yourhavingalarf:
(Superdrug supplied a drivers mate with keys, alarm codes and an ability to fall asleep whilst actually going up on the tail-lift holding the button in). I drove there and the two of us tipped/loaded it all.
Lol, I’ve had 2 jobs (1 day each) with a drivers mate, worst jobs I ever had. One of them was almost ok, at least he kept his mouth shut (when he wasn’t talking on his phone).
Yeh…
I get what you’re saying, it’s not a perfect world. From my point of view, it was better than doing the six drops across north Wales on my own, being directed right to the supply entrance, which way to park as well as, voting with me to run out of time at Hartshead Moor for a night out payment and being collected. Ker-ching!
The mob I’m assigned to are wanting 25 drivers new drivers drivers on the books at the Doncaster depot, and 5 at the depot I’m at. But they aren’t paying more than the current £35k salary and they’re looking at 24/7 working, and anyone new starting is likely to be working wed-sun or Thursday-mon to cover the new pattern. It’s also likely that my tenure as a limper there will end and I’ll move on to other sites
peirre:
The mob I’m assigned to are wanting 25 drivers new drivers drivers on the books at the Doncaster depot, and 5 at the depot I’m at. But they aren’t paying more than the current £35k salary and they’re looking at 24/7 working, and anyone new starting is likely to be working wed-sun or Thursday-mon to cover the new pattern. It’s also likely that my tenure as a limper there will end and I’ll move on to other sites
And that is why they and other operators convinced the race to the bottom is still winnable don’t have any drivers (of quality) applying for those full time positions.
5 day week including every weekend should be salaried at well over £40k, i suggest £43k for a maximum 48 hour week as a starting salary.
Juddian:
And that is why they and other operators convinced the race to the bottom is still winnable don’t have any drivers (of quality) applying for those full time positions.
5 day week including every weekend should be salaried at well over £40k, i suggest £43k for a maximum 48 hour week as a starting salary.
I for one won’t be applying even if they ultimately get rid of the agency drivers. As I’m too comfortable working M-F 05:00-06:00 days.
They’re currently in annual pay negotiations, the union want 7% the company have offered 2.5% so they’re currently in a failure to agree situation.
I’ve already stated that they should be on £40K min, but the drivers are so complacent it’s likely that they will be railroaded into a bad deal.
The agency already gave us an interim 2% plus backpay which worked out at £0.32/hr and £5.86 backpay. But neither side (agency or client) are willing to break the pay parity agreement to give the agency drivers more, especially while the ongoing pay negotiations with the union are in stalemate.
Atm I’m just riding out the storm until Xmas and then I will see what happens afterwards
It doesn’t cost a firm any more to have people in for the same hours on FIXED shifts as on rotating hours.
Assuming you have a 24/7 operation, you’ll need a minimium of six drivers rather than 2 or 3 to provide that base driver cover around the clock.
This would be then 40 hours per week contracts.
How about it?
There must be thousands of these “drivers with licence but no DCPC” that COULD come and work some hours per week, but get put off by the proposed rotates, rather than funny shift times, which they could otherwise get used to IF they stayed the same week in, week out…
If one is worried about then covering the “graveyard shift”, say 22:00 to 08:00 or 23:00-11:00
Just get agency in to do that one shift… It’s still a fixed shift that way…
There’s been countless times I’ve done just that over the years, whilst in agencyland…
Stupid O’clock to Lunchtime Tommorrow - isn’t so bad if you are only doing it one shift per week, and it’s for 15 hours at a premium rate.
In my area curry’s are always advertising so that would be a unpopular vacancy ( I’ve worked there ) , but the agency rate is now being advertised at £21 ph so it may become more popular .
Juddian:
And that is why they and other operators convinced the race to the bottom is still winnable don’t have any drivers (of quality) applying for those full time positions.
5 day week including every weekend should be salaried at well over £40k, i suggest £43k for a maximum 48 hour week as a starting salary.
I for one won’t be applying even if they ultimately get rid of the agency drivers. As I’m too comfortable working M-F 05:00-06:00 days.
They’re currently in annual pay negotiations, the union want 7% the company have offered 2.5% so they’re currently in a failure to agree situation.
I’ve already stated that they should be on £40K min, but the drivers are so complacent it’s likely that they will be railroaded into a bad deal.
The agency already gave us an interim 2% plus backpay which worked out at £0.32/hr and £5.86 backpay. But neither side (agency or client) are willing to break the pay parity agreement to give the agency drivers more, especially while the ongoing pay negotiations with the union are in stalemate.
Atm I’m just riding out the storm until Xmas and then I will see what happens afterwards
Curry’s Newark is £21 ph , staffline , don’t apply until I can find out if I can get any recommend a friend money
Agency rates are making some jobs unpopular , staffline , xpo £14 ph , curry’s £21 ph , it’s obvious who 99% will apply for , making the xpo job unpopular
Looking at it entirely from a “bean-counter” perspective, the increase from £9 to £9.20 was a 2.22% increase, which could be considered “good” except for the fact the absolute value is extremely low to begin with (as the expression goes, “two-thirds of sod all is still sod all”).
To increase from £9 to £15 is a 66.667% increase, which would cause any bean-counter to balk.
dozy:
Agency rates are making some jobs unpopular , staffline , xpo £14 ph , curry’s £21 ph , it’s obvious who 99% will apply for , making the xpo job unpopular
Enjoy Currys while it lasts, Comet were another good payer until about 11/12 years ago till it went pop.
