I’m led to understand that the vast majority of Trampers are on-duty during the daytime, and are parked up asleep in laybys at night.
This means they are getting paid day rate plus night out money, rather than a higher night rate.
The takehome pay for the average tramper therefore - will be somewhere between “Early Doors” drivers and “Night Shift” drivers. I’m not sure if it closely corresponds to “Lates” rather than “Nights” though.
I enquired about a tramper’s job @ Langdons, and got told it was £2500 per year less than what the monday-friday overnight trunkers got. I guess that is a pretty standard correlation then.
If you’re after the money, and are already prepared to “Not be home that night” - then one might as well go for a Night Trunker’s job:-
More Money
Home between shifts
…Plus of course the Night Drivers “perk” - that you’re actually getting paid whilst asleep on your bunk, parked up in a layby (…if you can squeeze in between the foreign trucks, stobarts, downtons, & Maritime wagons!)
Once you’ve got that, the next quest - is to get a 4 day week, or in the case of my own personal ambition - to get a working week of 3x15 hour shifts - and that’s it for £600pw takehome.
Not quite there yet, doing on average 4 shifts of average 11 hours for £600 gross.
CookieMonster:
The main benefits of tramping aren’t really the extra few quid in your pocket. In most cases, hourly rates are about the same so the only difference is your night out money.
Instead, the main benefits of tramping are not having to commute to work every day, which can save a fair bit of money if you do a decent commute, not to mention the time spent in your car stuck in traffic. The second benefit is not having to stress or rush to get back to the yard, as you know you’re able to just park up and call it a night when you want. The main benefit I found though was the extra sleep! Instead of waking up at 04.30 to be in work for 6, on a night out I could wake up at 05.45.
As long as you park somewhere with or near basic facilities then tramping can actually be a great way to work.
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Pretty much my thoughts. If you’re on £12-£15 per hour you’re doing ok. The thing with tramping though, if the wheels aren’t turning, you’re not earning. So you may as well max your hours out because you’re not rushing to get home.
Juddian:
A quoted wage here means the square root of bugger all, unless the person quoting also says how many hours and/or premium hours and days they are at work for that pay and what exactly that work consists of.
This. My lad takes home £600 a week but he’s running max hours and that includes his night out money. I take home £500 a week doing 50hrs and home every day.
I thought you did you’re back in and didn’t
Know if you’d drive again !!!
CookieMonster:
The main benefits of tramping aren’t really the extra few quid in your pocket. In most cases, hourly rates are about the same so the only difference is your night out money.
Instead, the main benefits of tramping are not having to commute to work every day, which can save a fair bit of money if you do a decent commute, not to mention the time spent in your car stuck in traffic. The second benefit is not having to stress or rush to get back to the yard, as you know you’re able to just park up and call it a night when you want. The main benefit I found though was the extra sleep! Instead of waking up at 04.30 to be in work for 6, on a night out I could wake up at 05.45.
As long as you park somewhere with or near basic facilities then tramping can actually be a great way to work.
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Pretty much my thoughts. If you’re on £12-£15 per hour you’re doing ok. The thing with tramping though, if the wheels aren’t turning, you’re not earning. So you may as well max your hours out because you’re not rushing to get home.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1
same as for trip money work.
you get plenty of delays in your normal working week to be worried about 9 or 11 hours imposed rest.
hook er up and just crack on and work to suit your own wishes.
work when it suits you flat out and kip when you fancy stopping.
beast in for an extra few hours and make the ferry so you get a good nights kip and still be making top dollar.
the work wouldnt suit limpers and plobbers but theres still a degree of satisfaction of cracking on and working to suit yourself.
CookieMonster:
The main benefits of tramping aren’t really the extra few quid in your pocket. In most cases, hourly rates are about the same so the only difference is your night out money.
Instead, the main benefits of tramping are not having to commute to work every day, which can save a fair bit of money if you do a decent commute, not to mention the time spent in your car stuck in traffic. The second benefit is not having to stress or rush to get back to the yard, as you know you’re able to just park up and call it a night when you want. The main benefit I found though was the extra sleep! Instead of waking up at 04.30 to be in work for 6, on a night out I could wake up at 05.45.
As long as you park somewhere with or near basic facilities then tramping can actually be a great way to work.
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
This and it increases your area to seek employment, only having to drive to ‘work’ once a week or fortnight or month
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
Conor:
I take home £500 a week doing 50hrs and home every day.
So why are you now working as a Truck driver again?
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
Conor:
I take home £500 a week doing 50hrs and home every day.
So why are you now working as a Truck driver again?
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
Conor:
I take home £500 a week doing 50hrs and home every day.
So why are you now working as a Truck driver again?
Conor:
I take home £500 a week doing 50hrs and home every day.
So why are you now working as a Truck driver again?
