you want to try tradeplating.
I think they now employ a lot of Polish drivers and run them around in a van.I have nothing against the Polish but when a company has to rely on the Polish its usualy because they are crap and nobody wants to work for them.
They had a very high turnover of drivers and many walked off the job within the week.Thye standardof drivers was very low (they would take anybody on as they were desperate) with many brand new vehicles being damaged.
I have had days when I would jump out of a vehicle and another would stop without me trying to get a lift because they have seen my tradeplates and days where I have stood for hours.
It was an interesting job and you got to drive all sorts of interesting vehicles and met many interesting people that gave you lifts.
Over fifty percent of my lifts were trucks and the rest cars and vans.
I could write a book on the people that gave me a lift amongst them being some total weirdos !
If you have a HGV licence you would be better off getting a proper driving jod even if it is through an agency.
Tradeplating apparently paid very well in the 70’s and early 80’s but not any more and it is not fun in winter.
hope this helps…Andrew
Bigvern & nav’s posts are spot on. As you’ll have picked up if you read the old threads I too worked for Luniloads in the 90’s.
It can be very interesting, no 2 days are the same. As for how long to get a lift - how long is a piece of string? Very much depends where you are. Can be 30 seconds, can be an hour an a half. Don’t stand where the traffic is fast moving and/or has nowhere to stop. Don’t stand at a layby but 100 or 200 yds before it to give people time to react. Don’t stand with your back to the sun or wearing sunglasses, people like to be able to see your face.
Be careful with lifts with local car drivers, they will take short cuts across country then kick you out in the middle of nowhere where there is very little traffic. (A black hole I used to call it).
It is usually much more difficult to get the last 5 miles than from one end of the country to the other.
Unfortunate now so many company hgv drivers not allowed to pick up.
If you stick at it for a decent while you will collect a lot of contacts. i.e. Drivers who do regular night trunks and will always be happy to give you a ride. The job must be much easier now everyone has mobile phones.
This type of work is terrific for new drivers as you will get a great a variety of manufacturers, gearboxes, axle layouts and body types. Yes its not great pay, but do this for a year and it will be a good rung up the ladder.
Thanks everyone. It’s an independent I’m looking at. They do pay a little inbetween jobs. I’m class2 and got quite a bit of experience and a full time job but works gone dead so hardly any overtime so I’m looking for alternatives. Once again thanks for taking the time to reply.
Work out the average hourly rate from start to finish and you will probably find like another on this site did some time ago that it worked out to about half the minimum wage rate
I remember when I went for the interview. The guy even said to me…“You’ll never get rich doing this!”
Well I’ve been in for a chat with them. They seem right enough. Guaranteed minimum plus “expenses” bit less than I’m used to. Just can’t decide about the hitching. Not sure if it me or not. If it was just me I’d be on it lme a cat on a kipper but I’ve got a family to think of.
You won’t be home much to be fair.
I didn’t do too badly out of them. I only worked a few days a week. Back then they paid a night out allowance if you slept in the vehicle OR they would pay for accommodation. They also paid a small hitching allowance OR would pay for a train & taxi used if it was necessary.
Back then trade plate movements of used vehicles was seen as a grey area re tachograph use and nobody bothered so you could get some serious miles in, in a day if the jobs worked out right. I think tachos now have to be used and drivers hours rules abided by.
This seems to be developing into another Uniloads thread… it didn’t start out that way. 