More importantly, is trip money legal!!
Cheers bullitt.
I worked for a company in Dover about 3 yrs ago that did a lot of Italian work and they paid trip money. If I remember rightly Milan would pay about £480. Same as you though, no n/o money and no extra for being w/ended.
bullitt:
Was it ever legal?
Very grey area of the law.
It is illegal to pay a driver by any means which incentivises him, if it poses a threat to safety.
Vague law like this is where arguing lawyers make their millions.
Vince
You would be lucky getting a £100 for a trip to Holland now. I have just seen a bid for a job exporting cereal from Southall (London) to Haaften (NL) direct for a Blue Chip Company (cant name them but think of Ronnie Barker in prison, an old TV Program starring Richard Beckinsdale and thats what they make) and they had a max price of a £150 !!! No employer is gonna pay a driver a £100 now are they when the ferry alone costs approx [*b]£150!!! *[/b]:evil:[/u]
Hey Bullitt…that wouldnt be Europa by any chance would it?? i used to work for them when we were on wages…and a cushy number too…only problem was they sometimes loaded groupages that wasnt on the manifest…and sometimes you had a manifest without the goods…although that all stopped when i got a turn out in folkestone and nothing matched…i was held up for about 7 hours…good job too…
Maybe we crossed paths at some point truckyboy! Some of the lads were a real scream!
Cheers, bullitt.
In the mid 80’s used to get £325, Manchester to Barcerolna on to Valencia for fruit, back to uk and tip any fruit market from Covent Garden to Glasgow. Your heart used to sink if you got Glasgow. We used to carry 250 gallons of red diesel in a belly tank under the tilt, we used to blow it off with the red line, and once on a french service area he split his tank, turned the place in to an ice rink for trucks. We must have been as popular as a turd on a wedding cake.
Tom
there are still some companies paying their drivers trip money, keep your eyes open for the dodgy looking motors, usually subbing for another bigger company, the drivers are easily spotted at the service areas with free showers and in the restaraunts eating a meal then doing a runner.
if you stand at the peage they are the ones with cash money and a running sheet (occasionally they may have a credit card but the owner doesn’t know they have it yet).
there are also some doing mileage pay too, again few and far between but similar ways to spot them.
johnny:
there are still some companies paying their drivers trip money, keep your eyes open for the dodgy looking motors, usually subbing for another bigger company, the drivers are easily spotted at the service areas with free showers and in the restaraunts eating a meal then doing a runner.
if you stand at the peage they are the ones with cash money and a running sheet (occasionally they may have a credit card but the owner doesn’t know they have it yet).
there are also some doing mileage pay too, again few and far between but similar ways to spot them.
Seems a little bit cynical Johnny. is that from experience?
Think credit card fraud on a peage is a no-no now, the gendarmes are a bit too close
Think again Wheel Nut, my colleague ahd his wallet knicked a month or so ago and his cards were used on the peage in France.
there was a firm (probably lots!) running out of essex back in the late 80s who actually gave their drivers stolen credit cards instead of ANY running money or legit derv cards etc - sure some of you knew of him, in electrical parlance his initials would be the opposite of AC…
being a bit green back then, that sort of blatant illegal scam amazed (and saddened) me - as i saw it gave the whole industry a bad name, glad MOST of them have sold up now 
I went for a job once and the bloke told me that I would have to syphon off diesel from other trucks at night, rather than buying it. He would give me a length of pipe.
Needless to say, the interview terminated right there!
I have also been for jobs where “the wire” has been placed in an obvious place in the cab, such as around the gearlever, crocodile-clipped to itself, for me to notice, and that’s enough for me to be off on my toes.
It doesn’t seem to happen nearly so much nowadays though.