[/quote]
I wondered that as well …
[/quote]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1
job satisfaction…its quite a challance going to lockerbie and back on a night trunk…theres a similar sense of achievement .somewhat akin to outback / ice road truckers when your crossing the scotland border at gretna on the way home again every night
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
I can earn about £600 a week not tramping. PAYE (Possibly more but I don’t want to do ADR or Argos in my area)
How much do you make tramping on average?
I think I could stomach tramping for £700+ a week. but that would probably be the bare minimum. Is that easily attainable?
Live in Essex.
You don’t have to give out company names as this is just something I wanna do for 3 - 4 months next year. Just curious atm.
hi Adam,
I have just started in March this year. My experience so far is more or less this:
£ 26 per night out are £ 104 a week and £ 130 the other one (I am trying to do a sat or sun every 2), but my cab has a fridge and I have invested ££ for an inverter and a microwave, so I go shopping and spend no more than £20-25 for all the week. If I have to sleep at the services I’ll get a voucher of £10 for just £1.50 (the ££ spent for the night out will be put in my expenses claim). If I use SNAP truck stops it’s my choice to spend my ££ for a voucher or not, it really depends of the offer, the food quality and the chance to avoid the usual crap from my microwave
minimum hours guaranteed and after those I’ll get paid same rate. considering maximum 71 hours (15+15+15+13+13) and the fact my first brake is not paid (so a total of 3h and 45 minutes a week), in those 6 months I had an average of 6-8 hours of overtime every week cause sometimes I need to park a lot before my maximum daily hours.
Saturday paid x1,5 and Sunday x2, not many hours but Sat I can do 8-12 hours and Sun 6-7 hours
SNAP account as I said, so I do not need to pay in advance (sometimes I do when is not SNAP but a good location or are the services on the motorways)
Sleeping on laybys if empty: I am learning the best places, specially the routes I do often. Trying to avoid those at 1 inch of the main road cause the cab is always moving.
So far, I have calculated i could reach between £38k and £42k but some colleagues of mine said they can get £ 47k (we are based in the north-east)
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
What a load of absolute bollox!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1
of course it is,but we have to put up with similar pish from dozy,jake,chester and the rest of the usual suspects as and when they/he revive their trolling pish,so why not read some from conor.
at least he constantly posts the same style of 1 sided ranting…
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
What a load of absolute bollox!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1
of course it is,but we have to put up with similar pish from dozy,jake,chester and the rest of the usual suspects as and when they/he revive their trolling pish,so why not read some from conor.
at least he constantly posts the same style of 1 sided ranting…
True, but I would rather tramp for a month non stop in a daf rigid day cab than share a premier Inn room with any of the above
Conor:
I take home £500 a week doing 50hrs and home every day.
So why are you now working as a Truck driver again?
I wondered that as well …
[/quote]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1
job satisfaction…its quite a challance going to lockerbie and back on a night trunk…theres a similar sense of achievement .somewhat akin to outback / ice road truckers when your crossing the scotland border at gretna on the way home again every night
[/quote]
Would this be anything like the sense of achievement I had last Wednesday? Arrived at Southampton Docks at 0655, an hour early for my booked 0800 crossing to the Isle of Wight. Managed to bribe/charm the tottie on the desk to fit my little 7.2T puddle-jumper on the earlier boat which was still loading. All six drops done on the island, I arrived back at East Cowes just in time to squeeze onto the 1055 freight ferry instead of my 1230 booking. As I was clearly a Very Important Customer, they found me a space on the shiny brand-new freight ferry (well, there was me, an artic, a Highways truck and a transit van on a boat designed to take 12 artics…) and so I returned to the mainland in style. Clean forgot to get my duty-free booze and ■■■■! I don’t know how those of you who do this all the time manage to cope with it all!
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
What a load of absolute bollox!
What’s bollox about it? What he’s saying is entirely true.
peirre:
The rates and expenses Albion pays her drivers, is what most of us can only dream of!
Only in haulage. In the 10 months I took out a couple of years ago to go work for a software company that made systems for amusement arcades and casinos they thought nothing of paying £125 a night for Premier Inns per person (if there were two of us on the job we’d each get our own room) including paying for the evening meal and breakfast and they would also reimburse us for any food and drinks we bought during the working day.
It is literally only transport who is so tight fisted.
What a load of absolute bollox!
What’s bollox about it? What he’s saying is entirely true.
Where to start?
Firstly comparing haulage to the software and casino industries is hardly fair. In fact, I would say poor Conor was getting shafted with just a humble premier Inn.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t spend more than £26 a day on food and drink. Therefore my boss pays all my expenses and I turn a profit too.
He also provides me with a more than adequate place to sleep where I have everything I need and can do what I want and eat what I want, unlike a premier Inn which is a vision of hell to me, along with its breakfast.
Many industries and trades work away from home and stay in all kinds of digs and b+b’s and I know where I’d rather be.
