Carryfast:
nickyboy:
The ones based at the hubs pick up from major customers, Amazon etc, one i see daily from Tamworth collects from one of my customers, drops a box at EMA then drives to Rotherham to swap a box at a customer before taking it back to Tamworth.
The line haul drivers you talk about i assume you mean the ones from the depots? They still take full trailers from the depots to the hub, those closer to the hub may then collect trailers from local customers or trunk to EMA from Tamworth before returning to collect the mornings trailer for the depot. They’re all classed as feeders now whether they are depot to hub or customer to hub drivers.
Class 1 driver jobs at the depots are rare, there is typically only 4 or 5 drivers, all of ours have been there as long as me, the hubs however always have jobs, lots of casual/agency due to the nature of the work, contracts can be won/lost on a weekly basis so you have a lot of permanent drivers and a load more that will come and go with the work.
I think I get it.As I said as usual the hub based vehicles obviously can’t run the depot to hub feeds at night.While there’s now no distinction between what would have previously been night trunk drivers which,as in my case,is what became Feeder drivers.As opposed to day bulk delivery/collection drivers ? which logically seems to be the main type of work which you’re describing for class 1 at the hubs ? as opposed to the usual night trunk ( feeder driver ) jobs at the depots.
As for line haul that was a totally different operation just based at Barking after the takeover of Seabourne.Usually doing only trailer and box swap direct inter depot trunk runs or international cross channel changeovers.As I’ve said one of the key differences with that being that they seem to have been exempt from warehouse work.To the point where they sometimes also did run into the Nuneaton hub,in addition to direct inter depot runs but,unlike Feeder drivers, didn’t have to get involved with loading and unloading as part of their trailer/box swap only working agreement practices.Of which the old Carryfast terms were actually very similar to theirs before they got given away ( don’t ask ).
IE unless something has changed,anyone looking at Feeder driver jobs needs to factor in that they can be expected to help to load and tip the vehicle no pallets and all hand ball.
As far as i know the night truck feeder drivers and those based at the hubs collecting from customers are as you say all known as feeders, there is no distinction as far as i’m aware anymore. All of the box swaps to/from Europe are almost all run by EE contractors, there is a few runs that UK drivers do on to the continent, Paris hub being one but most are subbed out. Most day runs are box/trailer swaps but some do require loading or at least assisting
nickyboy:
As far as i know the night truck feeder drivers and those based at the hubs collecting from customers are as you say all known as feeders, there is no distinction as far as i’m aware anymore. All of the box swaps to/from Europe are almost all run by EE contractors, there is a few runs that UK drivers do on to the continent, Paris hub being one but most are subbed out. Most day runs are box/trailer swaps but some do require loading or at least assisting
The loading/unloading requirement on feeder work can be quite demanding on nights especially during the sort at the hub.IE you have to be involved in stripping out the trailer you’ve brought in and then loading the one going back successively.You could also be asked to help with the loading and tipping at base depot when starting and finishing.
I’d guess that the remaining Paris trunk would be one of the type of ‘dead man’s shoes jobs’ IE just trailer or box swapping and mainly all driving and no warehouse work.It would be interesting to find out if that at least would still be described as Line Haul work in addition to what the EE’s seem to have taken over.Or now just another part of Feeder operations.The new Freight division sounds ok too,depending on whether it’s just trailer/box swaps and maybe just shifting loaded/empty air freight pods on/off the roller bed and no warehouse work and if so maybe again where the dead man’s shoes hearsay is also now originating from,as in the case of Line Haul before.
But I could never imagine most night feeder hub system runs being described as that. 
Don’t know an awful lot about the freight side, it’s UPS SCS as it’s known now, a lot of it is similar to most freight operations, collections from suppliers to warehouses (Costco, Amazon, Argos etc) as well as in and outbound freight from the airports, some of this will be fed to the hubs while some will go direct to customers.
Feeders doing the night trunking are hands off, they don’t touch anything, trailers are loaded and unloaded by the depot/hub staff. They don’t even seal them, it’s all done for them, responsibility is on the warehouse staff not the drivers. The hubs and the newer depots have extendable conveyors to load/unload, you can walk to the front of the trailer and press a button and the conveyor will extend the full 40ft. Pre-load shift at the depots starts around 3am, first trucks arrive anytime from half 2 onwards.
nickyboy:
Feeders doing the night trunking are hands off, they don’t touch anything, trailers are loaded and unloaded by the depot/hub staff. The hubs and the newer depots have extendable conveyors to load/unload, you can walk to the front of the trailer and press a button and the conveyor will extend the full 40ft. Pre-load shift at the depots starts around 3am, first trucks arrive anytime from half 2 onwards.
That sounds like it’s all gone back to how it was when it was just a case of drive to Nuneaton swap the trailers and get the tele on during the sort and then drive back and drop the trailer and do the post trip and go home.Also back then we were lucky to leave Nuneaton much before around 3 am.It would be interesting to find out what caused the change.
mjallby:
The hourly rate goes up think you need to be employed 1 year to be on the top rate.
…Company scam opportunity…
At 11 months in, you are switched to a 5-6-5-6 pattern. At this point, you’ll probably chuck the job in, thus never surviving long enough to reach the “better hourly rate”…
There’s no reason whatsoever that anyone need work a whole year as “probation period”, especially if they come into the job with bags of relevent experience to start with.
Winseer:
mjallby:
The hourly rate goes up think you need to be employed 1 year to be on the top rate.
…Company scam opportunity…
At 11 months in, you are switched to a 5-6-5-6 pattern. At this point, you’ll probably chuck the job in, thus never surviving long enough to reach the “better hourly rate”…
There’s no reason whatsoever that anyone need work a whole year as “probation period”, especially if they come into the job with bags of relevent experience to start with.
Probation is 3 months, wages increase after 12 months