Vince
I’m currently working for a large firm in Dover who still pay us trip money. MIlan is 460, Prato 480 etc… Our taxable income is quite low, and we get fuel (fool) bonus of 50 quid a week if we get over 9 to the gallon and all the paperwork is correct. Dodgy it may be, but there’s no point arguing with a well-off and well-connected employer who sails through ministry checks, no matter what shenanigans we get up to. If you complain in any way you find yourself waiting at home for the phone to ring for a week or so, or until you beg for work, at which point you’re given a couple of days multi-drop UK work to teach you who is really in charge, then you come back, your truck has been give to an Eastern European driver, yoru sleeping gear is on a p allet in the warehouse, and off you go son, …
Nothing changes.
perhaps i am a little cynical and yes it is from experience although not personal experience but things i have seen being done, drivers i have run with in the past etc.
times have changed a little now and most don’t run old tackle anymore.
they look as good as the next truck but thats the way they have had to go so as to keep the foriegn police off their backs.
Our taxable income is quite low, and we get fuel (fool) bonus of 50 quid a week if we get over 9 to the gallon and all the paperwork is correct. Dodgy it may be, but there’s no point arguing with a well-off and well-connected employer who sails through ministry checks, no matter what shenanigans we get up to. If you complain in any way you find yourself waiting at home for the phone to ring for a week or so, or until you beg for work,
And this is zb clever is it?
It doesnt matter how well connected or important someone thinks they are, if they are running bent or forcing others to do so, they deserve shopping and you can always vote with your feet, there are plenty of proper jobs around
a low taxable income seems to be very common on euro work.
most companies pay as much as poss for nights out etc but keep the general basic wage low so drivers benefit from not paying too much in taxes to the government.
unions should be fighting to make this a more common practice in this industry, everything that a driver has to pay out to do their job should be either tax neutral or completely refundable through the tax payed.
driving licence renewals, medicals, passport renewals for international drivers, meals eaten whilst out on the road.
it all adds up and it all helps make this industry less appealing to those on the outside looking in.
i’d just like to say to pete who works for the large firm in dover(with mainly blue scania’s)lets be fair we all know who you mean,if thats the way you get treated its time to get a proper job,and if you all made a stand to show mr w that even though he is the boss its the drivers that keep a firm going!!thats the trouble in this country we would rather sit in truckstops or on here moaning and groaning than going to the horse and making your feelings known,its high time people stood together 
ok rant over 
PeteLeTroquaire:
I’m currently working for a large firm in Dover who still pay us trip money. MIlan is 460, Prato 480 etc… Our taxable income is quite low, and we get fuel (fool) bonus of 50 quid a week if we get over 9 to the gallon and all the paperwork is correct. Dodgy it may be, but there’s no point arguing with a well-off and well-connected employer who sails through ministry checks, no matter what shenanigans we get up to. If you complain in any way you find yourself waiting at home for the phone to ring for a week or so, or until you beg for work, at which point you’re given a couple of days multi-drop UK work to teach you who is really in charge, then you come back, your truck has been give to an Eastern European driver, yoru sleeping gear is on a p allet in the warehouse, and off you go son, …
Nothing changes.
Oh dear Pete, this sounds like my old boss Michael. Sad to see so little has changed in twenty years. Can’t remember the rates except that we got £20 for the fuel bonus and another 20 to keep permits clean (pay your own bribes if necessary). Two of us protested about the fuel bonus when about to set off for Mantua with 30 tons in each trailer (this the days of 32 tons gross). He relented and put us on a no-blow-any-tyres bonus instead.
Somebody told me Tony Buckle is still there, is that so? Give him my regards and if he hasn’t a clue who you are talking about remind him of pulling my wife out of the sea after her drunken birthday party at Savona in '83. Haven’t forgiven him yet 
Roule bien,
Salut, David.
Hey bullit…sounds like we both worked for bert reeves…now that was a good firm…if it is the same then you will remember russell…adrian…norman steele…dave langstead…who ended up working for europa as their transport manager …what a small world…bob white i am known as and i live in charlton sarf london…might have a beer one day wiv ya…
have a nice day
I work for an Irish firm and the norm here is trip money. The rates vary from firm to firm but I would get anything from 450 eur to 900 eur depending where I went. We do a lot of Germany and if I went down to Stuttgart for example, I’d get around 650 euro