I just left a company, the pay was reasonable but they treated you like crap. I tried to stand up for myself and the other drivers but got very little support. In the end I voted with my feet. The same company is throwing money at agencies but still struggling to get drivers. The ones that worked for them were no hopers who damaged the lorries. Reputation? I suspect there was something going on in the background, the agencies keeping the good drivers for their national contracts like Royal Mail, DPD, DHL etc. My company were offering £21 an hour for drivers (£30 to the agency), DHL pay £16 an hour for night trunking in this area. Go figure, as they say.
I am getting so annoyed with every job being advertised as trunking, agencies can’t get anyone so they make the job sound easier than it is. Shop deliveries is not trunking work!
I think it has been said before, but Wincanton/Stobart etc are not going to lie down and take this new wage structure without a fight. I see ads on Indeed from Hermes the courier for various HGV driver posts which are blatant carpet bombing and testing the water to see the level of pay drivers are willing to bite at.
I took the easy way out, reasonable pay and good conditions, good kit. I don’t want to chase the £40+ for Lidls, or some 13-15 hour a day nightmare where they tell you the annual salary (which seems generous) but not the hourly wage (which is crap). New drivers are going to get caught out by these tricks.
Projection - lots of people pass their HGV test on the back of media coverage re well paid jobs, they leave after a month after they realise what nightmare jobs they have to do to earn their stripes. Everybody blames everyone else. Nothing changes.
TruckerGuy:
Looking at it entirely from a “bean-counter” perspective, the increase from £9 to £9.20 was a 2.22% increase, which could be considered “good” except for the fact the absolute value is extremely low to begin with (as the expression goes, “two-thirds of sod all is still sod all”).
To increase from £9 to £15 is a 66.667% increase, which would cause any bean-counter to balk.
Make him balk but seeing as he hasnt paid a raise in 5 years it wont bother the bottom line - bean counter might have to make do with a brand new porsche this year thats all.
cheersdrive:
I am getting so annoyed with every job being advertised as trunking, agencies can’t get anyone so they make the job sound easier than it is. Shop deliveries is not trunking work!
^
This is what’s behind the ‘driver shortage’ if any and it’s going to get worse as distance/trunking work continues to be reduced leaving a local distribution dominated industry.
Even trunking is now mostly a short haul hub system based operation in which managers see the resulting opportunity to reduce warehouse staff and replace them with now under utilised ‘drivers’.
Cling to the just-in-time model (no slack to pay more)
Think the race is still to be won (have heads buried in sand)
Expect the Romanians back any moment (Why would they want to come back and pay full taxes at the same old hourly rates?)
Expect the government to subsidize them (Never going to happen)
Expect this “shortage” to turn into a slump over Christmast, and then see drivers begging for work, cap-in-hand come January
meaning that if you can’t bag a driver now - then there will be plenty starving drivers in the streets come the new year…
Who can wait the longest?
A more progressive firm might meanwhile think “If we bag the drivers now and put them on full time contracts after they’ve done 13 weeks on agency with us - we gain market share”
People on low-paid full time work - have about 10 more weeks then to choose to either stay put in their current job, and stop moaning about the pay being still so low - OR walk away and join the “Gold Rush” that is signing up with agencies for £20ph+ work these days…
Pecking order still applies - so it’ll surely be on a first-come-first-served basis.
Meanwhile, MY big question is:
How can a firm afford to NOT offer a fiver more on their full timer’s rates, serving as both a recruitment inducement AND a Retainer for the drivers they’ve already got…?
…When the alternative is coughing up a TENNER or more ongoingly (don’t forget) for the agency cover, and run the risk of chumps smashing up their kit every time they flip one over for another, the way so many firms have a tendency to treat agency and all…
Packed up with ForFarmers at the end of July after nearly 16 years, to work for a small family run outfit in Swansea as a tramper.
Up till about 2 years ago I would happily have stayed put till I retired. For many years our mill was the best paying job for miles around, yes you earned your money in peak season but it was a great job which I really enjoyed.However, a combination of wage stagnation, an increasingly bureaucratic and remote management structure, useless planning and a few other things made.my feet start to itch.
About a month after I resigned, got a letter from Forfarmers outlining a revised pay structure which promised much but, on speaking to former colleagues, has delivered little; and the other issues remain.
Glad I left. Its not just about money, in this new job I am respected for what I do, valued and treated like a human and not like a resource; by a boss who knows the job inside out and has done it all himself.
That’s the difference when the inference of distance work is there.
Hope they won’t be disappointed if it turns out that local depots nationwide isn’t the same thing as running nationwide from one depot.
It would have been the first question I asked. birminghammail.co.uk/black-c … m-21844691
dozy:
Curry’s Newark is £21 ph , staffline , don’t apply until I can find out if I can get any recommend a friend money
Its a little too far for me to commute, the mob Im driving for have been sending trucks down to haul stuff for currys but I wriggled out of it by saying that I`m banned
Juddian:
5 day week including every weekend should be salaried at well over £40k, i suggest £43k for a maximum 48 hour week as a starting salary.
It seems that their cunning plan of hiring new staff drivers is unravelling, the 5 new drivers that they thought that they where going to get at this site via internal transfer has backfired, and only 2 are switching sites leaving them 3 short. Now theyre dropping hints about whether the 3 longest serving agency drivers (inc me) are interested in going full time. Im prepared to listen to their proposal but I doubt I`ll bite without a substantial increase in money to around the figures you stated, even if it jeopardises my agency placement at the site
want 7% the company have offered 2.5% so they’re currently in a failure to agree situation.