Admittedly I have a good boss who spends good money and specs the trucks well, some may not be so comfortable. But overall I would say that Conor is talking bollox, and that you are very possibly about to
Rjan:
What’s bollox about it? What he’s saying is entirely true.
Where to start?
Firstly comparing haulage to the software and casino industries is hardly fair. In fact, I would say poor Conor was getting shafted with just a humble premier Inn.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t spend more than £26 a day on food and drink. Therefore my boss pays all my expenses and I turn a profit too.
He also provides me with a more than adequate place to sleep where I have everything I need and can do what I want and eat what I want, unlike a premier Inn which is a vision of hell to me, along with its breakfast.
Many industries and trades work away from home and stay in all kinds of digs and b+b’s and I know where I’d rather be.
Admittedly I have a good boss who spends good money and specs the trucks well, some may not be so comfortable. But overall I would say that Conor is talking bollox, and that you are very possibly about to
Whether you prefer sleeping in the wagon or not is besides the point. The point was that there is no shortage of money for hotels.
The vast majority of industries and trades don’t stay in digs and b+b’s. Nobody who wears a shirt to work - even a blue one - shares a grotty b+b room with their colleagues.
Yes, if you’re a tarmac gang maybe, but even the average plumber does not sleep in the van, unless he’s charging his client the hotel rate to do it.
Rjan:
What’s bollox about it? What he’s saying is entirely true.
Where to start?
Firstly comparing haulage to the software and casino industries is hardly fair. In fact, I would say poor Conor was getting shafted with just a humble premier Inn.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t spend more than £26 a day on food and drink. Therefore my boss pays all my expenses and I turn a profit too.
He also provides me with a more than adequate place to sleep where I have everything I need and can do what I want and eat what I want, unlike a premier Inn which is a vision of hell to me, along with its breakfast.
Many industries and trades work away from home and stay in all kinds of digs and b+b’s and I know where I’d rather be.
Admittedly I have a good boss who spends good money and specs the trucks well, some may not be so comfortable. But overall I would say that Conor is talking bollox, and that you are very possibly about to
Whether you prefer sleeping in the wagon or not is besides the point. The point was that there is no shortage of money for hotels.
The vast majority of industries and trades don’t stay in digs and b+b’s. Nobody who wears a shirt to work - even a blue one - shares a grotty b+b room with their colleagues.
Yes, if you’re a tarmac gang maybe, but even the average plumber does not sleep in the van, unless he’s charging his client the hotel rate to do it.
So predictable. Yawn etc
Here’s an idea. Why don’t you and carryfast set up a haulage operation. You clearly have the experience and know-how.
All your drivers can work 3 day weeks and stay in hotels every night, all expenses paid.
Theres no need to be tight fisted after all.
Seeing as you will dictate the rates to your customers, you will be rolling in cash so make sure you distribute the surplus to the workers to ensure you take home less than them each week.
Perhaps Conor could be your director of hospitality, he did once spend a night in a premier Inn remember.
It’s a sure fire hit. All that’s needed now is a name…
I can earn about £600 a week not tramping. PAYE (Possibly more but I don’t want to do ADR or Argos in my area)
How much do you make tramping on average?
I think I could stomach tramping for £700+ a week. but that would probably be the bare minimum. Is that easily attainable?
Live in Essex.
You don’t have to give out company names as this is just something I wanna do for 3 - 4 months next year. Just curious atm.
hi Adam,
I have just started in March this year. My experience so far is more or less this:
£ 26 per night out are £ 104 a week and £ 130 the other one (I am trying to do a sat or sun every 2), but my cab has a fridge and I have invested ££ for an inverter and a microwave, so I go shopping and spend no more than £20-25 for all the week. If I have to sleep at the services I’ll get a voucher of £10 for just £1.50 (the ££ spent for the night out will be put in my expenses claim). If I use SNAP truck stops it’s my choice to spend my ££ for a voucher or not, it really depends of the offer, the food quality and the chance to avoid the usual crap from my microwave
minimum hours guaranteed and after those I’ll get paid same rate. considering maximum 71 hours (15+15+15+13+13) and the fact my first brake is not paid (so a total of 3h and 45 minutes a week), in those 6 months I had an average of 6-8 hours of overtime every week cause sometimes I need to park a lot before my maximum daily hours.
Saturday paid x1,5 and Sunday x2, not many hours but Sat I can do 8-12 hours and Sun 6-7 hours
SNAP account as I said, so I do not need to pay in advance (sometimes I do when is not SNAP but a good location or are the services on the motorways)
Sleeping on laybys if empty: I am learning the best places, specially the routes I do often. Trying to avoid those at 1 inch of the main road cause the cab is always moving.
So far, I have calculated i could reach between £38k and £42k but some colleagues of mine said they can get £ 47k (we are based in the north-east)
Good luck
That works out about 19,000 a year and the rest is night out money and overtime and what you save on not spending
Ah the life of a hgv driver 2 for the price of 1
I guess that is a pretty standard correlation then.
