On an earlier thread I asked the best way to Covent Garden, the reason being that I had just got a job with Fruitex at Donington on nights, as I found that getting up at 03.00 AM for Phil Hanley was not for me, and I would stick to what I like which is Nights.
I was amazed on reading that thread that you had to give backhanders to get in CG, but on my first night with Fruitex which was Tonight, I was listening to the other blokes and I heard them saying about slipping the FLT drivers a £5 to get tipped, and it turns out that each place you go if you did not do this you would regret it, so I said did you get this back as expenses, and the boss who was there said no it comes out of your pocket I sat there gobsmacked the driver pays to get tipped out of his own pocket.
I am afraid it will be a very cold day in Hell before I will pay anybody out of my pocket to tip a wagon, and if I had set of with the load i would have brought it back before I would have parted with MY money, so I got up and came home.
Guy, as an ex market man, thats complete and utter rubbish!!!
You have to pay to get into the Garden…everyone does!! £4 a time which HAS to come under expenses and is refundable from your boss. That about the forkies is rubbish too!!
The only time you pay a forkie is if you use one who doesn’t work for the company you are delivering to! ie, Fruitex go to Cardiff Mkt … if you use Redbridges forkie to take them all off then you pay him 50p a pallet to take the pallets off which aren’t his. If you don’t do that, then you have to sit there waiting for the dealer you are delivering to to come in which sometimes could be 2-3am and if its only 11pm, you got a long wait lol We used to claim that back as well.
Methinks you have been wound up, Guy!
I have gone into Western International with a full load for that one market … paid the forkie to tip and deliver the lot for me…saved ME running around the market … had 26 pallets off in 30 minutes all delivered and it cost me a tenner!! I claimed it back
One minute you are saying its rubbish next thing is you are paying a FLT driver 50p per pallet =£13 for 26 and £10 at another market make your mind up!, you state you could claim it back I was told by the night manager they DO NOT pay this money back.
I do not pay to tip at Tescos Asda Morrisons etc i am not paying to tip at CG
If you were on agency or on hours for them then you just sit there until they find the forkie who works for the company you are delivering to you get paid by the hour so just sit there with a good book and chill.
how many days did you do at hanleys i wouldnt pay a penny of my own money either and the manager actually sat there and told you in front of the other drivers to pay but you couldnt claim it back i wouldn have done it either i would have just gone straight home cos theres always the argueing for your wages afterwards if you dont deliver it and bring it back.
I dont blame you guy, if ever a gaffer asked me to do that, i’d want the loot in advance, and a written note to say it aint coming out of my bag! Oh, by the way re Hanleys, 3 am they can shove that as well!
Guy Rope:
I was amazed on reading that thread that you had to give backhanders to get in CG, .
The entrance fee is not a backhander, it’s a toll. just like Dartford crossing etc. You get it back. And rather than jump down Bear’s throat you should have read his post properly, he paid a forkie to help him get tipped quicker, by tipping other people’s goods. If it’s for your benefit to get you home quicker that’s ok, but if it’s because the boss wants you back, then he pays. Simple. If you don’t want to, or he won’t pay, you traipse round all your drops in the market and wait at each one. If you’re on hours, you’re quids in, if not, then it’s worth your while.
I did not jump down anyones throat, I merely pointed out that one minute he’s saying its rubbish that you pay, next sentence he is saying you DO pay or you have problems getting tipped, this is usually called blackmail, whichever way you phrase it you ARE spending money to get tipped and if you dont get it back its YOUR money you have lost.
I still fail to see why you have to pay to get in CG with a wagon full of produce for them■■?.
An idiot from Fruitex rang this morning and asked why I left, I told him I was not going to spend my money tipping Fruitex wagons and he said the cost was reflected in the pay rates (Approx £100 per night) if you cough up £10 per night thats £50 per week, what kind of duckeggs do that?
You are missing The Bears point Guy Rope. He isn’t being forced to pay the forkies and if he hadn’t paid he still would have been tipped, but by investing a small amount of cash it made his life a lot easier and saved him several hours of work, that is money in his pocket…
If going into cg costs hauliers money why dont they refuse to pay and then sit back and watch the market grind to a halt when they run out of fruit and veg. They cant stand to have no deliveries for very long or they would be put out of buisness. However an un likley scenario because haulage companys wont stand together.
You are missing the whole point of market work, some of the others will back me on this I am sure.
YES - sometimes it is worth the aggro of “hiring” a forklift out of your own pocket, simply to get tipped quick (my market work was always job & knock, so paying a couple of quid to get home an hour earlier is good business sense to me )
The other “benefit” is that a lot of market work is done by owner drivers & as you get known around the markets, you will meet a lot of them every night. So what … well, you work it out from here …
I always did Brum & Coventry, in that order, running back to near Cambridge.
A lot of owner drivers ran from the north to Birmingham & would also have one or two pallets for coventry …
Another guy used to have half pallets of mushrooms for a place 3 miles from my house (that was a £25 tickle quite regularly, although most of the nearer stuff like 2 pallets to Cov would be a fiver, but I’m going there anyway so who cares !)
It IS a nice little job for bonuses & backhanders & most guvnors will turn a blind eye because you are doing the job well & if they stop your extras, they will be looking for a new driver (and he will do the same)
Of course I may be talking crap, jobs change & the last time I did markets regularly was 95
wideload:
If going into cg costs hauliers money why dont they refuse to pay and then sit back and watch the market grind to a halt when they run out of fruit and veg.
I wouldn’t have thought the £4 was a major issue for the hauliers, it is just a toll, the same as you pay to access a tunnel, bridge or stretch of road, and as it is a known cost they surely must be taking it into account when quoting/pricing or deciding if the rate offered for the job is acceptable.
It is probably something that dates back many years to to the early days of the market and is a tradition more than anything else.
My apologies for saying this, but anyone of you who uses your own money to tip a gaffers wagon, Pay Tolls, Parking etc, and DOES NOT get it back, and that is my moan, wants your head looking at, if they pay me back NO PROBLEM, but I do not subsidise gaffers out of my earnings, not now, NOT EVER!!!.
By the way I am waiting for your book to appear in the charity shops.
My apologies for saying this, but anyone of you who uses your own money to tip a gaffers wagon, Pay Tolls, Parking etc, and DOES NOT get it back, and that is my moan, wants your head looking at, if they pay me back NO PROBLEM, but I do not subsidise gaffers out of my earnings, not now, NOT EVER!!!.
I must look from a different perspective. Whilst I agree that the boss should pay for all X’s, that doesn’t mean that if theres a tickle going on & i have to invest in it, i’m gonna stick by the rules
When i was doing the markets, i would have 10 - 12 hits in B’ham. Now I could have gone to each pitch & tried to prize the cuppa from forkies hand & make him unload his pallet or two, which might have taken 3 hours in total. OR I could pay £2 (in 1995) to “hire” a truck & dleiver the goods myself in 45 mins.
£2 DOWN, but over 2 hours UP I think an extra 2 hours at home with the family is a bargain @ £2
Every man to his own, but money isn’t my god, time at home IS
By the way I am waiting for your book to appear in the charity shops
As it happens, my sister is manageress of one, I must ask her to keep a lokout. Nothing would give me more satisfaction than getting a bargain out of a scotsman Only joking Neil - honest
I understand what you are all getting at, I really do, but it just goes against the grain to pay blokes to do what they are allready paid to do, you would not dream of giving an ASDA, Morrisons, Tesco FLT driver a £5 to tip your truck.
When I went for the job with Fruitex on Tuesday morning I spent 5 minutes admiring a top of the range Jaguar parked outside the transport office, that car comes of the backs of the nitwits who pay out their own cash so they can rush around making these pariahs even more money .
What would happen I wonder if you said at a market you cant have your fruit till you give me a fiver I bet you would be looking for a new job before the day was out.
Guy Rope:
I understand what you are all getting at, I really do, but it just goes against the grain to pay blokes to do what they are allready paid to do,
You aren’t paying them to do what they are already paid to do. They are paid for tipping the produce you have for their employer but you are paying them to also tip, and deliver, produce for someone else, or several someone else’s, saving you from visiting each company you have a few pallets for and possibly saving you several hours in the process.
We agree to differ, because you will never convince me I should pay, if I got it back ,yes!, out of my own pocket, if my arse was dripping diamonds, never.
Guy i totally understand what you are saying and i would not spend a penny of my own money just to get the gaffers lorry back earlier i would quite happily sit there for as long as it takes to get tipped hopefully knowing that he is waiting for his wagon.
If he knows it can be back quicker by tipping the forkie and he wants it back quicker he can give me the money otherwise i,ll quite happily get the hours in, dont forget the more hours you do now the less you can do later in the year thatnks to the R.T.D. and i would say its NOT P.O.A. as you havent been told about the delay so leave it on X hammers and chill.
If it was a matter of hours Jammy I would agree but that cowboy outfit paid a set rate for the job depending on where you went.
Which is precisely my point Guy
what would you rather do, pay a couple of quid & get home 2 hours earlier, or sit it out at each pitch. Don’t think of it so much as paying to get the gaffers truck tipped, just see it as a little fiddle you can work to make the job easier.
IMHO the old days were far better when it was commonplace for all of us to give a “drink” to somebody for being helpful (not just in haulage). I still do quite often when somebody gives me good service & usually it comes around & works out well.
All that said, I KNOW I am a fool with money, it doesn’t mean much to me (I know that cos i havn’t got any )
)
I think an extra 2 hours at home with the family is a bargain @ £2